~ Welcome to Quills ~

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It was about nine in the morning when the household of the Bourdon-White's finally managed to get ready. The triplets had to go to daycare and Sarah had to go to work, and she was well late for it. She was at the bench with the lunch boxes of Lycan, Selene, and Sonya. Mel was on the living room couch watching morning talk shows and holding her pregnant belly. Lycan was nearby putting on his shoes which his mother had instructed him and his siblings to do, but not all of her children were doing what they were instructed to do. Selene was still fixated to the television screen in their living room, which the kitchen overlooked. Sarah looked up and sighed at her daughter.
"Get ready, Selene," ordered Sarah, as she was starting to stress out. Selene merely looked back at her and stared. "Now. Do I have to tell you again?"
"No," grumbled her daughter, as she got to her feet and walked towards the door where all the shoes were piled up in messy piles.
"Mummy," tugged the other daughter of Sarah's, as she tugged the shirt of her mother's. Sarah looked down at Sonya. "Where's Daddy?"
"He's not here, like Sarah told you," grumbled Scarlett as she opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of orange juice and drank from it. Sarah turned around and frowned at Scarlett. Scarlett detached her lips from the bottle, wiped her mouth and merely looked at her stepmother.
"What did I tell you about drinking out of that?" asked Sarah. "That's how you spread germs. Don't do it again."
"But Dad does it, why can't I?" asked Scarlett.
"Because you're father's a slob that's why," answered Sarah, as she suddenly heard crying coming from the hallway. "Oh god, what has happened now?" Sarah picked up Sonya and rushed to the hallway to see who was screaming and crying. Sarah put her daughter down to see Lycan on the floor, holding his head and crying, while Henry towered over him and looked rather innocent. "What happened, darling?" Sarah picked up her son and kissed his head better. No response just tears as Lycan rested his head on his mother's shoulder. "Henry, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," answered Henry, innocently. "He was trying to copy me and roll on the ground and he ran into something and he hurt himself."
"Henry, he's not your age, you shouldn't tell him to copy you like that," told Sarah who was growing impatient. Sarah looked at Mel through the arch way that gave her perfect vision to see what happened and watched her sister watch the morning talk shows. "Mel!" 
"What?" asked Mel, as she dozed out of her own world and looked to her twin sister.
"Did you see what happened?" asked Sarah. Mel shook her head as she looked confused to what had happened. "Then what good are you?" Mel opened her mouth to retort but didn't say anything as Sarah continued to rush around the house with one child in her arm and the other arm doing whatever it had to do in order to get the house ready. She stopped as she saw Selene back at the television again, watching the cartoons. "Selene, what did I just tell you?"
"I'm putting on my shoes," she turned around showed Sarah one foot with one shoe on and the other just a white sock. "See?"
"Sorry, I didn't see," answered Sarah, as she went back to the kitchen. She stopped and looked at her son. "You okay now?" Lycan sniffled and nodded. "It's going to be alright. You might've just gotten a bump on the head. You're not going to die." She put her son down, just as Henry and his sister came in and then Sarah realised something. "Henry, change your pants. You're not going to school in your pyjamas." Henry groaned, put down his bag he was carrying with one arm and left the room to hopefully change. "Mel, can you please help me?!"
Mel sighed as she got to her feet and walked out of the living room she was and walked to the kitchen and stood there, with hands in her PJ pockets, looking like she didn't give a damn about anything or anyone.
"Yes master?" asked Mel, sarcastically.
"Can you put all the kids who are ready in the car please?" asked Sarah. "I've got my hands full in the kitchen as you see." Mel rolled her eyes and went off to collect the kids.
"Come on kids, before Aunt Mel gets hormonal and cranky with you lot," answered Mel, as Selene got up from sitting down in front of the television and joined in with Sonya and Scarlett standing in a line in front of Mel. Mel hushed them to the car as Sarah double checked everything was done.
