Chapter 10
It was the day after they'd come back from there holidays and no one was particularly glad to be home as they'd had such a lovely time away but now they were back to reality. Danny had gone out for the day to watch a match and was planning on getting a hotel and staying the night with a few of his mates seeing as he would be back very late so didn't want to disturb everyone.
Ellie had gone out with a few of her friends an hour or so ago so it was just Alice and Rachel at home. Rachel had been very busy getting everything unpacked so Alice was starting to get a bit bored however luckily Rachel was more or less done now.
Rachel walked into the living room and saw Alice with a big bar of chocolate next to her which she kept eating as she was doing some drawing.
"Alice please don't eat the whole of that chocolate, because I'm not buying you anymore for at least another week, you've had way too much rubbish In America" Rachel said
It was true even Rachel had let her diet slip while she'd been away, it was so hard not to while you were over there, as there was food around every corner you turned.
"Mummy do you like my drawing" Alice said holding it up to show her mum
Rachel squinted at it trying to work out what it actually was, but then she realised Alice had drawn a picture of them all and then a picture of there house.
"That's lovely Alice" Rachel said "but why have you coloured my face in with a brown pen and everyone else's pink"
"Because you've gone the brownest on holiday" Alice replied
Rachel laughed before kissing her daughter on the head, however then she noticed something else on Alice's picture.
"Darling why have you drawn a dog?" Rachel asked
"Well because you said I could get a dog when I'm seven mummy and I looked on my special calendar today and I'm 7 In 2 months and 18 days and that isn't that long away so I thought I'd just add it in my picture anyway"
Rachel sighed, once when Alice was about four and wouldn't stop going on about getting a dog she promised she could get one when she was 7 thinking this seemed quite a while off and Alice would probably forget all about it by then. However unluckily for Rachel Alice had remembered and wouldn't drop it.
"Well we'll have to see about that won't we" Rachel said
"Mum I'm bored" Alice moaned
"Well why don't we go out for a bit, Ellie isn't back for another few hours, I know this probably won't appeal to you but we could do with going into town, I haven't bought any of your new school stuff yet and you need loads and I've noticed you've barely got any clothes you can wear just for day to day"
Surprisingly Alice seemed to quite like the idea of going into town and Rachel thigh it would be good to get at least one of there uniforms done, she knew Ellie would be a lot harder to sort out but she decided to leave that for another day, as she didn't think she could handle the stress of dragging Ellie round the shops and having countless arguments over what was and wasn't appropriate school wear.
Alice got in Rachel's car and they quickly drove into town.
They were about half way there when Rachel suddenly realised Alice hadn't put her seatbelt on
"Alice get that seatbelt on right now" Rachel said sounding quite stern
Alice jumped and quickly put it on
"Alice it's dangerous not to put it on what If a policeman had seen you or worse we'd have been involved in a crash, you'd have gone flying through the windscreen"
Hearing her mum sound quite strict made Alice start to cry as she hated it when her mum shouted at her
"Hey don't get upset, I was just warning you not to do it in future that's all love" Rachel so as her voice considerably softer now
"I'm sorry mummy"
"It's okay love"
They drove the rest if the way into town and then both got out.
"Right I need to nip into next first and get a few bits and pieces for when I go back to work, but I shouldn't be too long but be a good girl and just stay with me okay, don't wander off anywhere"
Rachel took hold of Alice's hand and walked in with her, Rachel always did like looking round next, especially for work stuff as they had lots of nice smart tops and skirt, however she always found the stuff was quite comfy.
She saw a couple of pencil skirts she really liked so picked them up and put them in her basket, she then also saw some nice blouses so put them in too.
"Mummy that's a nice top why don't you get that" Alice said picking up a really small black crop top, the type you'd wear if you were going clubbing.
