It had been a month since Clara had become Amelia's neighbour and the two had become very close friends. The day after the girls' meeting, Clara had shown up on Amy's doorstep. Her parents needed to keep her out of the way while they moved a few things and got a surprise for Clara which turned out to be a canopy bed she had been admiring at the furniture store down the street from their old house. The girls spent the day running around the large house, far too large for just Amelia and her aunt but Clara didn't think too hard on this. The next day, Amelia had shown up on the Oswald's doorstep. She and Clara explored the new-old house at Clara's mother had called it. The days went on like this, the girls alternating where they were depending on what Aunt Sharon and the Oswald's were doing but honestly, Clara preferred going over to Amelia's house.
It was a pleasant day but the two girls were in Amelia's room. Clara loved the blue colour of her walls. It was almost hard to tell what colour they were as her wall was plastered with multiple sketches of Amelia and her magic Doctor and other things but manly the Doctor, Amelia and the blue box. One wall was quite bare though and both girls had climbed onto Amelia's desk to stare at a spot on the wall that to an outsider, looked just like any other wall. But to Amelia, this wall had held the one thing that had scared her more than anything else in her life. Clara looked at the wall, eyes filled with intrigue and slight fear.
"Is that where it was?" Clara asked. Amelia nodded. She traced her finger along where the crack had been in her wall. Clara followed her gesture, trying to imagine the wall opening up to a giant eye. She shivered. She would never be able to look at cracks the same way again.
"What are you two doing?"
The girls spun around to see a dark skinned girl standing in Amelia's doorway, arms crossed over her chest. Clara had met Mels a few times but wasn't fond of having the girl around. She was rude and Clara saw the way she rolled her eyes behind Amelia's back when she talked about the Raggedy Doctor.
"I was showing Clara where the crack was," Amelia said, hopping down off of the desk. Clara imitated her, frowning at Mels as she snorted and rolled her eyes but joined the two girls as Amelia opened her chest filled with her Doctor related objects made by Amelia.
"I thought we were supposed to be playing hide-and-seek with Rory," Mels said, giving Amelia a pointed look. She ignored her friend as she handed Clara a Raggedy Doctor she had made by painting over a doll. Clara admired the doll, imagining what he'd look like in person.
"Clara came over and I got distracted," Amelia explained. Clara blushed a little, feeling like an intruder. Amelia noticed and gave her friend a small smile. "It's not like we actually look for him anyways."
Clara felt a little relieved. "Who's Rory?" she asked.
"A friend," Amy said dismissively. Mels opened her mouth to say something but Clara cut her off, earning herself a glare.
"Why haven't you covered up where the crack was?" she asked. "Doesn't it still scare you?"
Amelia hesitated so Mels took it upon herself to answer for her. "No, stupid, Amelia's not a scaredy-cat like you," she sneered, snatching the Doctor doll from her hands.
"I am not stupid. Or a scaredy-cat," Clara protested but Mels ignored her. She stared at the doll.
"Is he hot?" she asked Amelia. Her answer was cut off by the door bursting open. A small blonde haired boy with blue eyes came in, clearly upset. He was shorter than Amelia, very close to Clara. His hair was rather long for a boys and cut strangely. His shirt was crumpled from wherever he'd been hiding.
"I thought we were playing hide-and-seek. I've been hiding for hours," he said, eyes on Amelia alone.
"We are but Clara came over and we were going to restart the game but we couldn't find you," Amelia lied effortlessly. Clara got the feeling this wasn't the first time she'd done this nor would it be the last. The blonde haired boy looked at Clara and a sudden realisation hit her.
"I saw you," she said. "When I moved here, we drove by the park and you were playing in a willow. You waved back at me." Rory looked at her for a moment until he recognised the girl. "I'm Clara Oswald."
"Rory Williams," he said a little shyly. Clara smiled at him and he returned it.
"Let's start our new game," Mels said. "I probably don't have much longer till they realise I've gone here."
"You didn't tell your parents?" Clara asked, shocked. Mels gave her a cold look.
"They're not my parents. I don't have to tell them anything," she insisted stubbornly. Clara and Rory gave her a disapproving look as both loved their parents very much. Amelia looked more like she could agree and sympathise with Mels. She didn't like listening to her Aunt Sharon almost as much as Mels and her adopted parents. "Let's just start our game," Mels said.
