Sorry my updates are quite slow these days. This chapter is for SB88 – your readership is so appreciated. Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Four Hundred and Sixty Five

It was only a couple of days until the Big Move and Charlie, Joey and Ruby, with the help of Nicole and Claire, were busily packing up the family's belongings.

"I honestly had no idea we had so much stuff," Joey exhaled, looking over their lounge and kitchen area, a big mess of boxes and items.

"That's because last time we moved, we didn't have any stuff," Charlie pointed out. "We had a couple of bedrooms with a handful of bits in the kitchen and the lounge. We bought all the furniture and everything else in this apartment new."

"Ugh," Joey complained. "That's right. Moving is easier when you have no stuff."

"At least you're the one moving," Nicole said. "Look at Claire and I, here without complaint."

"Apart from that complaint," Ruby smirked.

"Not guilty," Claire said quietly.

Charlie looked over at her. She seemed even quieter than normal. It was a concern.


Indi sat at home, feeling impatient. She had been obsessively checking her email for days, hoping that her mother would acknowledge her email in some way. But still this morning, there had been no reply. She jumped up as the post arrived through the door, hoping that she may have written her a letter instead.


"Charlie?" Ruby said, approaching her mother.

"What do you want?" Charlie replied, noting the pleading tone of her voice.

"You know I'm old enough to start learning to drive…?"

Charlie stopped packing her box and looked at her.

"If you want lessons, you need to get a job and save up for them," she said seriously. "We'll help but you need to take responsibility for it too."

She looked at Joey, who nodded.

"Why can't you just teach me?" Ruby asked hopefully.

Charlie laughed.

"No," she said. "No way."


Across the room, Nicole nudged Claire.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked. "You're a bit quiet. I mean, you're always quiet but right now you're making a mouse sound like the noisiest creature on earth!"

Claire laughed softly.

"I'm okay," she lied.

The words that she and Ruby had exchanged yesterday were still playing on her mind. Ruby was her best friend in the world. She had been her saving grace and she hated the thought of there being upset between them. And she felt more than awkward this morning, with Ruby having barely said two words to her so far.


Alas, no. There was no mail for Indi at all, especially nothing from her mother. Sometimes she regretted contacting her at all. She hadn't got the answers she wanted and now she felt she just looked desperate, longing for a mother who didn't want her. She should just have left things alone.


"Why not?" Ruby complained loudly.

"Because it's a terrible idea," Charlie replied.

She finished sealing up the box she had been packing and wrote a label for it, identifying its contents and the room it was meant for in order to make things easier for both them and the movers.

"Why?" Ruby nagged, following her across the room, as Charlie put the box on the pile in the corner.

"Because it is," Charlie replied.

"What kind of answer is that?" Ruby demanded.

"The only answer you're going to get."

"Ugh!" Ruby moaned. "You're so unreasonable."

"Yep," Charlie said. "I suck."

She began putting together another box.


Frustrated and without anything else to occupy her mind, Indi headed over to see Romeo. She knew her boyfriend would cheer her up. He always did. He was lovely and kind, not to mention gorgeous. Yes, she was sure Romeo could distract her for a little while.


At lunch time, Charlie and Joey drove over to the restaurant to grab some food for themselves and the teenagers to fuel them up for the afternoon of more packing.

"Hey," Joey greeted Angelo, who was working behind the bar.

"Hi," he said, looking just a tiny bit pleased with himself.

At the very least, he was a lot more cheerful than he had been for the past few weeks, especially since Shandi had ditched him and hooked up with Miles.

"You're in a better mood," Charlie commented. "Dare we ask how your date went yesterday?"

He grinned, giving them hope and then informed them that the woman, Lisa, had been the most irritating person he had ever met in his life and he had zapped his online profile off the dating agency.

"Oh," Joey said, disappointed.

"I mean, I slept with her anyway but…" he bragged.

"Angelo!" Joey and Charlie snapped in unison and also rather loudly.

"What?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"If she slept with you, she must have liked you," Joey said, prodding him hard in the arm.

"And if you didn't like her, you should have kept it in your pants," Charlie added, slapping his hand.

"Ow! And ow!" he complained, stepping away from both of them. "Look, I am only human. She was irritating as fuck but she was hot. I'm a red…"

"If you dare say 'red blooded male' as an excuse to treat a woman like shit, you are fired," Joey warned.

He frowned.

"It's alright for you," he sulked. "You two are probably at it every night! I have to take it where I can!"

"No excuse," Joey said, heading into the kitchen.

"No excuse," Charlie agreed, following her.


"I just think she's being so unreasonable," Ruby complained.

She, Nicole and Claire were somewhat half-heartedly packing now that the grownups were out on a food run.

