[Fiction] 10 days last summer

[alli55]

Author's note.

This is just my second story! The first was The sleepover that changed my life, which you can find here: http://www.getdare.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=323842

The kind comments and enthusiastic response that I got to that story from all you lovely people enabled the writing bug to well-and-truly take hold of me ... and this is the result.

It's another slow-burner, where the development of the characters and the way they interact with each other is the main focus of my writing. That's not to say that nothing happens, it just happens at its own pace!

I have another story I'm already writing (which is turning into a bit of an epic!), so I'm going to pace the release of this story to fit in with my plans for that - if that makes sense!? That means I will be posting updates for this story twice a week, generally on a Sunday and Thursday - just so you know when to look!

I hope you like it! As always, all comments (positive and otherwise) are welcomed.

Thanks,

Alli

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Tuesday 1st August 2017


“Are we nearly there yet?” asked Zack, more out of mischief than genuine interest.

Zack was my six-year-old half-brother, and was as cheeky as his sister was cute. It was Gracie who had started this off, when, in her four-year-old innocence, she had asked the very same question just under ten minutes into our journey. Given that we live in Milton Keynes and were holidaying at a caravan park just outside Bournemouth, 150 miles away, the answer was obvious, and we had all laughed. Playing up to that, Zack had asked the question at regular intervals for the entire journey.

That’s the trouble with six-year-olds: they don’t know when a joke isn’t funny anymore!

“We’re nearlier there than when you last asked!” said Jenny to her son. She wasn’t helping, playing along with his game like that!

“Actually, it’s only just around this next corner,” Dad announced, and Freya and I exchanged looks of relief with each other. We had been cooped up with the littlies in the back of the car for far too long!

I love Gracie to bits, and Zack of course, but there’s only so long you want to have someone sleeping with their head in your lap. The look that Holly gave me when Dad told us we were finally, actually, nearly there told me that she was as fed up with the journey as I was.

It must have been worse for her, because at least I was happy to come on this holiday. She had tried ever so hard to get out of it.

“We’re 16 now,” she’d told Dad and Jenny, our sort-of-step-mum, “we can stay at home while you take Zack and Gracie. We can look after ourselves, and, anyway, Gran’s only a mile away.”

But it hadn’t worked. Possibly the fact that I wasn’t bothered and so didn’t back her up enough didn’t help. That’s certainly what she told me.

“Let’s have one nice, last family holiday, all together,” Dad had said. “You two have plenty of years ahead of you to take holidays without us getting in your way! Do it for me, please?”

That had been the clincher, because neither of his twin daughters would ever do anything to hurt Dad. We had seen him in enough pain in the past to never want to be the cause of any.

I mouthed “At last!” to Holly and she nodded back. We all jerked forward as Dad hit the brakes when he discovered the entrance to the caravan park was literally immediately after the corner. A sharp left turn took us onto the site and before long we had pulled up in front of our home for the next 10 days.

We left Freya holding Gracie while the rest of us got out of the car and began to unpack.

The caravan had three bedrooms, one double and two twins, so I picked the room that Freya and I would share and then took advantage of Freya’s predicament to choose the nicer of the two beds for myself! The littlies would share the other twin room and Zack did exactly the same with the beds in that room as I’d done with ours.

After most of the stuff was unpacked, I gently woke Gracie and took her in to find our rooms. I left her in the littlies’ room, and went to see our room. I noticed Holly had grabbed the bed that I would have chosen if I’d got there first!

“You win some, you lose some!” she told me, with a smile. Generously, she added, “But we can swap halfway through the holiday if you want!”

“You’re alright,” I replied, “this one will do fine! Now, budge over so I can get a picture of us; I told Lottie I’d WhatsApp a picture of our room.”

“Really?” she teased, before rolling over to allow me to join her on the bed and snap the picture. I sent the pic, and we lay there together scrolling through my WhatsApp, sharing memories.

After a while, we got up and found Dad.

“Can we go and have a look around the site?” we asked. “We want to see if we can find anyone we can hang out with.”

He told us to be back for five, and we set off.

Hopefully there would be some other young people here. It was bad enough being dragged on this ‘last family holiday’, but it would be even worse if there were only the two of us. As much as I loved my other half, I needed other company as well if I was to survive this!

It didn’t take us long to find them. They were sat outside a caravan that looked much like ours, hunched over an A4 pad of paper. He looked about our age, she was maybe three or four years younger. We walked over to them. As always, I let Holly do the talking initially. That’s how we work: she’s the outgoing one who can start a conversation with anyone; I’m much more shy, needing to get to know people before I’m really comfortable around them.

“Hey!” she said.

They looked up and each replied, “Hey!”

He asked, “You just got here today?”

“Yeah,” Holly told him, “we’re here for 10 fun-packed days with the family!”

“We can trump you on that;” he said, “we’re here for two weeks!”

She bent over to see what they’d been doing with the paper.

“Hangman?!” she said, the disdain in her voice clear for us all to hear. “Please don’t tell me that’s what passes for fun around here!”

The girl spoke for the first time. “It’s a cool game,” she told Holly, “as long as you know enough words to be able to play it!”

Ouch!

“Don’t mind Amber,” he told us, “she’s all bark and no bite! It’s just something we like to do together when we’re trying to fill some time.”

“That’s cool!” Holly said. “It’s just not my type of thing!” she explained. She nodded towards me, adding, “She’d like it!”

Amber looked over at me and smiled. I smiled back.

“I’m Jake, by the way,” he told us.

“Holly,” she said.

“Freya,” I told them.

“Are you twins?” Amber asked.

“Yes,” Holly told her.

“God, you look really alike!” she said. “I don’t know any twins. Can I take a selfie with you? It’d be so cool!”

She got up and we moved to stand either side of her while she took her selfie.

“Thanks,” she said, “wait till I show my friends!” She began texting. “Freya, how do you spell your name?” she asked me.

While Freya and Amber were sorting out the texting, I asked Jake if he knew whether there were any other people our age on the site.

“There’s not many at the moment,” he told me, “but we all meet up in the evenings at the top end of the site. People start getting there about seven and we just hang around till it gets dark. You should come this evening!”

“We will,” I promised, “as long as we’re not playing Hangman!”

He laughed. “No Hangman, I promise!”

“Cool! See you later! Come on Freya!”

We left them to their game and carried on with our mission to find other young people.

Our next find seemed very promising! Strictly speaking, it was her that found us.

“Hey, guys!” we heard her say, from behind us.

We turned to see this stunningly beautiful girl jogging towards us, her shoulder-length dark hair bouncing as she ran. Her coffee-coloured complexion glistened with the sweat from her jogging, and her vest-top and shorts clung to every curve of her body. She was a vision of loveliness!

“Hey!” I replied, and she even got a “Hi!” from Freya!

“Do you know about the evening hang-out?” she asked.

“Yeah, Jake told us,” I said.

“Are you coming?”

“Yeah, we’ll be there,” I told her.

“Brilliant!” she replied. “It’ll be great to have someone normal to talk to! See you later!” and she carried on, jogging past us and on through the site.

“What d’you think she meant ‘someone normal’?” Freya asked.

“I dunno,” I replied, “Jake and Amber seemed pretty normal!”

“That’s what I thought! Oh well, I suppose we’ll find out this evening!”

That we would!

After tea we set off for the far end of the site to see if we could find where this hang-out was happening. We’d waited till quarter-past seven, trying to make sure we weren’t the first ones there. Wherever ‘there’ was! After a ten-minute walk we knew we’d found the place. In a corner of the site, where the boundary hedges came together, were a group of young people.

Jake and Amber were there, and the jogger, and there was another boy as well. Sitting a few yards away to one side was another girl, doing something on her phone.

We walked towards the group.

Amber saw us coming and shouted a loud “Hi, you two!” both to welcome us and to draw everyone’s attention to our arrival.

“Everyone, this is Holly and Freya,” Amber announced. “They’re twins! Isn’t that cool?!”

Holly and I said “Hey!” and “Hi!” respectively – I hate “Hey!” as a greeting, it sounds too much like “Oi!” to me – and we both smiled at everyone.

The girl we’d seen jogging earlier introduced herself as TeeJay, and she looked even prettier now that she was in a strappy top and short skirt.

The boy seemed a little shy, so Jake did the honours.

“This is Jack,” he told us, “and that over there,” he continued, pointing to the girl with the phone, “is Caitlin.”

“She’s weird!” warned TeeJay.

We were there for about an hour and a half, before it started getting dark. We chatted, joked, played a quick game of ‘tag’, then chatted some more.

I spent plenty of time with TeeJay, who, it turned out, was representing Great Britain in the under-18 athletics championships that were being held in Bournemouth at the weekend.

Wow! Talented and beautiful! The girl had it all!

Freya got stuck with Amber, who was still somewhat twin-struck! That didn’t matter, though, because, once she gets over her initial shyness, Freya is the friendliest person I know. And I’m not just saying that because she’s my twin!

Not surprisingly, the two boys hung out together, and gradually Jack came out of his shell a bit. He was a little younger than most of us, though not as young as Amber, and since he didn’t have the benefit of an older sibling to help him along, I think he was a bit shy around all us girls. Bless!

The other girl, Caitlin, just sat with her phone pretty much all the time. She joined in with the ‘tag’ game, but otherwise I don’t think I saw her speak to anyone all evening. TeeJay was right, she was weird!

Once it started to get dark, we said our goodbyes, and made our way back to the caravan. On our way back, we talked about our new friends. Inevitably the subject of the weird girl came up.

“What do you make of that Caitlin girl?” I asked Freya.

“I’m not sure!” she replied.

“Did you notice how she never spoke to anyone?”

“Mmm,” Freya acknowledged.

“And she was on her phone all the time!”

“It was like she was using the phone to hide behind!” Freya observed.

“TeeJay was right when she said she was weird!” I told her.

“I dunno,” she said, “I think there’s something more to her!”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I don’t know that!” she answered. “It’s just a feeling!”

We arrived back at the caravan to find Dad and Jenny sat outside on fold-up chairs. The littlies had gone to bed and were asleep. Out of loyalty to Dad, and a sense of duty, we sat outside with them until we started to get cold.

Then we went to our room and chilled out, catching up with all the messages on our phones, before eventually turning in for the night.

[iceman713]

I'm excited to once again read your work. Excited to see where this one goes

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Wednesday 2nd August 2017


Going on holiday with your family, when your family includes two children under seven, means doing things aimed at them in particular!

So, on a rather cloudy and cool day for early August, we spent the first day of our holiday at Dorset Heavy Horse Centre and Farm Park.

I must admit when Jenny announced at breakfast where we were going, Holly and I exchanged looks that told of our complete lack of enthusiasm for it! But we both understood that we had to keep the littlies amused, otherwise the holiday would be hell for everyone!

Actually, the place wasn’t bad! There were horse and cart rides, a wicked tractor & trailer ride that Zack loved, and me and Holly were even allowed to drive an actual tractor! Plus, of course, there were horses; and what girl doesn’t like horses?

The only downside was when Gracie managed to step in a great big pile of horse poo, and got really upset when we had to wash her shoe and she had to wear it when it was still wet! Oh, the pitfalls of being four!

All-in-all, though, it was a fun day out. Even Holly had to acknowledge that she’d quite enjoyed it!

Once we were back from the Horse Centre place, Freya and I played with Zack and Gracie before we all had tea. As seven o’clock approached, we set off for the evening ‘hang-out’.

Jake and Amber were already there, and so was ‘weird Caitlin’ as I’d started calling her. Once again, she was sat at a distance from the others, glued to her phone.

Before long Jack arrived, and so, after a while, did TeeJay. We chatted and joked around like we had the evening before, though I noticed Jack was mixing a bit more today. He especially seemed more at ease around Freya and Amber. That freed up Jake to join me and TeeJay. Caitlin kept herself to herself again.

About half an hour in, Amber said, “Hey guys, why don’t we play some sort of game where we can get to know each other a bit more?”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I’ve got a Truth or Dare app on my phone, I could set it just to Truth and we could all answer the questions that come up,” said a voice I hadn’t heard before.

Caitlin had actually said something!

We all looked across at her. She was looking at us, waiting for an answer.

“Yeah, that sounds great!” Jake said. “Let’s get it going!”

We sat ourselves in a circle and Caitlin came and sat between Freya and Jake. She started the app and then asked what setting she should put it on.

“There’s family, teen, or adult,” she informed us.

