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Chapter Ten
Settling In
Now the place was decorated and feeling more like a home it was time to start settling in and establishing some sort of routine. Strictly speaking, the girls were meant to be back at school now the Christmas holidays had finished, but the Great Wizard had contacted Cackles saying they would be of for a month. He had not explained why and was vague and because nothing was set in motion yet the girls were not really supposed to talk about it. The teachers sent work so the girls wouldn't fall behind, this was supposed to be a time they all settled and learned how to make living together work, which they couldn't do if they were stick at boarding school.
Not having to worry right now about the girls being up a certain time Esmerelda took advantage one day by mirroring Grandmother Josephine to try and give her the money back.
"Gran, I can't accept this money, it is way to much" Esmerelda told the woman shaking her head. She had thought when she said she would give her money it would be a couple of hundred pounds not five grand.
"No it isn't, you have it please" the woman replied smiling at her granddaughter.
"Gran I don't have a penny to my name, I will still be paying this loan back when my great great great grand-kids are at Cackles at this rate" Esmerelda told her knowing there was no way she would be able to pay her back.
"It isn't a loan Esmie, it is a gift, things these days are expensive, especially with everything you need to buy to survive, it will let you live comfortably for a while, I don't want any of it back" the woman told Esmerelda stubbornly.
"I feel guilty..." Esmerelda said wondering how she could ever take so much money from the woman, she had worked so hard to earn it.
"Well don't, it is yours and if you try to send it back I will only send it back and block you from sending me money so you might as well keep it" Josephine told her, being a typical stubborn Hallow, Esmie sighed but knew she wouldn't accept it so she nodded and once again thanked her.
"Thank you gran" Esmerelda told her gratefully.
Being the sole provider of her sisters was more difficult than she ever thought it would be though, the work was never ending, even with two older children who could do things for themselves. There was always cleaning or cooking or something to do. Currently, Esmerelda was pushing a trolley as her sisters walked by the side of her, doing the weekly food shop.
"Esmie don't forget the pasta" Sybil told her holding up a bag of shelled pasta. Esmerelda was grateful that her sisters loved pasta so much because it was one of the cheapest foods in the shop, although if they had it there way they would live of it and never eat anything else.
"Of course, when would I ever forget?" Esmerelda asked laughing slightly.
Food shopping was one thing Esmerelda found exhausting and hard work. It was not just trying to not go over the top and spending hundreds of pounds it was knowing what to buy. There was hundreds of different, pizzas, pastas, meat, fish, in all different flavours and types. It didn't help her sisters were picky so she had to look over ingredients to see if it had anything they wouldn't eat, then there was Ethel's allergy.
Ethel was highly, in fact deadly, allergy to raspberry. They had discovered this when the young girl nearly died at just over a year old when she was given raspberries, as well as other fruits to try, Ethel had taken one bite of the berry and started choking, Josephine was looking after them luckily luckily and she was not stupid and knew something was wrong so she rushed her to the hospital, and medicine managed to stop the allergic reaction but the doctors told them the blonde was deadly allergy to the berry and to keep it away from her at all costs. Ethel even had an epipen, normally these were for nut allergies only, but Ethel's allergy was so severe she needed one as well. Esmerelda had never had to use it luckily and she hoped she never would.
That was something that made things more difficult, the amount of things that Raspberry was in was baffling to her, some of it wasn't even dessert or a breakfast item but the ingredient was in there but to be on the safe side she didn't buy anything with it in because even though Ethel knew to avoid it, it was easy to be tired in the morning and pick up the wrong jam by accident, it wasn't worth the risk. Sybil did like raspberry so if they were out somewhere and she wanted a raspberry ice cream she would get her one, knowing it was not going anywhere near Ethel, but she had nothing with it in the flat.
