I am so sorry for the delay. And I apologise for the fact that after the wait this chapter isn't even particularly good. For the first time on this story I was hit with a massive lump of writers block, and I just couldn't proceed. Sorry if this chapter is a disappointment...

...

Roger had just finished hanging the last bauble as the front door opened. Mrs Blackett appeared in the doorway.

"She's booked into the most expensive hotel I know of, and staying there till ten tomorrow morning, when one of the local fishermen has been payed to bring her over here."

"Yes! Mummy, you are a saint."

Everyone laughed at Peggy, who had just put into words exactly what everyone was feeling.

When the laughter had drawn to a close, Mrs Blackett caught sight of the tree, now covered in tinsel and decorations.

"Oh, you finished decorating it. It looks marvellous."

"It does," Mrs Walker agreed.

Everyone gathered round to appreciate their hard work, and the general consensus was that the tree was 'simply smashing' as Roger put it.

Once the tree had been fully appreciated, Mrs Blackett clapped her hands, claiming everyone's attention.

"This afternoon, we are going to play a game. Mary and I, on seeing the rain meant to continue, decided it would help pass the time whilst you wait to be able to run wild outside again. For this game there will be two teams. Jim will captain one of them, and Mary the other. I will judge. Captains are allowed to take part; their actions win the same amount of points as the general crews. Teams are as follows, with Jim, Nancy, with Mary, Peggy, with Jim..."

Final Teams were:

C. Flint: Nancy, John, Titty, Bridget

Mrs W: Peggy, Susan, Roger, Timothy

Once teams were agreed and sorted, Mrs Blackett fought to have control again.

"You need to listen!" She finally exclaimed, annoyed. That shut everyone up. "There are different games planned in different rooms in the house. Each team captain has the same briefing for each game, so no one has an advantage. In the Kitchen, Pictionary, I have a list of words (same for each team), and when your team is playing you have to send a player to me, I give them a word, they run back and draw it. The player who guesses it runs to me, tells me that word, and gets a different one. Got it? You get ten points for each word, and have 15 minutes. Whilst one team is playing that, the other team will be in the room opposite, playing Guess the book. For this one I have written out well known quotes from many books. You will be given a piece of paper with the quotes on, and have to write underneath the name of the book, and the author. Ten points for each. I will walk between the two rooms, and I'm warning you, no cheating. After that, both teams will play articulate, again with words from me, this time different to prevent overhearing as you will be playing at the same time, though in different rooms. For your fourth challenge, each team will be given paper, sticky tape, and scissors, and you have to build the most impressive tower you can. It has to stand on its own, and points will be awarded for appearance and balance. The fifth challenge I shall announce later. All clear? 15 minutes on each of the first three, with five minutes between finish and the next starting. Half an hour on the fourth, unless I think both teams need more. However long is left on the fifth. Ready? Jim, to the Pictionary, Mary, Guess the Book. You have five minutes till you start."

The teams rushed off to prepare, and Mrs Blackett followed at a leisurely pace, with her eye on her watch, keeping time. When five minutes had passed, she called out 'Go', and was instantly nearly crushed by Titty, rushing to get the first word for Pictionary! The game proceeded with much amusement, especially when Nancy's drawing for door handle produced several innuendos, a lot of laughter, and a confused Titty and Bridget.

The guess the book game was rather calmer, though some of the less know passages had even the grownups baffled, so that the opening to Dodie Smith's 'I Capture The Castle', which reads 'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board...' produced the right answer from Mrs Walker's team, and the considerably more amusing answer of 'Plumbing for Dummies: How not to go about it,' from C. Flint's. On further research, it turned out this wasn't even a real book, and the group had invented it out of a lack of inspiration.

Articulate proceeded with even more hilarity, Mrs Blackett observing that the words chosen to describe the given word showed a lot about the person. To Titty, Viking was 'What we became the other day, hunting for firewood'. To Susan, Rock became 'a kind of cake, it nearly broke your teeth Roger, it was so solid.' Once the time was up and scores had been added, C. Flint's team had 20 Pictionary words guessed, 15 out of 20 of the books correct, and 30 Articulate words correct. When points had been added up, this gave them a grand total of 650 points. Mrs Walker's team had 21 Pictionary words, 16 books, but only 25 Articulate words, giving them a grand total of 620 points.