“Better do teen!” said Jake, taking into account that his little sister was present. “That should give us some interesting-enough questions!”

“Okay!” said Caitlin, and she selected the appropriate setting.

“How does this work, exactly?” asked TeeJay.

“The app gives us a question, and we all have to answer it,” Caitlin told her. “When we’ve all done it, we can get another question.”

“How do we know which order we answer in?” TeeJay enquired further.

“How about we pass the phone to the next person when a new question is needed,” suggested Freya. “That way we can all take it in turns to have to go first or last or whatever. Whoever has the phone is the first to answer the question and we go around the circle.”

That was agreed, and Caitlin, not wanting to be the first to answer, passed the phone to Jake.

“Just press ‘next question’,” she told him.

He did, and read out the question that appeared on the screen.

‘Are you in a relationship?’

That was an easy one to start us going. Only TeeJay was; she had been going out with her boyfriend for nearly six months.

Jake passed the phone to his sister, and Amber touched the screen and read out the next question.

‘What is the first thing you notice when you meet a person of the opposite sex?’

Amber blushed when she read the question, but answered, “I look for how tall they are, to see if they’re like the same height as me.”

Jack told us he looked at a girl’s face to see how pretty she was, whilst TeeJay looked for a nice smile. “I don’t want to see wonky teeth!” she explained.

Holly went for a nice body shape, and I explained how I always look at the eyes first. You can tell so much about a person by looking into their eyes!

Caitlin agreed with me on the eye-thing, and finally Jake confessed that he was a breast man! TeeJay congratulated him on his honesty!

The phone passed to Jack and the next question was completely different.

‘Have you ever thought about killing someone?’

Mercifully, no-one had!

TeeJay took the phone from Jack and brought up the next question.

‘When did you have your first kiss?’

“Are we talking about our first proper full-on kiss, or just our first kiss on the lips?” asked TeeJay.

Of course, none of us could know which the question meant. It was up to us to interpret it how we wanted. Jake, me and TeeJay said it should be the first proper full-on kiss, but the two younger ones wanted it to be just the first kiss on the lips. Ever the diplomat, Freya suggested that we each answer how we wanted, but told everyone which sort of kiss we were talking about. We agreed to go with her idea.

TeeJay went first: “My first full-on kiss was with an older boy, who I was going out with at the time. I was 15 and he was 17. We were sat in the park and he asked if he could kiss me, and I was like yeah, please do! He gave me a full-on kiss, and even put his tongue in my mouth! I was a bit shocked, but I was soon giving him my tongue as well!”

I could see the others all hanging on TeeJay’s every word, and Amber’s eyes were getting wider with each new detail. Jack, I noticed, was blushing.

It was my turn next, so I told them about my first proper kiss with my first boyfriend. It wasn’t as full-on as TeeJay’s but it had been a big thing for me at the time. Freya knew the story already, of course, but the rest listened intently.

I knew what Freya’s tale would be before she began it. Being shyer, she hadn’t had so much experience with boys, but she had gone out with Darren for about four months earlier this year. He was who she had got her first kiss from, and she went into quite a bit of detail about how it had made her feel after he’d kissed her. That’s Freya, she wears her heart on her sleeve much more than I dare to!

Caitlin was next and she told us about her first kiss on the lips, which she got from her next-door neighbour when she was 11. We were all a little surprised, or even shocked in some cases, when she told us her neighbour’s name: Lucy.

Jake didn’t go into much detail, perhaps because his little sister was listening eagerly, but told us his first proper kiss was with a former girlfriend, Emma, when he was 15. Amber seemed disappointed that she hadn’t learnt any more than that, and was equally brief when it came to her tale. Being younger, she hadn’t yet had a full-on kiss, but said that a boy in her class had kissed her on the lips on the last day of term this year. She didn’t reveal his name, keeping Jake in the dark.

I think Jack had been dreading his turn and, when he spoke, we knew why.

“I’ve not actually properly kissed a girl,” he said, looking down at his feet in embarrassment. “Pretty feeble, eh?”

If we thought it was feeble, we were at least too polite to say so, not wanting to embarrass him further.

TeeJay gave me the phone and I touched the screen to get the next question.

I read it first before telling the others what it said.

“Do you have lots of friends of the opposite sex?” I asked on behalf of the app, and then proceeded to give my answer. Without thinking, I kind of answered for Freya too. “Yeah, we’ve got quite a few friends who are boys. We kind of like just hanging out with a mixed crowd, so yeah, I’d say so.”

“What she said!” Freya answered next. She elaborated a little, “But only because Holly talks with them first and I drag along with her. Don’t you, Holly?”

I grinned at my twin. “Pretty much!” I confirmed.

I don’t think any one of us was surprised to find that Caitlin didn’t have many boy friends. From everything I’d seen of her, I doubted she had many friends of any kind!

Jake confessed that he mainly hung around with the guys, and that he found it difficult to have girls as just friends, always feeling there might be more than simply friendship available.

Amber claimed she was friendly with lots of boys, which caused her brother to raise an eyebrow, but he didn’t dispute it.

Jack, we knew, didn’t. He did, though, reveal that his best friend since the age of 5 was a girl. That caught us by surprise!

Finally, TeeJay told us that she had always been friendlier with boys than girls, mainly because of her athletics, which tended to be a bit male dominated.

Holly passed me the phone and showed me what to press. Like I couldn’t work it out for myself! The question appeared and I just looked at it, almost in disbelief. Who writes these things?

“It says, ‘what is the weirdest place you have ever peed?’” I informed them.

“Are you sure?” asked Holly and she leaned over to take a look. Satisfied that I could actually read, she commented, “weird question!”

I had to answer first and I was struggling to think of anywhere that I had peed other than into a toilet.

Helpfully, Holly jogged my memory.

“What about that time you peed behind the garage at our old house?!” she reminded me.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, and felt myself starting to blush a little.

“Well, do tell!” urged TeeJay.

“We were in the garden playing, I think we were building something, and I’d been needing to go for a while but was hanging on until I’d finished building. I was nearly bursting by this time and I knew I’d never make it all the way to the bathroom, so I ran behind the garage, yanked my knickers off and just went there!”

I was really blushing by now, and Holly didn’t help when she explained, “She went so much, there was like a little yellow river running down the path! It was so funny!”

“How old were you?” asked Amber.

“Er, about 8, I think.” I checked with my twin. “Weren’t we Holly?”

“Yeah, I’d say 8,” she confirmed.

Caitlin claimed not to have peed anywhere other than the toilet, at least not since she was very little, and we didn’t push her.

Jake confessed to peeing in the sea, and Amber said she’d done that too.

Jack’s tale was brilliant! He told us how, when he was 7, he’d had some sunflower seeds to grow as a school thing, and one of his uncles had told him that peeing on the soil made them grow quicker and bigger. So he’d religiously peed on them once a day until his mum had caught him and asked what he thought he was doing. When he’d told her, she had to tell him that his uncle had been messing with him.

We all laughed and congratulated him on such a good story.

Then it was TeeJay’s turn. She explained how, in athletics competition, you sometimes have to do a post-race test, to make sure you’re not taking performance-enhancing drugs. This test involves peeing into a bottle, and is always difficult because you generally don’t need to go so soon after a race.

“So,” she concluded, “I’ve spent quite a long time sat in a cubicle somewhere, with some lady watching me, waiting to pee!”

How was I going to follow those last two stories?

“It’s not weird,” I explained, “but the only place I’ve peed where I shouldn’t, is when I wet the bed when I was younger.”

Freya chipped in, “Yeah, but what she hasn’t told you is that I was in it at the time! We always slept together until we were about 7.”

“Oh, poor you!” Amber said to Freya. “Not for sleeping together, but for getting peed on!” she clarified.

“I didn’t pee on her,” I protested.

“It felt like you did!” joked Freya, grinning at me.

Freya passed the phone to Caitlin, who announced the next question.

“Have you ever seen your parents making love?”

Damn, these questions were getting worse!

We went around the circle rapidly, with everyone saying “No.” I added my “no” to the list.

“Yes, you have,” corrected Freya, “remember?”

Thank you, Freya!

I did remember! I had remembered all along! But I didn’t want to share it with everyone, and I didn’t think Freya would either! So her intervention caught me unprepared.

“What?!?” I half-asked half-exclaimed.

“Mum and Dad, when we were little, and wanted a cuddle one night!” she continued.

Well, seeing as she was so keen on everyone hearing this story, I found a convenient way to get out of telling it myself and let her do it.

“Well, we both saw them, so you tell the story,” I told her.

She did!

“We were 5, and I’d had a nightmare and woken Holly up and unsettled her. So we decided to go and ask Mum and Dad for a cuddle and if we could sleep in their bed. When we went in, Mum was kind of laying on top of Dad, and the bed was like rocking, …”

Freya was going bright red by this point, and I could feel myself starting to blush just hearing her tell everyone about it.

“… but Holly just tapped Mum on her back and asked for a cuddle. I’ll never forget the look on Mum’s face when she turned to look at us standing there. She quickly rolled off Dad and then we were allowed to get in and lay in between them. At the time we didn’t know what they had been doing, but I’ve always remembered that night, and now, obviously, I know what we interrupted!”

“Aww, that is so cute!” remarked TeeJay. “You guys are really lucky being twins!”

Freya and I looked at each other and said, with our built-in twin synchronicity, “We know!”

The phone was passed to Jake once more, but when he tapped the app he frowned.

“We’ve had that one already!” he said

“Oh, yeah,” explained Caitlin, “it does that. Just press it again.”

He did and said, “The next question is, ‘Do you really love your boyfriend or girlfriend?’ Well, seeing as only TeeJay has a boyfriend or girlfriend at the moment, I suppose only she can answer this one.”

“Yes, I do!” shouted TeeJay. “I love him with all my heart, and I want everyone to know!”

Amber took the phone from Jake and announced the next question.

‘Have you ever been dating more than one boy or girl at a time?’

One after another everyone said “No”, until it got to Jake. He said “Yes”!

“Explain yourself,” TeeJay told him, “and it better be good!”

“It’s not!” he confessed, before telling us how he had been going out with a girl who he liked, but that another girl that he had always fancied but never had the courage to ask out had asked him out. He had gone out with her but not broken off with the first girl … and had continued to do this for two months.

“What made you stop?” I asked.

“The two girls suspected, got together, and confronted me. I had to admit it, and they both dumped me.”

“Good for them,” exclaimed TeeJay, “you deserved it! I hope you’ve learnt your lesson!”

“I have,” replied Jake, then teasingly added, “I’ve learnt to be more careful and not to get caught!”

“You bad, bad boy!” she told Jake, and laughed.

Amber gave the phone to Jack, and he touched the screen twice in fairly quick succession.

“Another repeat!” he told us.

Yeah: either that or he’d found a question he didn’t want to answer!

The next question was a bit more deep and meaningful: ‘Are you happy with the life you have?’

Could we just say “yes” (or maybe “no”) or would we have to explain ourselves a little?

Before we could begin to answer, Caitlin spoke.

“Actually, sorry guys,” she said, “but I’m gonna have to go. I’m supposed to be back earlier tonight. Sorry!”

She reached across to retrieve her phone from Jack, and then stood up, said “see you; sorry!” and walked off back towards the caravans.

We looked at each other, trying to work out what had just happened.

“I told you she was weird!” Teejay said.

Maybe. But I couldn’t help wondering what had made her suddenly up and go. Did it have something to do with the question?

“Well, we know the question, so we may as well answer it!” Jake suggested, and we agreed.

Jack said he was, apart from he wished he wasn’t so shy; TeeJay told us she was happier with her life now than she could ever remember being, thanks to both her athletics and her boyfriend.

Holly nearly answered for me again! It’s not that she meant to, it’s just, and I do it as well, as a twin you are so used to being one half of two that that’s sometimes how you think of yourself. If you’re not careful you can find yourself speaking for the two halves and not just yourself.

“Yeah, we are, aren’t we Freya,” she began, before correcting herself. “Well, at least I am, apart from I didn’t really want to come on this holiday. But now I’ve met you lot, I’m glad I did!”

“Yeah, I am,” I agreed, “and the thing that always makes me happiest is having Holly to live through everything with me!”

“Aww, so lovely!” gushed TeeJay. “You don’t want to adopt me as a triplet, do you?”

We laughed and told her we’d love to, but we didn’t think our Dad would want another teenage girl to cope with!

