Chapter 7

The day after the pink lady case, John started moving in. He didn't have a lot of possessions among him, only a few meagre boxes containing clothes, a few books, and several wartime souvenirs.

When I came home from school, which was boring as usual, I was confronted with Dad and John bickering in the living room,

"It's an experiment."

"It's the kitchen! It's where food goes!"

I snorted silently as I waltzed in and sat down on Dad's armchair, the two of them are in the kitchen, and John is pointing at Dad's experiments on the table, one of them has the color of laundry detergent, but judging by the fumes it's probably not that. Two bags of shopping are sitting on the table, the petri dishes around them squashed together, surrounding the shopping bags like refugees surrounding food trucks, I silently chuckled at the mental image of petri dishes scurrying away from Dad in horror.

"What are you two children bickering about?" I asked, raising my voice to be heard.

"Oh hi Sophia, when did you get home?" Dad said, and used me as an excuse to escape the kitchen, John silently fumed in his stead as he watched Dad open his laptop and started typing.

"John, don't get your panties into a twist, what's the matter?" I asked, though I could guess exactly what the matter is and I really don't care that much.

"There are fingers in the kettle, I nearly made tea with it!" John huffed indignantly, I sighed and walked over to the kettle, there are indeed several fingers in there, and it's starting to attract flies. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, and put the kettle, along with the fingers, into the fridge.

"Why did you do that?"

"It's going to attract bugs." I said, like it's the most obvious thing in the world, and it is.

"But… How am I going to make tea?" I rolled my eyes, really, we're British and all, but John Watson just has an unusual love for tea. I reached up to the cupboards and brought down a dusty stove top kettle, and thrusted it at John.

"Here. I trust that you know how to open the stove?"

"I do." John mumbled, and started his familiar and much practiced tea making process.

I sat down opposite to Dad, stared down at my math homework, then picked up a book on the different types of soil from a stack and started reading. John walked over, with freshly made tea, and placed one in front of me,

"Ta."

"Don't you have to do homework, Sophia?" John asked, I looked at him without speaking, he tried to stare at me the same way I'm staring at him, but I am much more unnerving than he is, so he looked down again, "How old are you again?"

"Sixteen." I said, looking down at my book again.

"Sixteen, right." John said, nodding, still standing in the middle of the room like an idiot, and sipped his tea, "Man, I feel old."

"You are old." I mumbled under my breath.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing, John." I smiled innocently at him, he looked at me, narrowing his eyes, but didn't say anything. I can see Dad smiling out of the corner of my eye, eventually John started smiling as well. That's how Mrs. Hudson found us, the three of us smiling like idiots.

"Sophia, there's a girl downstairs, said she's your friend."

"Who?"

All three of us turned to the door, and lo and behold, it's none other than Cassie. Her long black hair is braided, she's wearing some sort of skirt/pants thing, and light makeup dusted her eyelids.

"Sophia!" She squealed, and ran forward to envelope me into a hug, I just sat there, my book attached to my hands, both limp in my lap.

"Cassie!" I said, a smile frozen on my face, "How did you find me?"

"It took me forever, Soph." She said, tossing her braid back and then turned to look at John and Dad. After a moment of consideration, she faced Dad, "You must be Mr. Holmes, you look exactly like Sophia." She all but gushed, Dad nodded and smiled, or rather grimaced, at her. She then turned to John, cocking her head, trying to think of an explanation.

"That's John Watson." I stepped in, "He's my Dad's…colleague."

"Oh, hi, Mr. Watson."

"Nice to meet you, Cassie, and it's doctor"

"Oh, you're a doctor?" Cassie looked like a three year old who has never seen anyone other than her parents before, her eyes are wide with curiosity, with a smile wider than her face. John looked extremely uncomfortable with a wide eyed teenage girl staring at him, I enjoyed his uncomfortableness for a few seconds longer and rescued him.

"Cassie, what are you doing here?" I asked, the smile still plastered on my face like old wallpaper, Cassie turned from John, who looked immensely relieved, and she face me, and you can probably guess how I feel.

"Oh, Matt's parents are gone for the weekend, and you just have to come to this party, Jack all but threatened me to make you come." She said, so that explains the makeup, as well as the intricate braid, I looked at her like she was insane. "Oh, come on, Sophia. You have to come! They will never let me go if you don't show up!"

"And I care because?"

"Sophia!"She whined, dragging the ah sound, "Just come! It will be fun!"

"Why don't you go, Sophia?" Dad piped up, I glared at him, this is not the time to start caring about his daughter's social life, "It's not like you have anything better to do. Besides, it's a great experiment."

"See! Your Dad agrees!" Cassie squealed, elated at having permission from my father, who looks out for me so so so much, thank you so much, Dad. "Let's go to your room, I'll help you decide what to wear!"

I continued to glare at Dad while Cassie dragged me out of the room, and up the stairs.

The next hour consisted of Cassie rifling through my closet and picking out outfits for me, after a few minutes of arguing, I consented to putting on a little makeup, which I only have for disguise purposes, and she looked through my room while I did that.

"Sophia, this is beautiful! Where did you get this?" She asked, holding out a case of blue butterflies.

"The trashcan." I lied, they were actually poisonous butterflies which Dad caught with a net from a meadow, the image of Dad chasing after butterflies still appeared on my mind whenever I saw those butterflies, it was hilarious. He was going to throw them out, but I saved them from the tragic fate of being thrown out, though being experimented on by Dad is not pleasant, and preserved them.

Cassie looked confused, but she had learnt long ago to just go with whatever I say.

"Bye, Mr. Holmes. Dr. Watson."

"Help me." I said dryly.

The two men looked up to see us, Dad returned to his computer immediately, while John smiled,

"Have fun, Sophia, you look nice."

I continued to glare at John, who looked away and picked up my discarded book, how I yearn to go back to that book, if only I could get rid of Cassie!

"Come on, Sophia, we're going to be late!"

"That would be wonderful, can I miss it too?"

"Let's go!"

Of course I could see that nothing even remotely good will come out of this, and I know that this is really just a thinly veiled attempt to get Matt and I together, and really, would they ever stop trying? Well, at least I can think of something to experiment there.

"Aren't you excited, Sophia?"

"I can barely contain myself."