A/N is at the bottom. Enjoy! And this probably won't really have too much Grizelda in it, but she'll be mentioned once or twice… maybe three times. Well, the bigger the family, the easier this thing is.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo.


The Way We Live Our Lives:

Live. Love. Laugh. Smile altogether. One for all. All for one. Because we're family and because that's just the way we live our lives.


The Yewbeams


Pen

It's the scrawl on the wall that Paton's drawn that causes James and Solange to smile because he just couldn't use crayons, could he?

Hair

It's in this crazy up-do and everyone can merely gawk at the thing on Lucretia's head.

Glove

Venetia smiles when she sees it on the ground, and when she takes it home, she makes a copy so precise that you wouldn't know they weren't part of a pair… except they were both for left hands.

Raisins

Because she's a positive person at the time, when Eustacia first meets Yolanda, she decides that her great-aunt is like a raisin; she looks all wrinkly and prune-like, but might be alright.

Whiteboard

Paton is five when he draws his family on the whiteboard; he's fifty-five when he's going through the items of the old house and sees that everyone but him has been erased off of it.

Cloud

When Grizelda says it's a duck, Venetia instantly has to deny it and tell her it's a bunny.

Cheese

It's apparently the first time he's eaten pizza and when Solange asks why he won't eat it, James sheepishly admits he's lactose-intolerant.

Jam

Daphne was surprised to find that she liked that red stuff on her toast; she liked it a lot.

Cool

"You'll burn your fingers if you don't let it cool down," Solange tells an impatient Lucretia when the girl tried to take a piece of the cake that just came straight from the oven.

Wardrobe

Venetia has the biggest closet out of them all, just because half the things in there are things she made.

Explosion

It's probably the loudest sound Paton's ever heard, and as he watches the glass fall, he thinks in wonder and horror that he created it.

Smile

It's one of those little things that James did that just brightened up Henry's day.

Coupon

She'd never tell, but she had her own little coupon book stashed away in the darkest corner in of her room that no one must ever find.

Shoes

After a million "I like these ones," Grace needs to tell 4-year-old Daphne to just pick a pair.

Magazine

"It's all gossipy nonsense," Lucretia tells Venetia; Venetia doesn't look up as she says "Go read a newspaper then."

Spin

Eustacia almost gets a whiplash from the turn, but it's worth it when she sees the look on her sister's face.

Drier

Daphne knows there's something wrong with her the second she finishes drinking seven glasses of water and her throat is drier than it was before.

Keys

Paton sees them and is horrified he realizes Eustacia is the one who's driving.

Passport

Grizelda looks at the pamphlet in her hand and then at her youngest sister and thanks Venetia for helping her 'escape.'

Banana

It's amazing how Yorath always knows exactly what Yolanda needs at the moment, like bananas for Manley's cake.

Peace

That's all she's ever wanted for her children; the second Yolanda pushes her, Solange knows it won't happen.

Pickles

All Eustacia says is "I thought they were cucumbers!"

Sarcasm

"It's fine really, you just ruined any chance I ever had at this thing that I've been working toward my whole life and because of it, I'm probably going to end up being some dragon-lady at some horrible high-class school full of snobs, but that's really alright," is what Lucretia tells her sisters so smoothly, it seemed like she actually did mean it… until they saw her angry face.

Dog

Henry always wanted a pet and it seemed like the perfect one; and so the 3-year-old played with it and took care of it and made it his best friend, even if it was just a picture.

Suitcase

Venetia stopped packing the suitcase for a second to think about what she was actually doing; she started up again when she realized that even with the consequences, she was still going to do it anyway.

Iguana

It's Manley's favourite animal, which is why Grace works so hard to make the unsalvageable paper thing as much like one as possible.

Talk

It's the words the two boys never wanted to hear, but they did anyway: "James, Henry, you won't be playing with Daphne anymore."

Homework

Paton's grades are a result of the fact he is a child who cannot stand to sit still for more than a few seconds, so he can never sit down long enough to do his work; yet somehow he does miraculously on all his assignments.

Hungry

She's looking at the birds, who are all so free, yet they have nothing, and she drops the bread on the ground and watches as they all come flocking and she's glad that she's done some good in her life, even though it might not last.

Europe

It was always Eustacia's dream to travel all of Europe, but she knew that as long as she lived in Yewbeam Castle, she'd never be able to.

Violin

Yolanda loved to play, but she'd keep that her secret.

Sight

Daphne's a perceptive child, which is why the second she can't see anything, she knows it's all over and she just hopes that her brothers aren't looking.

Norway

She chooses it because it's far away, and yet still, after everything, it just isn't far enough away, now is it?

Love

When Paton is fifteen, he tells his eldest sister that he's fallen in love, and he asks her if she knows what it feels like; she stops to think for a second – think about the warmth and the sweetness when he was around and the bitterness now that he's not and the bright smiles she had with him and the numbness when she found out he died – and then Grizelda answers "No."

Camel

One of his leads led him to Egypt, where he befriended a camel that wouldn't exactly leave him alone.

Dragon

Lucretia knew that she was right; she ended up a dragon-lady.

Shiny

"It's so pretty," Yolanda told Manley in awe as she held the metallic pencil crayon in her hand.

Princess

When she was young, she thought she was meant to be a princess; now that's she older, she knows that fairytales aren't real.

Blue

James was different than most Yewbeams; he liked blue better than red.

Magician

It's all just a fancy magic show in Grace's mind; only when she finds out her daughter-in-law had died does she realize not all the magicians are exactly friendly.

Magnolia

Yolanda thinks of her great-nieces as magnolias – soft and sweet and delicate – which is why she needs to pluck their petals and make them stronger; after all, they will thank her for this, one day.

Cardigan

James is proud when he gives Solange the sweater he made himself… even if one of the arms was coming out of the neckline.

Kangaroo

A picture's worth a thousand words, but the one of her older sister with a joey leaves Paton speechless.

Soon

Yorath knew the end was soon, but it was never, ever, ever soon enough.

Socks

It's the pair Henry wore the day he disappeared, and James kept them with him, just like he did the marbles.

Neon

Solange says she likes it best because of how bright it is.

Bunny

James decided that, after going to the petting zoo, he was never going to go near rabbits ever again.

Baby

Yolanda sees her brother and her sister-in-law holding their little Henry in their arms and pretends not to be upset that she'll never have one of her own.

Leprechaun

It's this little toy that Manley always kept with him, even when they buried him.

Family

It's broken up, and Paton's the last to go, and then he's in this place that's not Heaven or Hell and it's just all of them there, and even after everything, he can't be happier to see his family.


A/N: ACK!THISONEWASSODIFFICULT!'TFIGUREOUTWHATTODO!

Just thought I'd get that out there. :D Then I got a new list and it was a lot easier.

So, I'd like to thank Oujdagirl for the list. It was definitely fun to do, since the Yewbeams have such an interesting family dynamic. I'm still open for lists, if anyone wants to pass them on. The amount I need is 13. They are 49 words, none of them being "family," and I will use them to write about the next family in line.

Also, I hope to update this every three days. My cousin, who we shall know as Jade, gave me the idea. And it worked out pretty perfectly, too; seeing as because of that, the story will be completed August 17th, and I'm writing about 17 families.

Anyway, bye-bye for now!

~May