Jake’s answer turned the mood a little more sombre.

“I think I am fairly happy at the moment. But the past few years haven’t been great, and definitely if you’d asked me then I’d have said ‘no’. But things are getting better, slowly.”

We didn’t push him to tell us any more, sensing that there might be things he didn’t want to share with us.

Amber’s answer kind of confirmed this.

“I am mainly,” she said, “but I really, really miss my Dad!”

With Caitlin gone, we no longer had the app, so we’d have to think up our own questions if we wanted to continue playing. But Amber’s last answer seemed to dampen the enthusiasm for carrying on, so we decided to stop.

We whiled away the rest of the evening, until it started to get dark, with our usual mix of chatting and joking around, plus another game of ‘Tag’, and then went our separate ways.

On our way back to the caravan, Freya asked me, “Why d’you think Caitlin disappeared like that, all of a sudden? She seemed to be enjoying the game just as much as the rest of us!”

“No idea!” I replied. “Like TeeJay said, she’s just weird!”

“No,” Freya told me, “there’s more to it than that! I’m sure that question had something to do with it!”

Whatever!

Once we’d got back to the caravan, we did our dutiful sit-with-the-adults bit and then retired to our room.

[Sydney_sub]

Thanks for the new story, it's awesome so far. Looking forward to the next chapter.

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Thursday 3rd August 2017


When I woke, the sun was streaming in through the window. Freya was already up and, when she saw I was awake, told me we were going to the beach. She’d put her bikini on underneath her clothes, and once I’d got up I did the same.

Although there was a beach literally across the road from the site, there were no facilities there, so we opted instead to go to Boscombe. We took all the usual seaside paraphernalia with us and found a good spot just along from the pier. The littlies loved being on the beach: that, for them, is what a holiday at the seaside is supposed to be!

Freya and I spent the day keeping the two of them entertained. Zack was really into building the “biggest sandcastle ever”, which required a lot of construction work from Dad, but all Gracie wanted to do was play with her two older sisters. She particularly liked paddling in the sea, so long as we lifted her up and over the waves as they came in!

We’d been there all day, and as Dad and Jenny began packing up, Freya and I took the littlies for one last paddle. Zack was in up to his knees, literally throwing himself at every wave as it broke, getting Freya completely soaked in the process. Gracie and I were only ankle-deep, just paddling and jumping the remnants of the waves that reached us.

We jumped the next wave, but when I landed I felt a sharp pain in my left foot.

“Owww!” I yelled, causing Freya to look across to me.

“Are you alright?” she called.

“It’s my foot!” I told her.

I hobbled back to dry sand and sat down. I lifted my leg, bent it and tried to take a look. Gracie gasped.

As she came towards me, Freya could see what I’d done, and told me, “Don’t move, Holly! You’ve cut your foot!”

She called Zack to her, and then she knelt down and said to the littlies, “Go and tell Mummy and Daddy that Holly has hurt her foot and needs help. Can you do that?”

They said they could and ran off up the beach.

“Is it bad?” I asked Freya.

“It looks quite bad,” she said, “there’s quite a lot of blood, and it’s still coming out!”

Dad was soon kneeling by me, taking a look at my foot.

“That’s a nasty cut you’ve got there, Holly!” he said. “It looks quite deep! I think that’s going to need stitches! We’ll have to take you to A&E!”

Hospital? Oh, bum!

We dropped Dad and Holly off at the hospital, and then the rest of us went back to the caravan park.

“I’ve no idea how long we could be at A&E for,” Dad had said to Jenny, “you take the rest back and I’ll ring you when we’re done, and you can come and pick us up. Freya can look after Zack and Gracie for that long, without any problems.”

“Will Holly be alright?” Gracie asked me, when we got back to the caravan.

“She’ll be fine,” I reassured her, “she’s just got a hurting foot!”

“Was it my fault she hurt her foot?” she asked, worriedly.

“No, Gracie, of course it wasn’t your fault,” I said, gently, “it was just an accident!”

That seemed to satisfy her, but she spent the next hour making a get-well card for Holly! Have I mentioned how much I adore Gracie?

As seven o’clock approached, and with no word from Dad, I broached the subject of the hang-out with Jenny.

“Can I go and see my friends, this evening, please?” I asked her.

“Not really, Freya,” she said, “I don’t know when your Dad’s going to phone, and I’ll need you to look after Zack and Gracie while I go to the hospital. So, no, I don’t think so!”

“Oh, but, …” I began, before an idea struck me. “What if you text me when you need me and I’ll come straight back? Please?”

She seemed reluctant at first, but she was always a little wary of being cast as the wicked stepmother. Not that either me or Holly would ever do that, but she has always lacked a bit of confidence when it comes to dealing with us. So, she relented, and I was allowed to go.

It seemed odd, going there without Holly at my side. We spend so much of our lives together, that when we are apart, particularly when we are forced apart, it’s like part of me is missing. I know she feels the same, as she’s told me as much on numerous occasions.

As I approached, I could see that all the others were already there. Amber spotted me first. When she saw I was on my own, her first question was obvious.

“Freya, hey!” she said. “Where’s Holly?”

“She’s had to go to A&E,” I told her, as the others listened in.

“God, is she alright?” Amber asked.

“She’s fine!” I answered, then told everyone what had happened. They all told me to wish her well on their behalf when I saw her, and I promised I would do so.

“Can we play that Truth game again?” asked Amber, during a pause in the conversation.

“Caitlin?” asked Jake.

“Yeah, sure,” replied Caitlin, who up till then had been sat at her usual distance from the rest of us.

We re-formed the circle as Caitlin brought up the app on her phone. Once again, she passed the phone to Jake to avoid being the first to have to answer.

Jake tapped the screen and read the first question. “Woah, that’s going straight in at the deep end!” he said.

It certainly was!

‘Have you ever streaked or been naked in public?’

First Jake, and then Jack, said that they hadn’t. TeeJay seemed to be unsure of how to answer, but eventually said “me neither.”

Jake sensed that she might not be totally telling the truth, so pushed further.

“You don’t seem too sure about that, TeeJay!” he said.

She looked at him, seeming a little embarrassed. “Well, I’ve definitely never streaked,” she explained, “and I don’t know whether you’d count this as being in public or not.”

“Maybe you should let us decide,” Jake suggested, encouraging TeeJay to tell all.

“Well,” TeeJay began, “it was at a youth athletics meeting when I was 14. The athletes’ changing area was in a big tent, with a large sheet of canvas dividing the boys’ and girls’ areas. Mostly when I run, I have a sports-bra and close-fit knickers. After my races are over, I change out of them into normal underwear. So, anyway, I was in this tent, changing after my races, when the canvas sheet fell down. There were four or five boys that suddenly got a look at me naked. But I don’t know if that counts as in public.”

“Did they see everything?” asked Amber.

“Yeah,” said TeeJay, “because when the canvas thing fell, it made a loud crash, and I automatically turned around to see what the noise was. So I was there, facing the boys, whilst they looked at me.”

“Oh my days,” Amber exclaimed, “that must have been so embarrassing!”

“It was!” admitted TeeJay.

“I haven’t been seen naked,” said Amber, “but last summer, when we were on holiday, I went down this big water slide that dumped you into the pool at the bottom. I went really fast into the water, and when I came up my bikini top had come off. But even worse than that, a boy who had been nearby, found it floating in the water and came and gave it back to me. And he had a good look at my tits when he did!”

Fortunately, I haven’t had the misfortune of being caught naked, and would certainly never consider streaking, as I told the others. Caitlin was the same as me.

Jake handed the phone to Jack, who read out the next question before immediately giving his answer, “’What’s your favourite thing about the opposite sex?’ I like how girls are kind and considerate, at least Lily is; she’s my best friend I told you about, by the way.”

TeeJay said she liked the way boys, or at least the boys she was attracted to, are manly and strong. Amber told us she liked how boys didn’t bitch like girls did.

So, what did I like best about boys? I really didn’t know! I tried to think of all my male friends. What did I like about them?

“Gosh, this is really difficult!” I admitted and paused to think some more. “I think, probably, what I like most about boys is when they joke around and make me laugh.”

“The way boys don’t hide things,” said Caitlin, “you know where you stand with them! At least with most of them, you do!”

Jake said he simply liked the way girls looked. “A boy’s body, even if he has a good body, just isn’t particularly nice to look at,” he explained, “but a girl’s body just has a nice shape. Does that make me sound shallow?”

Yes, it did, and TeeJay told him so! But I knew what he meant. My friend, Lottie, is quite the artist, and she’s always saying how much nicer the female form is than the male.

TeeJay took the phone from Jack and tapped up the next question.

“Had that one yesterday,” she told us, before tapping again. “And that one!” She tapped a third time. “That’s better!” She read the question, paused, and seemed to re-read it. She grimaced. “Oo-er,” she said, “brace yourselves! ‘Are you a virgin? If not, at what age did you lose your virginity?”

Good grief! That was a bit personal!

TeeJay swallowed hard. I could guess why! If there was anyone amongst us who wasn’t a virgin, I reckoned she was the most likely candidate! Or maybe Jake!

“Okay,” she began slowly, “no, I’m not a virgin. I lost it to the boyfriend I told you about yesterday, the one who gave me my first full-on kiss. I was nearly 16 when we did it the first time.”

We looked admiringly at her, not because she’d had sex, but because she’d been so open and honest with us.

Unsurprisingly, given how much younger she was, Amber said she was a virgin, and I confirmed that I was as well.

Caitlin was very hesitant when it came to her turn to speak, as if she was trying to decide what her answer should be. I assumed that meant that she wasn’t a virgin, but was thinking of not telling us the truth. In the end, I was half-right.

“I’m not,” she said, quietly, “I lost it the day after my 16th birthday. But if I could go back to that day, I’d definitely make sure that it didn’t happen. That’s all I can say.”

Sounded to me like she’d had a bad experience; or maybe it was from a broken relationship, which would explain why she was so distant all the time. Perhaps she was still getting over a broken heart!

Now we’d got to the other person I thought might not be: Jake. I was eager to hear his answer.

Typically, it was just at that moment that my phone rang. Just my luck! I knew it would be Jenny, so I made my excuses and left the others playing. All the way back I was wondering what Jake’s answer had been.

Zack and Gracie had been put to bed, to make it easier for me while Jenny was fetching Dad and Holly. Zack was soon fast asleep, but Gracie couldn’t settle, the incident that afternoon still playing on her mind. To avoid her waking Zack up, I brought her into mine and Holly’s room and sat with her.

She was just starting to fall asleep when we heard the car pull up outside.

By the time we got back to the caravan, I was tired and fed up.

We spent hours in A&E waiting around. They gave us an absorbent pad to put on my foot while we waited, but that gradually got soaked in blood. Eventually, I was taken into a small room, and a nurse had a look at my foot. She confirmed that it would need stitches, and put on some gel to numb the area. Then a doctor came, made sure there was nothing still in the wound, and then put the stitches in. We asked her how long they would be in for. She told me to keep my foot dry for the next couple of days, and said to avoid putting too much pressure on my foot for that time. It would be best if I just rested up for a couple of days. After that it should be okay for me to do most things, if I was careful. The stitches would come out by themselves after a week or so.

All I wanted to do now was go to our room and lie down. Dad carried me there! It had been a very long time since he’d carried me in his arms, and I liked having him do it!

Freya was there, sat on her bed with Gracie propped up against her chest, half-asleep.

Dad put me down on my bed, and, seeing me, Gracie scrambled up and ran across to me. She put her arms around me and hugged me.

“She’s been really worried about you,” Freya explained, “so I let her stay up till you got back so she could see you were okay. She’s even made you a get-well card!”

I kissed Gracie’s forehead. “Thank you, Gracie!” I said.

She smiled her cute little smile.

“Daddy,” she asked, “can I sleep in here with Holly and Freya tonight?”

“I don’t know, sweetie,” Dad replied, “I think you should ask them, don’t you?”

“Can I?” she asked us.

How could we refuse?

Dad left, and Freya and I got ready for bed. I was quite happy for an early night anyway, and Freya … well, Freya is just such a kind-hearted person that she will do anything for you no matter how much it inconveniences her.

Gracie’s only decision was whether to sleep in Freya’s bed or mine. Probably because I was the injured one, she chose me.

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Friday 4th August 2017


“It’s raining hard!” Freya told me as she came into our room.

