FicWad

Lottie waved goodbye to her Dad and walked through the school gates nervously to stand with a bunch of other Year Sevens who were just as nervous as she was "Hey, Lottie right?" She whirled around came face-to-face with Shando and Amulet "Gerard's daughter?"

"Oh yeah, Shando and Amulet?" They hadn't seen each other since the day they'd met at her house. Penina had tried to contact Christy to see if they wanted to meet up but each time Christy made up an excuse as to why they couldn't hang out "Frank's twins."

"I'm bored of this conversation already." Amulet yawned before walking away.

Shando rolled her eyes "Ignore her, she's pretty scared too but she just won't show it."

"You really believe that?"

"Not really, I just thought it'd make you feel better." Shando smiled, running her fingers through her shoulder-length blonde hair "Do you wanna hang out today then? I wanted to hang out with you but your Mom kept saying you were all busy."

"Oh yeah." Lottie swallowed "My Mom's like that. She doesn't really do much. Just kind of sits around and does nothing."

"Oh." Shando said awkwardly "My Mom's kinda crazy. She's really overprotective."

"So's my Mom." Lottie nodded. The bell started ringing "We'd better go inside."

"Yeah, let's go."





"Are you okay?" Frank asked "What's wrong?"

"It's Lottie's birthday soon." Gerard replied "It always makes Christy feel weird."

"What do you mean?" Ray asked him.

Gerard sighed "If I tell you something... Promise this stays between the five of us. I mean, Mikey already knows."

"What is it?"

"Lottie isn't an only child. She has a twin sister called Jessica. But one night when I was downstairs watching scary movies, I fell asleep. And the babies woke up crying so Christy went in to check on them and saw someone in there. She assumed it was me and came downstairs to make the babies some milk while she thought I stayed with them. Then she saw me asleep on the sofa and ran back upstairs. But it was too late. Whoever was in the kids nursery took Jessica away from us." Gerard paused "That's why Christy's a bit anti-social and stuff. She gets funny on Lottie's birthday because it would've been Jessica's birthday too."

"... When was Jessica taken?" Frank asked "Do you remember the date?"

"Yeah. November 12th. It was a Tuesday. Just a normal day." Gerard's eyes filled with tears "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Hey, it's gonna be okay." Mikey hugged Gerard "I bet Jessica's still alive. You could still find her."

"And how would I know what she looks like?" Gerard yelled, pulling away from him "She's my daughter. She'd been turning twelve this month and all I have in my head is this image of a tiny baby girl. She should've been walking to her new school with Lottie this morning. We should be planning her birthday party. Why-?"

"Gerard, maybe you need to take the rest of the day off." Frank said gently "Maybe we all do. Let's go out for a drink. Invite the girls. Alright?"

"Alright." Gerard nodded, wiping away his tears.





"I'm not going out for a drink." Christy said "I'm not sitting there listeing to them talk about their perfect lives-"

"They don't have perfect lives. Come on Christy, it'll make you feel better."

"Oh really?" Christy snapped, standing up "Well done Gerard. You've cured my depression simply by taking me out for a drink. We should tell the therapists that. Wow, it's a break through."

"Christy, come on-"

"No!" Christy yelled "Don't you think that if I knew a way to make myself feel better I'd have done something about it ages ago?"

"It's just one drink Christy. Try? Just for me?"

Christy sighed "Alright fine."