So, here we are again. I'm still believing that there are four chapters left exactly so…. Here we are!

There is an edit on polyvore with the clothes described in this chapter when Sophia is shopping and also a few ones with some other things in this chapter.

When we walked back into the kitchen I could hear the others chattering and laughing from the kitchen, and so I used the next few steps to simply slow down and then stop in the hallway where I also closed my eyes and stopped in the hallway where I just stood and listened to the young people's light voices.

"Soph? Are you okay?" Faiz and Mike had stopped when I did and looked somewhat worried when they looked back. "Are you…" I nodded and smiled slightly, then showed them to be quiet and gestured towards the kitchen. "Oh…." Faiz smiled too but it didn't really reach his eyes and even though we were both all silent I thought that we both knew that it was about being safe- about being happy and not having to worry about it all getting destroyed or taken from you in the matter of a second. It was about being safe and not having to worry about that it would change in the nearest moment.

"Sophia…" Mike hesitated slightly so he spoke very slowly.

"Shush." I held up a hand to make it even clearer what I wanted to say. "Okay now I'm done. Sorry Mike but it was just so nice hearing them now when no one were fighting and everyone were just chattering and… yeah it was just nice to listen to." We passed around the corner and walked into the kitchen.

Faiz walked over to Magdi and Alvaro to explain to them what was going on and what might happen if I decided that it would be okay with moving in with them. I jumped up to sit on the kitchen bench and helped Gina with putting several kinds of ice cream in one bowl instead of having it like now when all the bowls were less than half full anyway.

"THAT'S AWESOME" Faiz had been talking in a very low tone so that Magdi and Alvaro were the only ones that could hear, Alvaro however- hadn't really gotten the point with it! "So then SOPHIA" He shouted so I would hear. "I THINK IT WOULD BE AWESOME. KIND OF LIKE IF YOU WERE MY SISTER. OH MAYBE WE CAN LEAVE MAGDI HERE THEN INSTE…" Alvaro was cut off when Magdi grabbed a pillow from the bench behind the table and started hitting her brother with it and I bit my lip and kind of nervously looked around the room to see the others' reactions

"So…." I looked around at the others who were starting to take in what Alvaro had shouted, what it meant and what that would mean. "Well yeah… what Fai and I and Mike were talking about ehrm it was…" I hadn't finished and wasn't so sure how to express myself to make the least damage possible when Mike interrupted.

"…Private! And until Sophia choose to tell you or some of you about it I don't want any of you to go mind her business. Is that understood?" Mike's tone made it very clear that he was very serious and I looked at him as gratefully as I possibly could before he continued. "Now… I know you're all looking forward to going to Elizabeth's Manor Hall House. And… I just asked Faiz if he and Magdolna…"

"MAGDI. I swear if I hear you call me Magdolna one more time old man…"

"If he and Magdi and Alvaro would like to come with us." Mike smirked at Magdi. "And I'm going to make sure they do even though old Mister Patel is pretending as if he can't make up his mind but I need all of yours help to make him realize the fact that he actually wants to come he just doesn't know about it yet." Magdi and Alvaro turned to their dad, they too had heard about Manor Hall House and not a chance on earth they were letting the chance to go there go without a fight.

"And… as you all know we will all be going. But we can bring up to thirty people with us to Elizabeth's. And we, and I and Gina of course is only fifteen. But… I have been thinking like this that we can make this sort of calendar with counting down days until we're going…" Mike hadn't finished what he was saying before someone interrupted.

"Are I and Eli coming to?" Ivy looked hopeful.

"Yes of course." Mike seemed confused. "Why wouldn't you? You're a part of this madhouse now so I'm afraid you haven't got much of a choice. You'd have to come with us even if you didn't want to. Although I couldn't see any reason why you wouldn't want to come because I'm sure you could have loads of fun there. Yes Stan?" Stan, Joe and Zachariah had been gone for a minute now Stan came into the room again, wearing a T- shirt and even though I could see he was wearing some kind of shorts he had a towel tied around his hips.

