My phone begins ringing a few weeks after we did the school project. It is now the end of October, and we are going to Anna's for a spooky sleepover. I look at who is calling me and find that it is Jack. 'I'll catch you up in a few minutes,' I tell my friends before answering. 'Hi, Jack.'
'Hey, Emma. I've got some bad news about Suzie. She committed suicide last night.'
'What?' I can't believe what I was hearing.
'I know she was your contact within Torchwood, so you would have talked with her a lot.' Not really, from what I remembered. Suzie called to check on me every month, but that was it. She would also give me tasks from Torchwood through email or post, but she never asked me how I'm getting on.
'We weren't particularly close,' I say. 'Suzie never really asked me how I was or anything.'
'I see,' Jack says. 'Well, Torchwood now has a new second-in-command, PC Gwen Cooper. However, before she became your new contact within Torchwood, I thought you would want to meet her. We don't want to make the same mistake that we did with Suzie.'
'Okay,' I nod. 'When will I meet Gwen?'
'She's having the first week to settle in, so that's this week, so maybe at some point in November, or maybe December? We'll see what she says first.'
'Right, thanks for letting me know.'
'You're welcome. If you ever need me, call me, okay?'
'Okay. Bye, Jack.'
'Bye.'
I put my mobile back in my pocket and think about what I just heard. Suzie, dead? What happened? Why did she commit suicide? I continue walking down the street until I reach Anna's house. All my friends are standing outside, and I feel myself smile a little at the sight of them.
'Emma, are you okay?' Kitty asks.
'One of my friends from Torchwood died,' I say. 'Well, I say friend, but we weren't close. She was keeping a link open between Torchwood and me.' Catalina nods, and we all head inside. Instead of choosing a scary movie for us to watch, Anna sits with us.
'Do you want to talk about it, Emma?' Anna asks.
'I'm fine, Anna.' Anna shakes her head, and I realise that I'm not fooling anyone. 'Okay, it was a shock. I wasn't close to Suzie or anything, but I knew her a little.' Kitty nods.
'If you ever want to talk about anything, we'll be here for you,' Catalina says.
'Thank you,' I smile. That is all I can ask of my friends. They have been kind to me over the past few weeks, and I don't want to let them down. I'll be happy to talk to them if the need ever arises.
We all head up to Anna's room, and I stop in surprise. I have never seen it before. Anna has white walls, and next to the window, she has a dark wood desk and a red chair. There is also a dark wood double bed, which Anna and Anne claim. She also has a day bed that has a metal structure and red covers. She also has a red sofa facing a black tv. Two of us will have to sleep on the floor. Jane pulls something out from under the day bed to reveal a pallet bed. Kitty takes the pallet bed, while the rest of us go into a corner to discuss where we will sleep for the night. 'I'll go on the floor if you like,' I say.
'No!' Jane and Catalina yell.
'You suffered a lot under Henry's reign,' Jane explains.
'So have you two. Besides, I haven't got there yet.'
'Of course,' Catalina agrees. 'But that shouldn't be a factor as to who should sleep on the floor.'
'I'm the youngest, I'll sleep on the floor,' I say.
'You're not the youngest! That's me!' Kitty yells.
'Emma is the youngest now as she hasn't lived through any of Henry's reign!' Jane shoots back.
'I'll sleep on the floor.' Kitty vacates the pallet bed and sets up her sleeping bag on the floor. Anna climbs off her double bed and pulls out a mattress from under her bed. We all stare at it in surprise.
'You didn't need to argue,' she says.
'Why didn't you bring that out before?' I ask.
'Because watching you three is amusing.'
'Oh, so we're amusing now?' Jane asks with a flicker of a smile on her face. I claim the sofa, while Kitty returns to the pallet bed. Jane lays her belongings on the day bed while Catalina lounges on the mattress.
'We should probably not watch a scary movie tonight,' Anna says. 'Anything we want to do instead?'
'We could still watch films, but maybe not that scary,' Kitty suggests.
