HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL…… well it's nearly Christmas, so for all of my readers here's a early Christmas present. Hope you enjoy!
The crisp early autumn sunlight slipped through his curtains on the Saturday morning. Cracking his eyes open Luke thought about why today was better than other Saturdays. Lying there for quite some time he tried to figure it out. Then he remembered. Maria was here, and she was staying for three weeks. He grinned to himself and threw the covers off him, leaping out of bed. Ignoring that he was still in his pyjama's he crept over to Maria's room, and creaked open the door.
"Maria are you awake?" he was answered by a soft groan, and she buried deeper into the pillows.
"Five more minutes Dad, then I'll get up,"
He smiled to himself, realising that she must need more sleep than he did, so he shut her door. Walking down to the kitchen he prepared himself breakfast. Sitting down he tucked into his cereal. There was footsteps coming down from the stairs and he saw his mum in the doorway, dressed in her old dressing gown.
"I hope you didn't wake Maria up," she commented, as she started boiling water for her early morning tea.
"No, mum," he replied honestly. "I checked if she was up, but she wanted five more minutes. Should I give her five more?"
Sarah laughed. "It's an expression Luke, I think she'd have more than five minutes, let her sleep in until she naturally wakes. It might be around midday,"
"Because of the time differences?"
"Yes,"
"But I'll be bored. I don't like being bored."
"Well do your homework, so you don't have to do it when Maria is awake," Sarah suggested.
"Okay," Luke replied, satisfied with the idea. "I think Clyde wanted to go to Oxford Street and do some shopping for his mum's birthday,"
"Which is Tuesday let me guess?"
Luke nodded. "Yeah, I have to pick something up as well."
Sarah sighed. "But only if you get all your homework done,"
"I will mum," and Sarah knew that Luke was not like other kids, and would get his homework done on time.
Young Sita Chandra was bored, she had woken up early around half seven and no one was awake. She knew her sister would complain about being woken up so she tiptoed up to her cousin's room, where she heard two voices talking in hushed whispers.
"You were supposed to wake me up!" came the frustrated voice of a – boy. Why was there a boy in her cousin's bedroom?
"Well maybe if you had put the alarm on then I would have!" came the snapped reply.
"So it's my fault?"
"You're the one who's going to get killed by Dad for being in my room!"
Sita carefully pushed the door open to her cousin's room, to see her arguing with another dark skinned boy, dressed only in his boxers and t-shirt. She wondered if either one had noticed that factor yet. "Rani," her voice was small against the two furious teens. "Why is there a boy in your room? And how did he get in?" Both teens froze, and turned to look at the younger girl
"What are you doing up this early Sita?" Rani asked gently.
"I was bored, and wondered if you wanted to watch Wall-E with me," she replied. "Why is he in his boxers?"
Clyde hid his boxers comically and scrabbled to get his jeans and pull them on. "What are you doin' in here?" he crossed his arms and looked at her.
"I could ask you the same thing," she retorted, and Clyde had to admit that she had a point.
"Well…" he hesitated, glancing at Rani to help him think of a reliable excuse.
"Nothing for you to worry about, and you're not going to tell a word about this to my Dad okay?"
The little girl nodded. "Okay, but doesn't he need to go?"
"Well, yeah," Clyde agreed taken slightly aback by the younger Chandra.
"He just was," Rani reminded him. "Come on," she pulled his arm and the three crept silently down the stairs. "Don't stand on the middle of the sixth one up," Rani explained to the other two. "It creaks like a old carriage wheel," Clyde easily dodged it, but Sita was a little clumsy, and the stair let out an ominous creak. Clyde was at the bottom of the stairs and grinned as Rani glowered at her cousin. Picking the little girl up she slipped easily down the last bit of the flight of stairs, and landed at the bottom. "I told you!" she hissed, and Sita giggled as Clyde made faces behind Rani's back.
"Sorry he's making funny faces," Rani turned to see Clyde looking all to innocent behind her back. Putting her cousin down she quickly and quietly unlocked and opened the front door. Before he left Clyde smiled at her and put a hand on her arm.
"Thanks for last night Rani, and sorry,"
She gave him an understanding smile. "No problem Clyde. But you'd better get away before dad comes down,"
"Right," he did a mock salute and dashed off and out of Bannerman Road. Rani smiled slightly and shut the door, ushering her cousin inside.
"So do you still want to watch Wall-E?" she asked, her tiredness creeping into her voice.
"Yeah!"
"Weren't you supposed to get your mum's present about a week ago?" Luke asked irritably as he caught up with Clyde for about the fifth time that day.
