I snuck out of Lips bed and headed downstairs. Debbie was already in the kitchen pouring a bowl of cereal. "Me too" I told her. "No way. Do it yourself. I have no idea why Fiona and daddy want to spend all their time with you. You're so annoying" she whined as she pushed past me and headed into the lounge room with her cereal. "I had so much fun with dad yesterday" I yelled out after her and flipped her off though she couldn't see it. I made myself some cereal and headed into the lounge room. "No you're not sitting with me. I'll beat you up if you do" she yelled at me. "You don't own the couch Debbie" I yelled back at her. She threw the remote at me, I managed to dodge it then quickly picked it up. "Well now you don't have a remote" I told her and went outside to eat my cereal on the front porch.
"Morning Mrs. Piotrowski" I yelled out as she walked past. She mumbled something and continued on her way. I threw another bit of cereal on the ground for the birds. "How about you feed yourself" Fiona said from behind me. I didn't turn around. She sat next to me. "I already did" I told her. She took the bowl off me and started eating the left over cereal. "Debbie still grumpy?" she asked. I just nodded. "Lip said Frank yelled at you last night?" she asked. I nodded again. "It sucks when he does that, hey?" she said. "I was in the way" I mumbled. "It's never your fault Lucy, it's dads. Remember that and don't let him upset you" "I'm not upset" She was the one to nod this time. Conner and Ian squeezed past us "sure you don't want to join?" Ian asked Fiona. "I've got to much to do around here" she replied. Conner bent down and kissed her then he and Ian ran off.
Lip was feeding Liam at the table. Liam stuck his hand out to me, he had some cereal clinched in his fist. "Yummy!" I told him and nibbled at his hand. He started giggling and pulled his hand away from me then stuck it in his own mouth. "I'm going over to Tish's this morning if you want to come, maybe play with Lacey?" Lip said to me. "Yeah, sounds good" I told. "Go get dressed while Debbie's in the shower" Fi told me and patted me on the shoulder. I ran off upstairs.
We run around for a bit and climbed all over the playground. I pulled my knife from my pocket and tried to carve my initials into the wood around the sandpit. Once I was done I gave the knife to Lacey and she did the same. Some older boys had been doing deals on the other side of the slide, apart from them the place was empty. They walked towards us and looked over our shoulders. "Not bad for little kids" one of them said. "Like you could do any better" I told him. His friend chuckled and slapped him on the arm. "Give it" he said to Lacey and stuck out his hand. She went to hand him the knife but I grabbed it off her. "No way, you'll nick it" I told him and stood up. He shook his head and pulled out his own knife from his pocket, it was a lot bigger then mine. I snickered at it. He bent down and carved a gang symbol into the wood. "That's why you don't mess with us kid and why you saw nothing here" he said. "We never see nothin'" Lacey told him. Another older kid came over, I recognised him. "Hey, your father want anything?" He asked me. "Nah, he didn't like that last lot of shit you sold him" I said. "As if Frank knows what's good. Only knows what's cheap" I shrugged and mumbled "whatever" then took Lacey over to the swings. The boys soon came over to us again and started pushing us while they shared a blunt. "Too high?" one of them asked. "Never" I told him and he pushed me even higher.
I went over to the counter and put my money down. "Just the normal" I told Bill. He grabbed a pack of cigarettes and chucked them at me then took the note without a word. He had just earned himself an extra $5. I headed outside without saying anything too. I put the smokes in the shopping bag with the other things I had grabbed for Mrs Beaufort and skipped down the street.
"Mrs Beaufort!" I yelled out as I unlocked the door and let myself in. As always she was sitting in her armchair. "Lucy, precious girl" she said as I placed the bag in her lap. I grabbed the dirty dishes off the ground and took them into the kitchen. The fridge had been left open so I closed that then pulled a chair over to the sink so I could wash the dishes. Mrs Beaufort was onto her second smoke and nearly finished a beer when I went back into the lounge room "there's a new book on the piano I want you to look at" she told me.
