The next morning
Sunday

Glenview

"Wakey, wakey!"

"Huh!"

I laughed and the tired girl slunk down under her duvet.

"Breakfast is almost ready."

"Okay!" came the grumpy reply.

"Morning, Mindy!"

I turned to see the grinning face of Danny peering out from the shared bathroom.

"Morning, Danny – I think your sister is a little tired this morning."

Danny ran forward and dived onto the bed, then pulled the duvet cover off his sister. Unsurprisingly, Anne-Marie was not amused.

"Leave me alone; I'm tired!" she complained burying her face in the pillow.

"Maybe if you stayed in bed instead of wandering around the house at three in the morning you might not be so tired!" I commented with an evil grin.

Anne-Marie turned over and sat up quickly.

"You know?"

"I couldn't sleep, either."

"I'm sorry, Mindy; I won't do it again..."

"Just don't make a habit of it, please," I warned. "Come on, Dave is just cooking breakfast."

"Give me a few minutes."

Anne-Marie scrambled out of bed and vanished into the bathroom.

The kitchen

I laughed as I watched the rather tired looking, pyjama clad, girl grab a seat at the counter.

Her brother, though, was all smiles.

"Bad hair day, Anne-Marie?" I chuckled.

"I need food!" She replied ignoring my teasing.

I had just finished cooking the first round of pancakes when Josh came into the kitchen trailing a tired looking Chloe, still in her pyjamas.

"What is it with the females this morning?" I asked.

"Josh kept me up all night," Chloe growled.

"Yeah, I heard a lot of noise from your room..." Danny added and Chloe blushed as she took a seat next to Anne-Marie.

"This is no good!" Mindy stated happily, when she came into the kitchen. "Josh, help me out here."

Josh smirked as he saw where Mindy was indicating. I stepped over and opened the door. Josh seized Chloe around the waist and Mindy did the same with Anne-Marie. I laughed as both girls were unceremoniously dumped into the swimming pool. They woke up very fast indeed!

"That was not funny!" Anne-Marie exclaimed as she glared up at her laughing brother, brushing her hair from her face.

"I suppose I needed that," Chloe commented wringing out her own hair.

Once both girls had dried themselves off and wrapped themselves in a towel each, I placed a plate in front of each of them and started dishing out bacon, eggs and pancakes.

"Thanks, Dave," Anne-Marie said.

"Yeah. Thanks, Dave," Chloe added.

That morning

After everybody had finished breakfast and was dressed, we took Sophia for a long walk around the surrounding houses.

I wanted to check things over and I wanted the twins to learn their way around the area. Josh spent most of the time winding up Chloe, much to the twins amusement. Dave was also in a wind up mood and he kept annoying me! We had a lot of fun and for once, I felt very happy as I cuddled into Dave and watched the twins laughing with Josh.

We actually walked quite a distance in a large square that allowed us to see much of the neighbourhood. We stopped on the way for lunch at a convenient Burger King before finishing off our walk.

That Afternoon

After we had completed our walk, I headed to D-JAK with Anne-Marie and Danny.

Today was an open house for people to just drop in and see if they liked what we had to offer. Dave took Josh and Chloe back home. I parked around the back as usual and entered by the back door. I was met by Paige.

"So, how many for an introductory class?" I asked.

"Fourteen kids."

"Not bad," I commented as I went to get myself changed and found Hailee already there.

"Hi, Mindy," she said cheerfully.

"Got your bra back on, I see!" I teased.

"Yeah – Kyle got a little bit carried away," Hailee, grinned with a slight reddening to her cheeks.

..._...

D-JAK was busy.

Along the sides were parents and other onlookers. On the mat were two lines of seven kids who seemed to vary from about ten-years-old into the early teens. It was an even mix of boys and girls. Kyle was there, along with Megan organising them. They were all bare foot and wearing loose clothing.

"Good afternoon!" I called out. "I am Mindy, and this here, is Hailee. We are the senior instructors here at D-JAK. Today we will give you all a brief introduction to, Taekwondo. If you have any questions, please ask."

I noticed Hailee looking a little uncomfortable so I took her off to one side for a moment.

"The girl, second in from the left on the back row. You see her?"

"Yeah?"

"That is Lauren Edwards; I rescued her on Friday. The girl next to her? I caught her breaking into my house a couple weeks back."

Interesting!

"Just continue as normal and pretend you don't know them," I suggested.

..._...

