A/N HI GUYS DON'T KILL ME BUT I'M BACK FROM HIATUS! I hope you like this chapter and I apologize for the shortness of it!

As always, thanks for all the support! To answer a question, there may be some Jemma in the future, but for now it will only be mentioned. Apologies :(

Somewhat Peculiar

The couple next door have the most fabulous garden. Rosie always begs me to play there, and me in my teenager worthy social awkwardness was too scared to ask them if she could come over to play every now and then. Of course, in the end, it was when the man who lived their poked his head through the door connecting our garden fences that we finally met. Acting completely casual, I could only watch as what I could only describe as a hoard a hoard of bees came buzzing in.

"Sorry" Confused, I watched as he somehow beckoned the bees back into his garden, flashing a grin at me as he left. Confused, I stared after him as Rosie giggled. Glancing at my small daughter, I stared for what seemed like a full minute before I noticed the tinted black goggles lying on the grass in front of the door. Somehow pushing away my social anxiety, I told myself this would probably be my only chance.

"Come on Rosie" Giggling, the small girl grabbed my hand. "It'll be fine" I was reassuring myself more than her.

"Hello?" I stepped back from the white door identical to mine. The door slowly opened to reveal small girl, just a tad older than Rosie. She had messy curly brown hair and bright green eyes, looking up at us from where she tood.

"Izzy, I told you not to answer the door on your own!" a woman's voice in an Irish accent called from down the hall. Walking up behind the girl- presumably her daughter- she looked at us.

"Oh, hello, sorry about that!" I shook my head and smiled at the two.

"It's fine, It's just- I live next door- uh - well, this might sound crazy, but someone dropped these" I held up the goggles "When his bees came into our garden through that door in the fence" When the woman caught sight of them she rolled her eyes.

"Hugh" she called "You left your goggles in the neighbor's garden!" I watched as the man from earlier walk out from behind her. "Ah!" he snatched the goggles out of my hand, earning a disapproving look from the woman beside him. "Thank you" He grinned at me. "Sorry about that, want to come in for a cup of tea while those two play?" I looked behind me to see the two girls laughing together.

"Alright"

That's how it started. Isabel and Rosie became fast friends and were allowed to play in the garden, which I must say wasn't expected. It just seemed, even more from up close, that a seemingly exhaustive effort was put into making it this beautiful.

Over time, I got to know the parents of Isabel Apiston well. Fiona was quiet and very caring, while Hugh was almost the opposite in his charisma and argumentative side. I almost forgot the time I was to scared to even ask to see their garden. After two years, they finally opened up to me a tad about their past, after I told them mine first of course. All I was told was that they grew up in the same children's home. Fiona was an immigrant as a result of a family tragedy in Ireland while Hugh had been taken away from his neglectful parents. They had some friends who were also in the home who would visit often, I even met a few. There was Emma and Jacob, along with Claire and Olive. I'm sure some others were mentioned sometime, but overall we all got along well.

There was one thing despite it all though... They all seemed reasonably normal, and I never spoke up about it, but from the corner of my eye there were tiny things that I noticed. Just small things that made them all seem...

Somewhat peculiar...

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