THIRD PERSON POV
"episode three - bad luck boy"
IF THERE'S ONE THING YOU KNOW ABOUT TOBY, IT'S THAT HE HAS NEVER HAD THE BEST LUCK. So when the opportunity of foster parents was thrown at the boy, he immediately started to begin of the worst possible outcomes.
Tracy, who was now actually doing her job well, wanted to prove to Toby that things will go well if he gets rid of this negative mindset he constantly holds.
Her way of doing that was by cooking the boy a perfect breakfast of a runny egg.
At the table, many of the residents sat. Maeve had her legs kicked up onto Sapphire's as she watches Harry cover his giraffe in his cereal milk.
Unfortunately for Maeve, having breakfast in the household meant that majority of the children would be there, including Liam.
As if her gruelling thought summons him, he sits at the table, "Jeff is going to reek so bad." He comments.
Tracy leans against the kitchen counter, "Harry can you not get milk on Jeff please." She begs as Harry's face holds a cheeky grin.
Toby had been keeping an eye of his watch waiting for the 3 minutes to be up so Tracy can finally remove the boiling egg from the water. She calls Liam to grab toast as they almost accidentally collide.
Everyone heart rate sped up slightly at the sight and only got to lower slightly before Tracy trips, throwing the egg up into the air.
Everyone watched the egg fly though the air, mouths wide open. Luckily, Tracy had managed to catch it safe in her hands, no damage done.
The egg gets placed into the holder as everyone crowds around awaiting the big reveal. Toby uses a spoon to remove the top of the egg only to reveal it to be perfect.
Toby grabs the salt shaker, holding it upside down over his egg but unfortunately, the lid wasn't on properly. The whole container empties onto his egg ruining it all.
"I'll do you another one." Tracy ruffles his hair.
He looks up, "What's the point? I told you, from the day I was born i've been jinxed."
After the breakfast shambles, everyone ends up in the living room. Sapphire had let Maeve borrow her phone and headphones to listen to music as they lay on the sofa together.
Liam and Toby were stacking cards on the table beside them as other kids find themselves in pairs and trios in the room.
Johnny walks over to the two girls, a letter in his hand. "Letter for you Sapph." He flags as he passes its to her.
Maeve sits up from her slouching position to cross her legs eagerly as she watches her friend open the letter.
It's rare for anyone in the house to get mail.
The eldest girl opens the letter, pulling out two vip tickets. She jumps up screaming, scaring everyone in the room and subsequently causing Toby to knock down the tower he was working on.
"Dizzee! Are you joking me?" She screams again, "My dads got me two tickets for tomorrow! How cool is that! Cos my dads like, a roadie, so.." Maeve watches happily as her friend enthusiasm soars through the roof. "We'll probably go backstage and meet Dizzee and his crew!"
The girl runs out the room trying to find the closest adult to enthuse to next.
Maeve doesn't know much about Sapphires dad but all she does know is that Sapphire , like, never gets to see him.
Later in the day, Maeve goes and visits Sapphire in her room only to find out that Mike, Gina and Tracy have all told her that she is not allowed to go.
"What?" The youngest is confused, "Why not? It's literally already paid for."
Sapphire flops onto her mattress, "It's just because they don't want me to see my dad."
As much as Maeve wanted to know why, she knew better than the question people about their personal life, especially if they live in a children's home.
Surprisingly, the person she knew the most about was Liam. Him and his five different sets of foster parents; him being left at a hospital at only a few days old.
Some may guess that she's just interrupts in the boys life, but that couldn't be anymore wrong. She found and tracked things about his past just in case they got into a really bad argument and she needed a personal dig. It's not something she's proud off and it's also something she hopes to never use, but, it's there just in case.
It's the next day and even by morning, things weren't looking good for Toby.
Tracy released her article last night and the whole house had read it.
She had titled the column, 'Bad Luck Boy' and it ended up being all about Toby.
Maeve couldn't believe it when she read it. Wasn't it just yesterday that Tracy was trying to convince Toby that he's not unlucky?
"When Toby goes outside, birds stop singing and dogs begin to howl.."
It's crazy to think that Tracy would write and release this article. She's lived at the dumping ground before so she must have known that if anyone found it, it's bad news for Toby.
He endured comments like:
"Careful Bad Luck Boy, could have been a black cat."
"How do, Voodoo?"
"The curse of the Mummy.. wooo!"
"Curse of the no-mummy."
It shouldn't surprise anyone that straight after breakfast, he went to his room.
Back in the lounge, the girls find themselves on the sofa again. They seem to spend majority of the week there.
Tracy comes in with Gus close behind her, notebook out. "Tracy, because you wrote Toby was Bad Luck Boy, I've found some things out. Black cats are unlucky but also really lucky-"
She interrupts him, "You read my column?"
"Everyone did."
Tracy turn to us all, "And that's why you took the Mick out of him? Great."