The front door opened and I heard someone walk over to the couch, I didn't bother turning around to see who it was. "You're watching it again?" Fiona asked as she leaned against the back of the couch. Liam looked up at her. "It's pretty" I told her. "I'm going to put my new clothes on, you got to stay there so you can see them all" Debbie said, I assumed not to me. "Is Lip finally home?" Fi asked. I nodded. They both headed upstairs. Liam started grunting and stuck his hands out to me. I gave him my hand and he happily played with that. "Where's Fiona?" Debbie asked as she ran down the stairs. I didn't respond. "Fantasia? Again? It's so boring" she complained. I continued to ignore her. "Fiona!" she yelled up the stairs. "I'm coming, I'm coming" Fi said as she hurried down the stairs. "Can we watch something else please" Fi said to me as she picked up Liam and sat in his spot. "No" I told her. She slapped my leg. "Are you watching me?" Debbie said as she walked in a funny way over to the tv. I opened my mouth to say something, but Fiona shoved her hand in front of it "don't" she told me. I rolled me eyes and crossed my arms. Debbie walked up and down in front of us a few times while Fiona said nice things to her. Then she would disappear for a bit and come back with new clothes one. "I hate having to get her hand me downs" I said to Fi as Debbie took off upstairs yet again. "Yeah there's a few doozies in this lot but you're still a few years off having to wear them. Maybe by then I'll be rich and I can buy you new clothes" she said. Debbie came down again, this time with an awful brown patterned skirt on. "I really, really, really hope so" I said to Fi. "Last one yeah? I've got to do some washing" Fi said to Debbie.
"Lucy!" I heard Carl yell from the kitchen "what?!" I yelled back not moving of the couch. He came into the lounge room with arms full of cardboard cylinders. "Where did you get those from?" Debbie asked him. He ignored her and dropped all but one on the ground and charged at us with it raised above his head. I scrambled off the couch and ran to grab one as well. Carl tried to whack me as I went past but I was too quick. Debbie wasn't as lucky and got whacked twice before she grabbed a cylinder. I hit carls with mine and we had a proper sword fight. Debbie blind sided me and whacked me in the head with hers. I tried to get her while also keeping an eye on Carl. Lip and Ian soon joined in too and we all ran around the house whacking each other as hard as we could. A stray swing from Carl hit Fiona as she shoved clothes into the washing machine. "That's it!" she yelled. We all stopped for a second. "I need my own one to defend myself with" she said and rushed to grab one of the last cylinders. We split into two groups, girls against boys then charged at each other, cylinders raised high.
Liam started crying from his cot. "Ok, time to stop. Conner will be here soon anyway. Who's coming out for pizza?" she asked as she caught her breath. The rest of us all sat down on the couch, no one answered Fiona. "Hey, answer please" she said. We all mumbled a version of yes and she headed upstairs.
"Lucy has no shoes on" Debbie told Fiona. "I forgot" I whined. "I'm not turning around" Conner said. Fiona just looked back at me and shook her head. "Oww Carl you're elbowing me" Ian complained again. Ian, Debbie, Ian and Lip were all squeezed together on the set while Liam sat on Ian's lap and I sat on Lips. "How long til we are there?" I whined. "This is the last time I'm taking them all in the car Fiona" Conner grumbled.
"I'm going for a swim!" I yelled out and rushed to the waters edge. Carl followed me. "It will be freezing Lucy" Ian yelled out after me. I dipped my toes in, it was definitely cold. "You're not coming in my car soaking wet!" Conner yelled out. Carl turned back to them and flipped him off. I laughed "moon him too" I said to Carl. Carl unzipped his jeans, I quickly grabbed them and pulled them down. They fell into the water before Carl even realised what was going on. "Lucy!" He screamed at me. I dashed away from him as fast as I could then heard a splash. I turned around to see him face first in the water. I doubled over with laughter. Carl picked himself up and stared at me. I quickly ran over to Ian and sat in his lap. He, Debbie and Lip were all laughing too. Carl stomped over to us and threw his wet trousers at me. Ian caught them and chucked them into the sand. Carl tried to kick sand at me as well. I scrambled off Ian's lip and ran around in circles, Carl tried to catch me put he wasn't a very fast runner. "Enough!" Conner said nd grabbed me as I jumped over Fis legs again. I squirmed my way out of his arms and crawled away from him. "I'm going to get more beer" Lip said and got up. "And candy" I said. Lip give me a quick nod. "I'll go with you" Debbie said and left with lip. I took a swing of pop from the bottle, Carl grabbed it off me and managed to spill some in the process. Conner sighed loudly. "How about we go for a walk? Ian your fine with everyone yeah?" Fi said and stood up. "Sure" Ian mumbled. Fiona heaved Conner to his feet and the walked off together, arms draped around each other. I pulled a marker out of my pocket. "Want to play don't step on shit?" I asked Carl. He snatched the marker off me and went over to the pavement and started drawing piles of poop.