The Natural Sissy and the Gang

Friends

"You do snore?" Phoebe whispered as Amelia half-opened one eye. They were lying face to face in Amelia's cot, heads level on the soft pillow. Amelia stretched her back and pulled her left arm out from under her sister, smiling sleepily.

"You talk in your sleep."

"Callum does bottom burps...all night?" Olivia giggled from Phoebe's cot, where she was curled up with her brother. "And I think the last one was more than just a burp?"

"It wasn't...but it's late...no one can last forever?" Callum said from beneath the duvet as Sebastian sat up in the travel cot right next to him and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Crispin hardly moved all night...and he is still asleep?" He said, grinning at everyone.

"He sleeps like a log!" Phoebe chuckled, still cuddling Amelia, before getting serious all of a sudden. "Do you think Arabella got in really bad trouble?"

"Spanked for sure...for fighting like that?" Olivia suggested with a deep sigh. "I mean Mrs Mason was already there...Arabella should have let her sort everything out?"

"She went berserk! I've never seen anything like it?" Amelia said, rolling onto her back before looking at Phoebe. "And if anyone ever bullies you again, you have to promise you will tell someone?"

"Mummy might have mentioned that...once or twice?" Phoebe replied, resting her head on Amelia's shoulder, just as Barbara Carter walked into the room, still pulling her dressing gown on and yawning her head off.

"Horrible children...I was having a lie in!" She growled, clearly still half asleep.

"Should have got an early night, Mummy?" Amelia grinned cheekily, as they were all very aware that their parents had enjoyed a dinner party after they had been put to bed, and they all laughed again. Barbara glared and then smiled, moving towards the cots.

"I should definitely not have let your father open that last bottle of wine...now someone has a stinky bottom...which one of you monsters is it?"

Over an hour later, breakfast had broken out in the kitchen, as Barbara and Caroline served up pancakes for everyone. Prep had all been done the day before, as they all had the afternoon off, and the children all seemed to be in good spirits. Especially after Barbara told her three that they were not wearing nappies for the day, and possibly longer. It was a noisy and rather chaotic meal, and when most had eaten enough, Colin Carter turned the television on in the lounge and let the kids watch CBBC, whilst the adults drank coffee and settled down at the kitchen table with a couple of stragglers. Phoebe had climbed onto Barbara's lap and Caroline had Sebastian on her.

"Mummy?" Phoebe asked, after a while. Like her three siblings, including Sebastian, she was wearing a pink velvet dress with a matching bow in her hair. But as pleased as Barbara was with Phoebe's change in attitude, she was well aware that it was prompted by the fear caused by her bullies and that the child still had a lot of emotion locked up inside her. Gloria Brownhill was not a tactile, loving person, and although she had stepped up to the plate when her daughter and son-in-law were killed, she had not showered the children with love. They had a home, and a good routine, but it was not a family. Barbara thought that Phoebe was just starting to explore what her new family could offer her, at her lowest emotional ebb, and she had never been cuddled and protected before.

"Yes, pickle?" Barbara said, wrapping her arms around her.

"I am worried about Arabella, Mummy?" Phoebe said quietly. "She stuck up for me...those girls would have hurt me again, before Amelia and Olivia could get to me, if it had not been for Arabella...and she said she was my friend?"

"She said that because you stood up for her brother, darling...you really hardly know her and right now, I am not sure that she is the sort of friend you need?" Barbara suggested as gently as she could. Arabella Sinclair was a troubled little girl, and she was not sure that she wanted any of her children around her, let alone Phoebe. "And what are worried about? She wasn't hurt, beyond a few scratches, and she is being well looked after?"