Rachel laughed when she saw what Alice had hold of
"Lovely as that is I doubt I'd get taken very seriously trying to run an assembly wearing that"
Rachel then went over to the underwear department and got herself a few new bras, however this caused Alice to laugh
"What are you laughing at?"
"You're buying bras" Alice said giggling
"Well spotted, I don't think there's really any need to announce it to the whole shop though" Rachel said
"But it's funny"
"Why? I don't start laughing when we're buying your knickers do I?"
"No" Alice said
"Right I need to try these on, so come on let's go through to the changing rooms"
Alice sighed beginning to get a bit bored and wanting to move on from this shop.
"When are we going mummy?"
"As soon as I've tried these on and paid"
"You said we were getting my school stuff not yours"
"Yeah and we will do, I've only been 5 minutes in here"
Rachel went through to the changing rooms and got a big one so Alice could come in with her, she had considered leaving her outside but she didn't really trust her not to walk off.
She quickly tried them on while Alice sat on the little seat swinging her legs.
Once Rachel had checked all her stuff fitted her well she paid for it and went out.
"Mummy please can I get some more toys"
"I think you've got more than enough toys at the moment, we need to concentrate on getting your school stuff"
They started off in Clark's by getting Alice's feet measured and then getting her some new shoes
"Can I wear them now mum" Alice asked once they were out the shop
"No darling there for school"
"But I really like them, they've got flashy lights on that light up when I stomp my feet"
"Yeah I did notice and I don't know what on earth your new teachers going to say about that though I doubt she'll be particularly approving"
They spent a while longer going round all the shops but then they both got a bit tired and Rachel
Had got Alice pretty much everything she needed so decided to do the rest another day.
They were on the car on the way back home when Alice said "mum how many weeks is it till I go back to school"
"2 weeks on Monday love"
"I wish it was longer"
"I'm sure by the time it's going back to school time you'll be more ready to go back but for now we can just concentrate in enjoying the rest of the holiday can't we"
"I hate school though"
"Don't be silly, you don't hate school, you're doing well In all your lessons and judging by all the girls i have knocking on our door asking for you to come and play with them, you've got lots of friends"
"Yes but it's still boring I'd rather be at home playing with friends"
"Well just wait till you start secondary school, you'll wish you could be back in primary school"
"I bet I won't" Alice mumbled
Rachel didn't respond but smiled to herself knowing Alice would soon change her mind over the next few years.
Once they were home again Rachel parked up and Alice ran inside
Rachel then decided to make a start on the ironing as she still had quite a bit to do.
She was about half way through her ironing when she heard the door slam.
Alice went to the door first before Rachel could get there and Alice saw Ellie come in with tears streaming down her face.
"What's wrong Alice"
"Shut up" Ellie said
Alice then tried to wrap her arms around Ellie as she hated it when she looked upset
"I said shut up you little ..." Ellie screamed grabbing Alice and pushing her back
It was at this moment that Rachel came in and saw what was going on, ellie hadn't meant to push Alice that hard but she'd finished up falling right back and hitting her head and now she was in floods of tears
"Hey" Rachel shouted immediately rushing over "what the hell have you done"
"I didn't mean it alright"
"I saw you push her" Rachel said "get upstairs right now, go on"
"Fine" Ellie screamed
"And don't raise you're voice at me" Rachel shouted back she could clearly see something had upset Ellie a lot to get her this angry however regardless of what had happened there was no way Rachel was going to let her off this,
"Stupid bitch" Ellie muttered under her breath, Rachel didn't quite hear what she said but she got a pretty good idea and she wasn't going to stand for it
She grabbed Ellie's shoulders forcing her to turn round
"What did you just call me"
"Nothing"
"Well if I ever hear you say anything similar aimed at me ... Believe me you're going to regret it"
Ellie rolled her eyes before stomping upstairs and slamming her bedroom door shut so fiercely it seemed to echo through the house
Rachel watched her going upstairs her arms folded beneath her chest as she shook her head at her daughter
However she was quick to turn her attention to Alice who was on the floor crying
"Come on darling stand up"
Alice took her mums hand and quickly stood up as tears ran down her face
Rachel led her through to the kitchen and sat her down on one of the chairs
"Now where did you bang your head against when she oh she'd you"
"Right against the radiator"
"Oh god you're very lucky there doesn't seem to be any real damage I've seen people smash their head open doing exactly that"
"It really hurts" Alice sobbed
Rachel decided to have a look, just to check Alice was basically alright
"Right I'm just going to have a look at your head, I'm going to try my very hardest to make sure it doesn't hurt"
Rachel lifted Alice's long hair up and tried to have a proper look.