She collected the lunch boxes and the remaining bags in the living room that the kids forgot to take and went to grab her bag and stuff when she realised she didn't know where it was. She knew she forgot to do something last night before she went to bed. Sarah sighed as she decided that she better put the stuff she had in her hands in the car with the kids before she forgets them also. She walked out to the garage to the four-wheeler that they had because it was the only thing that was large enough to transport them all everywhere before Scarlett got her own license and car when she was older. Sarah opened a backseat to give everyone their lunch boxes. The triplets were in the back in their car seats because if they weren't in their car seats they would freak out and start crying and screaming. Behind them in the very back row was Henry as Scarlett had decided to take the front passenger seat next to Sarah. She delivered all the lunches and told Mel to keep them occupied while she went in search of her stuff.
It was just moments later when Sarah was ripping out drawers and shelves to find her bag with her documentation in it for her business and the car keys when she assumed that one of the kids must've thought that it was one of their bags and carried it into their room. So she ducked in and out of the rooms trying to find the bag that looked so closely to a child's bag because it was indeed a backpack, and found it in the boys room, tucked underneath the large white desk where Henry used it as a place to build the worlds largest mountain out of paper school homework sheets that he was supposed to do. 
Now Sarah's queries about why Henry got a bad report card every semester were finally answered.
She snapped up her bag and ran for the car, checking the time. It was quarter past, school had already started and she was going to end up writing a note for Henry and Scarlett for the reason they were late. 
Sarah kissed her sister goodbye and wished her good luck for today as her sister's first ultrasound was today. She made a double check that everything was in order and that everyone was in the car and roared off down the street.
The first set of lights that Sarah stopped at, she requested to have a pen and paper, so that she could write a really bad excuse for the teachers for Henry's and Scarlett's reason for being late, again. 
"Isn't that dangerous, writing a note while driving?" asked Scarlett, as she passed her stepmother a pen and a paper she had ripped out of one of her books. "I told Daddy you would get us all killed one day."
"Shut it, I'm saving your hide," snapped Sarah, as her eyes flicked to the red light in front of her and then to the rear view mirror to see what the kids where doing in the backseat. Sadly enough, the triplets had gone to sleep and Henry was playing with a game console that Sarah couldn't see. She leant against the wheel and started to write a note. She had a habit of reading out loud what she was writing. "Dear...whomever it...may...concern..." She continued to write despite Scarlett seeing the light had turned green and she hadn't told Sarah. "...excuse...Scar.." The car behind them beeped at them and Sarah suddenly looked up. "Damn. That was quick." She tossed the pen and paper aside and slammed down the accelerator as she turned right towards the primary school that Scarlett and Henry went to. Then it just occurred to Sarah. "Henry. I thought your father told you you couldn't bring that toy to school.Am I right?"
"But he said he was able to afford to replace my DS," replied Henry from the back, as Sarah looked at him through the rear view mirror.
"Give it to me before you go, you're not taking it to school thank you," Sarah replied. She was in mother mode today and she knew if she didn't get to work fast, a lot of words would be said about her lateness and her inability to meet time deadlines. Her attention was now on Scarlett. "By the way, Scarlett. Why didn't you tell me that the light had turned green back there?"
"Why?" asked Scarlett. "You didn't ask me to tell you."
"It's called courtesy, you will learn such a thing when you're older," answered Sarah.
It was about fifteen minutes or so until Sarah managed to drop off Scarlett and Henry. It took her another ten minutes of arguments for Henry to give her his Nintendo DS. He walked off in a huff and Sarah drove off. She thanked herself for the fact that the twins' daycare was a block away from the school and was there within five minutes. She felt guilty for waking them up but in the end, no tears and no dramas. They were happy to say goodbye to their mother at the door of what they call school.
"Bye Mummy, have a nice day at work," each of them said to her and her heart always melted when they said that to her.