Maeve turns her head to face the woman, "You do realise that people are just quoting things that you wrote," She quirks her head, "Right?"
"I was being ironic, funny."
Sapphire closes her magazine, "Except that his mum and dad were killed in a car crash."
Tracy's face fills with shock and guilt, "What?"
Gus even joins in, "Which isn't funny, actually."
Sapphire stands up, leavening her friend as she walks out the room. "Didn't you even know that?" She questions on her way.
Sapphire didn't care. She had asked Maeve to help her pick out an outfit as she planned to go out with her dad. Of course, Maeve agreed, as long as her friend would describe everything that happens in excessive detail. Sapphire was planning on doing so anyway.
Just as the girls leave Sapphires room, they bump into Tracy. "Going somewhere?"
Sapphire turns to face her, "Yeah! What's it got to do with you?"
"What do you think? I was the one who said let's build some trust!"
Maeve could tell that this is not her argument, as much as she would like to join in.
"You can trust me!"
"Sure! Last time it was Amsterdam. What's next? Join the circus?"
Maeve frowns, "Amsterdam?" She's ignored as Sapphire talks back.
"That was my Dads fault."
"Yeah, right!"
"Anyway, you shouldn't even be here! You're all supposed to be downstairs with those people come for Toby."
Tracy tilts her head, "Well I guess that's just you bad luck! It was your choice what you did so don't try and blame your dad."
"My dad?" Sapphire scoffs, "I don't give a stuff about him! I probably won't even see him. I'm going with Ferris!"
"Who?"
"My boyfriend!"
Now, Maeve did know about this little secret of Sapphire's, obviously. Ferris seemed like an alright boy from the story's Sapph relays to her. She would like to meet him in person one day though.
"So what was all of that 'I never see my dad' stuff about then? I was trying to help you!"
"Don't pretend you care!" There's a pause in the argument, "Look, get out of my way, you'll get paint on my clothes."
Tracy grabs Sapphires arm, preventing her from going down the stairs. "You're not going anywhere. Even if I have to lock you inside myself. Give me the tickets." Sapphire just stares her down, "Give me the tickets!"
"Fine!" The eldest girl rips both tickets in half, throwing them to the ground, "Satisfied?" Maeve cant help but let her mouth fall open, it was a fast escalating argument.
Both girls walking their separate ways, leaving the youngest girl of the bunch on her own, again.
She stands there for a minute, trying to figure out what to do with herself when Toby comes round the corner.
Maeve looks at him before laughing, "What happened to you?" She inspects him closer, "You've got yellow paint everywhere!"
He ignores her question, "I need Sapphire's help, please."
Maeve doesn't respond, only nods as she lead him to Sapphires room.
Toby requests that Sapphire get her prediction cards out. That's what Maeve calls them anyway.
Sapphire stops shuffling the cards, "Sure you want to do this?"
"I need to know what going to happen in the future with these people." Toby admits referring to his new foster parents.
"Look, just because some people believe these tell the future doesn't mean it's true."
"But it might be."
Sapphire looks at her friend who looks back and can only offer a shrug before she lays the cards in a pile on her bed.
"Cut the cards." Toby follows her instructions. Once the half he cut off is place under the rest, Sapph spreads the cards out and waits for him to pick one.
He does. Toby stares at the card. "Well, let's see it then." Sapphire asks.
The boy puts the card down. It's the death card.
All three of them exchange looks before Toby runs out the room locking him in his bedroom before the two girls could catch up.
"No, listen to us, Toby. That card doesn't mean what you think." I try and bargain with him.
A new voice appears behind us, one belonging to Tracy Beaker, "What have you done?"
Sapphire turns around to defend her friend, "Look who's talking!"
Finally, the girls and Tracy manage to get in his room. The lay on his bed, hanging their heads over the edge to see Toby who lays beneath.
"Let Maeve explains about the death card." Tracy starts the conversation.
"No-one dies or anything. It's about turning over a new leaf. Leaving the old you behind, making a new start." I smile at him, "Sapphire taught me all the meanings and that's what the death card means."
"What's wrong with the old me?" Toby questions.
"Nothing." Sapphire answers truthfully.
"What's going on?" The voice of Gina startles the new group of four as they all look up.
"Just a minute, Gina." Tracy tells her as they all revert back to their usual place, "If your mum and dad could talk to you now, what would they say? They'd say give life another chance. Do what you want to do."
The girls as a collective had managed to persuade the boy to talk to the foster parents. Even if it was to tell them that he doesn't want to get fostered.
Sapphire and Maeve wait for Toby to get back from saying good bye to the couple and to check that he's okay. He was.
The giant family join up in the garden for a big game of football. Even if Maeve and Liam did kick the ball a bit hard at each other and sometimes 'accidentally' miss and kick the others leg, it was a good game.
1971 words