The London Paradigm (book 4 of Adopted by the Josephs)

6. Samantha

When I woke up in the morning, I really did feel better. I could see that it was still pretty early, so I decided to wait until I heard people waking up. I wanted to take a shower, but I didn't want to wake anyone up, so I read a book and also decided to text Mom and Dad.

I knew they'd still be sleeping probably, but I thought they'd like to wake up to texts.

At about nine I heard people starting to wake up, so I poked my head out of the bedroom door.

"Good morning, Samantha," Mark said, passing my room and going downstairs. "Carol will have breakfast ready soon. Did you want to take a shower?"

"Yeah, I was thinking of it," I said.

"Alright. You can use the shower in the kids' bathroom. It's easy. Turn on the faucet and then just pull up on the lever on the faucet. Be quick. I think Carol has gone all out for breakfast. Hope you're hungry!" He smiled as he went back downstairs.

I went back into my room and grabbed my toiletries and the towels they'd left for me. I took off my pump and checked my insulin level. I still had quite a bit left. It should last the day at least.

I showered quickly, brushed my teeth and hair and then went back to my room wrapped in my towel and got dressed. It was sunny but I didn't know how warm it was, so I put on jeans and a t-shirt.

I went downstairs after brushing my hair again, and hooking my pump back up.

Everyone was already downstairs when I got there.

"We we're thinking today, after breakfast, we could go into the city, have lunch, walk around and maybe see what shows might be of interest to you?" Carol said. "We could take the Tube from here."

"Okay," I said, sitting at the table.

"Mummy," Benji said. "Are we going to Piccadilly?"

"I thought we could start there," Carol said.

Emma rolled her eyes.

"We always go to Piccadilly!" Emma whined.

"You like Piccadilly," Mark frowned.

Emma rolled her eyes.

"I liked Piccadilly. It's boring now," Emma said. "Can't I stay home and go to Beth's?"

"Emma, Samantha's only here for a short time," Mark said.

"She's here for a whole month!" Emma cried. "What's one day?"

"We are going into the city as a family," Mark said. "And you are part of that family."

Emma pouted and grumbled the whole way through breakfast. Benji was chatting happily about going into London and whether we could visit one of the stores that sold soccer shirts and all sorts of soccer stuff.

After breakfast I offered to help clear up, but Carol told me no, and to go pack what I might need for the day.

I went upstairs and took my phone off the charger as well as the battery pack in case I needed to charge it later.

I also packed a sweatshirt and went downstairs to pack a cool pack with an insulin pen and a vial of insulin. I also had a test kit and an infusion set in my backpack.

Benji was tying his shoes when I got back downstairs.

"Emma!" Mark called up the stairs. "Let's go!"

Emma came downstairs sulkily.

The five of us left the house and we walked to the closest station and Mark bought us all a Travelcard to use throughout the day so we could move about the city as we wanted.

Emma kept shooting me looks like it was my fault she was forced on the family outing.

Benji, on the other hand, was holding my hand and telling me all about his favourite soccer team. Except he kept calling it a football team.

Mark and Carol pointed out a few things in their neighbourhood they thought I might find interesting. There was a library close by. Which is always a good place to spend some time on a rainy day, if you ask me.

We got on the train and rode it into the city and got off at Piccadilly Circus station. I didn't realize how deep their subway system goes. Mark told me that during the war, and he meant World War Two, that when London was being bombed people would hide in the tube stations because they were so deep underground.

We walked around Piccadilly and went into the store that Benji wanted to go into. We also went to some art galleries and then went to the theatre district to see if there were any shows playing that would be interesting. We found one and Mark bought us tickets for a few nights away.

We had lunch in a pub and then walked along the Thames River for a little. It was a really nice sunny day.

We went to a little hotel for tea and Mark said he wanted to take me for High Tea at least once before the end of my trip.

We rode the Tube all over the place and saw all sorts of different places. We went to gardens and castles and did a lot of sightseeing type stuff.

For dinner we went to a restaurant in Covent Gardens and then got on the Tube and went back home.

I was exhausted when we got home, so I just put my insulin back in the fridge, brushed my teeth and fell asleep still dressed.