"Bye my sweethearts, have a nice day at school," were the last words that she spoke to her kids and she wouldn't hear of them until that evening after she picked up the other lot of kids.
It took Sarah another twenty minutes to get to work, and by this time, it was well past ten in the morning, meaning she was over an hour late for work. She managed to find a decent parking spot out the back of the restaurant she was trying to get rid of so that she could set up another business in a better location and she was here today to meet the owners who were willing to buy it off her.
She turned the ignition off and just stare at herself in the rear view mirror. How much she had become her mother....the last person she wanted to be like right now. She stared into her own deep blue eyes and her artificial blonde hair and wondered about what life would be like if she had chosen to stay in Chicago with her mother and her stepfather and their new kid. She shook her head as she told herself that she was happy living away from every possible drama that managed to exist despite it's stupidness. She yanked the keys out from the ignition and was out of the car within two minutes.
She walked into the back of the restaurant with her eyes now fixated on her cell phone. She had missed a call from Jack. She told herself that she would call him back later after the meeting with the prospective buyers.
"Sarah....?" came a voice which made her freeze in her tracks and slowly look up. There was no mistaking that Japanese shaggy man who stood there in front of her in board shorts and a basketball singlet. It was obvious that the man hadn't shaved for days because all of his faced was lined with stubble.
"I'm not here to play along with you Mike, I'm here to do some business," Sarah managed to say to him. She didn't know she had even the courage to say such a thing but it felt like it was all suddenly blurting out.
"I'm the one that wants to buy this place," Mike explained.
"You?" choked Sarah. Mike nodded slowly. "Well, I guess surprises come in small quantities. What next do you want me to expect from you? A DNA test on my kids, one that you didn't see all the way through so that shows how eager you were to know if they were yours or not."
"I had other business to pop up, and yes, I was defeated when I realise that I know you wouldn't lie to me about something you were so sure about," Mike replied. "After knowing the fact that you lied to me about saying to me they were mine, I know I had to trust you."
"What brings you to this hellhole?" asked Sarah. "I know you weren't just in the area."
"In all honesty, I was talking to your father about life after the band, and he said to do what he and Ravyn did, set up a business," answered Mike. "Well, during the band more like it in his books. I had to do something with myself. I wasn't about to sit on the couch all day watching reruns of cheap and nasty crime shows."
"So you're not here to try and ruin my life, again?" asked Sarah as Mike shook his head. "Wow. I honestly think that's got to be a personal first for you. I've got a feeling that you're not here alone for some reason."
"I'm still waiting for my mate to turn up," Mike replied. "He's worst than you showing up on time to events at time."
"I had my hands full, they're called kids," answered Sarah, blankly. "So, you're really interested in buying this hellhole and not interested in hitting on me?"
"How many times do I have to tell you for you to believe me?" asked Mike.
"I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time believing you right now in all honesty," answered Sarah. "Now if Jack were to randomly turn up he would have a couple of things to say to me and you, about your presence here, so I'll be nice, I won't mention you to him right now."
"How is Jack?" asked Mike, trying to make his interest genuine but Sarah saw right through it.
"He's good," answered Sarah. "I keep on missing his calls-"
"Oh, so he's not home?" asked Mike, as Sarah slowly shook her head. "Off on tour is he?" Sarah nodded. "Sounds like he's turning into your father a bit don't you think so?"
"No, how?" asked Sarah. "Mike, no offence but you don't know the real story between how our family felt like when Dad left us for months at end without a word and random house visits without a phone call or anything. What he told you, must've been different by the sounds of it, but don't you dare compare Jack to my father. That's my mother's job not yours."
"Talking of your family, saw a few them out the front of this very restaurant," added Mike, quietly.
"Now you're just pulling my leg," retorted Sarah. "They would never come to Nashville like this out of the blue. And plus, David's the last person I want to see right now."