At first she couldn't really see anything so presumed Alice was fine however on closer inspection she realised there was actually quite a bad lump on her head and a lump was already forming
Rachel knew she shouldn't tell Alice that it actually looked pretty nasty as knowing Alice this would really panic her
"You do look like you've got a cut and by the looks of it you're going to have an egg on your head"
Rachel went or the freezer in the garage trying to find an ice lack however she didn't have any luck and couldn't see any so decided to settle on a bag of frozen peas.
She went back into the kitchen and held it gently against the back of Alice's head
"That's freezing"
"I know but it'll help to reduce all the swelling" Rachel explained
She kept it against her daughters head for a few minutes
"Now will you do me a favour and keep that on"
Alice reached behind her head and help the cold bag against it,
Rachel pulled a chair across and sat right in front of Alice, deciding to ask her a few questions to check she hadn't got concussion or anything serious.
"Alice do you feel dizzy at all"
"Yes a little bit" Alice said before starting to cry
"How many fingers am I holding up" Rachel asked holding four fingers in the air, she wanted to check Alice hadn't got double vision as she knew this was a common symptom of concussion.
"Four"
Rachel asked Alice a few more questions
Although Alice seemed basically okay just a little shaken up, Rachel decided it was best if she got Alice checked out at the emergency medical centre about 5 miles away from her house.
"Alice I'm going to take you to the medical centre"
"Why am I really poorly" Alice asked instantly getting worried
"No darling I don't think so but it's just better to be on the safe side and besides they can clean your cut up better than I can"
Alice quickly got her coat on, as did Rachel.
Rachel quickly shouted down to Ellie that she and Alice were going to the medical centre however she didn't get a response so assumed Ellie was just taking some time to calm down.
Although Rachel was still furious with Ellie for coming in the way she did, she was concerned about what had got her so upset and angry and she knew full well that Ellie would be worried sick about Alice now, after all Rachel was almost one hundred percent sure it had never been Ellie's intention to hurt Alice she'd just been trying to get out of her way.
"Mummy Ellie came in crying" Alice told Rachel
"I know love, I'm sure she's very, very sorry for hurting you"
"I don't think she meant to, I just slipped when she pushed me"
"Well it was still very naughty of her and I'll be having some serious words when we get home"
"Why was she so upset mummy?"
"I don't know love, but what you really have got to remember is that your sister is at a really difficult age at the moment and she'll have a lot of stuff to deal with, stuff that at the moment you don't have to go through thank god, but that's why sometimes Ellie gets so angry and snappy it's not that she's actually annoyed at you"
Rachel thought it was important for her to explain this to Alice as there had been quite a few occasions recently where Ellie would snap quite badly at Alice and Alice would finish up getting really upset over it.
Ellie snapped at Rachel quite a bit to, however having worked with teenagers for nearly 17 years Rachel knew to let it all fly over her head and not let it get it her, as there was a big difference between what teenagers said and what they actually meant
"But I don't get why she gets so annoyed all the time"
"Well like I said she's a teenager they've got a lot of rubbish going on, it's not nice you know all this growing up lark, but that still doesn't excuse her behaviour I know"
It didn't take them long to reach the medical centre however there was quite a long wait.