'Hey, you shouldn't change your plans because of me!'
'We're not,' Catalina says. 'I'm not a big fan of scary stuff, and Kitty isn't either.'
'You were the only person who liked the idea of Halloween; we weren't so sure of it.' Anne says. 'But we started making our own traditions and found that we enjoy it. We should do that pumpkin thing again this year.'
'Oh, the year we made a pumpkin look like our ex-husband and then smashed it to pieces.'
'Yeah, that was my favourite year.' The others begin nodding, and I chuckle. That would be the sort of thing we would do. Then again, we would probably do anything crazy if it's against our ex.
'How about the Jurassic Park franchise?' Anna suggests. We nod, and she starts sorting it out.
'I never saw Jurassic Park before,' I say. 'What's it about?'
'You're about to find out,' Jane says.
'I'm on popcorn duty,' Anna yells and runs downstairs. 'Anne, Kitty, I'll need your help!' Anne and Kitty head downstairs and begin sorting everything out.
'They're going to get into trouble, aren't they?' Jane asks.
'Let the chaotic trio have their fun!' Catalina says.
In the end, we decided against watching Jurassic Park. By the time Anne, Anna and Kitty returned, Catalina had lyrics to a new song in her head and wanted to write it down. Unfortunately, she didn't bring a pen or paper with her. 'Come on; I wasn't expecting to have an idea for a song!' Anna lets Catalina use one of her pens and the notepad she uses for song ideas. 'Hang on, Anna, do you get ideas for all our songs?'
'Yeah, since we came up with 'Ex-Wives', I thought it could be something we could work on long-term, which is why I brought the notebook in the first place.'
'Excelente idea,' Catalina nods and begins writing down the lyrics she has. 'I thought I could have a bit of a Spanish beat to my songs since I come from Spain.'
'What have you got so far?' Anne asks.
'Only the chorus, but it's somewhere to start.' We nod.
'Come on, Ari, please sing it.'
'What the hell did you just call me?'
'Ari, short for Aragon.'
'Oh,' Catalina says. 'I prefer Catalina.' We all laugh, and Catalina begins singing it.
'You must think that I'm crazy
You wanna replace me with my lover
Henry, there's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
If you thought you could leave me
You must think I'm naïve, please believe me
There's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
No way
No way
There's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
No way
No way
I said there's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
There's no way!'
'That sounds awesome, Catalina,' I say. 'We should totally help you come up with more lyrics.' Before the others can agree, Catalina begins writing again. 'You got any more ideas?'
'Yes, I do,' she says. When she finishes scribbling everything down, she begins talking again. 'I think I now have the first verse done.'
'Let's hear it,' Jane says.
'So you tell me that it's over
That you've met someone new
But Henry, you keep forgetting about us
We never abandoned you
'Cause we have our golden rule:
Gotta keep our cool, yeah, Henry
(you know they gotta keep their cool)
But you keep running around
Having fun with pretty young things
And then have a son with someone
But they didn't own a wedding ring!
How can I explain it to Mary
When she starts asking questions, yeah, Henry?
(How can she keep it from Mary?)
We've put up with you sh!
Every day you came to us
(Woah, Woah)
But now it's time for you to Sh!
And listen when I say
You must think that I'm crazy
You wanna replace me with my lover
There's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
If you thought you could leave me
You must think I'm naïve, please believe me
There's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
No way
No way
There's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
No way
No way
I said there's n-n-n-n-n-n-no way!
There's no way!'
We start cheering. 'Ultimate girl power in the house!' Anna yells. We all smile. 'Maybe we should do this today, write songs about our time with our ex-husband!' We all sit in a circle and get our notebooks and pens out so we can start taking notes.
'I have an idea for mine,' Anne says. 'I should do it from when I arrive in the English court and meet Catalina!' We all nod, and Anne begins scribbling down ideas. 'No lyrics yet, but it will get there at some point.'
'That's fine,' I assure her. 'We aren't expecting lyrics yet, only ideas.'