"Apologies then," Mike started with a slight smirk embedded on his face. "Must've been another short woman with a fierce temper and another man who has two piercings in his face, I mistook them for." Sarah quietly cussed underneath her breath as she realised that Mike wasn't joking. "I thought you would be happy." Sarah stared at him blankly. "I mean, mistake me if I'm wrong, but she's only the woman that gave birth to you and raised you. She's only that woman."
"Did my mother put you up to this?" asked Sarah.
"Why would she?" asked Mike.
"Because it's just the sick and twisted thing that my mother would do to me for her type of entertainment," answered Sarah. "That only proves you don't know my mother very well."
"Look, step out to the front of your shop and she's sitting there with your stepfather," argued Mike. "I personally said hi to her myself and she even asked if you were in."
"How does my mother know I even own this place let alone still living in this craphole of a town?" asked Sarah, as Mike shrugged. "Christ. If I don't go out and say hi to her you know what she'll be like. Who else is she with?" 
"A teenage girl," answered Mike.
"What about a toddler?" asked Sarah, as Mike shook his head. "Are you sure?"
"Do you want me to drag you out there to the front or something?" asked Mike.
"Lay a hand on me and expect a court order in return," answered Sarah. "The court order won't be from me, it'll be from Jack." Sarah gave Mike one last smile and walked off to the front of her shop while Mike waited for his other friend to arrive so that they could start talking about the selling of the shop. She didn't believe that her mother would travel all this way with no notification but at the same time she was worried that she was here and Jack wasn't here. Put that equation together and she was in for another 'you should leave him' lecture and that was the last thing she needed from someone considering her workload and the load that she carried with the kids in general. 
"Why do you walk past me without saying hello all the time?" asked a voice, as Sarah stopped and smiled. Mike had set her up, again. She turned around to see her father, the biological one, Robert, standing slanted against a dining table dressed in a daggy shirt and shorts, with his usual cap turned back to front. "You do it every time."
"And let me guess, you told Mike that Mum was here and that's how you got me to come out of hiding at the back?" asked Sarah as her father nodded. "I should've known it was you he was covering for."
"How's it going kiddo?" asked Rob, as Sarah couldn't help but to see a woman seated at the table he was slanted against, staring at Sarah and smiling, as though she was intrigued to see what Sarah had to say. She didn't know who she was and had a bad feeling that the woman and her father was somehow connected.
"Going good, trying to get rid of this joint at the moment, weighing my down a bit on top of everything else I have to handle while Jack's on tour," answered Sarah.
"When was the last time you heard from him?" asked Rob.
"I missed a call from him today but I talked to him on the phone a few days ago," answered Sarah. "It gets lonely sometimes without him. But I knew he was going for this tour, it wasn't like I didn't know it was going to happen or something like that."
"Look, I'll be your mother and say to you that you should leave him, because you're worth so much more," started Rob, as Sarah's jaw just dropped in amazement to how much her father had become her mother. "But I'm not your mother and I don't tell you what the hell to do anymore." Sarah couldn't help but to laugh at the change of her father's mind.
"What are you doing in this town?" asked Sarah. "I mean, you don't record here, you record in LA, and I don't know, it's rare to see you any place without it being to your advantage, as Mum would put it to me."
"Just passing through and then I remembered you telling me you were trying to get rid of an Italian restaurant that you decided to buy to occupy yourself when Jack was gone," answered her father, as he couldn't help but to reminisce. "You are so like your mother in so many ways."
"How so?" asked Sarah. "I'm nearly a foot taller her, I talk more and I have more kids to look after. If this is about having a jackass husband thing, the same thing she had with you, stop it. She's already pointed it out for me, a number of times."
"You will only realise the ways you are like Rav when you're older," answered Rob.
"You used to tell me that when I was a teenager, stop telling me that," Sarah indirectly requested. "So, that's it? You were passing through? Wow, long way from home, don't you think?"
"Cristina records a lot of her stuff in Nashville, much like Jack when he's not bumming at home and not on the road," answered Rob.
"Who?" asked Sarah.