Hailee settled into her introductory class, while Kyle and Megan provided demonstrations. I wandered around chatting to parents and worked my way around to the back of the class where Lauren stood. I nodded at Hailee.

"Time for a short break, I think – Mrs Wilson, over there, can provide you with a drink and something to eat," she said.

I watched as Lauren went to grab a can of Coke and a candy bar. She was followed by a younger girl, who did the same. Both girls stood together; I went to talk to them.

"Hi, I'm Mindy; who are you two?"

"I'm Lauren Edwards and this is my little sister, Lizzie."

"You enjoying yourselves?" I asked.

"It's amazing," Lauren said and she sounded excited.

"It's interesting," Lizzie added. "I think!"

It seemed that Lauren enjoyed the idea of Taekwondo, but not so much Lizzie. They both seemed very different girls.

"How old are you two?"

"I'm thirteen and Lizzie is eleven," Lauren replied.

"You want to learn to defend yourself?" I asked Lauren.

"Yeah!" Lauren replied excitedly, and then she grimaced. "I don't know if Mom will be able to afford the classes, though."

"I'll give you both a month's free classes – twice a week and then we'll see how you go..."

Lauren almost screamed with delight and ran off to tell her mother, which was the plan – I know knew who Mrs Edwards was.

"Not enjoying the class?" I asked Lizzie once Lauren was gone.

"I don't know – will I learn to hurt people?"

"No – you will learn to defend yourself. While that may hurt the person attacking you; we do not teach you how to initiate an attack."

"That's okay then – I'll do it; I don't like hurting people."

"Pleased to hear it," I chuckled.

..._...

Next, I wondered over to the corner where Anne-Marie and Danny were being shown some movements by Curtis.

"Having fun?" I asked.

"Yeah – Curtis showed us how to defeat a knife attack," Danny said with a broad smile.

I scowled at Curtis – that was not what I wanted the twins to learn about – not yet at least! I was interrupted by a voice behind me.

"Mindy?"

I turned to find myself facing Mrs Edwards.

"That's me!"

"I'm Mrs Edwards, Lauren and Lizzie's Mom. You work here?"

"I own the place, with my fiancée," I replied.

"Oh!" Mrs Edwards replied, sounding a little surprised. "Lauren told me what you did, thank you. She is very keen to learn how to defend herself."

Mrs Edwards hesitated before continuing.

"Lauren was part of the Amber Alert, the other day. She was taken by those awful men; when she escaped, she wanted to learn to defend herself. Despite what the CPD said, Lauren insists that she was rescued by those vigilantes. I believe her; she has no reason to lie."

I nodded.

"I am sorry to hear that. I saw fire in her eyes, which was why I offered her the lessons."

"You have kids?"

I turned and pointed at the twins.

"They are wonderful. If you don't mind my saying, you seem a little young to have kids of that age."

"They only came into my life very recently," I admitted.

"Kids are hard work, but it is worth the struggle, Mindy."

"Thanks, Mrs Edwards."

"Call me Emily, please."

"Excuse me please, Emily... Anne-Marie – don't kick your brother like that – those bits don't grow back!"

That evening

Glenview

It had been a pleasing afternoon.

I had made a couple of kids happy, including one who had suffered through a lot. We had all been fully debriefed after the Amber Alert was over and I had listened intently to Hailee's debrief. She had described Lauren very well. The girl was very brave and had shown a lot of courage. She seemed to have an aptitude for the Martial Arts, hence giving her the lessons. I wanted to keep her around for the time being. As for her little sister, Lizzie, there was something not quite right about that girl.

The twins had had fun as usual, despite Curtis teaching them things that he should not showing them. I had enjoyed having the house filled with people, but it was also good to have the place for just the four of us – well five if you included Sophia!

Dave pressed play on the remote and we snuggled down on the couch in the living room with Anne-Marie and Danny. It was a classic – but it was family friendly; which most of my DVD and Blu-ray collection most definitely was not!

Danny had picked out one or two films, none of which was remotely suitable for either of them! 'Let Me In' would have given him nightmares and as for 'Mr and Mrs Smith', that might have given them both ideas! I also declined 'Mulan', I was not exactly sure how that had found its way into my movie collection, but never mind.

Dave and I loved the film and we had both seen it plenty of times, the twins apparently never had. Dave was convinced that I had a thing for Harrison Ford, no comment... The song that began the film suited me too: 'Anything goes'!

"Where's Shanghai?" Danny asked.

"It's a city in China," Dave explained.