"So you had a good time in the end?" Aunt Gigi asked her niece as the young girl sat on an inflatable sun lounger in the small pool in the garden of the Darcy family San Franciscan town house.

"The best!"

It was only her third day with her father, but for Annie, it felt like it had been a lifetime. Of course she'd seen and heard how he talked, walked (a bit), and acted in her mum's videos, but all of that information was nothing to how much she learnt about him in just a little over 72 hours. For example, she'd learnt that he likes to have black coffee if the sun is up, and he only adds milk in the evenings. She also learnt that he was an early-greyer; his hair was like salt and pepper all over (of course, that was either not there, or not visible in the videos, but still).

"I hear you're planning on going shopping with him today."

"Yeah, I'm not sure when though."

"Hey darling!" At that moment, William walked through the doors out into the garden.

"Hey dad!" Her face lit up.

"Aren't you ready to go?"

"I didn't know when!"

"That's alright, just go get dressed and ready as soon as you can. There's no reason to hurry."

At this, Annie laid back on the inflatable, closed her eyes, and started to slowly drift towards the edge of the pool. He said there was no hurry, so why should she hurry?

"Oh, and I hope you don't mind, I've invited someone else along. Someone with far more experience with women's clothes than I do.

"Sure! Aunt Gigi you can help me pick some new shoes for school. I've grown out of my current ones."

"It's not your aunt, Charlie. It's me!" A woman's voice called out. Madison Blake's voice.

At this, Annie's eyes flashed open, her balance shifted dramatically from the shock, and her arms flailed everywhere to help her stay on the inflatable. It was to no avail, as everyone else witnessed a flurry of arms and legs, accompanied by a short cry, and a large splash.

"Are you alright, darling?" William asked as she resurfaced.

"Yeah, yeah! Fine! Never been better." She pushed the wet hair away from her face as she climbed the ladder out of the pool. "I'll just_" and she headed back inside.

Fifteen minutes later, Annie came gliding down the stairs into the main hallway.

"Ah! Here's the lady of the hour!" Madison practically forced out.

"The lady of the day, more like." William replied as he lifted his daughter up off the last step and into a hug, before placing her down onto the floor. "Today is about you."

"And…Madison?" Annie enquired.

"And Madison, of course. Today is for you two to get to know each other better."

"I can't wait!" It seemed to Charlie that Madison was forcing out quite a bit of pleasantry, probably for her father's sake (though she could be wrong. She didn't want to judge anyone before she knew them now, did she?).

"So, Charlie," Madison piped up from the passenger seat in the front of William's town car, "tell me all about your time at camp. I'm dying to know all about what you got up to." She spoke with little enthusiasm.

"Er, well…I did a lot!" Annie smiled, as she noticed Madison's attention shift immediately to her nails once she'd asked the question. It was a shame then that her dad was too busy focusing on the road to notice. Of course, Annie could tell all the stories she'd made up or edited for her dad and aunt's sake all over again, but this time, she decided on a new story. "I did rock climbing, and canoeing, and hiking_"

"You're a better man than I am, Ghandi Din." Madison interrupted.

"I'm sorry, what?" Annie's brows squeezed together in confusion.

"I can't hike. Too much effort for no benefit at all."

"No, I mean, what do you mean about Ghandi?"

"Oh you know, like the Wilfred Owen poem. 'You're a better man than I am Ghandi Din!'"

There was a short, but still very awkward silence.

"I believe," William cleared his throat, "I believe, it was written by Rudyard Kipling."

"And it's 'you're a better man than I am Gunga Din', not 'Ghandi'". Annie had to stifle her laugh.

"Well, some Indian anyway, and to be honest, what's the difference between Wilfred Owen and Ruddy whatshisname?"

"Well, it's true that they were both writing during the First World War, but there is a definite difference in style, and Wilfred Owen was writing first-hand accounts of the front line. Rudyard Kipling was not. Kipling often wrote about India, since he was born there, and he wrote children's stories as well. In fact, he's one of my favourites."

At this, Madison was silenced for a moment, until, "so Charlie, what else did you do?"

