Despite our massive house, it's starting to feel cramped. We can't all sit at the table together, so we try and eat outside when the weather permits it, which is more often than not during these summer days. We keep going on the Bubbleshock tour, and I always sneak away to talk to the boy I found. Sometimes, I go on multiple tours a day so that I can see him. Every time, I check the computers to ensure that they don't realise I'm seeing him.
'They're using you.' I tell him one day. 'And I'm going to get you out if it's the last thing I do.'
'Why do you care about me?' The boy asks.
'I don't know, but I think it's because the people here don't care for you, and I'm the only other person that knows—well, I told my friends, I hope you don't mind. But I'm the only other person who's seen you, so I think your wellbeing falls on my shoulders, which is why I want to get you out.' Other times, I show the boy some photos of my friends on my phone or a video clip of us together, and I point each of them out.
'I'd like to meet your friends one day.'
'Maybe you will,' I nod, and we hear someone coming. Like normal, we make it look like the boy is in a coma, and I hide behind the slab until the footsteps pass.
That day, when I leave the factory, I make a promise to myself. I will get that boy out or die trying.
But other things are going on at home that diverts my attention when I need to keep it on the boy. Mary is moving out soon. At least we will have a little more space in the house, but Anne is worried. 'Mary can only just afford the flat,' she says when she shows pictures of it to me. 'She's going to work full-time.'
'What will she use the second bedroom for?'
'She wants me, George, and Maggie, to go with her.'
'It won't be that bad; we'll still see each other, and—'
'It's the other side of London!' Anne screams, causing Jane to run in to find out what the commotion is. 'We'll never see each other again.'
'We will, Anne,' Jane says.
'But Mary wants us to go to a school closer to her. Whatever we do will revolve around her and her job.'
'Have you, Maggie, and George spoke to Mary?'
Anne shakes her head. 'The last time Maggie brought it up and said she didn't want to leave, Mary told her not to be a baby.'
'Then I'm going to have a word with her,' I say. I head up to the attic to see if Mary's there, and I'm greeted with a different sight altogether.
Mum is sitting on the couch opposite Mr Smith, and Mummy is lying her head on Mum's lap. Mum is gently stroking Mummy's hair, and I hear Mummy giggle. 'Ruby, you must stop. What if one of the kids see us?'
'I'm not going to apologise for showing you affection.' Mum looks up. 'Hi, Emma. You looking for something?'
'Have either of you seen Mary around?'
'No. Has something happened?'
'Anne and Maggie seem upset that Mary wants to take them to her new flat. Maggie tried bringing it up, and Mary told her not to be a baby.'
Mum sighs. 'I'll go and find her.' She looks down at Mummy. 'Sarah, you must get off now.' Mummy moans and sits up. 'I'll be back as soon as possible.' Mum kisses Mummy and follows me out the door.
I find Mary a few minutes later. She's sitting at the kitchen table with George, Maggie, and Anne. 'You will be in a better school, I promise,' she says to the three of them.
'Mary, what's going on?' Mum asks.
'I don't want to go!' Anne cries.
'Me neither,' Maggie says.
'What about you, George?' Mum asks. 'No one will force you to do something you don't want to do.'
'I like it here,' George says. 'I want to stay.'
'You're betraying your family!' Mary yells, standing up.
'You're betraying the only family that's happily taken care of you when they were kicked out!' Maggie yells. 'I've had enough of this. I'm staying here, and that's final.'
'Me too,' Anne snaps. Both of them storm out of the kitchen.
'Should I...?' I ask Mum and point after my friends. Mum nods, and I follow them out.
The next morning, Mum and Mummy stay behind with George and Mary to figure something out between them as George wants to appease both sides. We all get back on the Bubbleshock bus and meet Rocky and Bessie there. 'No Catalina, Anna, or Kitty?' Jane asks.
'Not today,' Rocky shakes her head. 'They are busy helping Isabella. Besides, why do we keep going to the factory? The tour is always the same.'
'There's someone I want you to meet.'
'The boy you were talking about?'
'Yeah.'
'We should do that with everyone together.' Bessie says.
'But it'd be difficult to hide a larger group.'
'It'll be hard anyway. Let's do it with all of us together.'
Rocky fishes her phone out and goes onto the group chat.
JaneParker changed their username to RockyBoleyn
ElizabethBlount changed their username to Bessie
MargaretLee changed their username to Maggie
JoanMeutas changed their username to Joan
RockyBoleyn: Emma wants to take us to meet the boy she ran into at Bubbleshock, but we said we should do it all together
BraveBoleyn: I would love to meet him
SpanishQueen: Me too
QueenfromCleves: He's going to be your brother Emma!
