Alba Moa Lomari
I woke up to quiet pattering. Great, a drizzly, cloudy, grey day. At least it was Saturday. I looked around the room-all the others were gone already.
Groaning, I rolled out of bed and suddenly remembered yesterday. Had Gin carried me all the way up here?! Pulling on a baggy jumper, I bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen.
The familiar, every-day scene of chaos greeted me. My mother was, as always, running around, trying to make toast, porridge, and packed lunches for five children at the same time. Yes, five children, my five younger siblings. The great joys of my life.
The first joy jumped at me, as soon as she saw me. Kalla, my five-year old and only sister. I scooped her up, although she was getting pretty big, and kissed her on the nose.
"Albaaa...the others are saying that boys are better than girls! That's not true, right?"
"No, of course girls are better," I whispered into her ear, then raised my voice, so my mother could hear me, "Mum, did Gin bring me home yesterday?"
While stirring in two pots at the same time, she shouted, so she could be heard over one of the baby's cries, "Oh, dear. I don't know! I fell asleep with the kids yesterday. Actually I thought you were staying at his place."
I rolled my eyes. Of course my mother didn't ever notice if I was there or not.
Pulling off Kalla, I picked up my one-year old and youngest, currently crying brother, Deejay.
Instantly he stopped and gurgeled, pulling at my hair, happily.
My mother got me with the tender age of 22. I don't think she had been ready for a child yet. She had hired a nanny to do most of the work and hadn't done a lot with me herself. Then five years later, she had decided that she was ready and my brother Kaleb had been born. Then, suddenly she turned into Super-Mum, having four more babies over the next 8 years and being the perfect mum and housewife.
I was feeding Deejay some hot milk, when the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" I opened the door to see Brook and Gin waiting there.
Gin grinned, "She insisted on using the front door." We had a backdoor, which was always open and people who visited regularly always went in from there.
Brook raised her eyebrows at him, "It's rude to just barge into the house like that, you idiot! Seriously, no manners, boy!"
I tutted, "You're a bad example for the little kids here." I jiggled Deejay up and down.
"Alright, peace you two! We just thought that we should go somwhere together, seeing as the weather is so beautiful..." We all glanced at the dull, misty clouds.
"Come on, don't be so pessimistic!" With that, Gin pushed us all into the house and closed the door behind us. "First of all, you get dressed, Alba."
I saluted, "Yes sir. You can wait in the kitchen."
Scarlet Brooklyn Grace
"Gin, I feel bad leaving Amelie and Riley alone in your clutterbucket." Then, as a joke, I added, "It might collapse from their weight."
Gin laughed and said, "Go stand in the rain then. I'm not going to give you the key to my car."
"You locked my sister in there?!"
Gin nodded solemnly.
I punched his arm and snatched the keys from his teasing finger.
Before I left closed the door, I turned around and said, "It's not raining, idiot!" and stuck my tongue out. Then, to avoid further arguing from Gin, I quickly closed the front door.
Gin and Alba got into the car and a small girl that looked to be about Amelie's age climbed in too and sat on my other side.
"Gin, we don't have a spare booster seat."
Amelie looked past me and at the little girl. Riley rested her chin on my head from the boot, breathing hot air over my hair.
Alba said from the front, "She's called Kalla. We'll have to take her with us today."
"Why?" I asked.
"To help my mother. I have five siblings," Alba explained.
"Five?" I asked, shocked. How does the mum support six xhildren? Mum can barely support a family of four, including herself and Riley.
"Yeah, five," Abla replied. Good, apparently she hadn't realised the reason for my shock.
Amelie made a shy attempt at conversation with Kalla, "Hey. I'm Amelie." I could see her blush and soon after speaking she tried to hide behind my back.
Kalla leaned forward and tried to get a good view of Amelie, then said, equally shyly and with a slight lisp, "I'm Kalla."
I smiled at her lisp. I remembered Amelie's first lost tooth...
(A/N: For those of you on the wattpadapp – so can't see the cursive, this is Brook's memory)
"BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!"