"Yeah, but I didn't have the money,"
"You could use the money that you've saved for the Wii Resort Diamond Clash," Luke replied hopefully, not wanting Clyde to buy it and Maria to get upset.
Clyde slowed his pace and sighed. "I think that's what I'll have to do mate," he made his way over to a cash point and Luke stood up as Clyde got his cash. "I don't know what to get her though, she's really hard to choose for,"
"Jewellery?" Luke suggested.
"To expensive," Clyde replied. "There was a watch that I knew she'd love, I saw it in that shop in near the station. But it was around fifty, and I wanted to get her a DVD as well,"
Luke paused, he knew that Clyde wasn't really well off, and wanted to help his friend. Though he wouldn't admit it Clyde loved his mum and would do anything for her, unlike Luke who would happily tell anyone that he adored his mum, but apparently that was a social disaster. "I know," he suddenly had one of his ideas. "I'll pay for a quarter – both the DVD and the watch, and you can pay me back every week or so – like a bank. I'll get lunch as well,"
"Man you can't do that!" Clyde looked at him. "I mean…"
"You're my best friend Clyde… think of it as a payment for saving my life all those times, and the fight yesterday,"
"Okay mate, if you really-"
Luke nodded. "Where's the shop?" he asked, grinning Clyde showed him the way.
The bell tinkled and the shopkeeper looked up to see two teens entering, one was muttering to the other, who rolled his eyes and sighed. "Luke you just don't understand,"
"I understand more than you do sometimes," the paler blue-eyed teen retorted. Both teens walked up to the counter.
The shopkeeper sighed, this looked like it was going to be a long one.
"I need to get something checked by Sarah-Jane," Rani made the excuse to her parents as she held up the memory stick with her English coursework on.
"Why can't you get me to sort it out?" Haresh asked, as he helped his wife with the brunch.
"Because Sarah-Jane's a journalist," she replied cheekily.
"Alright, but I want you back in at least a hour, you know we've got Wicked tonight at the West End."
"Okay Dad," she dashed out of the house and across to Number Thirteen. Surprisingly the door was open, so she pushed it and it swung inwards.
"Sarah-Jane?" she called and her voice echoed in the empty house. Sliding over the tiles with her socks (she'd longed to do that for a while), she made her way into the kitchen. It wasn't empty. Instead there was a girl, she had tightly curled brown hair and was dressed in her pyjamas.
"Who are you?" she asked with slight jealously in her voice, the girl turned in surprise, and almost dropped the mug, and instead she put it down on the kitchen worktop.
"I could ask you the same thing," she replied, arms crossing over her chest. The Garfield jammies did nothing to lighten Rani's mood.
"Are you a lodger?" she asked. "Or a old friend?"
"Both – what do you want to be, a journalist?"
"Hit the nail on the head," Rani replied a small smirk on her face, partly at her slightly tinged American accent. "Just want to know who you are."
"After you,"
"I live across the road,"
"I used to-" neither of them wanted to give any information to the other, and they stood, even though both knew kinda who they were.
"Ah, Maria you're up," Sarah-Jane was dressed and ready for what looked like another snooping exercise. "Rani I thought you were with your cousins!"
"Yeah, I am supposed to be," the teen grinned sheepishly. "I was wondering – I know you're busy but can you check through some of my coursework. I just thought…" she trailed off, thoroughly embarrassed.
Sarah-Jane laughed. "Sure, after I've looked through some stuff UNIT's got for me. I see you two have already met. Maria, Rani. Rani, Maria. Maria used to live over the other side of the road."
Rani's eyes widened, almost comically. "So you're Maria, Luke's told me a lot about you,"
The other girl blushed, and smiled. "Well he doesn't really know tact that to well,"
"I'll say," the two grinned at each other, the stony atmosphere from before melting away. "So how long have you known Clyde?"
"Too long," came the reply with rolled eyes. "He's a lovable idiot," she paused. "Unless you fancy him…" and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. Rani couldn't help the blush that erupted across her cheeks.
"Even though I'd love to talk about boys with you I need to go and see the Brig, he's got some files for me. I would ask if you wanted to come Maria, but Garfield pyjamas don't really suit the occasion. And before you even ask, Rani, your Dad would shoot me if I even thought of taking you off long the winding road and out of London."
Both girls pouted. "I guess you're right Sarah-Jane," Rani sighed exasperatedly. "I'll go then," she ducked her head and dramatically dragged her feet to the door, but Maria called her back – excited that she could talk to another girl her age about aliens, school and boys.
"Hey, have you ever come across a Slitheen?"
