Saturday 4th April 2026, 4pm
It was an important day for two members of the Kent Family because both 10 year old Daniel and 6 year old Ella were being assessed at the leisure centre; Ella was having her first ever trampolining assessment after she had begun lessons a few months ago and Daniel was attempting to get his 800m swimming certificate. Of course, usually it worked out perfectly because they both had their sport session at 3pm every Saturday and one parent would watch one child, the other with the other and they'd swap each week but because their children were hoping to receive an award that lesson, they wanted both of their parents there.
And so Sam was spending the first 30 minutes watching Daniel do his warm up and then begun his 32 lengths of the 25m pool, and then go and watch Ella's assessment whilst Tom would stay with Ella for the first 30 minutes and watch Ella warm up on the trampoline, as well as keep her calm because she had gotten rather nervous, and then go and watch his son hopefully finish the 800m swim. Ella had had her dosage of clotting factor, so she was safe to do trampolining and she rarely made a mistake that gave her a bruise.
"Well?" Sam and Tom both questioned their children as they met outside of the changing rooms after getting dressed into some casual clothes. Sam knew about Ella's performance and Tom knew about Daniel's but they wanted to hear about their other child as well.
"I got it!" Daniel exclaimed.
"I passed!" Ella smiled.
"Well done sweetheart." Tom smiled as he bent down and picked his daughter who was in jeans and an a pink tshirt with her golden wavy brown hair that flowed past her shoulders by several inches now, and gave her a hug.
"Congratulations." Sam smiled as she also gave her son who had wet, short, darker brown hair, a hug before they pulled apart. "Right, how about we collect your certificates and then go out for dinner to celebrate?" Sam suggested.
"Only if we go to TGIFs." Daniel replied excitedly.
"No, Nandos!" Ella protested and Sam smiled because she knew her daughter had gotten her taste for spice from her, and certainly not from her father who was a complete wimp when it came to hot foods.
"Well there's only one way to decide where we eat out isn't there?" Tom concluded.
"Bowling!" Daniel exclaimed.
"Well let's just get your certificates first and then we'll go bowling." Sam said as she walked up to the reception desk with her excited children in tow. "Hiya, can I get the certificates for Ella and Daniel Kent please?" Sam requested.
"Sure, they've just been signed by your teachers." The receptionist smiled as she picked up the two certificates that had a badge attached to it with a paper clip and she handed them to the correct child.
"Thank you." They said simultaneously as they couldn't take their eyes off of their certificates whilst Sam and Tom escorted them out to the family car.
"So what have you two got to do to get your next award?" Tom asked.
"I've got to swim 1000m without stopping." Daniel stated.
"I have to learn how to do a seat drop, front drop, back drop and swivel hips. This certificate was for doing all four of the shape jumps." Ella stated proudly.
"Well I'm sure you two'll be doing that in no time." Sam stated.
"Right, are we playing one game or two games?" Sam queried though she knew what the answer would be, as she stood at the desk of the bowling alley.
"Two! Two!" Ella demanded.
"Alright. Can we have lane for four with the bumpers up on the sides, and we'll have two games please?" Sam requested as she got her credit card out.
"Sure, that'll be £39.99."
"See how much you two cost us every time we come here?" Sam moaned jokily as she out her card in the device to pay.
"They're worth it though aren't they dear?" Tom said mockingly and Sam laughed as she looked down to see her children fluttering their eyelashes at her and pouting their bottom lips.
"You're a bad influence on them you are." Sam grinned.
"You're in lane 9." The woman smiled as she handed Sam the receipt. "If you'd like to tell me the shoes sizes, I'll get your bowling shoes for you." She added.
"Er, size 6, one size 11, a kids size 12 with the Velcro, and an adult size 3." Sam listed off by heart as she was in charge of shoes and clothes shopping in the family. Her son could no longer wear their children's shoes so he had moved to adults ones. Tom probably didn't even know what size shirt he was wearing at that moment because Sam had gotten that for him too. Soon, they got changed into their ridiculous red, black and white bowling shoes and they went over to their lane where they had no balls on their console in he he middle, because they had to chose which size they wanted from the rack behind them. "Right, Daniel do you want to go and get two bottles of water and two fruit shoots from the bar for us?" Sam suggested as she took out a £10 note.
"Yeah sure." Daniel eagerly took on the responsibility and Tom went to help him carry it so Sam sorted out an XS ball, a S ball, a M ball and a L ball for their family because from youngest to oldest, they all needed different sized balls either because of the weight, or because of the size of the holes they put their fingers in.
"Am I playing with you Mum?" Ella asked as she sat on the bench and swung her legs back and forth.,
"Yeah. And I'm hoping we win because I could kill for a Nandos right now." Sam stated.
"Why can't I play with Dad? I always play with you." Ella stated and Sam felt a little hurt but she knew that her daughter meant not harm.
"Because otherwise, me and Daniel would win all the time. We need to split the teams evenly. It would be like me and dad being together, that wouldn't be fair to you and Daniel would it?"
