Howdy all!
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I am so sorry for not updating this sooner!
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I hope I still have some people reading this =).
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Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter =)
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Let me know what you think. It's only going to get interesting from here =).
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MissToastie.
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Chapter Six :
"Do you think we've earned a break yet?" Hayley said as she placed her pen down on the table and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Definitely" Kane stood up and stretched, looking up at the sound of the front door swinging open. "Hey babe" Kane grinned.
"Argh" Kirsty groaned and walked over to Kane, placing her head on his shoulder.
"Someone's a little exhausted after our shopping" Shelly smiled as she walked inside and stood behind Hayley and placed her hand on head and ruffled her hair.
"I am too fat to do this!" Kirsty mumbled.
"Babe, you are not fat! You are pregnant!" Kane soothed as he ran his hand up and down his girlfriends back.
"Fat, Pregnant what's the difference!" Kirsty moved from Kane's embrace and sat down on the chair. "Hey Haylz"
"Hey" Hayley smiled. "So did you not get any shopping done?"
"Yeah, we did." Shelly said as she moved over to Kane. "We left everything in the car; we thought this one would like to put his muscles to work for us"
Kane bent his arms and flexed his muscles, making all three girls laugh, before walking outside to retrieve the shopping bags.
---
Joey walked into her bedroom, she made her way to her school bag which was shoved on top of her wardrobe, pulling it down and throwing it on the bed, she opened it up and pulled her history book out. Charlie stood at the door way, observing what Joey was doing.
"You can come in, you know" Joey said in a not so pleasant way.
Charlie nodded her head and entered the room, looking around she took in the changes that Joey had made to the room, the last time Charlie had been in this room was when they were twelve years old, the room at the time was pink with a few posters of Hanson and Spice Girls, a single bed with flower prints was in the corner of the room and a bedside table accompanied it. Now Joey's room was cream with a deep purple feature wall. A large black framed poster of Drew Barrymore hung in the centre of the feature wall with two smaller framed posters each side, one with Sarah Michelle-Gellar in it and the other with Gwen Stefani. The single bed was now replaced by a double bed with a black blanket and valance. On one side of the room was a dressing table and a large wardrobe and on one side of the room was a study desk. The only thing that hadn't changed was how neat and tidy and organised everything was.
"Nice room" Charlie said as she pulled the chair out from the desk.
"Yeah, thanks" Joey walked over to the desk and placed her history book down before exiting the room.
Charlie opened her history book and removed her laptop from her bag and set it up, looking up as Joey entered the room carrying a chair and placing it next to her, she sat down and opened her own laptop.
"So are we both going to work from our laptops?" Charlie asked.
"Well, yes. That would be the logical thing to do. That way we can both research information, therefore this assignment will be quickly finished and we won't have to spend anymore time together" Joey replied without taking her eyes away from her laptop.
"Right" Charlie nodded. "So what are we going to research?"
Joey opened her history book and flicked through the pages until she found the assignment information sheet that Ms Fletcher had handed out. "Write a 5,000 word essay on either a reigning King, a war, a battle or on an outstanding figure from The Early Middle Ages." Joey read loudly and paused. "So I guess we are going to research either a reigning King, a war, a battle or an outstanding figure from the Early Middle Ages" Joey smirked.
"Do you have to be such a smart arse? Really Joey, we have to work together to get this done, like you said, we won't have to spend anymore time together if we quickly finish this, so can we please just put everything aside and work on this stupid assignment?!" Charlie threw her hands in the air in frustration.
"Fine, whatever. Did you have any idea on what we could research?" Joey said in a flat tone.
Charlie sighed and opened up a search engine on her laptop, she typed in "Early Middle Ages". Joey watched what was happening and then typed in the same thing on her own computer.
---
Leah walked along a path until she came to the street sign that read "McMaster Avenue" She grinned when she had successfully found Rachel Armstrong's street, walking down the little avenue, she read each house number as she walked passed until she came to house number 12, she took another look at the address Rachel had written down for her and then back up the house, she grinned, the house was a beautiful dark brick two story house with green lawn and two rows of white roses on each sides of the fence. She walked up to the front door and knocked on the door, smiling when after a few moments a young boy answered the door.