"Mum I need the toilet"
Rachel sighed not wanting to get up and loose there place but knowing Alice, they didn't really have a choice
"Well there on,y through their why don't you go by yourself"
"Okay" Alice soda getting up and waiting in the queue
Rachel was surprised normally Alice would make her go everywhere with her even if it was just to the toilet while they were out and about places.
However it was lucky Rachel hadn't gone because while Alice was in there, her name was called.
Rachel got up and spoke to the doctor telling her Alice would be a couple of minutes
Soon Alice came back and the two of them went straight in.
The doctor did a few routine checks just to check Alice wasn't in any risk before cleaning her wound up and allowing them to go.
By the time they were home again, Alice was feeling considerably better.
Alice's head was still hurting a little bit but wasn't bleeding anymore and she no longer had a real headache.
Rachel decided to go and speak to Ellie now hoping she'd calmed down a bit.
She made two cups of coffee, knowing a warm drink was something Ellie always appreciated when she was angry or upset.
When she was on her way up Rachel wondered how she should play this, on one hand she knew that what Ellie had done was wrong so she should be punished accordingly however on the other hand she was worried about Ellie and knew if she started telling her off and shouting at her Ellie would most likely just close up to her.
Rachel knocked on Ellie's door, this was quite difficult when she was holding two cups of coffee however she did manage it; Rachel knew how much Ellie hated it when she just came in.
"Yeah?'
"It's mum can I come in"
"Yeah"
When Rachel walked in she saw Ellie laid on her bed, she'd clearly been crying as there were red rings around her eyes
"Is Alice okay"
"No thanks to you she's fine, she's got a pretty nasty cut though" Rachel said as she sat down in the chair next to her daughters bed and put the coffee on the table
"Mum I'm so sorry"
"Is it really me you should be apologising to? I'd have thought it would be your sister"
Ellie began to cry again feeling genuinely awful at the thought of hurting her sister, who despite arguing with her a lot and complaining about how annoying she was, she loved very much
"Come in don't cry"
"I can't help it. I feel so awful"
"Well I'm sure Alice will get over it"
"She was only trying to be nice to me" Ellie sobbed
"Well she was worried about you, as am I actually, what happened earlier"
"You wouldn't understand" Ellie said
Rachel sighed this was a sentence that came out of her daughters mouth quite a lot when she asked her what was the matter
"Go on try me"
"You'll just say I'm being stupid and I need to grow up"
"When have I ever said that to you"
Ellie paused but then decided to give her mum a chance but she really didn't think she was going to take her seriously
"I really like this boy who's in the same year as me and he's in the boys division, well we were talking and he was there with us today when we met up and I really thought he liked me but then he got off with Louise whose this slag in my old school, I saw them they hid in the park but we found them and they were snogging, she only did it to make me angry"
"Oh love" Rachel said wrapping her arms round Ellie
Rachel knew how much this type of thing could upset girls Ellie's age so could understand why she was angry
"Darling I know you're probably going to roll your eyes but I do know how you feel" Rachel said "but what I also know and again you probably roll your eyes but you are too young to be having boyfriends, there's plenty of time for that but for now at least just enjoy having bits as friends"
"I know you're right but I did really like him and Louise is just a stupid bitch"
"Can we not say stupid bitches please, I've heard that enough for one day, although I chose to block my ears out I'm almost certain that's exactly eat you called me earlier" Rachel said causing Ellie to smile slightly
"Sorry mum"
"Okay"
"I wish I was old enough for a boyfriend"
"Oh darling there not all there cracked up to be, they cause you more stress than there worth trust me I've been there"
"How old were you"
"When I had my first boyfriend?"
Ellie nodded her head in response
"Too young to properly remember but I was around 13"
"That isn't that much older than me" Ellie protested
"Like I said I was too young"
"Well I suppose I don't mind waiting"
"Good girl"
Rachel then wrapped her arms round Ellie and gave her a much needed cuddle
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