"Me," answered the black-haired woman who was patiently listening to the conversation and was the woman who had been staring at Sarah. Both Rob's and Sarah's attention was diverted to Cristina at the table. She spoke with an Italian accent but Sarah detected some American in her as she continued to speak. "Hello, Sarah, I've heard a lot of things about you and Rob's other kids."
"Err.." Sarah managed to say, as she looked to her father for an answer. She didn't know what to say in all honesty.
"Sarah," her father started, as his tone dulled down to a serious tone. "Cristina and I are getting married."

****

Okay here's a little bit of what I wrote last night. I will post more. Enjoy ^^

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It was already evening and the sun had set quicker than Sarah had expected. She went back to her normal routine. Picking the kids up and picking up the other kids that weren't hers but she took care of them and treated them as though they were her children not just Jack's from a previous marriage. She didn't say anything on the whole trip back, she was too emersed in her thoughts. She had just out the complaining and the fighting that was happening behind her, she just was too worried about the fate of her marriage. She couldn't cry, that was the hardest part. She wanted to, but she couldn't come around to getting herself to cry. She didn't know what was going to happen to her marriage, if she would turn out like her parents, or if it was just a moment and everything would be fine.
She had to get back to her routine or else she would drag her kids down with her as well.
It came around to six in the evening and it was time for bath time for the triplets. While they were in the bath and Sarah was separating them from throwing bucket loads of bath water at each other and also being caught in the crossfire. She had to drag one naked child out of the bath who wouldn't stop, dressed Lycan and sent him to his room. Of course he didn't go quietly, he went kicking and screaming.
Henry had to deal with the loud cries and wails who was at their desk in the room that the boy's shared doing his homework as Sarah instructed him to do while she bathed her kids. Of course, Sarah came in and sat Lycan on the lid of his toybox and told him that he wasn't to leave unless he was ready to sorry to her and his two other sisters that he had tidal waved with bath water.
As Henry was doing his homework, he couldn't help but to tell Lycan to shut up several times which made him cry even more so Henry put his earphones in and blared music to shut out Lycan's screams.
Sarah sighed as she opened the girls' bedroom to see Scarlett on the computer in their room, instead of doing homework as instructed.
"What are you doing?" asked Sarah, as Scarlett turned around to see a water drenched Sarah standing in the doorway unimpressed by Scarlett's disobedience.
"Doing my homework as you told me to do," answered Scarlett, blankly.
"Playing Neopets is your homework?" asked Sarah, as she looked to the screen and instantly recognized what site she was on. "Interesting piece of homework. What did your father and I tell you about using the net during homework time?"
"You would take it away from me," answered Scarlett. "But I've done my homework, so I don't see why my net has to be taken away from me."
"Then why didn't you come to me and say to me that you've finished your homework?" asked Sarah, as she walked into the bedroom and stood beside Scarlett's computer looking at her firmly.
"What are you going to do?" asked Scarlett.
"I'm going to live up to my side of the agreement," answered Sarah, as she reached over and unplugged the grey and green broadband modem from the computer as Scarlett started to cry. "No internet until your father gets back and then you can give your reasons to why you disobeyed him and me."
"You can't do this, I bet if I called Daddy he'll be angry at you," moped Scarlett, as Sarah picked up the disconnected modem and stared at her stepdaughter.
"I bet if I called him he wouldn't even pick up or you'll be the one that he'll be angry at," replied Sarah, smoothly as she walked off with a modem in her hands and the cords that connected it altogether trailing behind her.
"I hate you!" Scarlett screamed at the top of her voice. "You're the worst stepparent anyone could have!"
Sarah was expecting Scarlett would say that as she turned around in the doorway and looked at her stepdaughter with a small smile on her face.