"Well, as I said, I did a lot of hiking_"

"I would have to disagree with you about the hiking as well, I'm afraid, honey." Spoke William again. Annie felt a little bit queasy at the sound of him calling her such an icky pet name as that.

"Oh really?"

"Yes. There are many benefits from hiking. Health benefits from the fresh air and sustained exercise, as well as the benefits of exploring somewhere new to you, and taking time out to interact with others on the way."

"Oh, well, I mean of course there are benefits! It's just that…there are no benefits to me at the moment." Madison coughed. "I feel like I'm coming down with something sweetie. Remind me to get some medicine at the mall." She turned her attention back to her nails.

"You were saying, Charlie?"

"I also did some paintballing, and I made loads of new friends! One time we set up this really good prank once. We managed to move all of the furniture of one of our rival huts onto their roof whilst they were doing rock climbing one afternoon."

At this, William let out a laugh, whilst Madison gave what Annie could only describe as something approaching a sideways glare.

"Who's 'we' darling?"

"Me and Marian. We were both put in hut 60. She's from England, actually!"

"Oh really? Where about? I've been there loads of times. I bet she and I would have so much to talk about!"

Annie almost let out a laugh at this, but her face remained as polite and friendly as before. "She's from Sheffield."

Madison's face went blank for a short while. "Oh! Oh! That's where that guy who plays Tony Stark is from!"

"You mean Ned Stark." William corrected.

"Who the hell is he?" Madison turned to him.

Once they had arrived at Westfield, Madison quickly opened her door, rushed round to open Annie's, and whilst William was distracted by getting out the recyclable bags from the trunk, she grabbed the young girl's arm and spoke in a hushed tone.

"Listen, punk. I don't know what your game is, but you're just going to have to accept that you're not the only girl in William's life anymore. Hate to break it to you angel, but there we are!" Her smug smile was painted as clear as day all over her face.

"Oh I know," Annie replied with a smile she thought was equal in smugness, "there's aunt Gigi too. But after eleven and a half years of her being around me and dad, I think I've accepted that fact."

Annie broke free of the woman's grip, and walked round to the trunk to follow her dad.


"I don't know why you we need to go shopping for clothes for me today," Charlie spoke to her mother as they walked down Oxford Street, "but I'm not complaining!"

"No, of course you're not. You're not the one having to pay!" Lizzie linked arms with her daughter carefully, so not to bash the bags round their arms together.

"Then why bother?"

"Because you need new school uniform. You're too old now to be wearing those juvenile little primary school dresses. You need mature, secondary school girl skirts and shirts."

"But you didn't need all this stuff when you were my age."

"No, but then that's because I grew up in America, isn't it? And I went to an American state school!" She smiled.

"Is that where you met dad? At school?"

This made Lizzie freeze on the spot.

"What's this sudden interest in your dad about?"

"Nothing! It's just_"

"Yes?"

"Well, I'm nearly 12, mum. That's practically a teenager! I've gone nearly my whole childhood without knowing anything about my dad, what he was like, where he came from, what happened, et cetera. Aren't I entitled to know?"

All Lizzie could do in response to this was sigh, and reply, "yes, you are. Well, we didn't meet at school. No, he went to a very different school. He is American though, and we met at a wedding."

"A wedding!" Charlie's mock surprise was quite believable, it seemed. Lizzie didn't bat an eyelid at this. "And was it love at first sight?"

Lizzie laughed. "No, no, it wasn't love at first sight."

"But was he your lobster?" Charlie gave a knowing smile.

"My-my what?" Confusion and worry flooded Lizzie's face. "Annie, my what?"

"C'mon mum! Quickly! It's our bus over there! Hurry!"

The topic of conversation was dropped during the rush to the bus. Once Charlie was back in her room in their house, and the bags had been unloaded, she checked her phone. At that exact moment, her phone lit up, telling her that 'Lisa S' was calling. Of course, she knew that number off by heart, given how many times she'd had to recite it to others.

She hit 'decline', and threw the phone onto the bed.