Eight Boys and a Walker girl

26 | Baby girl

Everyone go read the chapter before this if you didn't, cause not many of ya did and I feel like I'm losing readers :(

26 | Baby girl

"Hey Lina!"

I turn towards Leonie, who's been scribbling on her hand for the past half hour of the car journey to the cottage. We've been in the car for at least two hours now, and I'm beginning to feel ill. I'm glad of any distraction- I've been looking out of the window at the countryside that whizzes by us, listening to my playlist on Spotify and read about two pages of 'All the bright places' before realising that it was only succeeding in making me feel sicker. I turn thankfully towards the second-eldest Lacey sister.

"Yeah?"

She holds a fist out at me. I wonder for a moment if she wants to fist-bump me, but then I see that she's written 'press' on her knuckles. I stare at her in confusion, then press her knuckles, leading to her extending her index finger, on which is written 'twist'. I twist it slowly, and then read 'pull' on the other side, so I do. She unclenches her fist, revealing three words in the centre of her palm.

"Step on Lego."

I look up questioningly at Leonie, who shrugs at me.

"I was bored," she says, "It's supposed to tell you your fate."

"So I'm going to step on lego? That stuff hurts!" I complain, "You're so evil, Lee Lee."

I turn to a sniggering Kiara, and slap her shoulder irritably. "It isn't funny!"

"She did it for me on our journey to France last year," Kiara giggles, "You're lucky you got 'step on lego'. I got 'take a shower, you need it'."

We both turn accusing glares on Leonie, who simply shrugs innocently and takes out her phone, opening up Colour Switch and beginning to play.

I yawn, fumble in my bag, pretend to knock it over, and make sure a good deal of the content falls into the aisle between Elena and Mum's feet. Then I make a big show of reaching for it, and not being able to.

"Oh, I wish someone close to my things could pick some up for me..." I say in a loud voice, looking hopefully towards Elena.

She doesn't even look at me.

"Here you go, hon," Mrs Lacey picks up my lipgloss and portable charger, and hands them to me.

I flash my teeth at her in a smile. She turns back to her kindle, and I sigh miserably.

Elena hasn't acknowledged me since we got into the car, and it hurts. It hurts so much that I'm resorting to spilling my bag near her to try and get a reaction out of her. I still don't.

And what I've done to her- to both of us- isn't something that could just be apologised for and forgotten, just like that.

I pick up my phone and open up the app folder I've titled 'bored', full of all the time-wasting games that you don't enjoy playing but just play because you have nothing better to do. 'Helix Jump' may be the boringest game in the world, I think to myself as I start level 936, but it's something to occupy my mind.

A total of seventeen levels later, when I'm on level 953 and am basically playing on auto-pilot, the car bounces onto a gravel drive, and I look up to see that my window is entirely blocked by green leaves. Mum parks the car- she really can't park properly, the car always jumps and jolts painfully when she does- and calls out, "We're here!"

It's a scramble to get out of the car first, like it is every year- because, despite the people, I love coming here every year. It's like something that's part of me- it fits. I know every log-panelled room in the cottage, I know all the secret hiding places behind the fireplace and in the hidden cupboard in the attic, I know where to place your feet when climbing the huge oak round the back. The cottage has no garden, seeing as it's basically placed in the middle of a forest, so we just have the whole acre of trees to run in. At least, that's what I did when I was little. Sixteen-year-olds don't run through the trees. It's a shame, really.