Esmerelda shook her head out of her thoughts and continued to shop. She made sure to buy enough dinner's for the week, as well as cereal, bread, milk and eggs. She didn't believe in snacking so she didn't buy any snack food but she did buy one small pack of chocolate, the girls were allowed them twice a week for a treat, but she tried to keep everything else quite healthy. She also brought some food juice but no fizzy pop, that stuff was worse for their health than smoking in her opinion, it would never enter the flat as long as she was in charge.
Shopping was the first time Esmerelda got experience of the prejudice she would be receiving for what she was doing, you would think most people would think it was amazing to take in two children by yourself, but you would be mistaken. The amount of dirty looks she received was shocking, the funny thing is none of these people would say anything, they would stare at her, shake their heads, glare, whisper to the person next to them but would not say anything to her. Esmerelda actually wished they would, if they were curious she would explain, briefly, why she was food shopping with two girls.
"Some people are so rude!" Ethel said loud enough for the people to hear as they walked past. It wasn't just the customers but even at the till Esmerelda would get strange looks, some would look at her money for ages as if they didn't believe it was real because of her age, and they would glance at Ethel and Sybil as if they expected them to start playing up and causing a scene that the girl would be unable to control. Esmerelda was always so glad to get out of the shop as it the was the most awkward part of looking after the girls. She knew she would get more used to it but at a time when she wasn't even sure if she was doing things right, she wished people would not judge her.
Another hard thing was keeping the girls entertained. They didn't have much in the way of entertaining themselves so this was a challenge but Esmerelda researched different solutions and came up with ways for it to work, playing board games, going on outings, telling stories, or even something like having the girls help with cooking the dinner, giving them a job to do distracted them and kept them entertained for a while, right now the girls were getting things ready for the burgers, Esmie smiled watching them, thinking it was a good way to bond as well as to entertain them and get things done quickly.
"Right dinner is served" Esmerelda said half an hour later as she gave them each a plate of cheeseburger with chips, not the most healthy but it was the weekend so they could be bad once in a while.
"Is it alright?" Esmerelda asked before she glanced over at Ethel "Yours doesn't have tomato Ethie" Esmerelda told her as she saw her lifting the bun of her burger up to check if there was any in there as it was one thing she hated the most and would downright refuse to eat.
"Oh thanks" Ethel said satisfied and closing her burger back up before taking a bite.
"These chips are yummy" Sybil said as she put two in her mouth at one time.
"They are home made" Esmerelda said smiling, happy they were enjoying it. All three girls ate around the kitchen table because Esmerelda thought it was great for bonding and didn't understand families who didn't do it.
The girls did seem to like the food as they soon had clean plates, and they were not big eaters so it was impressive for them.
"Glad you enjoyed it" Esmerelda told them as she looked at the time.
"Telly for half an hour" Esmerelda said not an unreasonable witch. She let them watch telly now and then but only once or twice a day. It was the perfect way for them to unwind after dinner.
Esmerelda did the washing up. Listening out for the girls fighting and going to check on them now and then, for once they seemed to be watching telly nicely though as everytime she went to check on them they were just sitting watching telly, so she finished the washing up and cleaned away the things from dinner before she went to check on them again, she had only checked on them five minutes ago but she was a worrier so she went in to tell them that it was nearly time for bed. It was nearly eight thirty, more than late enough.
Walking in the room Esmerelda stopped dead, both girls were sound asleep on the sofa, clearly worn out from their busy week, normally Esmerelda would want them to brush their teeth and then go to bed but today she didn't have the heart to wake them.
She grabbed one of the fluffy blankets of a chair and put it over the girls, kissing both their heads and then sitting down in the armchair and changing the channel, she wasn't going to leave them downstairs by themselves so she knew this would be her bed tonight too.
Esmie only managed to stay up half an hour herself before she felt herself drifting off. She stood up, made sure the front door was locked and then sat back down on the armchair to go to sleep.
She knew she shouldn't really let them sleep on the sofa but once in a blue moon would not harm anyone, it had been a busy couple of weeks no wonder they were exhausted. They had barely had a day when they got to relax.
With this final thought she entered the land of sleep, being the last blonde to drift of on the sofa that Saturday night.