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Chapter 21

It was Thursday morning and the sun was shining. Mike woke up excitedly as it was his Birthday. He jumped out of bed and rushed down the stairs to find Kate, Tom, Nigel, Kyle, Mark, Henry and Sarah sitting in the living room still in their dressing gowns and pyjamas, next to several presents wrapped up.

"Happy Birthday!"

Mike had a huge smile on his face, "I'll just go get everyone else before you open your presents," Kate said.

"Thirteen now Mike," Sarah said, "You're a teenager at last".

"Oh no, this doesn't mean he'll turn into another moody person like the rest of you? Now that he's a teenager," Kyle complained.

"Oh just you two wait," Henry said looking at Kyle and Nigel, "It won't be long now until you two are moody teenagers".

Kate came down the stairs and was closely followed by Jake, Jessica and Kim.

"Happy Birthday dude," Jake said.

Mike sat excitedly as Tom handed him over his present from him and Kate. It was in a small sized box and it was quite light. Mike unwrapped and his face beamed with delight it was the new phone that he had been asking for. He hugged his mom and dad before thanking them.

Next Sarah and Jake handed over the present they had got between them. This one was in a bigger box and weighed more, Mike unwrapped it to find it was a limited edition skate board.

He mouth dropped to the floor, "How?" Mike said trying to find his words, "How did you manage to get this? They only made 50 in the entire world!"

Jake smiled, "We're just that good Mike," leaving it as mystery.

"It must have cost you both a fortune," Mike said.

"It wasn't too bad, but you deserve it," Sarah smiled.

Mike continued to open his other presents and cards from his family members.

"Nora, Bud and baby Tom are coming round later today to see you," Tom said.

"We also have another surprise for you, Charlie and Ann are coming to visit us from the lake and visit the Murtaugh's too and we just found out this morning that Lorraine had booked a last minute flight and she's coming to visit as well," Kate announced.

"Yay, it will be the first time we will all be together since the lake," Sarah said excitedly.

"How long they staying for?" Mark asked.

"Until Monday, Charlie and Ann are going to drive home and probably leave Monday morning and Lorraine's flight is at lunch time on Monday," Tom replied.

Everyone was all excited and happy that Charlie and Lorraine were coming home for a few days. There were also looking forward to seeing Nora, Bud and baby Tom as it had been a while since they seen them even though they didn't life to far away.

School passed quick and soon everyone was home to see that Nora and Bud were there with baby Tom and also Charlie was there too.

"Hey good to see you all," Nora said as everyone walked in to the living room after school.

"Nora" Kim said happy to see her as she ran over and gave her a hug.

"Where is Ann?" Henry asked Charlie.

"She's across the road visiting her family," Charlie replied. Everyone began having a good catch up as Kate cooked Mike's birthday meal for everyone.

The front door could be heard opening and everyone went silent and looked towards the living room door waiting for someone to come in. Lorraine walked in closely followed by Tom.

"Hey guys," Lorraine said.

Sarah ran over and hugged Lorraine, "I've missed you"

"Aw I missed you all too," Lorraine smiled.

Kate came through and greeted Lorraine before announcing that supper was ready. Everyone gathered round the table eager to tuck in.

"It's great to have the whole family sit down and have a meal together," Tom said.

"I know I miss it," Lorraine said.

"It's good to be home," Charlie added.

Tom missed the older one's not living at home anymore but he knew that everyone grows up and has to move forward with their live. Moments like this when the whole family was together were moments Tom treasured as they very rarely happened anymore, now that Nora had her own family, Lorraine lived in New York and Charlie lived at the lake.

After everyone had finished eating, Kate lit the candles on Mike's birthday cake and everyone began to sing happy birthday. Mike took a deep breath before blowing out his candles.

"Now who wants a bit of cake?" Tom said as he picked up the cake and took a knife from the drawer to cut the cake.

"Me," everyone replied.

"Thank you everyone for the presents and for joining me for my birthday meal. Also thanks to mom for cooking it all and thanks to Charlie and Lorraine for coming all this way on my birthday," Mike said.

After dinner everyone sat around catching up with Nora, Lorraine and Charlie. Sarah was sitting next to Lorraine on the sofa.

"I think we and you need a little catch up," Lorraine said, meaning about Jessica and Elliot since Sarah had told her what she had seen at the lake.

"Yeah we do," Sarah agreed.

"Let's go to sit outside it's a nice evening," Lorraine suggested as they went and sat the back of the house.

Sarah was really happy Lorraine was here because she always gave really great. Since being back at school Sarah would have loved for Lorraine to have been here, because there had been plenty of occasions where she would really have loved to have had some of Lorraine's advice.

"Well the last thing you told me before I left was that you seen Jessica kiss Elliot at the lake," Lorraine said staring the conversation, "but since then the Murtaugh's have moved here so I'm guessing you must lots to tell me".

"Yeah I do," Sarah said thinking of where to start, "Well even though Elliot's moved here, I'm not sure what's going on with him and Jessica. Like to begin with they didn't talk much and Mike told me Elliot was ignoring Jessica, but now they seem quite close again and they meet up sometimes, but it's always just the two of them, and they never seem to hang about together when anyone else is there".

