All right everyone, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

MADGE

Taking a deep breath, Madge carefully opened the front door to Rosie's house, her heart beating fast with nerves. Rosie's red fleecy sweatshirt suddenly seemed to fit and look all wrong on her. If Rosie's parents took one look at her and knew that this wasn't their daughter, then all their hard work would have been for nothing.

But still, Madge herself had a plan of her own. And she wasn't admitting defeat until she'd seen it through.

"Where have you been, Rosie?" The voice of one of Rosie's younger brothers made Madge jump with fright. She turned to see him staring at her, hands in his pockets.

"I just went for a walk." Madge tried to sound casual. Which brother was which? F**k.She was too concerned about her own identity to remember. "People do that, you know."

"But you said to Ben and I that you'd take us out to play catch." So this must be Tim, then. "You promised." His voice sounded a tad on the whiny side, but mainly, Madge thought, he sounded sad.

"How about I take you both to play outside after dinner?" Madge suggested, noticing his eyes brighten at the thought. "It'll be fun, won't it?"

"Okay." Tim jumped up and down, then suddenly looked at her suspiciously. "You look weird."

Gulp. Madge tried hard not to react. "What do you mean, weird?" she said, in as bright a voice as she could muster.

Tim shrugged indifferently. "I don't know, exactly. I mean, you look the same, but…" His voice tailed off.

"Well, bet I don't look as weird as you." She lunged playfully at him, tickling him until he finally collapsed on the floor is a fit of helpless giggles.

"Dinner's on the table!" a voice called. Madge looked up to see Rosie's Uncle Bruce standing in the doorway to the kitchen, grinning at the pair of them.

"Rosie, where have you been? I was beginning to think you'd run away and left us forever."

Madge made herself smile back as she got to her feet and headed into the kitchen. "Luckily, since it's Christmas Eve, I thought I'd better come here instead."

Truer words could have never been spoken.

All through dinner, Madge was as nervous as a turkey on Thanksgiving. She tried to make what (little) conversation she could, keeping up appearances the whole time. Try as she might, she couldn't stop herself from gazing around the modern, spacious kitchen in awe. And Rosie's family were just so loud compared to hers. The two boys were fighting over some trivial thing; Uncle Bruce and Rosie's father were talking about the latest Llamas football win, and Rosie's mother was composing a detailed list out loud of all the things that were to happen tomorrow; the afternoon walk almost perfectly planned out. Madge listened carefully.

"So, after the turkey has been done, that's when we'll eat." Madge noticed that Rosie's mother's smile appeared forced, her eyes tired. "Then, a little refreshing walk, and Rosie can think up an activity for us all to do afterwards, right dear?"

Madge jumped as she met her gaze. "Oh. Um, yes. Absolutely." She nodded, praying that nobody would notice that she wasn't Rosie.

"Which reminds me, where have you been disappearing to these past few days?" Aunt Minty paused to glance at her, concerned. "You've been very secretive."

Madge jumped as she realized the whole table was looking at her, waiting for an answer. "Erm, I've just been out. Going for walks and stuff, and doing some last-minute shopping. And…other stuff." She faltered, her hands shaking with nerves.

"Ah." Aunt Minty winked at her. "Catching up with your friends back home, I think?"

"Yes, that's right." Madge took a bite of her salad, breathing a mental sigh of relief when she wasn't asked any more questions. It seemed like she was acting the part just fine.

By the time she was able to escape to Rosie's bedroom, she knew what to do. She had a plan, and was determined to make it work.

Christmas Day started off with what Madge suspected was the usual racket. Once everyone had forced themselves out of bed and into the living room, Tim and Ben started ripping into their presents with loud cries of excitement. Madge noticed that Rosie's mother wore a smile, yet it seemed slightly forced. She almost seemed to wince at every exclamation and tear of the wrapping paper, as if she couldn't physically bear it.

Why would anyone want to celebrate Christmas in this way? Madge wondered.

"Rose? Aren't you going to open your presents?" Rosie's father was looking at Madge in a happy, yet confused sort of way.

Madge swallowed. She knew it would feel just too weird opening presents that weren't for her. Technically, if this had been an 'ordinary' Christmas, she still would have been doing the 'no present this year' thing anyway. Oh, the irony.

"I'll just let the boys have their fun now, and open mine later." Madge said quietly, with a knowing glance at Tim and Ben, who were overjoyed at the indoor hopscotch mat they had just unwrapped. She smiled as best she could at Madge's father.

"Okay then." He grinned back at her. "It is Christmas, after all."

Was it Madge's imagination, or was Rosie's mother's gaze flickering towards her more often than usual?

The Christmas dinner went without a hitch. Madge had managed to keep her mouth shut while the vegetable preparations were taking place, the ham and turkey safely ensconced in the oven. However, at one point, when shelling peas, Madge was able to get Tim and Ben involved in a game of 'Talking Vegetables', where she would hold up the pea pods and invent the things that they would say as they were getting podded. The sight of the two of them howling with laughter made Madge smile, yet at the same time, she felt a tug of sadness. Her dad used to do the exact same thing with her. And now, playing the same game with Rosie's brothers made her heart ache.

Still, all this carefully prepared food was delicious. Madge didn't know how long it had been since she'd eaten this much (apart from last Christmas).

"Right," Rosie's dad cleared his throat to speak. "As you all know, it's Christmas. And we all have a lot to be happy about. So, as we do every Christmas, I'd like us to all go around the table and say one thing that each of us are happy about. I'd like to say that I'm happy about having such a wonderful family to spend the holiday with, and that we're very fortunate in a number of ways." He beamed, and nodded at Madge to continue.

Madge felt her mouth grow dry. It was now or never.

"I have a lot of things that I'm happy for," she began, aware that every eye was upon her. "But for the thing I'm going to tell you about, it comes in the form of a story."

As Rosie's mother opened her mouth, presumably to hurry her along or shut her up, Aunt Minty shook her head at her. "Carry on, Rosie." Everyone was listening intently, even Tim and Ben.

Madge opened her mouth and let the words spill out.

Sooo…the next chapter will be the last one! Hope you guys all liked this chapter (even though it was a bit longer than Rosie's, but there was so much more detail I had to sort of fill in). Don't worry, I'll make it up to you soon!