"Hi, ah is Rachel here?"
"Yeah, I'll just get her. Who should I say is here?" He asked politely.
"Leah Poulos"
Leah watched as the young boy shut the door, she looked around once again at the garden and admired the beauty.
"Leah, Hi, sorry about that, come on in" Rachel greeted Leah with a warm smile.
"Oh no worries. Was that your brother?" Leah asked as the two of them walked upstairs.
"Yeah, that's Brad. He's 14" Rachel led the way into her bedroom. "How are you today?"
"Yeah, not too bad thank you! Yourself?" Leah asked as she sat down on Rachel's bed with her.
"I'd be fine if my little sister didn't wake me up at 6 am asking for me to turn the cartoons on for her" Rachel grinned, even though she hated being woken up that early, she loved her little sister.
"That's cute" Leah smiled and opened her history book. "You ready to start this?"
"About as ready as I will ever be" Rachel laughed and reached over for her own history book.
---
It had been almost an hour since Charlie and Joey decided that they would write their assignment on The Gothic War and the two of them were working really well together, both deciding that it was for the best that they put their past behind them for the duration of the assignment.
Joey removed her fingers from her laptop and stretched her arms high in the air, yawning as she did.
"I forgot how exhausting doing assignments can be"
"Yeah, tell me about it. Especially on subjects I don't find interesting" Charlie said as she rubbed her temples.
Joey laughed. "Do you find any subjects interesting?"
Charlie turned to look at Joey who had a huge cheeky grin on her face and her left eyebrow slightly rose.
"I don't mind Sport and Science. Just everything else, I hate"
"Right" Joey nodded. "Fair call. The only two subjects I like are English and History"
"Hmm, yeah those two classes would have to be my least favourite. Well, I prefer them over Maths"
"I think anyone would prefer anything over Maths" Joey scrunched her nose.
Charlie laughed at the expression on Joey's face, knowing exactly why she was scrunching her nose up.
"Mrs Croft" Charlie shook her head.
"Mmhmm...Definitely not a Lara"
Charlie laughed yet again. She had missed the way that Joey could easily make her laugh.
"No, definitely not." Charlie smiled. "Mrs Croft reeks too. It's why I hate having Maths before Lunch; the smell really turns me off my food"
Joey laughed and looked at Charlie. She was even more beautiful than she had realised. Her skin was gorgeous, her smile even more breath taking and her eyes sparkled when she laughed.
"I know what you mean" Joey smiled.
Charlie turned and looked her, their eyes locked straight away but both girls were forced to look away as the sound of the phone ringing from in the kitchen interrupted them both.
"I'll err, just go answer that" Joey said as she raced out of the room.
Charlie nodded and moved her hair behind her ears. Casting another look around the bedroom, she spotted a photo frame on the desk, leaning over her laptop she picked up the photo frame and smiled. It was a photo of Joey, Irene and Aden, it looked recent, and judging by the decorations in the background, the photo would have been taken around Christmas time. All three had big grins on their faces; Charlie smiled and ran her fingers over Joey, stopping when she noticed the necklace Joey was wearing.
- Flash Back - December 24th, 1992 -
Ross Buckton and Link Collins walked in the back door, carrying two trays of meat they had just cooked up on the Barbeque, yelling out for everyone to come and get some. They placed the meat trays on the table where ever they could find room. Ross stood behind his wife Elsie whilst Link joined Deidre who was stood near the doorway.
"Out the road Daddy, coming through!" A little voice called out behind him.
"Joey, no running inside please!" Link warned his little girl.
"I'm sorry daddy! I just wanted to get some food" Ten year old Joey said as she walked up to her father and hugged him.
All adults and Joey looked to the door as they heard screaming coming from the hallway and then saw Ben running into the kitchen followed by a crying Charlie.