QuestioningHybrid: Then we're getting him out ASAP. They're going to kill him if we leave him there much longer
LambethQueen: We're in
SilverSeymour: We're coming up to the factory, so we'll turn our phones off
We all turn our phones off before the bus arrives at the entrance of the factory. We go through the security scan again and wait for a suitable point to leave the tour. Once we do, we take the chance and slip away. I escort the queens around the factory, and I stop outside the doors to where the boy is. Thankfully, I cannot see anyone else, so we go in. I remove the white sheet from the boy, and he wakes up. 'Hello, little brother,' I whisper.
'You never called me that,' he says when he takes the mask off.
'I only found out that I will be your sister. Hey, I brought some of my friends with me.' We all gather around him, and my brother greets them politely.
'We'll get you out soon, no matter what it takes,' Rocky promises. 'If we all work together, get clothes in and stuff, it might be some time before they realise he's missing.'
'That's a great idea,' I nod. We hear footsteps, and we give my brother his mask back and throw the cloth over him before running out of the room.
'We thought about how we'll disguise him, but how will we get him out if the people realise he's missing while we're still on the tour? What do we do then?' Bessie asks.
'We need help, but we'll sort it out. Mum and Mummy will help.'
We get off the bus with the same group we entered the factory with, and they haven't noticed we disappeared. Mum and Mummy are waiting for us at the bus stop. 'Mum, Mummy, what are you doing here?'
'Waiting for you, of course,' Mum says and wrinkles her nose at the smell of the Bubbleshock.
'We need your help,' Rocky says. 'There's a boy trapped in the factory, we think the oweners made him, but we're not sure. But the people running the factory will kill him if we don't get him out. There must be something we can do!'
'This sounds like a conversation we need to have back at home.' Mummy says. 'Come on.' We all head back home and see Catalina, Anna, and Kitty with Isabella. They ask her if she could excuse them for a moment, and she agrees. They sprint over the road towards us, and we get them up to speed with what happened.
'Yes, we must get him out,' Catalina agrees. 'Emma, your history will go wrong without your brother.'
'I know, I know! But what if something goes wrong and we can't save him?'
'Don't you dare think like that,' Anna snaps. 'If you start thinking like that, then there's no hope for him. We saw how happy you were when you talked about your brother, and we don't want you to lose that.'
The next morning dawns bright and sunny. Mary is packing up her belongings to move into her new flat. George is also packing. 'George, what's going on?' Anne asks. 'I thought you wanted to stay.'
'Mary showed me around the local secondary school—and they have an LGBT community. It's something better than Park Vale, so I'm going to take that chance. Besides, if I don't like it, I can always move back in here and return to Park Vale.'
'I guess,' Anne sighs. 'I'm going to miss you so much.'
'We have the group chat, and I'll only be a phone call away.' Anne hugs her brother, and we both help George finish his packing. Jane and Maggie join us, and we finish up together.
Mary is waiting for George at the front door, and she pulls him out without letting him say goodbye to anyone. Anne sits on the stair, breathing heavily, trying not to cry. She stands up and runs to her room, slamming the door.
After lunch, Anne decides to come to the Bubbleshock factory with us. 'If I never see George again, then the least I can do is to help the boy you found,' she tells me.
'You don't need to come with us if you're not feeling up to it,' I tell her.
'I'm coming.'
We go back through the factory, and I take the group to see the boy. 'He'll need a name when he gets out into the real world,' Bessie says.
'I know,' I moan.
'Hey, you can choose your own,' Maggie says. The boy blinks at us, his face blank.
'Choose what?'
'Your name. You can choose your own.'
'How about Jack? Josh?' Maggie's face breaks into a smile. 'Henry?'
'NO!' The queens and me moan. We hear footsteps coming towards us, and we throw the cover over the boy and run out.
I swear, one of these days, we'll get caught.
We get on the bus back to town and head into one of the shops. 'We need to work out what size he is, try and make him blend in with everyone else.'
'I don't think there would be any tags on his clothes,' I think. 'Either we wing it, or we try and get him out in that hospital gown.' We don't have any of George's clothes, so we can't use them. There isn't anywhere we can easily get hold of boys clothes, so he'll either make his escape in a hospital gown or in some of our clothes.
'Maybe we should go through our clothes and find something gender-neutral he can wear,' Rocky says. 'It's worth a shot.'
'And if we all get caught trying to get him out?' Anne asks.
'I'm prepared to fight for him,' I say. 'It's either that, or I'll die trying.' My friends nod, and we all head back to Bannerman Road.
When we get there, Rocky, Bessie, Maggie, and Joan begin talking together. 'Maybe Hans Holbein can help!' Bessie cries, and we run back into town.
'Hans, we need your advice!' Rocky says as we run up to Holbein Boutique.
'Sure, what is it?'
'We found a boy at a factory, and we need to get him out, or he'll die. The only problem is we don't know the size of his clothes because all he's wearing is a hospital gown.'
'What was the boy doing at the factory?'