Worn out by the stress of yesterday’s trip to the hospital, I had awoken much later than everyone else. I could hear the littlies in the main living area of the caravan. It sounded like they were getting up to mischief!

“She’s awake now!” Freya called out.

Dad and Jenny came in to see how I was. They took a look at my foot, and seemed happy that the wound wasn’t weeping or anything. It didn’t hurt anymore, but I remembered the doctor saying not to put pressure on it.

“We’re going to have to take Zack and Gracie out somewhere to let off steam,” Dad told me and Freya, “otherwise they’ll drive us all mad!”

“We were thinking of an indoor soft-play centre,” added Jenny. “That would mean just a lot of sitting around for you two, so we thought, if I take Zack and Gracie, your Dad could stop here with you two.”

“There’s no need for you to stay as well!” Freya told Dad. “I’ll stay with Holly. We’ll be fine! Anyway, knowing those two, you’ll probably need two people to keep an eye on them!”

“You could be right!” Dad laughed.

“You go,” I told Dad, “I’ve got Freya so I’ll be perfectly okay.”

Dad and Jenny agreed, and half-an-hour later the other four piled into the car, leaving me and Freya on our own in the caravan.

By the time Dad, Jenny and the littlies left, Holly still hadn’t got out of bed! She’d been told not to put too much pressure on her foot, and had clearly interpreted that as “I’m not getting up if I don’t have to”! It meant I was waiting on her, hand and foot (excuse the pun), but I didn’t mind. She’d have done the same for me. Most probably!

We caught up with some of our friends on WhatsApp, and I even sent Lottie a gruesome picture of Holly’s foot! But, despite what parents think, there is a limit to how much time we want to spend on social media! Really, there is!

We wanted, no, we needed something to do, so I went looking for possibilities. As I was searching, I happened to look out of the window, and saw Jake walking past. An idea struck me.

I raced outside and called after him. He turned around and came walking back towards me.

“Hi, Jake,” I said, “what are you up to?”

“Nothing, much,” he replied, “we’re stuck indoors. I’m just getting something from the shop. What about you?”

“We’re stuck indoors as well,” I said. “Holly can’t do anything on her foot, so we can’t get out. Do you and Amber fancy coming around and we could maybe play some games or something?”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” he said, “and I’m sure Amber would love to. When I get back from the shop, I’ll tell her and we’ll let you know. If you give me your number, I can text you.”

He gave me his phone and I added my name and number to his contacts.

“See you in a bit,” he said and headed off towards the little shop by the entrance to the site.

“You might have asked me before you invited them around!” I told Freya. Not because I didn’t want them coming around, but because now I was going to have to get up and dressed. I told her so.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to!” she replied.

“I can’t just lay in here in my pyjamas!” I informed her.

“Why not?” she asked. “I’m sure they won’t mind!”

“Really? You don’t think Jake might be a bit embarrassed?”

“He’ll get over it!”

By the time Freya’s phone pinged to signal the arrival of Jake’s text, I’d made up my mind that he would have to get over it. I’d got up to go to the loo, and found that, as soon as I stood on it, my foot was tender. I’d hobbled to the loo and back, but I couldn’t face getting up and dressed. Jake would just have to deal with me being in my pyjamas! They were nice, presentable pyjamas, so I wasn’t bothered about who saw me in them.

Freya texted back, and a couple of minutes later there was a knock on the door of our caravan. She went to let them in, and I heard her explain my situation.

“Holly’s foot is really sore, so she’s in bed,” Freya told them, “but we can still find something to do that includes her. Come on in,” she added as she re-entered our room.

“Hey!” I said as Amber and Jake came in.

Amber came over and put her hand on my shoulder. “Holly, you poor thing, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” I told her, “it’s just my foot, that’s all!”

Jake said “hey!” but hung back, not sure where to look or what to do. I gave Freya an I-told-you-so look. She let out an involuntary snort as she attempted to hold a snigger in.

“I had an idea about what we could do,” Amber informed us, “if you want to, that is, Holly.”

“What’s your idea?” I asked.

She pointed to the bag she’d carried in with her, and said, “I’ve brought our Pictionary game, if you want to play.”

“Yeah, I’d love to!” I told her. How did she know? Pictionary is my all-time favourite board game!

Freya smiled, knowingly.

It was to be the twins versus Jake and Amber. I shuffled across to one side of the bed so that Amber could lay the board out in the middle, whilst Freya fetched some of Gracie’s felt-tips to draw with and some paper. She sat at the top of the bed, next to me, whilst Jake and Amber sat at the other end. Jake seemed to be slowly getting over his embarrassment.

As we were setting up, a message popped up on Freya’s WhatsApp from Lottie. Freya told her what we were up to, and when Lottie said she wished she was playing, Freya promised to WhatsApp any pictures none of us could guess to see if Lottie could work out what they were!

We played for ages. With our twin-powers, Freya and I should have had an advantage, except for the fact that Freya can’t draw to save her life! Lottie was kept quite busy trying to identify her strange drawings, but proved surprisingly good at it!

We talked as we played, and inevitably, at one point, the conversation turned to the subject of the mysterious Caitlin.

Don’t believe everything Holly tells you! My drawing isn’t that bad; it’s her guessing! Lottie didn’t have any problem working out what I’d drawn!

When, during a pause in our game as we waited for Lottie to identify my latest masterpiece, Amber began asking Holly what she thought of the others at the hang-out, I knew what was coming.

They agreed that Jack was really shy, and Holly said she liked Tee-Jay and admired how dedicated she must be about her athletics.

“It must be amazing to represent your country,” she told us.

“What about Caitlin?” asked Amber. “What do you think of her?”

“She’s a bit weird!” Holly said.

Amber readily agreed, “Yeah, she’s freaky!”

“I don’t know,” I said, “I think there’s more to it!”

“Like what?” Holly asked.

“Well, her behaviour is strange, I’ll give you that,” I acknowledged, “but I think a lot of it is like a defence to hide behind.”

“What d’you mean?” Jake asked.

“Well,” I continued, “it’s like how she doesn’t want to talk with us unless we’re playing the Truth game. As if that’s a game so it’s not really real-life. Do you know what I mean?”

The others looked blankly at me. Clearly, they didn’t know what I meant!

“It’s hard to explain,” I told them, “but she’s got really sad eyes. If you look into her eyes, they’re terribly sad. I think something has hurt her really badly.”

“Maybe that’s what she was on about when she answered the question about being a virgin,” Jake replied.

“Yeah, I think it …” I began.

Holly interrupted, “Freya you didn’t tell me you had a question about being a virgin!”

“Didn’t I?” I said, with a playful innocence.

“You know damn well you didn’t!” she said. “So, what did everyone say.”

Poor Lottie’s WhatsApp guess was ignored while Amber filled Holly in! It did, at least, enable me to find out that Jake wasn’t a virgin, like I’d kind of suspected.

By mid-afternoon we’d done Pictionary to death, and played cards for a bit as well. The rain had stopped by now, so Jake and Amber said they’d best get back. I thanked them for coming over and Freya showed them out.

We returned to social media for a bit, and I hobbled to the loo and back once more. I’d just laid back on the bed when we heard the others returning in the car.

Gracie came bounding into our room then stopped dead, staring at me.

“Ohhh!” she said to me, “you’re naughty! You’re still in your ‘jamas!”

I laughed, and told her, “I am naughty, aren’t I?”

“Yes!” she said, very seriously. Then she scrambled onto the bed beside me, cuddled in to me and said, “But you’re allowed to be naughty because you’ve got a hurt foot!”

“Aww, thank-you!” I told her and gave the top of her head a kiss.

Everyone came in to see how Holly was and were happy with how her foot looked. Gracie, bless her, kept coming back in to check she was alright! When it was time for tea, Holly hobbled out so we could all sit and eat together.

It was five to seven when Holly suddenly asked me, “Aren’t you going to the hang-out, Freya?”

“I didn’t want to go and leave you,” I told her.

“Go!” she told me. “You’ve been here for me all day, so you go!”

“If you’re sure,” I said.

“Yes,” she insisted, “go and say hello to the others from me!”

I had wanted to go, and now that I had Holly’s blessing, I set off. But when I arrived, only Caitlin was there.

“Hi!” I called.

She looked up and waved. It was a start, I thought.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as I sat down beside her.

“Jack went home today,” she told me, “I don’t know about the rest. I think Jake and Amber might have gone out with their Mum.”

“Oh!” I said.

“You don’t need to stay if you don’t want!” she told me.

“No, I’ll stay!” I told her. “I want to stay!”

“Suit yourself,” she said and went back to her phone.

I sat and twiddled my thumbs, so to speak. She was once more engrossed in her phone. I leant in closer, to take a peek. She seemed to be playing some sort of game.

“What’re you playing?” I asked her.

Without looking up or pausing from the game, she said, “Episode – Choose Your Story.”

“I’ve never heard of it!” I said. “What is it?”

She stopped playing, actually put her phone away, and looked at me!

“You’re a character in a story,” she explained, “it can be a famous story or movie or one made especially for this game or you can even write your own. Your character actually lives out the story, and you make decisions and choices that change how the story goes. It’s really cool!”

“Wow!” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic about something I couldn’t really see the point of. “So what story are you in?”

“‘Path to fame’,” she told me. “I’m an aspiring singer and I’ve been given the opening spot on Demi Lovato’s tour, and she gives me advice and stuff. I have to make the right decisions so I can go on to become a big pop star and then become a good role model for my fans.”

“And have you?” I enquired.

“I’m doing alright! I’ve just been offered my own TV show!”

“Sounds like you’re doing really well!”

She smiled at me, and I returned the smile. I noticed, though, that it was a mouth-only smile, her eyes still looked sad and a little faraway.

“You should download it,” she said, “I can send you the link if you like,” and she pulled her phone out once more.

“Yeah,” I said, “why not?” I told her my number and she punched it into her phone. Moments later my phone pinged. She’d sent me the link.

I had no intention of downloading a game that didn’t interest me at all. But I had what I wanted: Caitlin’s number. I was hatching a plan.

“Thanks,” I said, “I’ll look at it when I’ve got more time.”

“Yeah, cool,” she replied.

We sat for a while, and Caitlin turned back to her phone. It looked like she was about to go back to her game, which I didn’t really want.

So, I said, “How about you bring up your Truth or Dare app, and we answer some more questions, just the two of us.”

“Yeah, cool, okay,” she replied, and tapped the app. When she’d got it on the screen, she asked, “Shall I put it on the adult setting, see what questions we get? We can always change it back!”

“Yeah, okay,” I answered, my eagerness to keep her talking over-riding any concern I may have had about what sort of questions we might get.

She tapped the screen a couple of times, then held out her phone for me to take.

I refused to take it, telling her, “You can ask the questions, and we can take it in turns to answer first. I’ll do the first one.”

“Okay,” she said, “the first question is ‘Do you have any piercings? If so, how many, and where are they?’”

“I’ve only got my ears pierced,” I told her. “I don’t really like how the other ones look, you know?”

“I’ve got two in each ear, and I’ve thought about one in my bottom lip, but I haven’t done it yet,” she said, “obviously, as you can see!”

The next question was the one about what you first notice when you meet someone of the opposite sex, which we’d all answered when we’d first played the game. So we skipped that. Next came a rather strange question.

‘Have you ever worn the opposite sex’s clothing?”

We looked at each other, before Caitlin said, “only things like my friends’ coat or my Dad’s shirt.” I couldn’t think of any time I’d worn anything, unless you count the times when my Dad gave me his jumper to put on when I was feeling cold, so that’s what I told her.

Caitlin read out the next question. “‘Who do you love most and why?’ Oh,” she remarked, “we’ve already had that one as wel!.”

“No, we haven’t!” I corrected her.

She looked at me for a moment before realisation dawned and she said, “It must have been after you went last night.”

“Oh, right, so what was your answer?” I asked.

“My Dad;” she told me, “I don’t ever see my Mum.”

I waited a moment to see if she was going to elaborate further, but it was clear she wasn’t.

“It’s got to be Holly for me,” I said, “being twins and all! We’ve never been apart for more than two days in our whole lives. Sometimes it feels like we’re really one person, just in two bodies.”

“Don’t you ever argue?” she asked

“Sometimes we yell at each other, but it never lasts long, and we always both feel guilty and sorry afterwards,” I told her.

She remained quiet for a moment, looking distant once more.

“What’s the next question?” I asked, prompting her to touch the screen.