"Mike you know how you asked me and Joe to try our swimming shorts to see if they still fit?" Mike nodded and turned to the older twin-guy who opened the towel so everyone except Mike could only see the side of it. Mike however- broke down laughing. "They are very much too small, and very, very painful to wear. Joe's got the same problem but Zach's here to so he might not be complaining."

I had expected Mike to scold Stan for talking like that in a room with children. But Mike couldn't talk right now and had to grab onto the kitchen island not to fall with how hard he was laughing and also the ones in the room who were old enough to understand chuckled while the younger ones mostly looked confused and Gus was writing as fast as ever in his notebook.

"Well…" When Mike could talk again and Stan had the towel tied back around his hips Mike laid a hand on Stan's shoulder. "Go get Joe, you two can come with me into town today. Shawn, Sophia. You are the two that needs the most of new clothes and such, so you two come too. Come on, well… you others can start doing papers with numbers so we can have a countdown to Manor Hall House. And then… Yes Ivy?"

"Will I get to go do shopping too?" Mike hesitated. The clothes shopping was mostly for them who barely had any clothes- or like me had only hand- me- downs and should have more clothes of their own. Or like Harry and Shawn had out- grown every piece they had. Ivy, had a ton of clothes just like she had a ton of dolls.

"Come on." I grabbed onto Magdi and ran out of the room- I did not want to be here for the tantrum Ivy would throw when Mike would have to tell her no. "Hold on… come here Magdi." Walking down the hallway something moving had caught my eye and I walked closer to the door that was a tiny little bit opened to Elias's room.

I had barely noticed that Elias left the kitchen, but he must have because he was in his room now. I could only see him from behind but I noticed he had earplugs with music playing so loud I could hear it too. Some sort of orchestra, and to the music Elias was moving in a way that could only be ballet so pure he must have been learned it from a very early age.

"Wow" I mouthed to Magdi, who stood with her chin dropped looking too and then looked back to Elias. Who's rhythmic and flowing movement could only be compared to a feather drifting in a breeze. And for the next ten seconds I could do nothing but stand there and watch- well, until Elias saw us watching that was.

"GET OUT." He stormed towards the door. "And if I ever hear you breathe a word about this to anyone!" He slammed the door and I looked to Magdi, shrugged, and then hurried towards my room so we could close the door after us and not have to listen to Ivy's tantrum downstairs.

"Sophia, you should so buy that shirt. It's totally you!" Almost three weeks later, at Monday the twenty sixth of August, one day before the Burns' twins' birthday and two days before we would go to Manor Hall House it was time for one last shopping day. And Mike who had realized I would buy barely anything when going on my own had forced me to bring Carmen and Tee with me.

And for the moment I was standing in a fitting room in a store dressed in jeans and a shirt with a fun print of Mickey Mouse. "I'm not so sure." I protested. "I already bought so mu…" I hadn't even finished the word when Carmen and Tee started protesting about how me it was and how I was so stubborn they would buy it for me if I didn't buy it for myself and I didn't want or need anyone more spending their own money on me.

"Fine." I sighed a little but turning away from them I smiled. I had been so used to literally taking one set of clothes on and then wearing them until I they were falling into pieces so much I wasn't anymore at last. But I wouldn't really want to admit that and actually not keep on protesting before buying every single item.

"You should try this as well." Lily came running with a dress that had caught my eye earlier. Lily had come with us too, but only for a little while since she would have to catch a train that would take her and her dad to the ferry that would take them to France in just a few hours. And just about every moment we weren't talking about clothes was spent Tee teaching Lily the little French she knew from school.

"I don't think so. Mike's expecting me to buy clothes that I can use when school starts and such…"

"You could use this one… maybe not to school since you will have certain clothes like everybody has in school but with a pair of tights and that cardigan you bought earlier you could use it for anything in between church and a lazy Sunday." I sighed and grabbed the dress but at the same time tried to get my own clothes on to show them I wasn't going to try the dress.