"Hmmm," Lorraine said as she thought about it, "Does all seem a bit secretive".

"I'm not sure if they are or are not secretly together. I asked Jake since Elliot is his best friend and he seems pretty sure that they are just friends. I asked Kim too and she also said that they were just friends. But I really don't know what to think".

"Sarah why do you not just ask them. You seen them kiss so why don't you just confront them about it," Lorraine suggested.

"Because I would rather they were honest with me and just tell me the truth," Sarah replied. She had thought about confronting them on several occasions but would she would rather they would tell her.

"Anyway Jake mentioned some new boy on the go, Ethan," Lorraine smiled.

Sarah got all embarrassed and her face went red, "We only went on one date," she said.

"Oh well you never know you might really fall for him," Lorraine said. Sarah didn't want to talk about Ethan too much as she didn't know him that well herself and had only been on one date with him.

"Well we better go back inside after all it is Mike's day since it's his birthday," Sarah said as she stood up.

"Yeah and I'm going to have a word with Jessica at some point. Just going to ask about her love life and see what she says and if there is any mention of Elliot," Lorraine said, "but don't worry I won't mention that you seen or said anything".

The rest of the Baker's were sitting about in the living room talking in little groups.

"Sarah," Jake said asking her to come over, "So when are we dealing with theses bullies?"

"I say tomorrow," Sarah replied, "but I think we should just speak to them so nothing physical,"

"Well yeah I agree but we should threaten them with violence if they bother Mark or Kenneth again," Jake suggested.

"Well I suppose we could use that threat but I wouldn't really want to use violence because we are older after all," Sarah said.

Mark didn't really want Sarah and Jake to have to stand up for himself because he wanted to fight his own battles, but so far that hadn't been working for him and Kenneth. So he knew that if Sarah and Jake didn't do anything than it would probably just get worse.

Lorraine was talking away to Charlie when she noticed that Jessica had gone into the kitchen by herself, and thought this would be a good opportunity to speak to her.

"I'll be back in a few minutes Charlie I'm just away to get t drink from the kitchen," Lorraine said as she went to go speak to Jessica.

"Her Lorraine," Jessica smiled.

"Hiya," Lorraine smiled back, "So how have things been this last couple weeks since I last seen you?"

"They've been fine, how has New York been?" Jessica replied.

"New York has been great. Loving my job there," Lorraine replied trying to have a normal conversation and catch up before she asked about Elliot.

"Do you miss us all while you're there?" Jessica asked.

"Of course I do. Even though I'm in New York one of the busiest cities in the world it is so quite without all you lot there," Lorraine replied. They carried on speaking and having a good catch up for about another ten minutes before Lorraine moved the conversation onto Elliot.

"So is there any boys your liking at the moment then?" Lorraine asked.

Jessica hesitated as she tried to think up a reply, "Em no there isn't what about you?"

"No unfortunately I haven't met anyone in New York," Lorraine replied. She tried to think of how she could bring Elliot into the conversation, "so do you think things between Elliot and Sarah and really over this time?"

"Oh yeah defiantly," Jessica replied really quickly.

"What makes you think that? I'm not disagreeing with you because you see them more than me obviously, I just thought that you know they were good with each other".

"Well Sarah has been on a date with another boy, Ethan, so I don't think she is interested in Elliot anymore," Jessica replied.

"You're really good friends with Elliot had he said anything to you?" Lorraine asked. She was finding it hard to get anything out of Jessica and questioned herself if there was actually anything going on between them because it didn't seem that there was.

"Yeah we're great friends, but he hasn't shown an interested in any other girls," Jessica answered.

"So is he still shown an interest in Sarah then? Because you said not showing an interest in any other girls as if he was showing one girl, because otherwise I thought you would have said he had said he hasn't shown interest in any girls," Lorraine said.

"Em," Jessica struggled to find her words, "Well no he hasn't shown an interest in Sarah or any other girl for that matter, I mean to say any girls not any other girls". Jessica was becoming suspicious of Lorraine she thought it was unusual of her to be asking all these questions and knew she had been speaking to Sarah earlier, and thought she would have told her ask these questions. Jessica was use to people asking if there was anything going on between her and Elliot but the truth was no they were just friends.

"Have you been speaking to someone?" Jessica asked Lorraine.

"What do you mean?" Lorraine replied.

"Well it seems to me like your trying to ask if me and Elliot are together and the answer is no. Everyone is always asking me that. Can't you be friends with a boy without everyone thinking there is more going on," Jessica replied. She maybe wanted to be more than friends with Elliot but the bottom line was that they are just friends. They had always just been friends apart from the last night at the lake but since then and before then they had been nothing but close friends.

Lorraine completely understood what Jessica was saying had when she was a teenager she had many close male friends and everyone would always ask if they were dating. She started to believe that Sarah was wrong and that Jessica and Elliot were just friends. But then she remembered that Sarah had told her she seen Jessica and Elliot kiss at the lake so she now didn't know whether to believe Jessica or not.

"I just had a feeling that you and Elliot possibly were together because at the lake you two were really close and I asked Sarah are Elliot and Jessica still close and she said yeah, so I just had to ask you," Lorraine said.

"Oh ok," Jessica said disbelieving what Lorraine had said.

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