"Ben pushed me into the wall!" She sobbed as she walked over to her mother and cried in her arms.
"Did not!" Ben said as his jaw dropped at his sisters claims.
"Did too you fat liar!" Charlie yelled.
"DID NOT CHARLIE!" Ben screamed back.
"Liar liar pants on fire!" Charlie taunted.
Eighteen year old Kathleen walked into the kitchen wearing headphones as she listened to her walkman; she grabbed a plate and served herself some food.
"Benjamin, I think you should apologise to your sister please" Ross asked his twelve year old son.
"But I didn't do anything Dad!"
Charlie glared at her bigger brother.
"Alright, I'm sorry" Ben said as he grabbed a second sausage and placed it on his plate.
Joey walked over to Charlie and wrapped her arms around her neck.
"It's okay Charlie"
Charlie grinned at the hug from her best friend, she always made things better.
After everyone served up their food, they made their way to the family room and sat down in front of the TV to watch the movie that Charlie and Joey had chosen. 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York' Ever since seeing it at the cinema last month, it had become their favourite film.
An hour and a half later, the movie had finished, Ben sat in front of the TV playing his Nintendo, Kathleen had long gone upstairs to listen to music and the four adults had made their way into the kitchen to begin cleaning up. Charlie and Joey sat on the couch watching the game Ben was playing.
"Come to my room, I want to give you something" Charlie grinned and pulled Joey's hand and the two of them ran upstairs. "Sit on my bed, hold out your hands and close your eyes"
"You're not going to put a bug in my hands are you?" Joey said scrunching up her face.
"No silly! Now just do as I say!" Charlie laughed and as soon as Joey had her eyes closed and hands out, she moved over to her top drawer and grabbed a box, opened it and stood in front of Joey, placing one of the items from the box in Joey's hands.
"Open your eyes" Charlie grinned.
Joey opened her eyes and looked at the necklace in her hands.
"It's a turtledove necklace" Charlie beamed. "I have one. You have one. As long as we each have a turtledove, we'll be friends forever"
Joey grinned, stood up and placed the necklace around her neck and hugged Charlie. "Friends forever".
- End of Flash Back -
Charlie smiled at the turtledove necklace that Joey was wearing. It was the same necklace she had given to her eight years ago. Hearing Joey say goodbye on the phone, Charlie put the photo frame back in its place and opened up the webpage to make it look like she had been reading through information regarding their assignment.
"Sorry, that was just Irene wondering if Ade and I needed any food" Joey said as she sat down on her chair. "So where were we up to?"
"Uhm" Charlie said as she opened the file on her computer where she had been typing up their assignment. "We were writing the arrival of Narses"
"Okay. Let's get back into it then" Joey smiled and the two of them began to write their assignment again.
---
"Sorry I couldn't stay that long. My mother drives me insane most of the time" Leah groaned as Rachel walked her to the front gates.
"That's fine, I completely understand. I have to babysit Brad and Tamsyn quiet often as Dad's at work most of the time" Rachel smiled.
"What would they do without us?" Leah joked. "It was really nice spending some time with you Rach, you're a really awesome chick" Leah grinned.
Rachel laughed. "Thank you. So are you."
"Rach, someone's on the phone for you" Six year old Tamsyn sung out from the front door.
"I'll let you take that and I'll see you at school on Monday"
"Yeah, see you then Leah. Bye" Rachel said before running off inside.
Leah grinned and started to head home. She had only been at Rachel's for an hour and a half, but that was the most fun she had had with a friend, other than Charlie, for a long time. She noticed how well she had gotten along with Rachel in the hour and a half and realised she had felt more comfortable and accepted than she had ever felt in the company of Belle and Hayley in the 10 years that they had been friends. Leah walked along the path and headed on her way home, she was about to cross the road when she saw the blue Ute that belonged to her boyfriend pull up along side her.
"Hey there brown eyed beauty, fancy a lift?" Vinnie asked with a huge goofy grin on his face.
"That'd be great! I have to be home in 10 minutes" Leah smiled.
