✅ Over Protected

31. Friends Share Toys

Author's note: My eyes don't like me; the whole screen is just a blur. This is happening every evening now; so I'm going to start making more effort to finish a new chapter first thing in the morning, until I'm back to normal. Until then, I'm sorry about any typos I missed. See you in the morning!

"You going to eat that?" Sarah joked, and I glanced up with a start. I'd been thinking so much about what was going to happen today that I'd just been pushing the cereal around my bowl, tiny clumps of sugary stuff leaving coloured trails in the milk.

I stopped messing around, and put the food in my mouth again. I wasn't sure if there was anything I should say, so it was easier to forestall the conversation by filling my mouth with breakfast. Did Sarah know what I was going to do today? I had no idea, but it wasn't something I really wanted to talk about. To be honest, I was surprised that Mummy had let me dress myself today. Although the previous afternoon had mostly been spent lost in dizzy incomprehension, I was pretty sure that today was the day I would get to see Lyra again. Didn't Mum want me to be a baby for that?

"You doing something special today?" she asked. "Doesn't look like your regular school clothes. Doctor?"

"No," Mum said, dashing down from upstairs while I was still resolutely munching so I wouldn't have to answer. "I called the school and asked if Alice can have a day to visit a friend. You know Lyra Pembroke? She's had some problems lately and her parents had to pull her out of school? Well, Alice was worrying about her friend, I think a lot of them are, and I thought it might be good for her to see how she's getting on, so I set up something with Lyra's parents."

"Yay!" I said, and grinned. I was happy to see Lyra again, and it was good to confirm that we were going to visit Lyra. I knew that expressing my delight out loud like that was a little childish, but I didn't see anything wrong with just going with the instinct. It was a new kind of freedom; if I wanted to I could act like a little kid even without all the weird stuff getting absorbed through my skin. And, I guess, I was still young enough that Sarah might not really notice.

"Parents?" Sarah asked, suddenly looking confused. I guessed that she must have heard about Lyra's parents splitting up – it had probably been major gossip around the neighbourhood when we were younger – but didn't know they'd gotten back together. And that made me wonder as well, because I realised that I still heard her mention her mum's wife occasionally, and I didn't really know that much about the situation now. "I thought her folks... I mean, I kind of heard the rumours, but I thought..."

"It's complicated," Mum said with a shrug. "Seems weird to me, but it's not my business. They're all worried about Lyra since she started having trouble, and they ended up moving back together. I mean... they're not back together, but they're co-parenting. Living together so Lyra can have a stable family life. So she's got a Mum, Dad, and two Stepmums."

"Wow, that's..." Sarah answered. "I guess twice as many parents, right? That'll be a good thing if she's sick."

"I hope she's okay," I said, quietly hopeful. If Lyra was enjoying her second shot at infancy, then I could have fun with my friend and I wouldn't have to tell anybody else about what her parents were doing. I knew that Lyra had problems; that had always been the case, even though I'd done my best to be a friend without getting drawn into her crazy schemes. And I could imagine that being babied again would give her the attention she'd been craving, so it would probably help her. But I needed to know that she was actually comfortable with the treatment. That was the part that mattered.

"We all do," Mum reassured me, while Sarah dashed off to get herself ready for school. "Don't worry, sweetie. I'm sure your friend will be fine. And this will only be for a year, in any case."