Paper and tape were produced, and the teams set to work on their towers. Chaos instantly took control. Mrs Blackett watched in amusement as the builders soon became more covered in paper, glue, tape and coloured pen than the towers. Both teams soon had a plan, Mrs Walkers going with the less elegant, but sturdier design, using rolls of paper taped together to create one big tower, whereas C. Flint and co. decided to go with a thinner tower, but with supports. Once designs were decided, building began, with the team leaders struggling to keep their teams under control. Susan, fond of order and cleanliness, was rather annoyed when she caught Roger and Timothy having a pen war with the felt tips, their faces and arms covered in colourful ink. She was rather shocked that Timothy had joined in such an outgoing and crazy exercise, but he had, and there was a considerable mess made because of it. After half an hour the towers were still not quite finished, so the teams were allowed an extra fifteen minutes to finish. After this the teams were awarded marks out of 100 for appearance, 80 to C. Flint's and 50 to Mrs Walker's. Then the towers were tested for strength. This was tested by Mrs Blackett who first rested a small, light bowl on the top of each tower and then proceeded to add, one at a time, wooden bricks (all the same size) which she had uncovered from a box which had been packed away years before when the Amazon girls had grown out of them. She announced there would be ten points per brick.

Mrs Walker's tower, built sturdily, thick and well supported, easily supported the bowl, which was soon full of bricks. A larger bowl had to be brought, and in the end 30 bricks were added. The tower showed no sign of collapsing, but it was agreed the score count was getting too high. C. Flint's tower didn't do so well. It balanced the first bowl, but only just, and after 7 bricks the tower bent, and the bowl would have smashed on the floor, if John, seeing what was happening, hadn't reached out and caught it.

The totals:

C. Flint: 650 + 80 +70 = 800

Mrs W: 620 + 50 + 300 = 970

"170 points behind!" Exclaimed Nancy, on hearing the scores. "'Jib-booms and bob-stays! We don't stand a chance."

"Don't be so negative, of course we do," John protested. "We simply have to win the next activity."

"Yeah, by 171 points."

"You haven't heard what it is, yet." Reasoned Titty.

"True." Nancy was forced to agree.

Meanwhile the other team was celebrating.

"Yes! We've won." Roger danced from foot to foot in excitement.

"Hah! They never stood a chance!" Peggy snorted.

"Well done to us, I say." Even Timothy seemed to have caught the competitive spirit.

"Erm... You're forgetting something." Susan reminded them.

"What?" Came the instant chorus."

"We haven't won yet. There's another round, and as your mother hasn't told us what it is, I wouldn't celebrate till we know we can win it. They'll laugh like anything if we celebrate, then they win."

"Very true, Susan." Mrs Walker observed. "Keep your act together; we may need everything we've got to win the next round. And Roger, whilst there's a break, go and wash the pen off your face and arms. You too, Timothy."

"Yes Mother." Roger sighed, and retreated to the bathroom, where he was joined by Timothy, who'd stopped only to say 'Of course, Ma'am,' to Mrs Walker. The pair scrubbed as much ink off their arms as they could, and returned ten minutes later, looking slightly less colourful.

They found everyone else waiting for them impatiently. On Mrs Blackett's instruction they crowded onto the sitting room, and sat on sofas and the floor. Mrs Blackett clapped her hands together, and had everyone's attention in seconds.

"Right," she announced, "Time for round 5!"

...

Sorry again for the delay.

tic tac toe 03: Yeah, I got my GCSEs, 6 A*, 6 A, 1 B. I got an A* in English Lit, and an A in English. Those were the important ones. Thank you for being so positive with this story. I liked chapter 7 as well.

Dracones: It's fine, I have so many positive reviews, it was quite nice to have something I could actually use as criticism, to sort out. Many people seem pleased with my getting the GA out of the house, so thank you for showing me the way to put her there. Oh, and I loved the Fawlty Towers episode.

SkyeBlue: I will try to include more of Susan, and John/Nancy. Watch this space! I am really sorry for the delay.

TTTHNN: By all means write your own, I look forward to reading it. Sorry for the delay. And thank you for the long rambly review!

Pixel and Stephanie Forever: Thanks for the info on copiers. I haven't given much thought to the father, other than he's away at sea at the minute. I'll take your advice and call him a captain in the royal navy. He might turn up later in the story, and surprise everyone. What do you think?

So, it was delayed because I was away and then I had writers block, and I am afraid from now on updates might get even less frequent due to school starting. If ever I'm taking to long, leave a review saying so, and I shall either PM you to explain why, or post something in the description of the story, or just update sooner than I'd planned.

Thank you for your patience,

G4E