When she told me, I almost wished I’d never asked!

It was ‘what do you think about anal sex?’

“Is that …” I began

“… where you take it up the bum!” she finished my sentence by way of an answer.

“Golly!” I exclaimed. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do that!”

“Nor me,” she agreed, “but, obviously if you’re a gay bloke, that’s the only way you can do it, I suppose. And some women seem to like it.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “I’m sure I wouldn’t!”

We continued playing for quite a long time. It became clear that we were quite alike in many ways. Neither of us had sexted anyone, nor sent a naked picture; we were both completely at ease with kissing in public; and both of us were fully in favour of birth control, believing that a woman should be in charge of her own body.

After a couple of repeat questions, and one that asked who, out of the people here, we would most like to have sex with, which there was no point answering since there were only the two of us, we got a question that was much more interesting and personal.

‘Can you tell us about your secret fantasy?’

It was my turn to go first, but there was something I needed to clarify before I gave an answer.

“Does it mean like a romantic dream sort of thing, or is it more like a wild sexual fantasy?”

“Dunno,” Caitlin replied, “why, which one were you going to answer?”

“I could do either,” I said and blushed slightly.

“The wild sex one would probably be more fun!” she said. “If you’re okay with that,” she added.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, feeling myself turning redder. “Basically, I’m in a house that is on fire, and this big hunky fireman rescues me. He picks me up, carries me out of the house, and then, for some unknown reason, takes me back to his place, and we have wild, passionate sex!”

“Wow, that’s cool!” Caitlin remarked.

“Yeah, it’s a dream I have quite often,” I confessed. “What’s yours?”

“It’s a bit kinky,” she warned me, “but in it, I’m swimming in the sea and this cute boy is with me. We begin getting all lovey, and start playing with each other below the water. Then, even though it’s like by the seaside and there’s loads of people on the beach, we have sex in the sea. But all below the water, so no-one can see anything. I get so turned on by the idea of doing that! I told you it was kinky!”

It had clouded over by now, and it looked like it might rain soon, so we decided to do one more question and then call it quits for the evening. The last question was, ‘What’s the worst thing about being your gender?’

Caitlin was quiet, seeming not to know how to answer. I stepped in.

“That’s easy!” I said. “Periods! I hate them!”

She looked at me, then said, “I think it’s not being physically as strong as sometimes you wish you were. Girls just don’t have the same strength, do they?”

I stood up, ready to go. Caitlin said she was going to stay for a bit and play her game.

“It’s nice and quiet up here, no distractions,” she said, before realising that I could easily take that the wrong way and adding, “not that you’re a distraction, Freya. I really liked talking with you!”

I left her engrossed in her game and made my way back to the caravan.

Holly was sitting in bed, reading Gracie a bedtime story. Evidently, Gracie had managed to wangle another night in Holly’s bed!

I left them to it and sat outside with Dad and Jenny until quite late.

When I retired to bed, I made sure that I added Caitlin to my contacts.

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Saturday 5th August 2017


“How’s your foot?” Dad asked, when Holly joined us in the main living area of the caravan.

“It’s a bit better,” she replied, “but it still feels a bit sore!”

“I think it’d be best if you rested it again today!” he told her. “Let it start to really heal!”

She nodded, with a disappointed look on her face.

“At least you should be able to sit outside, if you want,” he said, trying to cheer her up, “it looks like it’s going to be a nice day!”

“What are we going to do all day?” I asked Freya, once the others had set off in the car to wherever Dad and Jenny were taking the littlies today.

“I’m working on it!” she told me. “At least let’s go and sit in the sun!”

Having actually got dressed today, I readily agreed to that! We grabbed a couple of the fold-up chairs and picked a sunny spot next to the caravan. As I checked my WhatsApp, Freya began texting.

‘Hi, Jake, would you and Amber like to come over again, if you’re free?’ I texted.

My phone pinged a minute or so later. ‘Sorry, we’re out for the day with Mum. See you this evening.’ That was plan A scuppered!

“Jake and Amber have gone out with their Mum,” Freya said to me, looking up from her phone, “I’ll try Caitlin!”

“Really?” I asked. “Must you?”

“If I can get her to come, maybe she’ll be alright on her own if we can get her playing something. You know how she seems to like games.”

Holly sighed, but nodded. I started typing.

‘Hi Caitlin. Me and Holly are at our caravan and we’re bored. Would be great if you were free to come over and play some games with us. Let me know, please. Freya.’

I sent the text, and switched to my WhatsApp to catch up with Lottie and the others, waiting for the ping that would let me know Caitlin had replied.

There was no ping. Plan B had failed, too! I had no plan C!

The two of us got progressively more bored as the morning dragged on. I was feeling sorry for myself, and even more sorry for Freya, since it was me that was causing her to have to waste her time just sitting around.

They appeared in the nick of time!

Holly was clearly getting more and more frustrated and I was starting to worry that she was going to just get up and hobble off somewhere and damn the consequences to her foot. We were both getting hungry as well, and I was considering going to the little shop, but putting it off because I couldn’t trust Holly not to try to come with me!

Then, we heard voices. Young-sounding voices.

“Hi!” they said in unison.

I looked up, and there, smiling at us, were two blonde-haired girls, who were quite clearly sisters.

The older one said, “I’m Alice, and this is my sister, Hannah.”

“Holly,” I said.

“Freya,” I added.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Alice continued, “are you twins by any chance. It’s just you look really alike and about the same age.”

“Yes, we are,” I confirmed, “but you and Hannah look really alike as well.”

“Yeah,” she said, “you could say we’re twins separated by two years!”

“Are you free for a bit?” I asked Alice and Hannah, an idea having come to mind.

“Yeah, sure!” Alice replied.

Freya fetched two more fold-up chairs, and Alice and Hannah joined us. Freya then explained that she was going to the shop to get some sandwiches and stuff for lunch. She asked Alice and Hannah if they’d mind sitting with me to keep me company, and they happily agreed.

“Make sure she stays off that foot!” I told them, half-jokingly, before setting off for the little shop by the site entrance.

Alice was really chatty, and it didn’t take long before Hannah began to come out of her shell as well. They reminded me of the way Freya and I worked, me breaking the ice for Freya to join in as she became more comfortable.

When I got back the three of them were chatting and laughing away. Quite clearly, Alice and Hannah were excellent company!

I’d bought enough sandwiches and drinks for all four of us, but when I told them, Alice explained that she and Hannah would have to go because their parents were only expecting them to have gone for a quick look around the site.

Before they left, I told them about the hang-out each evening.

“You have to go,” I implored them, “you’ll love it, and everyone will love you two!”

They promised to be there, and then wandered off.

After lunch, Holly fell asleep in the chair! Like old people do!

I think I dozed for a little while …

An hour and a half!

… because the next thing I knew Freya was doing a word-search puzzle. Like old people do!

I found some paper and we played Boxes for a while, trying to kill time, until, in the end we got so desperate for something to do that we ended up playing …

…Hangman! Can you believe it?! Jake and Amber could never get to hear of this!

Finally, after what seemed like weeks sat in those chairs, the others returned.

Gracie came running over and climbed onto Holly and sat on her lap.

“Guess where we went!” she said.

“Um, to the beach?” I guessed.

“No!” she said.

“To the swimming pool?” I ventured.

“No, silly,” she said, “we didn’t take our swimming costumes!”

Silly me!

“We give up,” I told her, “you’ll have to tell us!”

“We went to Monkey World!” Zack announced as he joined us.

“What, and they let you back out?” I teased him.

Gracie started to cry. “I was telling them!” she protested. Holly cuddled her and stroked her hair.

“Why don’t you tell me all about it!” she told Gracie. Gracie did, at great length!

I was hoping to go to the hang-out that evening, but Dad wouldn’t let me.

“It would be stupid to do something now that wrecks all the good you’ve done the last two days! The doctor said rest it for two days, so we’ll see how it looks in the morning!”

He was right, of course, but it didn’t stop me from being very disappointed and frustrated.

Holly virtually ordered me to go, telling me I had to help introduce Alice and Hannah to everyone. From what I’d seen, I didn’t think Alice needed any help with that!

From some way off, I could tell that there were a lot more people at the hang-out this evening, and a lot of them were new. Faced with that situation, I needed Holly, but, of course, I didn’t have her.

Along with Alice and Hannah, there were three others there who I hadn’t seen before: a boy called Michael, whose arms and legs seemed to have grown without the rest of him joining in; and a black girl, Marcie, and her younger brother, Beckett. Marcie was a little older than me, whilst the other two were maybe slightly younger.

Jake and Amber were there again, but when I looked across to her usual spot, I noticed that Caitlin wasn’t there.

I talked with Hannah for a bit, two shy wallflowers together, and then Amber joined us. Another girl wandered up from the site. She introduced herself as Becca and made a beeline for Marcie and Alice. After a while, I left Hannah in Amber’s capable hands and wandered over to where Jake was sat with the other two boys.

“Mind if I join you?” I asked them, and sat down without waiting for them to reply. They were talking about football, which didn’t interest me at all, so I just sat there, in my own little world, vaguely listening to them at the same time as wondering where Caitlin was.

Beckett and Michael moved off a while later, leaving me and Jake on our own. He asked how Holly was, so I gave him the latest update.

“Have you seen Caitlin today?” I asked.

“No, why?”

“It’s just, I texted her this morning, to invite her to come over and keep us company, and I never had a reply!” I told him.

“Maybe she’s out for the day or something,” he suggested.

“Yeah, probably!” I replied. “But she could have texted!”

We sat and talked about everything and nothing, until I decided to ask him something that I had been wondering at, and secretly admiring.

“How come you’re so close to Amber?” I enquired. “I’ve never seen a brother and sister with such a good relationship as you two have.”

“Circumstances, mainly!” he replied, as if trying to avoid the question.

“What d’you mean?” I asked, intrigued.

“Well,” he said, hesitatingly, “three years ago my Dad walked out on us. He just left, without any warning, no goodbyes, no nothing. Amber was a real daddy’s-girl and it hit her extra hard. I sort of became a substitute dad to her in a kind of way. She would always want to be with me, you know, and I didn’t like to see her upset, so I went along with it. She’s a lot more independent now than she was, but she still prefers to be with me than with kids her own age. But that’s what big brothers do, isn’t it: look out for their little sister?”

I put my arm around him as I told him, “Not many teenage boys I know would be so loving and kind towards their little sister. She’s very lucky to have such a caring big brother!”

“I s’pose!” he said, quietly, and slipped his arm around my back, pulling me a little closer to him. We sat like that, talking, until it started to get dark. I walked back with Amber, Jake, Alice and Hannah, until we got to our caravan, where I said goodnight and went straight in.

“You were gone ages!” I said, when Freya entered our room. I was back in my pyjamas, lying on top of my bed. Gracie was back in her own bed tonight, thank goodness! Two nights was enough!

She told me about all the other new people, which made me even more determined to be there the next evening.

“Was TeeJay there?” I asked.

“No,” Freya replied. “Jake said she was at her athletics championships.”

“Oh, yeah,” I remembered, “I can’t wait to find out how she did!”

“Caitlin wasn’t there either,” Freya added, an hour or so later, as we were getting into bed. “I don’t know why!”

“Maybe you scared her off with your friendliness!” I half-joked.

“I hope not!” she said. “Night, Holly!”

“G’night!”

[foxknot69]

I always think it's astounding when a story about girls gets my attention, being gay and all :P Keep up the good work! Beautiful writing, and great characters.

[Curtis]

This installment reminded me of a story my mother (named Hannah) used to tell about the first time her family went to Florida, around 70 years ago. Nobody back then had heard of sunscreen, and on the first day she fell asleep beside the motel pool and got the worst sunburn of her life (which is saying something; she and both her children burn very easily). To shorten the story, she had to remain indoors for the remainder of the vacation, and for the next three days couldn't even get out of the bed.

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Sunday 6th August 2017


When Dad and Jenny inspected my foot, they told me that it looked a lot better.

“We’ll see how you go to start with this morning, but I reckon you’ll be okay, so long as we don’t do too much walking about!” Dad told me.

By the time we were ready to go, it was drizzling. But, actually, that kind of made our decision on what to do a bit easier.

“Why don’t we go to the cinema?” Jenny suggested. “We can find a film for everyone, and that way Holly won’t have to be on her feet all day!”