Fright had sent me running to find Amelie. I found her, standing on a stool in front of our sink, toothbrush in one hand, her other in a fist, blood coming out of her mouth, dripping, mapping a path across the white sink. The contrast od shiny colours mesmerised me.
"Brook, my tooth. It's not my fault, it just came out…"
That brought my attention back to my little sister, and away from the brilliant red. I smiled, "No, it's normal to loose your teeth. Tonight," I walked over and unclenched her little fist, freeing her tooth from it and rinsing it, "you can put it under your pillow, and the tooth-fairy will come and leave a little something behind."
"Really? What will she leave me?" Amelie had asked, making some blood spill out of her mouth.
"Where are we going today?" Alba asked Gin from the front.
I washed her hand and told her to rinse her mouth. "You'll see."
"There's an indoor playground I thought would be good. Then the horrors can play and we can talk."
That night had been a pain. First I had to go through the tiresom task of getting Amelie to actually fall asleep, then I had turned the house upside-down, looking for any kind of coin or sweet to put under her pillow.
I wasn't even done by the time Mum got home. She had come in, and asked, "Are you okay?"
I always avoided that kind of question, because every time she found me awake, she assumed I was plagued by more nightmares, which was usually true. But this time I didn't have to lie, "Amelie lost her first tooth. I thought I should put a little something under her pillow tonight."
Mum had actually smiled then, a rare thing at the time. "Here, put this under her pillow tonight," and she had handed me the necklace that Dad had given her soon after they met.
"Not this. Jenny, she might loose it." I had stopped calling Mum 'Mum' a long time ago.
"We can't dwell on him, Brook."
"But this is–"
"Don't. Just put it under her pillow."
I hadn't wanted to argue with her, and I couldn't keep it for myself, so I put it under Amelie's pillow.
(A/N: Her memory is over…)
"Really Gin? An indoor playground? Are you serious? And they're not horrors!" Alba scoffed.
"Yes they are! They pull your hair, they scream, they're ungrateful, the list goes on."
Bickering like an old married couple. But because I thought that that might trigger an unpleasant response, I held my tongue. Something I was usually not good at.
"Wait, is this like a café with an indoor playground or something? Will Riley be allowed in?" I asked.
Gin glanced at me through the rear view mirror, or maybe he was just checking out the car that was sitting on his bum, and said, "Well, I seem to remember them allowing animals in. It's a bit of an outdoor/indoor playground. As long as it doesn't tip, we can stay outdoors, the moment it does, we can move inside."
"And what about Riley when it does tip?!"
"Ah, that's assuming it will."
"Did you even look at the sky today genius?" I retorted.
Gin just tutted and I considered insulting him indirectly, like talking to Alba about how he was a jerk, when I remembered that he'd paid for the pizzas, and that if we were going to a café, that someone who wasn't me was going to pay for that. I had no right to complain.
After a few seconds a surprised Gin said, "No sarcastic reply from Brook? What's the matter today?"
Alba turned around to look at me, and smiled when she saw my astonished face.
"Normally when I have the grace not to snap at everyone, people are pleased, not sad," I said. After all, I couldn't leave Gin's last statement hanging like that.
I wish I had money.
"Brook, can you buy me an icecream today?" Amelie asked.
As I said, I wish I had money.
"It's a bit cold for ice cream today," I tried.
Gin, being Gin, had to come to my rescue and make me feel even more in his dept. "I'll buy you an ice cream if you want, Amelie."
"What about me?" Kalla asked from my other side.
"You too," Gin replied.
"Hey, not too much sweet stuff for her," Alba cut in.
Riley barked from above me, just to join in, and I groaned.
"You might get a tummy-ache from ice cream, Riley," Gin said.
I was about to tell my two off, when I caught Gin's stare through the rear view mirror, and this time it would have just been wishful thinkning to assume he was looking at the other car. His intense gaze was quite obviously aimed at me, and it told me that he was getting Amelie an ice cream, no matter what I said or did. So to avoid Amelie getting suspicious, I decided to save my remarks for later.