'It's a long story,' I say.
'I've got time.'
We head inside the boutique and tell Hans everything. 'It sounds big. Does anyone else know?'
'We told my parents,' I say. 'But we need to find clothes for him, and we don't know what size he'd be. He's only in a hospital gown, so that won't have any labels in.'
'I'm afraid I can't help you until you get him out. But if you come here to get clothes for him when he's out, I'll give you half price off.'
'Are you sure?' I ask. 'Your clothes are amazing, and we—'
'I insist, Miss Smith-White. He will be your brother, so I will do everything I can to help you that first day.'
We head back home, and I spot something strange over the road. A moving van is sitting in front of the house opposite mine, along with a red land rover. 'MARIA!' The woman outside yells.
'Coming!' A teenage girl yells back, and she appears in the doorway. Her long, wavy dark hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she's wearing a blue and white checkered blouse and a dungarees dress. She looks over at us before she starts arguing with her mum. Mum and Mummy drive up to the house in Mummy's Nissan Figaro as Maria goes to the land rover boot to get a drawer out. She glances over at the house, then watches as Mum and Mummy climb out of the car.
'Hiya,' she calls over.
'Hello,' Mummy smiles. She's about to head into the house when she changes her mind. She and Mum join us, and we go over to Maria. 'Do you want a hand?'
'Oh, I wouldn't get help from the neighbours,' Maria's mother interrupts. 'Once you invite them over, you never get rid of them.'
'Mum, don't be so rude to them!' Maria turns back to us. 'It'd be great if you could help... wait a minute, do I know you from somewhere?'
'Maybe,' Catalina shrugs. 'My name's Catalina Aragon.'
Maria drops the tray of cutlery on the ground. 'Oh, my God!' She exclaims in Spanish. 'I wasn't expecting to see you again, Lina!'
'I expect you weren't thinking you'd meet your fellow ladies-in-waiting either, were you?' Maggie asks.
'Okay, how many of you are there now?'
'There's us, the six queens,' I say. 'And Maggie, Bessie, Joan, and Rocky.'
'I used to be Jane Parker; we worked together when Catalina was queen,' Rocky adds.
'Rocky! I didn't recognise you. It's been so long!'
'All right, that's enough of the reunion. Cutlery, Maria, go on,' the woman says, then walks away. I bend down to help Maria pick everything up.
We try to help out, but Maria's mum seems determined not to accept help from us now she knows we know Maria. We head back to number 13, and when it's just Maria and her dad outside the house, we try again.
'We should add you to the group chat,' Anne says. 'Here,' she adds Maria's number and adds her as Maria Jackson, using the name that Maria's currently using.
MariaJackson changed their username to SpanishLady
QuestioningHybrid changed the group chat name to QUEENS AND LADIES
SpanishLady: the new name for the group chat suits it better
SpanishQueen: what will happen if our phones get destroyed? Would we need a new account or what would happen?
That's a good point; we hadn't thought about it. If we end up fighting aliens and the scum of the universe that want to profit off Earth's misfortunes, then it's more than likely they'll destroy our phones at one point or another.
We decide to leave that for the night and allow Maria and her dad to settle in.
That's when the Star Poet arrives. I hear gentle singing from my bedroom, and we all head outside to talk to her. She has a beautiful voice, and I walk towards her. She gently strokes my face and smiles. Her body is partly see-through, and she has wings attached to her arms. She hovers in front of me, and she asks me for help. Jane hurries inside to look for Mum and Mummy. 'What do you need help with?' I ask.
'I'm lost, and I don't know the way home.' Mum and Mummy hurry out, and I relay the information to them before standing back. They'd be better at handling the situation than I am. I head over to one of the tall plants to watch when I hear the gate creak open. Maria lifts one of the branches to see the star poet. I can only imagine the look of awe on her face as she watches Mum, Mummy, my friends, and the star poet. Mummy now holds a heart-shaped device that the star poet gave her. Then, the star poet flies off, and Mummy raises her hand, holding the communicator up.
Maria darts away and runs out the gate. I chase after her. 'Wait, stop!' I yell. Maria turns back to me.
'What the hell was that?' Maria's voice shakes.
'It's all right; there's no need to be frightened.'
'I'm not frightened!'
'Of course, you're not,' I agree. 'Not after meeting their first alien.'
'What was that?' Maria starts breathing heavily.
'That was a star poet from Arcateen V. She got lost and wanted our help to get home.'
'And your mum and aunt helped her?'
'They're both my mums.' I check my watch. 'Listen, it's late, and I'm sure you want answers.' Maria nods.
'I already doubt everything I believed.'
'Don't do that; you still need something to believe in.' I sigh. 'Listen, we'll come over tomorrow. We can answer your questions then.'
'Okay,' Maria nods. She hurries over the road and slams the door behind her.
