"Ribena or blackberry and apple squash?" Nikki asked on Saturday afternoon as she and Hollie wandered round the supermarket.
"Ribena." Hollie answered instantly from her position leaning against the handle of the trolley. "Why do we need all this healthy stuff? Only you eat it. I know for a fact that Tom and Josh don't eat healthy stuff like this either."
"Well then that's going to change." Her mother replied with a grin. "I love a challenge."
They returned to their comfortable silence for a while, moving between the aisles and steadily filling the trolley between them. Hollie sneaked several unhealthy, but incredibly tasty, treats in when Nikki wasn't looking. The multipack bag of crisps, Coco Pops and box of coke cans were quickly ejected, much to the teenager's annoyance. Hollie grinned to herself as her mother overlooked the packets of Jaffa Cakes and Oreos and the large bar of Diary Milk that she'd hidden underneath the mass of vegetables.
That morning the two females had taken some of their things round to Tom and Josh's house and the plan was for them to stay there for the weekend; hence the big shop. Hollie was a lot more relaxed about the move than her mother who was panicking that something would go wrong. Personally the teenager was looking forward to having the males around permanently. Since she had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and got to know Tom properly, Hollie realised that she really liked him. He made her mother happy and that was, really, all she could ask.
"Tom and Josh are going to have a shock about how girly their house is suddenly going to become, aren't they?" Hollie mused as she pushed the trolley slowly across the car park towards her mother's car.
Nikki chuckled, pushing her purse into her bag and searching for her keys. "Definitely. Although I think how clean it's suddenly going to be might be more of a surprise."
Hollie started laughing as her mother winked and unlocked the car, opening the boot and starting to load the shopping into the back. Returning the trolley to the shelter, the teenager made her way back to the car quickly. She had just strapped herself into the passenger seat when she let out a small gasp.
"What?" Nikki demanded, immediately worried at the expression on Hollie's face.
"That car… it's the one I saw outside the house last week. I swear it's been following me."
"Really?"
"Don't laugh!" The girl snapped, pouting at her mother and swatting at her quickly. "I'm not joking. The other day it stopped and two men got out. But then Josh caught up with me and they drove off."
"Sweetheart, I'm sure it was nothing. It's not exactly an uncommon car is it?"
"That's what Madi said."
Nikki sighed and reached out, squeezing Hollie's knee. "Look, if it's bothering you write down the license plate number and I'll phone Jo later and ask her to check it out, OK?"
Nodding, Hollie scrabbled around in her mother's bag for a notebook and pen and copied the numbers and letters down carefully. Slightly reassured, she smiled at Nikki. The woman shook her head and sighed, obviously not taking her daughter's fears seriously, before driving them in the direction of Tom and Josh's house.
Later that evening, with Josh and Hollie upstairs in Josh's room watching a film, Nikki snuggled closer to Tom and sighed. She glanced at the notebook on the coffee table that held the license plate number of the blue car that had unnerved her daughter so much that afternoon. Shaking her head, she pushed it back into her bag without calling her cousin like she had told Hollie she would.
"What?" Tom asked, sensing that something was bothering her.
"Nothing." Nikki replied quickly. Then she sighed again. "Do you think Hollie might be right about that car?"
"Who would be following her, though?"
The woman shrugged. "I don't know."
"Look, let's just wait and see if she sees it again. If she does then maybe you should speak to your cousin just to be safe."
"Yeah… yeah, you're right." Nikki nodded, unable to shake the nagging feeling that she should call Jo anyway.
x-x
Hollie and Nikki stayed at Tom and Josh's all weekend. On Monday night they returned to their own house but, suddenly, it seemed too quiet and empty. This realisation made them want to move properly as soon as possible. The teenage girl couldn't believe how right being part of a family felt. On Tuesday night Tom and Josh stayed at Nikki's house to help them pack up more of their belongings.
"Are you sure you don't want a lift?" Tom asked the next morning as he and Nikki rushed about gathering their things.
Hollie shook her head, chewing her toast at the kitchen table. "Nah, I'm meeting Scout and the others outside the School House. I'll see you at school."
Nodding, he moved to the front door. After dropping a kiss on the top of her daughter's head, Nikki followed, closing the front door behind her. Hollie heard the car engine leap into life and then silence as it pulled off the drive and away down the road.
Josh was still in bed in the spare room, so the teenager loaded the dishwasher and gathered her things before leaving too and heading along the road towards the corner where she would wait for her friends. She plugged her headphones into her phone as she made her way along the pavement, listening to the beat of the music.
Taken by surprise, she didn't have time to react as someone grabbed her from behind and bundled her into a car. The door was slammed and there was a screech of tyres as the car roared away.
A/N: Oooh! Cliffhanger! ;)