A grin spread across Rani's face. "I was just about to ask the same thing,"
"I see you've clicked," Sarah whispered a thankful prayer that there had been no harsh words spoken between them. "I'd better get going now. Maria you know how the Brigadier gets when people are late," Maria nodded and waved as Sarah-Jane left her house.
Rani leaned over and smirked. "So, under the 'big tough I'm-best-at-everything' Clyde, what's the real one like?" Maria grinned back; this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
"That's really not the best thing to say," Clyde had been complaining all the way from the jewellery store. "My best friend's looking for a present for his mum," he imitated. "I could have done better than that."
"What was the problem with that?" Luke replied terribly confused. "I only told the truth."
"Sometimes mate the truth can get you into trouble. Where's your mum?" he asked interestedly as Luke unlocked the door.
"She went to see a old friend," he answered, and kicked off his shoes. There was giggling laughter coming from the lounge.
"And then he was like, "Up, down, up down," and Clyde followed every word!" the pair of voices roared with laughter.
Clyde paled. "She cannot be tellin' that story – it was strictly out of bounds!" he hissed in panic. Luke recognised the two voices as Maria and Rani, and they were obviously talking and sharing adventures that they had in the past.
"I kinda promised that I'd never tell that story again,"
"But it was a epic FAIL," Maria's voice floated over to his ears, and he grinned.
"Yup. So what's up with you and Luke?" The question was innocent, and the teen in question felt his ears burning.
"Well," there was a pause. "Nothing really. We're just good friends,"
"Phsst," came unsatisfied answer.
"What like you and Clyde?" The teen felt that it was the right moment for him to enter the room. Both Maria and Rani were curled up on Sarah-Jane's sofa, and cups of tea in their hands, talking and laughing about things they'd seen and people's lives they'd shared. Especially the boys, and Luke had a suspicion that it had only been them that they had been talking about.
"Okay, we stop right there," Clyde burst into the doorway. "And please don't say any…" he trailed off, spotting Maria, and standing there stunned. "What are you doin' here?" he asked in amazement.
"That's the second question like that I've been asked Mr. Langer – unless you want me to go all the way back to D.C you can keep at it," Maria grinned, doing a brilliant impression of their old physics teacher.
"She's back!" Clyde bounced over to hug her, but then realised how his cool look had been destroyed, instead he stopped and smiled, punching her arm lightly.
Rolling her eyes Maria hugged him tight. "Missed you to Clyde," she smiled, knowing that he'd now be fully embarrassed, and not able to live this down. The doorbell suddenly rang, and Rani groaned.
"That's going to be Dad, moaning that I have to come home,"
Maria unlatched herself from Clyde, who turned to Rani. "Aren't you gonna see some play?"
"Musical," Rani sent a pointed look at Maria, who giggled lightly.
"What's so funny?" Luke wondered bemused.
"Nothing," both girls replied in a singsong voice.
"Oh, no," Clyde slung an arm around his best friend's shoulder. "This is when girls start to gang together – y'know girls could take over the world if they did that?"
Now poor Luke was even more confused. The doorbell rang again. Quickly Rani got to the door, the other three followed her. Opening the door she saw a none to happy looking Haresh, standing there with his arms folded, glowering at his daughter.
"Is that the angry face?" Clyde joked, and grinned sheepishly as his teacher stared him down. "Hi sir," he mumbled.
"Rani you where only supposed to be around here for at least ten minuets. It's been almost a hour,"
"Sorry Dad," she smiled up at him, hoping that the puppy face would make him change his mind – it didn't work.
"Go on,"
"It's easy to get distracted," she explained.
"I wonder why?" his eyes landed on Clyde and the boy grinned.
"What did I do sir?" he shrugged comically. "I'm just here with my mates," he slung an arm around Maria and Luke, and Maria pushed him away.
"Don't get me involved with this," the girl grinned.
"Haresh! Rani!" there was call from across the road. "I don't know what you two are doing but we need to leave in a hour – and you know how long Sita takes to get her organised."
Both father and daughter looked at each other. "She's the boss," he reminded her daughter as she stepped out of the house.
"Fine," she turned to the others and started to walk backwards, taking as slow as she possibly could. "See you guys later,"
"Rani!" her mother's voice sounded – now slightly angrily across the road.
"Fine! I'm coming!" she replied. "Have to go," she turned on her heel and sprinted over the road.
Clyde turned to Maria. "So how's America?"
Hope you did enjoy, Luke/Maria AND Clyde/Rani, you can't really get better can you? LOL. But Sarah-Jane's gonna get some lovin' soon! *Gasp*
Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, and I'll hopefully update before New Year!
Reviews will make my Christmas – or make it even better!
Thanks,
LostLyra