We continue working late into the night, but don't come up with any more ideas. Anna's parents had to bang on the door several times, telling us that we have to go to sleep. 'It's not like we have school in the morning,' Anna yells back. 'Besides, we're the queens of the castle, get down you dirty rascals! Oh, that's great,' she writes it down. 'I can use that for the chorus of my song. I can talk about how great my life was after my divorce to Henry!'
'I think we can safely agree that Anna probably had the best life after marrying Henry,' Anne says.
When we all finally drifted off, I dreamed about Suzie. She's standing in front of the Water Tower, staring at me. 'Everyone is better than me,' she says. 'You all prefer something or someone else over me. Jack has the rest of Torchwood, Owen has his work, even you have the queens!'
'Suzie, you are your own person,' I say. 'Don't do this.' Suzie places a gun under her head. 'Suzie, don't do it.' Suzie pulls the trigger. 'SUZIE!'
'SUZIE!' I scream when I wake up. Jane turns the light on.
'Emma, are you all right?'
'Yeah, bad dream.' I'm about to go back to sleep when Catalina climbs off the mattress and joins me on the sofa. She gives me a hug, and we stay like that for several minutes.
'Do you want to join me on the mattress? You look like you could use a friend right now.' I nod, and we head over to the mattress and fall asleep.
The next morning, we are all tired. That can be expected when you stay up almost the entire night writing songs about Henry VIII and why you hate him so much. We still don't have any full songs yet, but we're getting there. We all sit down to breakfast and begin talking. 'You okay now, Emma?' Jane asks. I nod, and we start talking about what to do when my mobile rings. It's Jack again.
'Morning, Jack.'
'Hi, Emma. How are you doing today?'
'Okay,' I admit. 'My friends and I are going to do something today, but I don't know what yet.'
'Well, whatever you decide to do, have fun.'
'I'm sure we will,' I agree, and I notice that Anne is trying to get my attention. 'Jack, I need to go. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?'
'No, I just wanted to check up on you.'
'Okay. Well, speak to you soon.'
'Will do. Bye, Emma.'
'Bye, Jack.' I hang up and turn to Anne.
'How would you like it if we head into town? Yours and Lina's birthdays are in December, so we can start getting ideas.'
'I like the sound of it,' I agree. 'Let's do it!' We get dressed once we had our breakfast and head into town.
While we are in town, I think I see Suzie. We are in the bookshop, browsing in case we find anything that someone else would like when I see her. She tied her dark hair in a low ponytail, and she is wearing a black coat and carrying a black handbag. I turn back to my friends to make sure they're distracted. But when I turn back to her, the woman is gone. I stare in surprise at where the woman was standing. I must be seeing things. I turn back and begin looking at the books again when Kitty hurries over to me. 'That guy who's looking at me,' she points at a guy who is clearly older than us, 'I think he's Henry Mannox.'
'It can't be,' Anna whispers. 'We're the only ones Emma brought back, and she never met Henry Mannox!'
'Exactly, and she would never resurrect our ex-husband,' Jane whispers. 'You try to kill him after you had a daughter with him, and you vowed to never bring him back.'
'I have a daughter?!'
'Two, actually,' Catalina says. 'One with Henry and one with—maybe we shouldn't mention who with, you should work that one out for yourself.'
'You already told me too much, haven't you?'
'Come on, guys,' Anne says. 'Emma can read all this stuff in a biography, why do we have to keep it a secret from her?'
'Someone is hiding the truth from Emma,' Catalina sighs, turning to her girlfriend. 'That means they don't want Emma finding out. Also,' Catalina turns to me. 'You asked us not to tell you too much otherwise you might resist against whatever the future holds.' I can understand why Catalina and my friends will think that. I hate the idea that what I will do is predetermined by something. If I know what I'll do, then I'll not want to do it. Then, my best option will be to avoid the biographies and all that but focus on learning little bits about what I'll do. That way, I might not mess up history so much.