"I'll be it," Amelia offered. Rory and Clara agreed but Mels did not.
"I think Clara should be it," Mels said. "You know this house better than anyone. Clara doesn't so it'll be a challenge for her."
Amelia was about to protest but Clara cut in. "Okay, I'll be it." She could tell Mels was trying to intimidate her. Why this girl she barely knew hated her so much was a mystery to her but Clara wasn't afraid of her. Maybe a little.
Amelia gave in and Clara covered her eyes and turned around. She could hear stampeding feet as the others ran off. She heard what she thought was Mels shout something and footsteps coming back towards the room but continued counting until she reached two hundred. She turned around and was surprised to see hazel eyes staring back at her.
"Amelia? Why aren't you hiding?" Clara asked. She hoped they weren't going to just leave Rory again. He seemed really nice to her, even if he was a little shy.
"Aunt Sharon got a call. She's taking Mels and Rory home," Amelia said. "You hungry?" Clara paused for a minute, surprised by the change of subject but realised she was. She nodded and followed the Scottish girl down the stairs to the kitchen.
As Amelia stuck her head in the fridge to search for something, Clara's attention was caught by an apple sitting on the counter. A smiley face looked back at her from the fruit. She picked up the apple and turned to Amelia. "What's this?" she asked
Amelia pulled her head back and looked at the apple. "I used to hate apples so my mum would draw faces on them," Amelia said looking at the apple. "He thought apples were rubbish too."
"Where is your mum? I've never seen her. Or your dad. Are they on vacation?" Clara asked. This question had been on Clara's mind for awhile but she had always been busy running around with the other girl to stop and ask her. The question always seemed to slip her mind when talk of the Doctor and all the magical adventures they could have occurred.
"I don't have a mum and dad. I lost them," Amelia said. Clara's eyes widened and she almost dropped the apple in her hand.
"You lost them?" Clara repeated to which Amelia nodded. She didn't like to talk about it. Clara shivered. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost my parents," Clara confessed in a whisper, "I've lost my pencils, my school bag, my gran but never my parents. I'd be so scared. You're really brave."
Amelia saw Clara was shaken and threw a box at her. Clara barely managed to catch it. She read the side of the box. "Fish fingers," she paused and looked up at Amelia holding a box of custard. A smile lit up the small girls face as she realised what Amelia was doing.
"Come on, we need to turn on the stove," Amelia said, pulling out a pan.
"Are you sure we should be using the stove without your Aunt?" Clara asked cautiously.
"Of course, I've done it before. I haven't ever burned the house down. It'll be fine," Amelia said dismissively. Clara shrugged, her answer good enough for Clara and set about helping make fish custard.
After spilling half a bowl of custard on the floor, failing to open the fish fingers box four times before Amelia decided to get a knife and stab the box which almost resulted in Clara losing a finger and Amelia trying out some more colourful words when she forgot to use oven mitts to pull out the fish fingers, the girls finally had their fish custard. While the gooey yellow custard and crispy brown fish fingers looked utterly weird to Clara, they tasted surprisingly good. Amelia got a laugh out of the face Clara made when she first tried the fish custard, emotions changing from disgusted to confused to surprised to enjoyment. The two girls ate happily, talking, laughing and going through the kitchen until they heard a small voice cry out.
"Someone help me!"
Clara locked eyes with Amelia. "I thought you said your Aunt Sharon took Rory home!"
"I thought she was going to take him home with Mels but I didn't really pay attention to what she said," Amy admitted.
The girls abandoned their dishes and ran through the house until they found poor Rory, having climbed on top of Aunt Sharon's wardrobe then suddenly realised how high up he was. He looked at the girls, laying flat on his stomach, hanging onto the top of the dresser, a look of utter terror on his face.
"We need something soft for him to land on," Clara said when Rory refused to climb down. She looked around the room until her eyes landed on the perfect cushion. "Amelia, help me with this," Clara said as she started stripping Aunt Sharon's bed. Amelia happily helped tear away the blankets and sheets.
Once the mattress was bare, they dragged it over to the wardrobe. "All you have to do is roll over the edge onto the mattress. Easy," Clara explained. The idea didn't seems so great to Rory though and he didn't move a muscle. If anything, he held on tighter.
