A/N at the bottom. Enjoy! Btw, if it's a Nancy – Emma interaction, it's probably Nancy the duck! :D Yes, I think Emma turns into a duck and talks to her pet. Sue me.

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 Tollys/Ingledews


It

They play the game the whole afternoon, and it merely started with Emma's eyes sparkling as she poked her aunt in the shoulder and yelled "You're it!"

Shirt

It's the first gift Emma gives to Julia, and it warms her heart, because she's just so much like Nancy.

Elf

The first thought Mostyn has when he sees Nancy is 'She's so small, she could be an elf.'

Onion

"Blah," is what Nancy tells their mother while Julia laughs when they are presented with the vegetable.

Two

It's when Emma wants to understand what Nancy's saying that she turns into a duck and suddenly, they're two of a kind.

Now

This is the moment it's over for him, and Mostyn just wishes he could have gotten to know Emma.

Pop

It's incredibly loud, and all she offers as an explanation is "I wanted to surprise you."

White

Right when the bells ring, Emma sees everything like a blank canvas, and then she sees her and her parents before all the other flashes she has.

Done

Julia was finished with everything, including hope, until she found out that Emma might have been out there.

One

With Nancy around, Julia was never alone; when she died, Julia was suddenly just one person again, and she couldn't figure out how to be.

Pants

They were Mostyn's favourite pair, but Nancy decided, they just had to go.

Monster

It's the first night Emma stays, and she wakes up with nightmares of the monsters she used to be with taking her away and Julia comforts her because no one is ever taking her away again.

Kill

Sometimes Julia thinks Nancy killed Mostyn and that he really just died of heartbreak that's been there too long.

Buy

They went shopping together for the first time, and Nancy's not sure whether she's happy or not when she realizes Mostyn is as avid as a shopper as she is.

Paper

There's a stack on floor that Julia and Mostyn never could read; they were Nancy's last words, and they were afraid of what they would say.

Get

They are so many meanings for the word; it makes Emma's head spin, so she wonders if ducks understand these things better and resolves to ask Nancy.

Mine

As much as they loved each other, there were times Julia just wanted to leave Nancy in a coal mine.

Black

It was never Mostyn's favourite colour, but there were times when he thought that the thoughts it brought on – dark and neutral – were the ones that described him best.

Hat

He didn't like hats much, but Mostyn decided that, like everything else, Nancy had a way of changing that.

Television

Julia and Emma immediately discovered they had one thing in common; they didn't like television very much.

Purple

Nancy was always flocking about, telling her sister that it looked great on Julia.

Match

They never tried to, but it was some weird sister-telepathy that Nancy and Julia always matched.

Red

It's a powerful colour, and Emma hates it because it makes her feel weak.

Socks

They took classes to knit together, and this was their outcome; they were actually quite proud of it.

Plastic

It's not exactly the best material for paintbrushes, but Emma decides they will do, for Auntie Julia's sake.

Share

It was one thing they always had together; the pain of losing Nancy.

Door

Emma never bothered to tell her aunt that she was wrong; Nancy actually knocked on the door before waddling to their yard.

Water

Emma discovers that, just like her, her mother couldn't swim.

Raisins

She doesn't like them at all, and neither does he; Nancy's glad her sister and her husband can agree on something.

Watch

She just stared, because Julia just couldn't get over how alike Emma and Nancy were.

Closed

The doors closed, but Julia still knows, so she goes outside to help the bird because Julia knows, one day, it might be Emma.

Windows

There's so many sills she can land on, but chooses to look through the one with a lot of books and she sees a girl with a woman, and the nameless duck watches them for the rest of day.

At

It's a day where Nancy just wants to bug Mostyn with all these random facts that she says "Did you know 'A-t' is the atomic name for astatine?"

Win

Skating comes naturally to Emma, because it's being free like a bird, and even though she doesn't like being cocky, she's happy she wins the competition, but not really surprised.

Sun

Nancy was a child who always belonged outside in the sunshine; and that never changed, no matter how old she got.

Belt

After the 'incident,' Julia's afraid of belts until Emma knits her one and it's even better than the other one.

Harmony

Nancy decided there might as well have been bells ringing and a choir singing whenever she was with Mostyn.

Bag

Emma doesn't know what she'll do if Nancy ever gets lost; so she decides to make a little purse thing that Nancy is always to keep with her.

Bonus

Julia's happy with adding the duck into the family because with someone who looks like her sister in the house and now someone with the same name, it's almost like having Nancy around again.

Bucket

Emma finds a pail in the backyard and decides that until they can get anything better, Nancy will stay here.

Sale

When Julia goes shopping with Nancy and Mostyn for the first time, she's terrified; the second time, she's worse off because there's a sale going on.

On

"Can someone please turn the light off?"

Aqua

It's something they all share: they love the colour.

Book

Emma finds her mother's diary, thinks she probably shouldn't read it, and opens the first page anyway; when she's done, she feels like she knows her parents and her aunt better.

Fruit

When Emma first sees Nancy and brings her inside, the first thing she does is feed her strawberries and bananas and kiwi.

Seed

Nancy and Julia decide that they both love gardening; their parents watch as the two girls spend hours outside, planting and flicking seeds at each other.

Cap

Mostyn is actually quite embarrassed by the fact that he can't full the bottle cap off the bottle, but he'd never admit it to anyone, least of all his wife and her sister.

Page

Mostyn knows it silly, but he leaves a piece of paper with invisible ink to Julia and tells her if she ever meets Emma, she must give it to her.

Cross

The first time Nancy and Mostyn cross paths, it's on a crosswalk.

Family

Emma decides that even if she never did get to meet her parents, Auntie Julia was enough family for her… and of course, Nancy the duck.


A/N: Okay, so I know this time, some of the words are different. That's because the person who made them (the wonderful Jackie who I mentioned in "Phone Conversations and Understanding Gut Feelings") was watching TV when she made the list, so she got the words from there, from my understanding. But it was a lot of fun, and surprisingly easy to write, up until the last the last ten. So thank you Jackie. :) I like to think of this as a test of my imagination and creativity. How would you score it?

Also, "White" is a reference to Tolly Twelve Bells and "Done" meant Julia was mentally done with everything. Just wanted to put that out there because I re-read them and I was confused myself until I finally remembered. :$

So, the list count is down to 12, possibly 11. I'll find out by Tuesday, aka when I'm posting this, aka today. And yeah, that's all for now. Bye!

~May

P.S. to Jackie – I added Science in this. I know, ew. :| LOL :P