"No!" I handed the dress and some other things that I had decided not to buy back to the others and reached back towards my T-shirt and of course in the stall I couldn't see what the others were doing and when I came out again I found that Lily had left.

"I didn't think she was leaving for another hour." I shrugged and didn't mind more about that, but turned to the cashier and something in the jewelry- shelf caught my eye. "Oh." I took the small charm that was a key with top formed as a heart. "It looks like… never mind…" I let it go and turned to the cashier, but now Tee and Carmen weren't going to give up. "It doesn't mat… alright… it just looks exactly like a necklace my dad bought for my mum and said she had the key to his heart. Not a big deal!" I took the things I was buying and went to pay.

"I can't believe you've never tasted a milkshake Soph." Half an hour later Carmen and Tee had forced me into some ice cream bar that they said had the world's best milkshake- and choked when I mentioned just passing by that I never had really had tasted any milkshake- not of the kind they called milkshake here at least.

"Now taste it!" We had put three straws in a cup with some strawberry chocolate milkshake and Carmen and Tee had already tasted, now it was my turn and even though they kept on telling me how well it tasted I felt kind of nervous it wouldn't be as good when I reached up towards the straw and zipped from it.

"It's good." I smiled. "Now, if you don't mind…" I pretended that I was going to take the rest and then suddenly saw Mike, Shawn and Harry coming down the hallway of the mall and waved so they'd see us.

"Hey guys… let's see, five of you… two more of you and I'll take you guys to the hair dresser's and ask Gina to gather the rest and go to that place where they've got everything for swimming and everything and get some towels for the rest and swimming trunks for the ones who need. Oh look, here comes Elias and Ivy…" Mike waved to them. "Come on guys… as long as it's under my budget, you can tell the hair dresser to do whatever you want!"

"Sophia, Sophia." Shawn nagged me for attention. "Look. I bought this Spongebob soft blanket. And I bought it all for my own money and all on my own." Shawn held up a soft Spongebob doll that he unwrapped and showed me it was actually a blanket- and like I would to any little kid- I had to admit it was pretty cool!

A few hours later I stood in the bathroom at the dumping ground looking myself in the mirror. In some way and for some reason I had told the hair dresser that he could do anything he wanted, and now I had purple highlights and hair a good bit shorter than before. Also, in some way and for some reason Lily had bought that dress and a pair of purple tights for me and I had changed into that and a white, knitted cardigan I had bought myself earlier.

"Ehrm, Sophia." I hadn't closed the door so Tee came in holding a small paper bag. "I know you probably didn't mind if I did but." She handed me the bag and already before I opened it and pulled out the thin silver chain with the key with a heart I knew what it was and looked gratefully back to Tee and gestured for her to help me put it on.

"Do you know…" When she had put it on I turned back to the mirror. "Do you know what the scariest part about turning into a new me was?" Tee looked questioning at me. "Before… I used to look exactly like my sister and now with this new me… and Sophie's always going to stay what used to be us I…. I don't even look right her anymore."

"Sophia…" Tee said carefully. "If you turn into a new you, that doesn't mean that you haven't got her within you anymore… And it doesn't mean you'll forget about her. Because you won't. She'll still be with you… in here." She pointed to my heart. "And if she was here…. Do you think she'd want you to be holding onto her and what was then or move forward and become who you wanted to be?"

"If Sophie was here…" I wondered for a while and couldn't help but smile. "She'd say- go ahead Soph number two. LIVE, LIVE, LIVE, LIVE… and yeah you get the point." Tee laughed when she got a part of Sophie's personality. "I never really got why she called me number two though… I was four minutes older than her."

"So this new you is…?"

"More like her… but more like who I want to be at the same time." I smiled, and then jogged out of the bathroom to show the others the new me.

And cut! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you next time.