Trying to pick a film that two sixteen-year-olds, a six-year-old and a four-year-old might all like is nearly impossible! Obviously, Zack and Gracie had to be the main consideration. Me and Holly knew that, and were happy enough just to be getting off the site!

In the end we settled on ‘The Emoji Movie’, and set off for the nearest multiplex.

A word of advice, everyone: don’t bother watching that film!

We all came out of the film rather disappointed. Even Gracie and Zack, who usually love anything animated! I think they didn’t really follow what was going on. As the for rest of us … well!

We went to a nearby McDonalds for lunch, and then wondered what to do next. Dad sent me out to check on the weather; it was raining steadily now.

We’d seen a Bowlplex on our way to the cinema, so we decided to go there and take the littlies for their first bowling experience.

That was way more fun!

Being careful of my foot, I dispensed with any run-up, but it didn’t make much difference to my bowling. It was still rubbish! Freya’s not much better, but benefitted from getting a strike at one point and beat me easily. Dad’s not great either, but beat both of us; Jenny, though, is something of a bowling demon and she got 158!

The best fun, though, was watching the littlies take their turns! Gracie used the ramp to push her ball down, but wasn’t tall enough, so Dad had to hold her up. The first time, she didn’t hold onto the ball while he was lifting her into position, so it just rolled off of its own volition! She was so annoyed, she ran down the lane after it to fetch it back! Me and Freya were creased up! After a couple of goes we had a system that worked. Freya held the ball in place, Dad lifted Gracie up, and she gave the ball a push. So long as it knocked down something, anything, Gracie was happy!

Zack, meanwhile, was determined that he was old enough and strong enough not to need the babyish ramp! He wasn’t, of course; but he also wasn’t giving in easily. He developed a radical technique of placing the ball down, laying down behind it and pushing it with both hands. What people on the other lanes thought, I have no idea; but it kept me and Freya giggling all afternoon!

By the time we’d finished bowling, the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing. Good! That meant we should be able to go to the hang-out later!

Just after seven, we arrived at the hang-out. Both Freya and I were a little disappointed to see that the person we were most looking for wasn’t there. TeeJay was still at her athletics, so I would have to wait a bit longer to find out how she’d done; Caitlin wasn’t there either, but, when Freya asked, no-one knew why or where she was.

Michael and Becca had only been down for the weekend, so they’d both gone home. The others, however, were all there. Alice came over and took Holly off to meet Marcie, while I wandered over to join Amber and Hannah. The boys were hanging out together, probably talking football again.

We talked for a while, before Amber asked me, “What do you reckon, would everyone be up for another go at the Truth game?”

“What’s that?” Hannah asked, so we explained what we’d done on previous evenings.

“But we haven’t got Caitlin’s app!” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry,” Amber replied, “I’ve downloaded one. I don’t know if it’s the same one, but it doesn’t matter really, does it?”

We decided to ask whether everyone wanted to play, so Amber called everyone’s attention and popped the question, so to speak.

I’m not sure Beckett was very keen on the idea, but everyone else said they’d like to play, so we formed a circle. Amber set up the app and announced the first question.

‘What is the worst fear you have in life?’

“Losing Jake,” she said straightaway.

“That’s not happening!” Jake told her from across the circle.

I remembered what Jake had told me the previous evening. He really was a caring, protective brother to Amber. It made me like him even more!

“Without wishing to sound the same,” I said, “for me it is the idea of living without Holly. I just couldn’t imagine that!”

“Same!” said Holly. “If anything ever happened to Freya, I’d want to die as well, rather than go on living without her!”

Gosh! Holly was never usually as open as that about her feelings! I leant across and hugged her. A chorus of ‘aww’s went up from the other girls.

I don’t know what made me say that, but I meant every word! The possibility of life without Freya was just too awful to contemplate!

Marcie’s answer lightened the mood a bit.

“It’s not that I don’t love my brother, but my worst fear is heights. I’m absolutely terrified of them. I don’t even like looking out of my bedroom window at home, if it’s open, because I think I’m going to fall out!”

“Arsenal losing to Tottenham!” said Beckett.

Jake laughed and said, “Also not happening!” He then told us that his worst fear was falling down the stairs and breaking his neck. “I actually fell down them when I was 7, from about two-thirds of the way up. I didn’t do any real damage to myself, but it scared the crap out of me!”

Alice’s worst fear was being caught in a burning building; Hannah said she was scared of having to walk home on her own after dark. Both entirely sensible fears, I thought.

Amber passed the phone to me and I tapped up the next question.

‘What is your most romantic dream?’

I thought for a moment. Was my fireman dream appropriate, I wondered. I decided it was, and shared it with the group. Holly giggled as soon as I started telling it, since she knew what was coming! When I’d finished, I noticed Amber was blushing. Oh dear, I’d forgotten how much younger she was than the rest of us. Maybe I shouldn’t have told that story!

Holly then told us about her dream of being swept off her feet by a handsome young man and taken to his private tropical island to be wooed. I’d heard that one before, but the other girls lapped it up!

Marcie revealed that she had always dreamed of being a real-life Cinderella, rescued from her ordinary life by a handsome prince. As she finished, she turned to Jake and said, “Don’t you dare say ‘not happening’!” We all laughed.

This question was clearly going to be more difficult for the boys, so it was no surprise when Beckett struggled to answer.

“Um, I suppose, falling in love with a pretty girl,” he said, and we let him off the hook.

“Meeting the right girl and getting close to her,” Jake said.

Was it my imagination, or was he looking at me when he said that? My heart fluttered.

Alice was much more forthcoming! “So, right, I have this dream where I’m in a boat at sea and it’s really rough. There’s a boat with some people in it; it varies, but there’s always a good-looking boy amongst the people! Then I realise that I’m in a lifeboat, and it’s me that’s rescuing these people. So, I get them onto the lifeboat, and save them from drowning, and the boy is so grateful he hugs me and gives me a kiss. When we get back to the shore, he gives me his number, and then later, I don’t know when exactly, we meet up and fall in love!”

We loved that story!

“Mine’s a bit the same as Freya’s,” Hannah admitted, “but more falling in love with my rescuer than having wild sex!” She laughed as Freya blushed.

What was it about us girls and being rescued? I was sure Freya would have a theory!

Amber revealed that she dreamt of marrying a man who would look after her, protect her, and always love her.

After what Jake hold told me yesterday, I knew that Amber’s was no romantic dream. She had been hurt by her Dad walking out, and I realised that it would take a lot of effort on her part before she would be able to trust any future partner not to do the same. My heart went out to her, and it made me admire Jake even more for the way he was always there for Amber.

I passed the phone to Holly, ready for her to get the next question.

Freya gave me Amber’s phone and I tapped the screen. I couldn’t believe the question that came up! I showed it to Freya and watched her eyes widen in surprise.

I read the question to myself a second time, just to make sure: ‘What sex positions have you tried?’. It couldn’t ask that! Not with Amber there! Actually, not anyway! Then I remembered mine and Caitlin’s game where she’d put it on the adult setting. My guess was that Amber had accidentally done the same.

“What setting did you put it on?” I asked her.

“It didn’t ask for a setting!” she replied.

“Okay, everyone,” I told them all, “we’re going to have to be a bit careful with the questions! I think some of them will be inappropriate, so just use your common sense. Maybe, if you’re not sure, ask someone else what they think. The one Holly just got is definitely inappropriate!”

Freya handed the phone back to me and told me to bring up another question. This time it was fine, though it would be quite embarrassing for some of us!

‘Who do you think is the cutest person here?’

I wasn’t best pleased that I had to go first, mind you!

Freya looked at me and said, “Don’t say me!”

“I wasn’t going to,” I retorted, “you’re not cute! You’re fabulous, but you’re not cute!”

“Why, thank-you!” she replied, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

I was genuinely struggling with this question, but in the end selected Hannah. Possibly because she and Alice reminded me of the two of us. Hannah blushed.

Marcie embarrassed her brother by telling us he could be really cute when he wanted to and that was why she was choosing him. He punched her playfully on the arm, before also nominating Hannah.

Jake chose Freya, which made her blush, and Alice became the third person to nominate her younger sister.

Hannah was in the throes of explaining why she was going to choose two people, when we felt raindrops. It very quickly became a downpour. I handed Amber her phone as everyone began running back to their caravans.

Unfortunately, because of my foot, I couldn’t run, so by the time we got back, me and Freya looked like two drowned rats!

“My goodness, look what the cat’s dragged in!” said Dad, unsympathetically, when we came through the door.

We went to our room and changed out of our sodden clothes, putting our pyjamas on. We returned to the main living area and snuggled up to Dad, for warmth mainly.

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Monday 7th August 2017


With Holly’s foot healing well, and the weather looking fine, if a little cool, we were off to Paultons Park, for what could well be Gracie’s holiday highlight. Paultons Park, you see, is home to Peppa Pig World, and Gracie counts herself as Peppa’s number one fan! Fortunately for Holly and I, there were plenty of other rides that were more suited to us older girls!

Before we went, Freya said she just wanted to do something quickly, and since it takes ages to get the littlies ready, she was given permission.

There was something I wanted to check!

I went over to the caravan where Caitlin had been staying. The same car was still parked next to it, so that told me that Caitlin was still on site. So, why hadn’t she been coming to the hang-out?

When I got back, I told Holly what I’d discovered.

“If you’re that bothered about it,” I told her, “why don’t you just go and ask her?”

I wasn’t sure that was a good idea!

Once we’d got to Paultons Park, we split up for some of the day: me, Holly and Dad went off to enjoy the thrills of the bigger rides, whilst Jenny took the littlies round their part of the park. Then we all met back up so we could journey around Peppa Pig World together, as Gracie had insisted!

We had a great day, even with the dreaded Peppa’s presence! It was especially nice for me and Freya to spend some time on our own with Dad. We don’t get that chance very often.

After tea, we headed for the hang-out, a bit earlier than usual. That meant we were the first to arrive. Soon after we got there, Jake and Amber showed up. Marcie and Beckett quickly followed them, before I saw the sight I’d been waiting for: TeeJay approaching.

Holly was all over TeeJay like a rash, asking her about her athletics championships. Alice and Hannah were the last to arrive. Despite my almost constant looking down towards the site, there was once again no sign of Caitlin.

I headed over to join Jake, Amber and Hannah. The rest were all gathered around TeeJay as she regaled them with tales of her athletics. I sat down, next to Jake, and we all talked for a bit.

Rather randomly, Hannah told me that she had been going to choose me and Holly as the cutest ones when the rain interrupted her last night. “You two are just the cutest pair of twins ever!” she said. Amber said that she had been going to choose us both as well.

It’s nice to know someone thinks we’re cute!

Amber and Hannah wandered off to join the others, once the TeeJay Appreciation Society seemed to have concluded its inaugural meeting, leaving me and Jake sat on our own. I moved closer in to him, and he put an arm around me.

“Caitlin’s car is still by the caravan,” I told him, in a quiet moment. “So why doesn’t she come any more? It worries me a bit that no-one’s seen her for days!”

“Maybe she’s ill?” suggested Jake.

“But she hasn’t replied to my texts, either!” I added.

“She must have her reasons,” he said, “after all, you said it yourself, her behaviour has always been strange!”

“Yeah,” I admitted, “but I’ve just got a feeling! I can’t explain it, but it just doesn’t feel right somehow!”

“Well, why don’t you go and ask her?”

“That’s what Holly said!”

“There you are then!” he told me.

“Hey guys!” Amber called out, “Truth time!”

We sat in a circle once more, and waited for Amber to give us our first question.

Before she did, she explained, “I’ve downloaded a different app from yesterday’s, and this one is specially for teenagers. So, we shouldn’t have any trouble like we did last night!” Then she revealed the first question.

‘If you were stuck on a desert island, which friend would you want there with you?’

Not a great question, given that none of us knew each other’s friends, but there you are!

Amber immediately threw a spanner in the works! “Does it have to be a friend?” she asked. “Because I’d prefer to have Jake with me!”

“That’s fine!” Freya told her, so we moved on around the circle.

Hannah chose Lucy, her bestie; Beckett chose Byron, and Marcie nodded in confirmation; TeeJay chose her boyfriend, not surprisingly; and then it was my turn. I also had a spanner of my own!

“Obviously she’s not my friend, but I’m choosing Freya,” I told them, “she’s way more important than any friend could ever be!”

There she goes again, sharing her feelings! What’s got into her?

Alice chose Poppy, which surprised Hannah.