"I know, we all hate our stepparents, I hate my stepfather as well," replied Sarah. "If you don't like the way I discipline you why don't you report me to a child welfare agency?" Scarlett mumbled something but Sarah couldn't make out what it was. "And then you would have to explain to your father on what grounds you called the welfare agency up on and then he'll probably smack the crap out of you making up lies about me and for trying to get me arrested for no reason at all. Are we clear on that?"
"You're not my mother so stop acting like her," answered Scarlett. "I want my original mother back."
"Sorry, no can do kiddo, your father gained full custody of you and your brother and I'm the one that has to pick up the pieces when your father is not around because no one else will do it," replied Sarah. "I'm legally responsible for you guys as long as your father is away."
"Then get him back, I don't want you to be legally responsible for me, I don't even like you," argued Scarlett. "You have no idea how unfair this is."
"I have some idea, my mother went through a similar ordeal when my father decided that his music career was worth more than seeing us kids grow up," replied Sarah. "Scarlett, you're almost eleven and you're going to go through a rough stage soon in your life and it's called being a teenager. Because when you hit thirteen it's all downhill from there. Because after being a teenager, you then become an adult. And when you're an adult you can't act like an immature brat all the time and you learn what is now called, responsibility."
"Something that Daddy said, your sister never had and that's how she ended up back here with us, with an already full house," snapped Scarlett.
"Mel?" asked Sarah.
"Who do you think I'm talking about?" asked Scarlett. "Daddy said your other sister is in jail for hurting someone and your brother hurts people and drinks for a living. While your mother and father act like an old married couple when they aren't even married to begin with. He also said your stepfather is the largest bastard in the world and that no one could compete with him because his lies are that large."
"Don't ever say that word to my face again," lectured Sarah. "I don't know what your father has been saying to you about my family but he doesn't know the whole story behind what happened to Melissa. He says stuff that he doesn't mean. And if I hear the word bastard being uttered in this house again, from anyone's mouth except from your father's and my mouth, the culprit will be living in the backyard for two years. You hear me?"
"So why is it that Daddy and you can swear but you don't let us swear?" asked Scarlett. "Melissa swears her brains off at the television."
"That's because we're all adults and we don't swear very often in front of you kids now do we?" asked Sarah. "Why do you have to question every rule of this household that I enforce?"
"Because they are unfair," answered Scarlett, as she started swinging on her black office chair that was now pulled out to the middle of the room. "You can break the rules but we can't."
"You're not an adult we are, go figure," snapped Sarah, as her patience was coming to a standstill.
"I really do hate you," Scarlett muttered under her breath as she slowly shook her head at her stepmother. Sarah sighed as she slammed the door shut and continued to do something about the modem that she had just confiscated off her stepdaughter.
She walked towards the kitchen to throw it in the bin and have it ready to be put out for collection because it was council collection morning the next morning at the early hour of five. She made sure the dinner wasn't burning and the boiling water wasn't pouring over and spilling onto the stove, and just generally made sure it was okay. She hadn't heard a word from her father and wasn't really expecting one knowing him too well. Her eyes flickered to the clock. It was only twenty past and the remaining toddlers in the bath had to be taken out and put into their sleeping gear.
She tossed her hair back as she sighed and continued on with her duties. She knew Mel was really in no physical state to be helping her and there was many a time where Mel had offered to do something for Sarah but she just merely shook it away and told Mel that everything was under control. When in all reality, she was a Bourdon and she tried her best to make out things were fine when they really weren't. She retraced her steps down the hallways, not bothering to look in on either child that she had argued with and went directly to the bathroom, taking two towels from the linen closet on the way.
"Kiddos, time to get out," she instructed. Both the wet toddlers looked at her and shook their heads at her. "You're going to get sick if you don't and then the whole household becomes sick because of you lot."
"But we don't want to get out," replied the fair-haired Selene. "We're playing."