"No but we could still beat you." Ella protested whilst Sam put the names into the screen above them and changed them from Player 1, 2, 3 and 4.
"Yeah I know," Sam lied. "But if you two played together, then we couldn't decide where to eat tonight because then you and Daniel would be on the same side."
"Oh yeah."
"There you go." Tom smiled as he handed Sam a bottle of water whilst Daniel gave Ella her fruit shoot.
"Don't guzzle it all down now, it's got to last until we go for dinner." Sam said sternly. "Right, I thought we'd do it in a different order for once so it's oldest to youngest." Sam stated as she looked up at the TV screen that showed the order of the players who were all at a score of zero.
"But that means I'm last." Ella stated.
"Yes, but that just means that you know how many pins you need to knock down to beat the boys, doesn't it?"
"There we go." Sam smiled as she handed her daughter a pink folder decorated with butterflies on it and Ella opened it to find her certificate in a plastic wallet, and there were a dozen empty ones behind it. "You can collect all of your certificates in here, and keep them nice and neat." Sam stated as her son already had one, but it was Ella's first certificate whereas Daniel already had quite a few.
"Mummy?"
"Yes?"
"Can I join the same Brownie group as Amy please?" Ella asked timidly.
"You want to start going to brownies?" Sam questioned and her daughter nodded. "Yeah sure. There might be a waiting list, but I'll look into it for you." Sam nodded.
"Can I start going to swimming lessons as well please?"
"Ella, I'm happy to pay for any kind of sport or group that you want to join, as long as you're going to go to it pretty much every week and that you enjoy it." Sam stated. "So you'd have Brownies on a Wednesday evening I think it is, then Trampolining on a Saturday afternoon and you want to start swimming lessons too yeah?"
"Yes please." Ella nodded.
"Okay, I'll see what I can do." Sam smiled. She was perfectly content with her life because she had two children who were active and healthy - her son was part of the Air Scouts, went to swimming lessons and played football for his school team - and she had a loving husband, a safe job, plenty of money and a roof over her head; what more she could she wish for? Sam then made her way to her bedroom where Tom was just getting changed after he had put his son to bed. "Ella wants to join brownies with Amy, and she wants to have swimming lessons." Sam informed him as she too began to get changed into her pyjamas.
"Yeah? I'm surprised you don't want her joining the scouts." Tom joked halfheartedly.
"She can't, she's not old enough." Sam quipped.
"I've just had an idea." Tom announced as he he went over and silently closed the bedroom door.
"What?"
"How about me and you go and have a shower together?" He suggested seductivley.
"I'm fine with it. But, I don't like having sex in the shower." Sam admitted. "Can we have a shower and then do what we want to in bed?"
"Yeah sure. But why don't you like..."
"Because I get paranoid that the condom is going to slip off and when everything is wet, I always think that it has come off and I just can't enjoy myself when I'm worried about that." Sam explained.
"We've have sex dozens of times in the shower before, how come you've never said?"
"Because I think you're forgetting that we used to do it all the time before we had the kids, and that was when I was on the pill." Sam stated. "We didn't need to use condoms, we've only had sex and used one in the shower a handful of times.
"Okay sure. Shower together and then bedtime." He winked as he just pulled his boxers down without a hint of self consciousness and Sam knew that he had been thinking about a sensual encounter for a while by looking at what he had just uncovered.
"You're unbelievable you are." Sam laughed quietly as she pulled her pyjama top over her head.
"Why?"
"What would you have done if I'd have said no?" Sam questioned as she put her hands on her hips.
"I would have... You've never said no in our entire 12 years of marriage unless you were exhausted because you were pregnant or on your period and I know you're neither because you finished two days ago and it's not possible to be pregnant if you've just been on." Tom concluded smugly.
"Y'know you're so cocky sometimes that I just want to punch you." Sam said as she playfully elbowed him before she pulled her shorts down and headed for the ensuite. "Let me go first, I need the toilet." Sam ordered sternly and Tom nodded in acceptance so he let her close the door and a minute later, he heard the toilet flush, the taps run and then the shower was switched on so he opened the door and them locked it behind him; the only time that the bathroom locks were ever used in the house was when Sam and Tom went in there together and they didn't want the kids barging in.
"You're so beautiful that I sometimes wonder how on earth I've got you all to myself." Tom admitted as admired his wife's faultless body as she stepped into the shower.
"Er, maybe because I married you and promised to be faithful?" Sam retorted.
"It was rhetorical." Tom pointed out as he got into the shower and sealed them both in the steamy cabinet and he just couldn't help himself as he began letting his fingers wander all over the surface of her body before he went beyond the surface and penetrated her with one, then two, then three of them. She gasped out of both pleasure and shock before she returned a favour to her husband and after running out nearly all of the hot water in the shower, which took a very long time, they dried themselves and dived into bed to keep the interruption short as they could grab protection from his bedside draw, and make love to each other.
Coming up: Sam tried to prepare her daughter for puberty whilst her son is already going through it. She and Tom realised that their children are growing up far faster than they'd like so they agree on a holiday in their caravan while their kids are still kids.
Thanks for reading, please review :)