“I thought you’d say Cass!” she said.

“I nearly did,” Alice admitted, “if it’s allowed I really want both of them there with me!”

Marcie chose Zahara, after which Beckett said, “Yes! Got that right!” It seemed he’d been trying to predict who his sister would choose. Then Freya went and made things really complicated!

“Well, I’d want Holly there, of course, but I’d also want my best friend, Lottie, there as well!” There was a short pause, as she turned to look at Jake, then she mumbled, “And you, too!”

A few knowing smiles broke out around the circle, especially when Jake made his choice.

“My best mate Dazza, unless Freya wants to come to my island with me!”

Freya blushed, but smiled at Jake.

I knew I had feelings for Jake, and clearly he had feelings for me too, but I wasn’t totally sure I wanted him to say what he had in front of the others. Time to move the game along!

“What’s the next question?” I asked.

Hannah took the phone from Amber and tapped the screen. “‘Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?’ Oh!” she exclaimed and then stopped. After a moment she said, “Hang on a minute!” She got up and looked at her sister. “Alice!” she called and beckoned her over. They left the circle and had a short, whispered conversation.

This was all very mysterious! What could they be talking about?

When they came back and re-took their places, Hannah answered the question, kind of: “Yes, I have, but I want Alice to explain.”

We all looked at Alice. For someone so chatty, she seemed tongue-tied.

“Have you ever heard of naturism?” she asked us.

“Isn’t that where you go around naked all the time?” TeeJay answered.

“Well, not all the time,” Alice replied, “but, yeah, if you’re a naturist you’re comfortable being naked! Well, our family have always been naturists, so me and Hannah grew up with it. At the club, you’re not allowed to wear swimming costumes in the pool, not that we’d want to anyway, so we always swim naked. It’s not something we tell everyone, because some people are a bit funny about it. But we wanted you all to know. So, there you are! Me and Hannah are happy being naked!”

Whatever we all secretly thought about naturism, we all had to admire her courage to tell us, and Hannah’s as well!

Freya put it into words, as only she can. “Well done, you two! You’re really brave to tell us that! I feel incredibly honoured you were able to trust us enough to tell us! Thank you so much!”

What she said next, though, surprised the life out of me!

“And I’d love try swimming naked with you one day!”

“And we’d love to take you!” Alice told her.

I, on the other hand, had absolutely no intention of swimming naked!

I knew, without even looking at her, that Holly would be completely shocked by what I’d just said. To be honest, I was shocked by it myself!

After all that, the rest of the answers were short and predictable, with one exception: after Beckett told us he hadn’t been skinny-dipping, TeeJay announced that she had!

“I’ve only done it once,” she explained, “with a group of friends from college about six weeks ago. We were at a quiet spot by the river, where we sometimes hang out, and someone suggested we go swimming. When we all said we didn’t have any costumes, it became kind of ‘go in as bare as you dare’. Some of us kept our undies on, a couple of girls went topless, and me and this one boy stripped naked!”

TeeJay had certainly got up to a load of different stuff!

Holly said she hadn’t and wouldn’t; we already knew about Alice; and Marcie, me, Jake and Amber all confirmed that we hadn’t tried it.

Hannah passed the phone to Beckett and showed him what to tap. He did, and up came our next question.

‘Have you ever been in trouble with the police?’

None of us had.

TeeJay got another question that we quickly dealt with: ‘Have you ever climbed a tree?’

Everyone had, except for Marcie, who explained that her fear of heights had stopped her from ever having the urge to do so.

TeeJay passed the phone to me and I brought up the next question. I looked at it, and wondered why I always managed to get the weird questions.

‘What do you think about while sitting on the toilet?’

I told everyone the question, and when the laughter died down, attempted to answer it.

“It depends,” I said, “but if something bad has happened like at school or something that day, then I sort of replay it in my head and try to work out what to do about it.”

Alice was next: “I don’t think about anything, I always catch up on Facebook when I’m sat there!”

“I don’t know,” Marcie began, “like, what homework I’ve got or something, I suppose.”

“If it’s in the morning I go over what I’ve got to do that day,” Freya told us, “and if it’s in the evening I go back over what’s happened during the day.”

“So that’s why you’re always in there so long!” I teased.

“Ha! Ha!” she replied.

“I just read the sports pages of the newspaper,” Jake admitted.

Amber added, “And I’m usually listening to something on my iPod, so I’m not thinking anything.”

Who knew people’s toilet habits were so varied? And fascinating!

“I take a book to read,” confessed Hannah.

“Yeah, we know, little ‘Miss In-there-for-hours’!!” laughed Alice.

Beckett was the opposite, he told us, “I just dump and go!” Really!?!

Finally, Tee-Jay said she had a mind-routine that helped her focus.

“What do you need to focus on when you’re sat on the toilet?!” laughed Jake.

“I’m not focussing on anything, I’m just practising the technique!” she explained.

I passed the phone to Alice and waited to hear what delights were coming next!

When Alice read out the next question, I knew I was in trouble!

“‘Have you ever had a crush on anyone here?’” she said.

Since we were all on holiday and had only met for the first time a few days ago, you would expect everyone’s answer to be “no”. Except mine wasn’t, was it … and enough had been said already that people would know it wasn’t!

As expected, first Alice and then Marcie said, “no.” Then it was my turn to answer.

“Not really,” I ventured.

“Freya?” questioned Alice, slightly accusingly, nodding towards Jake.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it a crush,” I said, trying to wriggle out of it, “but I do like Jake!”

“Just ‘like’?” Alice pushed further.

“Alright,” I conceded, “I like him a lot!”

“Crush!” decided Alice. “Next!”

Next, of course, was Jake! He was more upfront about it!

“I definitely fancy Freya!” he announced.

I blushed once more. But once everyone had turned their attention to Amber, I slyly put my hand on his. He looked at me and I smiled.

“No.” “No.” “No.” “No.”

That was Amber, Hannah, Beckett and TeeJay dealt with.

Just Holly to go. Holly and her new-found openness. Oh gosh!

“It’s nothing like a crush,” I said, making that clear straightaway, “but I really admire TeeJay!”

She looked at me, slightly alarmed.

“I don’t fancy you or anything like that!” I assured her. “It’s just I think you’re a wonderful person and someone I’d like to be like!”

She seemed genuinely touched, and she put her hand on my knee and said, “Thanks, Holly, that means a lot to me!”

Alice gave the phone to Marcie, and the next question was revealed.

‘Which family member are you most like?” That would be easy for me and Freya!

The answers were short and simple. Marcie: “my mum”; Freya: “Holly, obviously”; Jake: “my Dad”, to which Amber replied, “no, you’re not like him at all!”; Amber: “my mum”; Hannah: “my cousin, Mandy”; Beckett: “my Mum”; Tee-Jay: “my granddad”; me: “Freya”; and Alice: “Hannah”.

Marcie handed me the phone. As always, once I’d tapped the screen, I read the question to myself before I read it aloud. I didn’t think much of the one I’d got this time!

‘Do you want to have kids. If so, how many?’

“If they were all like Gracie,” I said, “I’d have hundreds!”

“Whose Gracie?” Amber asked.

“Our little sister,” Holly told her.

“She’s four and she’s adorable!” I explained.

“I’ve never really thought about it,” Jake began, “but I’d definitely like to be a dad one day.”

You’re almost like one already, I thought, the way you look after Amber!

“Three,” said Amber, very exactly, “all girls.”

Hannah wanted “at least two”, whilst Beckett claimed not to want any.

“Not until I know I’ve taken my athletics as far as I can,” TeeJay said, “but then, yeah, probably one or two.”

Holly wanted twins of her own!

“Now I’ve met you two,” Alice told us, “so do I!”

Marcie wanted a big family, she said, “at least five kids.”

I passed the phone to Jake, who took the opportunity to give my hand a gentle squeeze! My heart skipped a beat!

“Oh, my word!” he said when he’d tapped the screen. “It says, ‘What colour is your underwear?’”

I hoped everyone could remember, otherwise there would need to be some discrete peeking!

“Black,” Jake said.

“A sort of orangey-gold for my knickers,” began Amber, “and my bra is white.”

“Red bra, black panties,” said Hannah.

“Black,” Beckett told us.

“Damn!” said TeeJay. “I can’t remember which ones I put on! Hold on!” She carefully peeled the top of her shorts down a bit to reveal a strip of red material. “Oh yeah,” she said, “matching red bra and panties!”

“White,” I said, “both bra and knickers.”

“Dark blue panties,” Alice said.

“What about your bra?” TeeJay asked.

“I’m not wearing one,” Alice revealed. Brave girl!

“Black bra and a black thong,” Marcie told us. Oh wow!

“Yellow bra,” Freya began, and then hesitated.

I knew why. She had a whole load of knickers that featured odd patterns in multiple colours. She was obviously wearing one of those!

“My knickers are a bit difficult to describe!” she continued.

I decided to step in and help out, like any good twin would!

“Everyone think of a colour, and it’s probably somewhere on her knickers!” I told them.

We all laughed.

Having passed the phone right the way around the circle, we decided that was enough Truth-ing for one evening and split back up into our little groups once more.

I sat with Jake.

“Do you really fancy me?” I asked him. I knew he did, I just wanted to hear him say it!

“Yes, Freya, I really, really fancy you!” he said. It was music to my ears!

For the moment, my worries about Caitlin were far from my mind. I only had thoughts for Jake!

I snapped a picture of him with my phone. I’d WhatsApp Lottie later and tell her all about him.

Before we all went our separate ways, TeeJay and Jake suggested that, if we were allowed, we should meet up at 2 the next day and all go to the beach across the road together. We all promised to check with our parents and be at the site entrance for 2 o’clock if we possibly could.

As soon as we got back, we told Dad and Jenny about the beach idea.

“I think that’d be really good!” Dad told us. “We’ll make sure we’re back in time for you two to go along!”

As I lay in bed that night, I was really looking forward to the following afternoon. I replayed the evening in my mind. I knew Freya was smitten! Holiday romances, eh?

[Curtis]

…and now I want to know what's up with Caitlin!

[alli55]

Ten days last summer


Tuesday 8th August 2017


The next day dawned overcast, threatening to ruin our beach plans for the afternoon. By the time we’d finished breakfast, however, the sun had come out and the sky was blue from horizon to horizon.

We were all going to the Oceanarium in Bournemouth in the morning, since Zack is really into fish of all kinds. Especially sharks! Then we’d grab some lunch and be back in time for me and Freya to be at the site entrance at 2, ready to go to the beach with the others. Dad and Jenny were going to take the littlies to the beach as well, but promised to drive at least a mile away, so we wouldn’t be interrupted!

As someone who thinks “you’ve seen one fish, you’ve seen them all”, the Oceanarium didn’t really appeal. But actually, despite its name, it wasn’t all about fish! There were crocodiles, water dragons, turtles, penguins, and the cutest family of otters you’ve ever seen! Plus lots of fish, of course, and Zack’s sharks. I enjoyed it much more than I expected. Gracie wasn’t keen on the walk-through tunnel where fish were all around you, but Zack absolutely loved it. As for the interactive dive cage: oh my gosh! You were face to face with a virtual Great White Shark, and it was easy to forget that it wasn’t real!

We were back at the caravan well in time for our beach trip. Dad and Jenny took the littlies off with their buckets and spades and stuff, whilst me and Freya changed into our bikinis. We each threw a t-shirt and shorts over the top, grabbed some beach towels and a cool bag, and then we were ready to go!

We killed time on WhatsApp, then set off for the site entrance.

TeeJay, Jake and Amber were already there, and Alice and Hannah arrived just after us. We waited till just after 2 before we decided to head across the road to the beach. We had literally just got to the other side when we heard Beckett calling to us, as he and Marcie ran to catch us up. Brilliant! Everyone had been able to come!

TeeJay had brought a volleyball net with posts and a ball; and Alice and Hannah had brought a frisbee and a beach ball. This was going to be a great afternoon!

It was a great afternoon! The best one of our holiday! Much as we loved doing all the stuff with the family, and the littlies especially, this was us hanging out with our friends doing stuff that people our age do. It doesn’t get much better than that!

We lounged around; we played volleyball; we swam and splashed in the sea; we frisbeed up and down the beach; and generally had a really good time! Jake and I went for a quiet walk together along the water’s edge whilst the others continued their fun, and it was lovely just walking hand-in-hand splashing our way through the incoming tide. As for when I got him to put sun-cream on my back for me: oh, that made me tingle at his touch!