"Rory, fall onto the mattress or I'll come up there and push you down," Amelia threatened impatiently. Rory, much more scared of the mad Scottish girl than falling, rolled over the edge onto the mattress. He braced himself for impact but was relieved to have a relatively soft landing. He looked up to see Clara leaning over, smiling at him. He smiled back weakly, looking a little dazed and sheepish. She laughed and he couldn't help laughing too. Amelia joined in as the girls flopped onto the mattress with Rory. Once they stopped laughing, Amelia turned over and whispered in Clara's ear. The girl looked at Amelia uncertainly and Amelia nodded. They looked at Rory. The poor boy didn't stand a chance.
Aunt Sharon came home a few minutes later to find the kitchen a mess. There was custard splattered on the floor, plates and bowls still sitting in front of pushed out chairs, the oven and fridge doors wide open and the oven still on and that was just the first things she noticed. At least one pan had been tossed near the sink. Loud yells from upstairs indicated the culprits. Sighing, Aunt Sharon headed towards the stairs but found them blocked.
A mattress came flying down the stairs, three screaming children on board. Amelia screamed out of excitement, Rory out of terror and Clara somewhere in the middle. Rory was dressed as the Raggedy Doctor, clinging to Amelia, Clara holding onto him. The mattress landed at the bottom of the stairs and Amelia lurched forward. Her fists clenched around the front of the mattress stopped the girl from falling of entirely and she just ended up upside down. Clara and Rory fell flat on the mattress. Amelia noticed her aunt standing over her and her wide, wild grin disappeared. Clara and Rory paled, afraid of how Aunt Sharon would react.
"Room. Now," Aunt Sharon said. Amelia frowned.
"But Aunt Sharon," Amelia started but was cut off.
"Now or you're grounded," she warned. Amelia glared at her. She sighed as her stubborn niece.
"You don't want to go to your room? Fine. You can clean up the kitchen and put this mattress back where it came from," Aunt Sharon said. Amelia knew she wouldn't get another option so she went to the kitchen, scowling. At least cleaning beat being grounded.
Clara got up to follow. "No Clara, you don't have to help," Aunt Sharon said.
"But I made part of the mess," Clara said, feeling slightly guilty. Aunt Sharon gave her a small smile.
"I'm sure Amelia can handle it. You need to get you two home. You can see Amelia tomorrow," Aunt Sharon said. Clara nods and reluctantly followed. Rory pulled off the Doctor costume and walked with Clara. They walked in silence, partially due to Clara feeling guilty about the mess, partially because Rory was extremely awkward, especially when it came to talking to people.
When they reached the Clara's house, Aunt Sharon talked to Ellie Oswald who was planning on having a small party. While they were talking, Clara turned to Rory.
"Sorry about not looking for you. Amelia thought you left with Mels and Aunt Sharon," Clara apologised.
"It's alright. They usually don't find me for a long time when we play hide-and-seek," Rory said. Clara felt bad for him. He was either oblivious to what Amelia and Mels did or he didn't care and put up with it. Clara couldn't see why he'd put up with it so he must be oblivious. He was really nice though. "Thanks for coming up with the mattress idea to get me down," he said sheepishly. Looking back on it, Rory was rather embarrassed by what happened. Clara just smiled at him.
"That's alright. You climbed really high. I could never get up there. If I did, I'd be pretty scared too," Clara said, cheering Rory up a little.
"Come on Rory, time for you to get home," Aunt Sharon said, interrupting their conversation. Rory nodded then turned back to Clara.
"Bye," he said. He was rather surprised when Clara hugged him. She was surprisingly strong. He awkwardly hugged her back.
"Bye Rory!" Clara said as she pulled away. "You can come over anytime. My dad said we're going to fill the pool soon!"
Rory smiled as Aunt Sharon led him back to the Pond house where he got in Aunt Sharon's car and was driven home. As she drove by Clara's house, he saw the girl on her front lawn with a flower crown her mother made her. She was laughing with her mother then turned and saw him. She grinned and waved to him enthusiastically, running down her front yard to try and keep them in sight. He waved back until she was just a speck in the distance.
Clara Oswald pushed her flower crown out of her eyes as she looked at where the car had been. Mels may not like her but she was pretty sure she had just made another friend.