"Well, jump in precious" Vinnie winked at his girlfriend.
Leah laughed and jumped in the car, kissing Vinnie before they set off in direction of her house.
---
"Spell check says 3,330" Charlie groaned.
"Argh! Why is this taking forever to do?!" Joey said resting her head on her hands.
"Because it's stupid" Charlie snickered.
Joey laughed and sighed. Charlie glanced at the clock on her screen.
"I suppose I had better get going, I told dad I would make him dinner before he went to work tonight" Charlie said as she saved the work they had been doing.
"Oh okay. Fair enough" Joey nodded and started to pack up her things. "I suppose we will carry on next weekend or something ,yeah?"
"Or you could come over to mine on Tuesday? We've only got half a day and I know for certain that Dad won't be there as he is heading away on Monday night until Thursday"
"Oh, yeah sure. That sounds great" Joey smiled and watched as Charlie gathered her things, the two of them walked to the door.
"Thanks for today, it was surprisingly good" Charlie grinned.
"Yeah, it was actually. We're still alive, eh" Joey laughed.
"Mmm" Charlie nodded. "I'll see you on Monday" Charlie said before slowly walking off.
"See you" Joey smiled and closed the door; she leaned on the back of the couch, grinning at how the day went. She jumped when the front door opened.
"Wow. Charlie walked off in one piece. You stand there in one piece. I'm guessing the study session went a little better than anyone thought it would" Aden grinned.
"Yeah, it was...good" Joey nodded. "We got along really well. Surprising us both"
"Who would have thought hey?" Aden said throwing his things in his room. "So did you get all of your assignment done?"
"No, we're pretty much half way through. We're meeting up after school on Tuesday"
"After school on Tuesday? That's when you and I usually grab a movie and chillax!"
"Yes, because we don't usually do that any other night of the week. Not to mention all weekend" Joey raised an eyebrow.
"But they're different!" Aden said looking offended.
"Different how, Aden?"
"They're, they're...They're Tuesdays!" Aden said shrugging his shoulders.
Joey shook her head and walked off into the kitchen.
"Well I think seems as though you're blowing me off on Tuesday, you can make me dinner tonight" Aden said following after her.
---
Charlie entered her house and placed her laptop and book on the kitchen table, grabbing a note that was leaning up against the fruit bowl.
"Charlie, gone to work, decided to grab something from Ailsa's on the way. Have a good night; I hope your study session went well. No wild parties. Love Dad"
Charlie turned around and locked the front door and headed up stairs. She turned on her stereo player and turned the volume up. The music to 'Poison' by Alice Cooper started.
Charlie walked off into her bathroom; she tied her hair up and looked at herself in the mirror before walking back into her bedroom, sitting on her bed. She began to sing along with the song.
"I hear you calling and its needles and pins. I want to hurt you just to hear you screaming my name. Don't want to touch you but you're under my skin. I want to kiss you but your lips are venomous poison, you're poison running through my veins. You're poison, I don't wanna break these chains" Charlie screamed out, she couldn't even hear herself sing the music was that loud. She looked over at her bedside table and pulled the top drawer open and grabbed a black box that was at the back and opened it on her bed. She smiled at the photo that was on top inside the box, it was her first photo with Joey, they were eight years old. The photo was taken at the park; they had their arms around each other's shoulders and big goofy smiles on their faces. The next photo was of the two of them at ten years old, December 24th 1992, taken not long after Charlie had given Joey the necklace. Charlie looked inside the box at the last item that was in there. She reached in and picked it up, a long silver necklace with a turtledove on the end of it. She held the necklace in the palm of her hand before placing it around her neck. Standing up and walking down stairs, she quickly fixed herself some dinner before heading back to her bedroom, she placed a DVD in the player and turned on her TV, climbing into bed she switched her phone to silent and pressed play on the remote. It wasn't even dark outside and Charlie had already decided she was going to watch the movie and get an early night sleep. She snuggled under her sheets as the 'Home Alone 2' started.