All too soon it was time to pack up. Still, at least I’d see him again in a couple of hours at the hang-out!

As we made our way back through the entrance to the site, I noticed that my foot was feeling sore. I stopped, leaned against the wall, and lifted my foot up to take a look. I’d been walking right at the back of the group, and no-one noticed that I wasn’t still trailing along behind them. Freya and Jake were walking together near the front, so I decided not to bother her. I could soon sort this out, and I was old enough to find my own way to our caravan!

When I looked, there was blood all over my flip-flop. Damn! All that running around and messing about on the beach had obviously opened up the wound. I hobbled into the little shop near the site entrance to see if they had a tissue or something I could use to soak up the blood a bit.

As the lady was fetching me a kitchen roll, my phone pinged. It was Freya.

‘Where are you?’ she texted.

‘In the shop, see you in a minute’, I texted back.

‘OK’ came the return text.

Between us, the shop lady and I cleaned up my foot and then she gave me some more kitchen roll to stop my flip-flop getting covered in blood again. I thanked her and hobbled back out.

When I came out, there, at the edge of the grassy area by the site entrance, was Caitlin. She had her back to me and seemed to be examining her arm. I looked more closely, and could see that she had a massive, black bruise up near her shoulder. By the look of it, I reckoned it must be quite painful.

I hid against the corner of the shop wall, so that she wouldn’t see me if she turned around, and texted Freya.

I didn’t notice Holly had gone missing initially. It was only when we all began to go our different ways to our caravans that I realised she wasn’t there.

‘Where are you?’ I texted her.

‘In the shop, see you in a minute’ she texted back. I didn’t think she had any money on her, so what was she doing in there?

I sent her an ‘OK’ and continued on to our caravan.

I’d just about got there when my phoned pinged again. It was Holly once more.

‘Come quickly, it’s Caitlin, she’s got a badly bruised arm’.

I dumped my stuff inside and hurried back. I was only half-way when I got another text.

‘Watch out, she’s coming your way’.

I knew Freya would want to see for herself what I’d just seen, so I let her know it was urgent.

‘Come quickly, it’s Caitlin, she’s got a badly bruised arm’, I texted.

Hardly had I sent the text, than Caitlin stood up and turned round. I kept as hidden as I could, but didn’t want to lose sight of her. She began walking into the site. Damn! Freya would walk straight into her.

I warned Freya. ‘Watch out, she’s coming your way’.

Almost immediately I got a text back. ‘Which arm?’

I closed my eyes and pictured the scene in my mind. ‘Left, by her shoulder’, I texted back.

Caitlin was coming my way, so I needed to think fast. An idea came to me. I sent Holly another text.

‘Which arm?’

I needed her to get this right if my plan was going to work. I only hoped she could remember.

Ping! I looked at the screen. ‘Left, by her shoulder’. That was all I needed to know!

A minute or so later, I saw Caitlin. As she got nearer, I casually called out to her. “Hi, Caitlin!”

“Oh, hi” she said, cautiously.

You know that phrase ‘cruel to be kind’. Well, that was my plan! I only hoped the kind would eventually, somehow, outweigh the cruel!

As we got level with each other, we both stopped. Feeling bad about what I was going to do, I reached out and, as gently as I could, rested my arm on her left shoulder.

“How’s it going?” I asked her, as innocently as I could.

As soon as my hand touched her shoulder, she winced and stepped back. An involuntary, “ow!” escaped her lips.

“Sorry!” I said.

“That’s okay!” she replied, grimacing a little.

“Have you hurt your arm?” I asked with faked innocence.

“A bit!” she told me.

“Oh, sorry!” I said again. “I’ve gone and made it worse!”

“It’s not your fault,” she assured me, “you didn’t know!”

“Have you bumped it or something?” I asked.

“Yeah, something like that!” she replied.

She was being rather evasive, I thought.

“Can I see?” I asked and began to pull the sleeve of her shirt up her arm.

“Why?” she asked, defensively.

“Just curious!” I said. By now I’d got the sleeve up far enough to begin to see the bruise.

Caitlin knew she couldn’t stop me seeing it.

“Gosh, Caitlin, that looks really painful!” I told her.

“It hurts when you touch it!” she admitted.

“You must have bumped into something really hard!” I remarked, fishing for clues.

“Yeah,” she said, not giving me any, “anyway, sorry Freya, but I’ve got to get back!”

I couldn’t think of a good reason for keeping her there any longer, so I let her go. But before she went, I had one thing I wanted to say to her.

“Will I see you tonight, at the hang-out? I’ve missed you being there!”

“Yeah, probably!” and she wandered off. I doubted I would! I turned and went back to the caravan.

Holly arrived shortly afterwards.

As I made my way back towards the caravan, I could see Freya talking to Caitlin. I didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but I guessed me turning up might ruin things. So, I ducked behind another caravan, stuck my head around the corner and watched the two of them. After a short while, Caitlin wandered off, so I resumed my walk back to our caravan.

“Did you see it?” I asked Freya when I got back.

“Yeah,” she said, “it looked horrible, and it hurt when I touched it.”

Incredulous, I asked, “You touched it? I didn’t know you could be so cruel!”

“I didn’t want to,” Freya explained, “but it was the only way I could think of to give me a reason to mention it.”

Clever!

“Did she tell you how she got it?” I asked Freya.

“She told me she bumped into something. But what would you have to bump into to get a bruise like that?”

“She’s lying!” I told her.

“That’s what I thought,” Freya agreed, “but why would she?”

I couldn’t come up with a decent answer to that question.

“I was right, wasn’t I?!” Freya said to me. “I said there was something wrong! I just don’t know what it is!”

I was puzzled and concerned in equal measures. There was definitely something going on with Caitlin. But unless I could get her to open up, I didn’t think there was much hope of getting to the bottom of it.

For now, though, there was another matter I wanted to raise.

“By the way, Holly,” I said, “what were you doing in the shop? I didn’t think you took any money with you!”

“I didn’t,” she replied, “I was getting help with my foot.”

“Why, what’s happened?” I asked, anxiously.

“It’s started bleeding again,” she said. She sat down and lifted her foot up for me to see. “Look!”

I looked, and could see that some of the stitches had come out and the wound had been pulled open. It didn’t look good!

When Dad and Jenny got back with the littlies, I showed them my foot.

“Oh, Holly,” Dad said, with a mixture of sympathy and annoyance, “what are we going to do with you, eh?”

“Sorry!” I said.

He sat beside me and gave me a cuddle. “We’ll take a look at it in the morning and decide what to do then. We can put a dressing on it for now.”

“Does that mean I won’t be able to go to the hang-out this evening?” I asked.

“Well, you’re not going to do it much good if you do!”

“Oh, please?” I begged.

“Alright,” he consented, “we’ll dress it and put a pad under it. So long as you only walk there and back, and rest it up while you’re with the others, it shouldn’t do too much harm!”

“Thank-you!” I said gratefully, and gave him a big hug.

I could tell Holly’s foot was giving her quite a bit of pain as we walked to the hang-out, but she was determined to make it there. We arrived to find most of the others already there, just Tee-Jay and Hannah were missing. Strangely, Alice was there, without her sister. I was also slightly surprised, but very pleased, to see Caitlin sat some way from everyone else, hunched over her phone once more. Before I went to join her, I asked Alice about Hannah.

“She came over all dizzy and faint when we got back,” Alice explained. “Mum thinks she got too much sun and has got a bit of sunstroke, so she’s had to lie down in her room with the curtains pulled. She’ll be fine in the morning!”

I went over to Jake and told him I was going to sit with Caitlin for a bit. “I’ll come and find you later,” I promised him.

Caitlin looked up as she heard me coming over. She smiled and then went back to her game. I could tell this was going to be difficult.

“Hi, I’m glad you came!” I told her.

“Hi,” she said, without looking up, “sorry about earlier!”

“No,” I told her, “it was all my fault! I shouldn’t be so touchy-feely!”

I wanted to get her to engage with me, and I could think of only one way to do that.

“So,” I asked, “how’s your TV show going?”

She stopped playing, and looked up at me. “I’ve got the best rated series on the network, and now I’m doing a world tour!”

“Oh, wow!” I exclaimed. “You’re quite the megastar!”

“I’m getting there,” she said, “but now comes the hardest part!”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Well, once you’re a star,” she explained, “you have to become a good, positive role model for your fans. So, every decision you make, not just about your singing career but about your whole lifestyle, you have to think what effect it might have on the kids who are into you.”

“Gosh! That sounds like an awful lot of responsibility!” I told her.

“Yeah, it is,” she agreed, “but that’s what being a teen-idol is!”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do brilliantly!” I said.

“Hopefully, I will!”

“I’m just glad I don’t have that sort of responsibility!” I confessed.

“But you do, a little bit, don’t you?” she said, taking me by surprise.

“What d’you mean?” I asked her.

“Well, your little sister!” she said. “I’ve seen you and your family going out a couple of times, and your little sister clearly looks up to you and Holly. So that gives you the responsibility to be a good role model for her, doesn’t it?”

Gosh! I hadn’t thought about it like that before. But, I supposed, Gracie did look up to me and Holly, and what we did would obviously have an influence on her. That made me think!

“But it doesn’t mean you have to be perfect!” Caitlin continued.

Thank goodness for that!

“Are you going to play the Truth game with us later?” I asked her, as a kind of invitation to do so.

“Nah,” she replied, “I want to try and get to the next level.”

“Okay,” I said, not wanting to push her too far. “See you in a bit.”

When people found out about my foot, I got loads of attention and sympathy. They fussed over me and made sure I always had someone to talk to. Once she arrived, TeeJay, especially, was very attentive.

“It’s partly my fault, Holly,” she told me, “I suggested the beach idea, and now look!”

“It’s not your fault at all,” I replied, “I just got carried away, that’s all! I wouldn’t have missed this afternoon for anything! I’m really glad you had the idea!”

She thanked me, but I think she still felt a bit guilty.

I saw Freya talking with Caitlin for a while, then the next time I looked she was back with Jake.

I told Jake about Caitlin’s arm. He said he thought I was probably right about my bad feeling, but couldn’t think of what I could do about it. Neither could I.

We weren’t bothering to be subtle about the way we felt for each other anymore. He sat with his legs apart, allowing me to sit in front of him and lean back against him. He wrapped his arms round me, and we sat like that for ages and just talked.

Amber tried to get a Truth game going, but very few of us were really interested; I don’t know why, but only Alice and Marcie seemed keen. So we didn’t bother.

As promised, shortly before it started to get dark, I went back across to Caitlin. She was still engrossed in her game. I tried to get her to talk again, asking how she was doing, but all I got from her were the odd disinterested “mmm” and “yeah”, so I gave up and left her to her game.

Holly and I said our goodbyes, and made our way slowly back to our caravan, Holly leaning on me for support as her foot became ever more troublesome.

I knew my foot situation wasn’t good, but when we took the dressing off it was soaked all the way through with blood. I had a sinking feeling I knew what was coming tomorrow!

“I think we’re going to have to get that re-stitched!” Dad told me. “We’ll check again in the morning.”

For now, he put a fresh dressing on it, and made me wear one of his thick socks to bed!

[Curtis]

Lots to comment upon:
1) I noticed how you dealt with Hannah. (insert winking emoji here)
2) Day ten is approaching rapidly. I'm both sad that the end approacheth and happy that you're not going to drag this story out as far as you did the last one. I really enjoyed that one as lng as the game lasted, but what happened after was SO different from what came before that it threw me, and I really felt it went on too long. Not this one, though!
3) 'littlies' — I take it this is a Britishism. On this side of the pond we'll occasionally say 'littles', but even that's rare.
4) I appreciate you using the italic and normal fonts to differentiate Freya and Holly (good Scandanavian names!). This needs a bit of thinking before you use it in another story. There doesn't seem to be as much difference between italic and normal as many fonts have, and sometimes I'm a couple of paragraphs beyond a switch before I notice it. I considered suggesting either bold or underlined, but those are too different and might seem like yelling. It seems to be possible to use different font colors… or at least I've seen it in signatures on this site. Would it be possible to use say blue and green? It's obviously way too late to make a change for this story, but your use of dual narrators has worked out too well for you to never use it again.
5) This has turned out to be a really good story, especially considering that is has NO SEX WHATSOEVER!!!