Halfway There // Liam O'donovan

05

_BY THE BOOK_
•••
LIAM'S POV
•••

"Harry! Turn this off lets watch Topman movies instead," I said, strolling into the living room where Harry was watching robot wars.

"No! Saff!" Harry said as I moved towards the tv.

"Let him watch it, Liam,"  Sapphire said from where she was laying on the sofa painting her nails. I huffed and moved away. "Besides when Gina catches you watching horror movies, she'll confiscate them like that," she snapped her fingers to demonstrate.

"She's right," I said, sitting down beside Frank, I nudged his elbow, "We should get our own TV and DVD player," I suggested.

"Good luck affording that," Sapphire scoffed.

"We could ask Evie to buy it for us, her pockets are deep," I joked, Evie laughed from where she was playing snap with Tee.

"I'll think about it," Evie played along with the joke.

"Why would you wanna spend her dirty money, anyway?" Johnny said rudely. I gave him a disapproving look from where I was sat but he brushed it off.

Evie huffed from her seat and clenched her fist by her side. "Give it a rest, Johnny," Sapphire said, giving him a glare.

We sat quietly for a while watching Robot Wars until Tracy came in. "House meeting in the kitchen," she said quickly.

"But we're watching this," everyone complained, pointing at the TV.

"Now," Tracy said, staring us down. I huffed and stood up.

"You alright?" I asked Evie as we walked towards the kitchen.

She shrugged, "I'm fine, but Johnny better watch it," she said through gritted teeth.

I snickered a little then we all sat down at the kitchen table, Frank and Evie on either sides. Tracy had some paper in front of her and we knew what was coming, "We have to enforce the cleaning rota," she said, everybody groaned.

"Isn't forcing kids to clean, like, child labour?" Sapphire said.

Tracy gave her a blank stare, "Arrest me," she said. "As Gina says, think of the washing up as a game or tidying your room is a challenge," she said, enthusiastically, "That way it doesn't have to be boring, it could be fun," she was trying to convince us to enjoy chores but she didn't sound too convinced herself.

I wasn't having none of it.

"Do you want to live in a pigsty?" she asked, rhetorically. To be honest, if it meant I had no chores and didn't have to clean then yes but thats unhygienic so no.

"But I don't feel like tidying my room, Tracy," Harry said, laying his head and Jeff on the table.

"We have to do things we don't feel like doing sometimes, even Jeff," Tracy said, tickling Jeff, Harry sat up, "I'll tell you what, why don't you both tidy your room and I'll put a gold star in your file? Then everyone will know what a big help you've been today," she suggested, Harry nodded excitedly and ran off.

"Can me and Tee have gold stars, too?" Johnny asked, sitting up straight. Tee rubbed her face embarrassed. We all laughed at him.