"Papa's coming soon, you don't want to be wet and in the bath still when he sees you, now do you?" asked Sarah, as both toddlers shook their heads. "Okay, you know the routine. One child at a time." Sarah put both towels on a bathroom stool and went over to the bath tub. She picked each of them one by one and put their towels around them one by one. "Your clothes are outside with Aunty Mel. She'll dress you." She lead her kids out to the hallway and saw the run down the carpeted hallway and into the living room. She had to deal with the other one that had settled down. She opened the door to see that Henry was looking at her. She looked to Lycan who was also looking at her through teary eyes.
"Please can he just leave?" asked Henry, as Sarah nodded. "Thank you. I'm trying to do my homework and all I can hear is him."
"Have you settled down, Lycan?" asked Sarah, as her son nodded. "What do you say?"
"Sorry," her son mumbled underneath his breath. Sarah frowned and came over to him and knelt down to his level and looked him in the eyes. Sarah took his hands away from his mouth so he could speak properly.
"What did you say?" asked Sarah. "Mummy couldn't hear you because you were mumbling and had your hands in your mouth. We don't talk to people with our hands in our mouths, do we?" Lycan shook his head. "What are you sorry for and to who?"
"Sorry Mummy, for splashing," answered Lycan.
"And ignoring Mummy," Sarah prompted.
"And 'noring Mummy," Lycan added.
"Will you do it again?" asked Sarah, as Lycan shook his head. "Good." Sarah smiled and picked her son up. She stood up and left Henry to do his homework without another word said or done. "We're going to have our dinner when Papa comes."
"Papa's coming?" asked the child, as his eyes lit up, as his mother carried him down the hall.
"Yes he is, and you're going to be on your best behaviour," answered Sarah, as her son nodded, already excited about the fact that his mother's father was coming over for dinner.
"Is Nanny coming as well?" asked Lycan, as Sarah shook her head and wished for her child to be quiet and stop with the twenty questions. "Why not?"
"She's sick darling," answered Sarah, not knowing what to say. "But you'll meet another woman who's a really good friend of Papa's. Her name is Cristina. As for the time being, I want you and your sisters to sit down and watch a video on your TV. Understood?" Lycan nodded as Sarah entered her kid's living room and sat her child down on his cartoon mini-couch. Each toddler got a mini-couch to themselves. The black and blue Transformers couch was Lycan's, the purple and pink Dora the Explorer one belonged to Sonya and the plain pink Barbie one was Selene's. She left Lycan to put on a movie himself, seeing how technically savvy he had become ever since being introduced to DVDs and DVD players at a young age. She went inside the other living room where Mel sat dressing the girls in their pink and purple outfits.
"Mummy!" yelled Selene, who acted like she hadn't seen her own mother for a decade. Mel turned her head so that she could see her sister and smiled.
"When you're done here getting dressed by Aunty Mel, go to your TV and watch a movie with your brother, okay?" asked Sarah.
"What movie are we watching?" asked Sonya.
"Whatever you choose," answered Sarah, as she looked back to see what Lycan had chosen and he was still scattering DVDs all over the floor. It was his version of deciding what movie to watch. She looked back to her daughters. "Now Mummy is going to put her feet up because her feet really hurt at the moment."
Sarah walked over next to Mel and just flopped on the couch. She was that tired from the day and the usual running around that she had forgotten to spare some time for herself.
"Don't flop," said one of the girl's, imitating what Sarah had taught them not to do.
"Sorry," apologised their mother as she concentrated on the quiz show in front of them.
"So, how was your day?" asked Mel, once the girls had gone into the other room and sat down to watch a movie as instructed to do.
"Hectic and tiring, so basically the usual," answered Sarah. "You know the usual routine, come home, put dinner on, put kids in bath, send stepchildren to their rooms to do their homework, try to get both of them to have a shower as well, have the usual nightly arguments with Scarlett about her supposed hate for me, and so on. You?"
"Wow I'm getting it easy aren't I?" asked Mel. "I've only got this thing inside of me while you're dealing with them outside of you and running around like animals that should be confined behind fences of a zoo enclosure."