Juniper Halls

Fern-

I went and sat at the desk like she had told me to, opening the log book. I took a pencil and began working on this week's accounts again. My hand was shaking. A few days ago I had just been plain Fern Donovan, second of five sisters, pretty, good at maths but nothing exceptional, with a carefully planned out happy future ahead of me, and now, I was a motherless, overworked girl who had just kissed who would appear to be an escaped convict or, or, or something who didn't have one clue what she was doing, whose sister's were all in predicaments of varying degrees of bad and who wasn't sure what was happening.

I looked down where I had written the name "Max" and crossed it out. "One night" I wrote in the column and added his money in. He might be coming back, who knew?

I didn't know anything much.

What I did know is that I had to find out two things: what on earth happened to James and who killed my mother.

James-

Hogarth pulled up in the driveway of a little blue one level house. We were still inside the town limits, hopefully Glenn wouldn't be catching on anytime soon, and hopefully he had left Desmonda's by now. When James was safely inside Hogarth's house and Hogarth had left to return to his shift, James dialed his cell phone number.
It rang once.
It rang twice.
It rang three times.

Fern-

I heard a noise and wondered what it was, then took the phone out of my skirt pocket. It flashed blue and the name "Hogarth" appeared on the screen. I pressed the green button.

"Hello?" I asked nervously.

"Fern? It's me."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "James, you're okay."

"Yeah, I'm in a safe house."

"You have to tell me what's going on," I said.

"I can't tell you."

"Look, I don't know what's going on, but Desmonda act like she's done stuff like this before, goodness knows why, maybe we can help. Maybe I can help."

"I don't-"

"Please, just tell me, James."

[Aidan]

The phone sagged limp in my hand, the dial tone mocking me. Slowly I hung up.

"Who'd you just call?" Dad asked, finding his way into the room.

"Holly."

"Well?"

"She yelled at me." I looked down at my pink wristband and started picking at it again.

"I hope you didn't say anything stupid."

I switched from the wristband to a hangnail on my thumb. "I was stupid to even try. What the hell was I supposed to say? It's all useless. 'Yeah, your mom's dead, that kind of sucks. Sorry, but I can't really do anything.' Brilliant."

Dad shrugged sympathetically and left the room. I tore at the hangnail with greater force, causing it to bleed. As the blood welled up, I just stared at it. Just stared.

James-

"I'm not ready." he sighed, "will you be leaving Desmonda's anytime soon, to go somewhere else I mean?"

"I'm visiting my sisters, were all going back to out house on Sunday."

"Perfect!" A light of hope, "Give me you address and I will tell you everything then."

"How will you get there?"

"It doesn't matter."

James wrote down the address and slipped the piece of paper in his pant pocket. He had two days to figure out how to get to Fern's house.

*Yeah, I'm good with that*

(I'm game.)

lets do it...and now it is sunday!

James-

James rolled over on the small cot in the spare room Hogarth was letting him stay in. He had spent most of the previous day fixing up an old car to Hogarth didn't use anymore to drive to Fern's. He left what money he had on the table for the kind old man and then headed out to the car.

Violet

"Fern, we need to set off," Violet gently shook her sister awake, feeling guilty because she was sure Fern had only just managed to actually fall asleep. "I've made us breakfast so we can eat first but we need to be leaving soon." Fern nodded excitedly and dressed quickly before hurrying downstairs. Violet followed her with a soft laugh.

"Wow, you're really excited, huh? It will be good to see them again."

"James will be there too," Fern said suddenly. Violet took a bite of toast and chewed thoughtfully before replying -

"So he's still in town? I was sure he'd be long gone by now, are you sure it's safe for him to come?" And us, she added silently. I'll not let him put you in danger again.

Fern-

I bent my head so she wouldn't see me blushing. "Yeah, well, he promised he'd explain everything and I gave him our address."

"You gave our address to a guy we barely know?"

I shrugged. "I felt I knew him. In any case, he obviously needs all the help he can get."

"I won't deny that," Violet said. I grabbed my shoes and pulled them on.

"And you're right," I said, taking a piece of buttery toast of the rack. "It'll be good to see the others."

Violet nodded. "Maybe we can actually talk about what happened to Mum."

"Yeah," I said, downing my orange juice. "Come on, we should probably head."

Briar

I downed another paper cup of coffee and shuddered. It tasted like dirt, but it was that or fall asleep on the table, which was covered in spills, not all of which I could identify.Opposite me, Willow had her head resting on her hand. She was leaning to one side, and her eyes were shut. I wasn't sure whether she was actually asleep or not, but didn't want to risk waking her by checking. I'd already deprived her of enough sleep.

Our bags were crowded around our feet. Luckily, we never had unpacked our things, which made it easier for us to leave. Now it was nearing eleven, we'd been sitting in the cafe since it opened three hours before, and I was beginning to regret the rashness of my actions. After Fern and Violet left, the plan would dry up, and I was desperate to avoid arriving back on Rosemary's doorsteps with our bags at all costs.

I glanced at Willow's watch, having to tilt my head drastically to the left in order to manage, then shook her arm. "Wake up, we need to get moving or we'll be late."

She blinked a couple of times, then yawned, and slowly got to her feet, pulling her bag up onto her shoulder.

The sunlight which greeted us as we stepped outside was almost blinding. I threw my hand to my forehead to shield my eyes from its accusatory glare and sighed.

[Holly]

Holly sighed, wiping her brow with her sleeve. She had been cleaning all morning in preperation for her sisters coming home. There were cookies in the oven, fruit in the fridge, and paper plates and cups on the table in the back yard.

She had finished all her homework on Saturday, and couldn't get to the library until the next day. She refused to sit in her room listening to her father weeping, so she had gotten up early to prepare the house.

The timer went off in the kitchen, and she turned off the vacuum, leaving it in the middle of the living room.

Only three more hours.

Urgh, sorry it's bad, but I wanted to put something in before the others arrived. I have a feeling I'll be saying 'sorry it's so bad' for everything I post, though. Also, I'm assuming Aiden will come over sometime during the get-together? That will be interesting...

*I just said we went by train...*

Fern-

We arrived in the little local station in the village.

"Is it just me, or have the past four days been the strangest in our life?" I asked Violet.

She considered it. "Yes," she answere.

"Okay, just checking." I looked up to where our gates were. "What will Father say, do you think?"

"Is he going to be there?"

"Briar didn't say..." I said, as we made our way down the High Street. "Fingers crossed everything will go according to plan..."

Violet

"Wait..." Violet hesitated as she held her sister back. "Let's not be too... hasty, okay? Let's not tell them too much."

"About James you mean?" Fern asked. Violet nodded and they proceeded towards the house.

"I just think we need to be careful. There's much we don't know and until we talk to James..."

"I agree. We'll talk to James before we tell the others," Fern decided as they stopped at a beautiful gate made of twisted, black, iron rods. Violet opened it and together her and Fern approached their home, pausing at the door to knock before it was opened by their sister Holly.

There was a moment of tension but Fern soon hurried forward to embrace her sister and then Violet approached a little more cautiously and hugged Holly too.