The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2273 by Angharad Copyright © 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

Danni went rushing out to meet her friend and they hugged on the driveway waving to Cindy’s mum as she drove off. So far so good. A few moments later they were coming in through the kitchen. “Hello, Cindy,” I said getting some stuff out of the fridge.

“Hi, Lady C,” she said back to me.

“C’mon, let’s get up to my room,” urged Danni, “Mum, can Cindy watch me dilate?”

I nearly dropped the bottle of milk I had in my hands. “I beg your pardon?” I said blushing.

“Well it would show her what she’ll have to do later,” she tried to justify her request.

“I don’t care, I don’t think that’s appropriate at the moment.”

“Huh, you let complete strangers watch you feed the babies.”

“That is very different as you well know,” they say, ‘terrible twos,’ perhaps I misheard and it was actually terrible teens. Oh boy, and she’s only thirteen.

“Yeah, one rule for you...” was cast at me as they went through the door.

I called Danni back, fortunately Cindy stayed out of sight though I suspect she could still hear all that went on. “I could always phone and ask her mother to come and collect her.”

“What?” gasped my errant offspring.

“Is there something wrong with your hearing?”

“No, course not.”

“Good, now before you go off on one again, I need to remind you that things have changed.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“Just remember how they’ve changed, you are now the girl taking a biological male up to your room.”

“What? She’s a girl, are you blind?”

“No, I’m well aware of what Cindy is, a transitioning girl. You are a girl. Now if you want to argue, I’ll stop you going up to the room alone.”

“This is bloody stupid,” came the response, “she can’t get it up anyway.”

“How d’you know that?”

“Duh, like she told me. She’s a girl, we discuss things like that, remember? Oh I forgot you weren’t a girl like us, were you?”

I felt like a dagger had been plunged straight into my heart. I wasn’t sure what to say or whether or not to burst into tears.

“I think you’d better apologise, don’t you?” Julie entered unseen by her sister.

“Why should I?”

“Because you’ve just been a total shit.”

“No I haven’t.”

“You haven’t? Oh so insulting the woman who saved your life a few days ago is normal behaviour is it?”

There was a momentary stand-off between the warring siblings before Danni dropped the eye contact and staring at the floor said, “Sorry, Mummy, I didn’t mean it.”

“I hope not,” was all I could get out I still felt so choked. Danni practically ran from the kitchen and her threatening big sister.

“Thank you,” I said before I had to turn my back while wet stuff ran from my eyes. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t cry, Mummy, she isn’t worth it.”

Of course that made things worse and before long I was sobbing on Julie’s shoulder and she was patting me on the back and cooing to me. “I’m sure she didn’t mean it.”

I was sure she didn’t, it was out of her mouth before she thought about what she said. She was trying to hurt but probably didn’t appreciate how deep the wound she inflicted would be. Julie fussed round me like a mother hen, shooing the others out and making me a pot of tea. Then afterwards she helped me prepare vegetables for dinner to go with the roast pork I was cooking.

I recovered and Danni kept well out of my way, Julie sending Trish up to Danni’s bedroom to check there was no hanky panky going on. I knew there wasn’t, Danni isn’t that stupid, but Julie was exercising a bit of big sister power and Trish enjoyed playing gooseberry taking them up drinks and biscuits.

Once the potatoes were part cooked I coated them in oil and shoved them into roast in quite a warm oven, saving time, my mother would be turning in her grave, I used some frozen Yorkshire puddings. I discovered that David used them because he said faffing around with batter was a waste of time when perfectly good ready-mades existed. Who was I to argue? I leave that to Danni now.

At almost exactly one o’clock, I called Daddy to come and carve the meat, which was resting, while I dished up a basic dinner for everyone and then had Julie help me put the excess on warming trays to stay hot in case anyone wanted a top up before Simon scoffed the lot.

Trish made the gravy under my supervision and declared this fact to anyone who would listen. I told her that I’d made the stuffing.

“What opened a packet?” she challenged, obviously not something to compare with making gravy.

“Uh no, from scratch with homemade breadcrumbs and sage and onion and garlic and mushroom.”

“Oh,” she blushed, “I s’pose I’d better ’ave some then.”

I passed the crackling round in case anyone wanted to break their teeth–it was as crispy as biscuit and Simon pinched a piece and crunched it making the younger kids complain.

The meal caused everyone to fall silent save the sounds of cutlery on plates or munching. The adults had a glass of Merlot and the girls had some flavoured fizzy water–not my choice, but obviously theirs.

“How’s your mum?” I asked Cindy, making conversation with the girl who looked a little in awe of the size of the table in the dining room and the scale of the meal.

“She’s fine, Lady C, thank you.”

“And how is school?”

“It’s okay, did well in my science test.”

“Oh well done.”

“Yeah, I got seventy out of a hundred.”

“Wow, nearly distinction level,” I said supportively.

“I got ninety seven,” said a voice somewhere behind the gravy boat she’d filled so lovingly with her magic fluid.

“Big ’ead,” was Danni’s response to genius.

“No I’m not,” replied a ruffled nine year old.

“I suspect our test was harder,” offered Cindy unconsciously stoking a fire which would soon consume her.

“That was your test,” was the response of the conflagration.

“Uh, Trish is quite good at science,” I offered trying to douse the flames.

“Oh, must run in your family, havin’ professor an’ a doctor for your gramps an’ mum,” was the defence of the recently deflated.

“I’m sure that’s it, and you did really well, too.” I quickly added before Trish came back for a second sweep at her target.

“Yeah, me an’Sammi got all the looks, Trish an’Liv got all the brains.”

“Must be in your genes,” said a defensive Cindy.

“I got some nice jeans,” said Danni, “the stretch ones...”

“Dumbo, she meant genes as in genetics,” called Trish from behind the gravy boat.

“I got bwains, two,” protested Mima.

“Two brains–yipes,” squealed Trish.

“Yeah, she got Danni’s as well,” Julie fired in.

“That’s not fair,” squeaked Mima on the verge of tears.

“Well you didn’t get any brains either,” Danni threw back at Julie before Simon called a halt to hostilities by banging his knife handle loudly on the table.

“That was a lovely meal, babes, my compliments to the cook,” he said trying to normalise things.

“You’re good at football,” Cindy said quietly to Danni. “They said there was girl in the lower years who frightened some of the teachers,” she added as they left the dining room after lunch was finished. “Trust it to be your flipping sister.”