Ellie

Four

Heaving her blue backpack over one shoulder, Ellie stepped off the train onto the crowded platform. For once she was glad to be away from the college environment after the incident with Brett Carter during the week, and the further fall out from it.

She had more or less repaired her relationship with her housemate Rosa before leaving, after  apologising to her for losing the plot with her, and she had not been really mad at her, but at Brett for getting her into a situation she had not wanted to be in. Thankfully  Rosa had accepted her apology, and also said she was sorry for jumping the gun and having a go at her as soon as she came through the door about the whole incident, and she had never meant to upset her. Then they decided that neither of them would mention Brett Carter's name again.

Now, making her way to the exit Ellie's heart lifted a little at the familiar sight of her mother Gemma, who had driven to meet her  at the train station and welcome her home.

Even though Ellie was aware Gemma wasn't her birth mother, as far as she was concerned she was the only mother she had known and loved, from as far back as she could remember, so when she happily embraced her, it was with familiar warmth and security she had always felt when she was around her.

Now pulling away from her a little, Gemma's hazel eyes, scoured Ellie's face with slight concern, noticing her stepdaughter had hugged her that little bit more enthusiastically than she usually did

"Hey, it's great to have you back for the weekend; so, is everything still going fine at College?" she enquired as casually as she could.

"Yeah, everything is great," Ellie lied, forcing herself to smile, before hastily changing the subject to divert it away from herself, as she eyed Gemma's much shorter hairstyle " Hey, You are looking good, I am loving the new highlights,  and your face really suits the more cropped shorter look"

"Do you think so?" Gemma smiled, whilst self consciously touching her shorter locks "When I first had it done I wasn't too sure about it, but now I reckon its knocked a few years of my age," she laughed

"Yeah, we could pass as sisters instead of mother and daughter" Ellie teased

"Now I know you are exaggerating," Gemma reproved her good humouredly, "But your dad likes it as well, and speaking of which, he is sorry he can't be here to greet you, he had a meeting with some bigwig from some recording studio, but he assured me that he will be back in plenty of time for dinner later" she then explained as they now headed out of the train station to where she had parked the car.

"He had better be, after constantly reminding me how much he was looking forward to having me this weekend" Ellie replied dryly

Gemma smiled understandingly. "You know, he's still trying to get used to you being away from home, you will always be his baby girl, even though you are all grown up. He's just finding it hard to deal with, but he is getting there, I have convinced him he doesn't have to text you every hour on the hour, to see if you are ok" she grinned

"Well thank goodness one of you believes I can handle myself" Ellie replied. "And I just want to thank you again, because I know you were the one who finally persuaded him I would be fine living away from home" she added gratefully.

"Yes well, you are eighteen now, and you need your independence to make your way in your life. Goodness, when I think I was left to fend for myself at your age, and I got through fine, sometimes I think it made me a stronger person, but the big difference is you also have a great support system to fall back on too with your father and me, which is an added bonus, so I know you are going to be ok," Gemma smiled. 

 They had reached the car and she pressed on her keys to unlock the door so they could get in, Gemma throwing her backpack in the back seat and getting in the passenger side next to Gemma, thinking about what she had just said.