"Who taught you to drive?" Ruby asked Nicole.

"I had an instructor," Nicole said. "My Mum paid. Claire?"

"I never learned," Claire said quietly.

"Well, I really want to learn and I just think my parents should help me out a bit," the teenager said rather petulantly.

"Well, Charlie said that she and Joey would help if you put money towards it as well," Nicole pointed out.

"But I wanted Charlie to teach me," Ruby sulked.

"An instructor would probably be better," Nicole tried. "More professional."

"I know but… I thought it could be something Charlie and I did together."

She stood up as she had been caught doing something naughty when she heard her parents out in the corridor, on their way back in.


Indi arrived at Summer Bay House to find that Romeo was not home. Alf was just on his way out and told her that he believed he was down on the beach, surfing.

"Okay," Indi said, half disappointed that she had had a wasted journey and half pleased that she would hopefully see her boyfriend coming out of the water, all wet, half in his wetsuit and half out of it.

"Oh, if you're going to catch up with him, could you give him this?" Alf added, handing over an envelope. "It's from Annie, I think. I figured it might be important."


The group of five sat around the table, eating take out from the restaurant and things were strangely tense. Ruby was sulking because Charlie had refused to teach her to drive and Claire was wounded because Ruby had barely spoken to her.

"Oh, Ruby, for goodness sake, would you stop glaring at me?" Charlie eventually snapped. "I do not want to teach you to drive because Dad tried to teach me to drive and we didn't speak for over a week. It was an absolute nightmare. I like our happy little home, especially as we're in the process of moving into our first owned home together and I don't want to disrupt it by trying to teach you to drive and it going terribly, terribly wrong."

Everyone was rather startled by her outburst.

"Fine," Ruby mumbled, still being a stroppy teenager. "You could have just said that."

"I didn't want to get into it," Charlie said. "Is that quite alright?"

"Fine," her daughter mumbled again. "I just wanted to spend some time with you, that's all."

Charlie and Joey exchanged glances.

"You wanted to spend time with me?" Charlie challenged, not quite believing her.

"Yes," Ruby said, losing her moody tone and sounding sincere. "I thought it would be fun for you to teach me. Like a project we could do together. I thought it would be nice."

Charlie sighed. She looked at Joey, who mentally let her know it was her call. Then she looked at Ruby.

"Fine," she sighed. "We'll give it a go. One lesson. And we'll see what happens."

"Really?" Ruby asked, not quite believing her.

"Yes," Charlie said.

Ruby jumped up and threw her arms around her mother.


On the beach, Indi did indeed arrive at the perfect time and she thoroughly enjoyed the view of Romeo exiting the water with his surfboard. And he's all mine, she thought smugly. Then she frowned, thinking about the letter in her bag. From Annie. His ex-girlfriend. Who he had loved and who it had taken him a long time for him to get over. She had been a huge stumbling block in their relationship at the beginning. Just having the letter in her bag felt threatening. What did she want? Him, Indi thought. My boyfriend. My Romeo. Well, she can't have him.


After lunch, Ruby approached Claire and touched her arm. Feeling so on edge, Claire jumped in surprise.

"Sorry!" Ruby grinned, making Claire grin too. "I just wanted to apologise for snapping at you yesterday. It was wrong of me and I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Claire said. "As long as we're good now?"

"Of course we are," Ruby assured her.

They hugged.

"Can you accept though, that the prediction is real?" Ruby asked.

Claire was torn. She knew it wasn't. But she didn't want to fall out with her friend.

"I understand that you need to believe in it," Claire told her, trying to be diplomatic.

Ruby sighed, not completely satisfied. But she nodded and moved away to carry on packing up.


"This is a pleasant surprise," Romeo said, leaning in for a kiss.

"Well, I was at a loose end, so I figured your company was as good as anyone's," Indi teased.

She grinned and he kissed her again. I love him so much, she thought to herself. How can I hand his ex-girlfriend back to him?


"Hey, Claire?" Charlie asked, when she found a moment that wouldn't draw attention to them. "Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Claire said, her mind still playing over the situation with Ruby.

"Claire? You know you can talk to me," Charlie nudged.

"I just… Please can you talk to Ruby about this prediction thing?" she asked earnestly. "I've tried and she just won't listen to me. And I'm so worried about her getting her heart broken. I love her so much and I don't want to see her upset."

Charlie nodded thoughtfully.

"She just won't hear it when I try to talk to her about it," Claire said.

Charlie put her arm around her.

"We'll talk to her," she said. "I promise."


Next time… Sid tries to help Marilyn heal, Ruby has her first driving lesson and Charlie and Joey tackle the Prediction Issue…