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Imogen Halstead (age 11)
Word count: 642
Jays POV
Dinner times are always a stretch. It either ends in me or will bribing Imogen to eat her vegetables, or Imogen begging to leave the table because she's 'full', although we both know she just doesn't like vegetables. As I'm setting the table I glance into the living room through the hatch in the wall, thankfully noticing that Imogen is actually doing her homework for once.
"Dinners ready!" I call out. Imogen bounces off the couch and bolts into the kitchen, almost knocking Will off of his feet, "don't run" my brother warns. As she sits down to the left of me, and opposite will, she dives into her potatoes, beginning her usual gossiping session.
Around ten minutes into dinner, Imogen must've decided she has scoffed too much food and needs to wash it down with water, as always. As her hand reaches over for the glass of water she misjudges her coordination and knocks the glass over, causing the water to spill all over the table. She jumps back into her chair, a look of horror on her face as tears instantly find their way down her cheeks.
I look at Will who's just as confused as I am, before Imogen bolts off her chair and runs out of the room. I furrow my brows in confusion, "what the hell was that about?" I stand to pick the glass back up. Will shakes his head, "I don't know..." he helps me clean the table. We both clear the plates, and leave the kitchen, heading for the stairs. Will heads over to her bedroom as I check the bathroom, she likes to hide in there when things go wrong.
"Immy?" I knock on the door before pushing it open. My eyes linger around the room before I notice the shower curtains drawn, "hey sweetie, what's going on? What happened down there?" I kneel down in front of the shower. I hear her sniffles before she pulls the curtain back. She looks up at me with tears all over her face, her appearance looking a little dishevelled. She sniffles, "don't be mad, it was an accident" she pours almost. I furrow my brows, "we know it was an accident immy, we wouldn't get mad over an accident" I reach forward to squeeze her shoulder.
She reaches out and I pull her into my arms as Will stands in the doorway, "why're you so upset, huh?" I rub her back as she calms down. She keeps her head down as she sighs, "dad yelled when I done things like that. If I knocked something over, or I made a mess on accident, he would yell. I thought you were gonna tell me off too..." she sniffles. I look up at my brother with a disgusted look on my face, of course our dad would've yelled for something as accidental as knocking a glass over.
"Look at me..." Will kneels down next to us both. She slowly looks up and rests her head on my shoulder, "Imogen we would never yell at you, or tell you off for doing something if it's an accident. You also don't need to be scared to tell us if you accidentally did something, we promise we won't be angry. We'll just clean it up" he nods. Imogen sniffles, "okay" she sighs. I smile and burns the loose curls out of her face, "accidents happen" I shrug, "it's no biggie?" She sniffles. I smiled and nod, "it's not biggie" i confirm through a small chuckle. She smiles weakly and nods as she wipes her tears away.
Once she's certain she isn't in trouble, we all sit down on the couch to watch a film. Sometimes I wish we could've taken Imogen in earlier, but we know that wasn't an option...
