Midnight

Chapter 1 - Glitter

     Dear Readers: Once you've read this chapter please leave a comment. Even if it's just three words I would like to know what you guys think! Thanks! Tazmyn-May xoxo

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Chapter 1 - The Party

     "Jen, Jen... JEN! HURRY UP!" Mum yelled along the gleaming lower-floor corridor as I stumbled down the main staircase with two arms full of perfectly wrapped presents.

     "Coming Mum!" I shouted in reply as one of my untied, graffitied trainers touched the newly hoovered carpet with a thud and the tiny pink present on top of the mountain I was yielding in my arms crashed into the ground, it's bow now hanging on by a thread.

     "Oh, be careful Jen! Honestly...", Mum groaned, frustration clear in her tone of voice, "You're the oldest of my girls and yet you're like this! Pah! Dixie's less clumsy than you! I mean, what is it with you today!?! You're all over the place! It's as tough you're deliberately trying to mess your sister's party up!"

     Jesus! I thought to myself as I privately rolled my hazel coloured eyes, why do you have to get so frickin stressy over the tinceyest tinyest thing!?!

     I tried to lighten the atmosphere by giving Mum my sarcastic roll of the eyes with a little smirk I give my youngest sister when she's done something silly like spill juice on the table, or trip over and graze her knee, but Mum must have sensed my uneasiness as I placed the presents around the unlit fire-place, because she came over and hugged me tight, clearly aware that some of the paint on my khaki hoodie could transfer onto her strapless LBD.

     "Oh, Jen", she whispered softly into my right ear, "I was kidding you big baby... I love you honey, it's just- it's hard, you know?" Mum said softly, gently rocking me back and forth.

     "Yeah, I know Mum, I know..."

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     "What you two up to then?" I asked cheerfully as I poked my head around my bedroom door. I had let Khloe keep the birthday girl hostage in my bedroom as it's the biggest room upstairs and furthest away from the landing, so hopefully Dixie won't be able to hear when her guests arrive!

      "Khloe, are you keeping an eye on- Wow."

     Never in my life had I seen my practically 6 year old sister look so pretty. Wearing that beautiful purple and green fairy gown I bought her matched with the flower earrings, necklace and bracelet from Mum and Khloe, she looked stunning enough to be attending a dinner party at Buckingham Palace! Not some silly little sham Mum and I bashed together in our back yard!

     "Aww Dixie baby! Come here and give Jenny a hug," I said softly, my throat clogging with tears, but just about loud enough so the birthday girl could hear, "Ain't you growing up fast!" I said lovingly, but I suddenly I changed my tune...

     "And ain't you making a mess in my room with all that glitter!" I said in my sarcastic tone with a roll of the eyes and a little smirk that my sisters know all too well. They've done something wrong and they know it, and they know that they'll be helping my fix it later even though it's Dixie's birthday - both of them! They don't mind though, we have fun together no matter what we're doing; I don't think I've ever shouted at either of them before, the most they've been properly told off is by their teachers at school!

     Mum has a bit of trouble controlling them but doesn't like to shout, so she gets me to sort things out as she has a bit of a short fuse! It's like us sisters can read each other's minds; we don't need to speak, we just look and know. Either that or we all know each other soooo much it's bad for our health... Dixie and Khloe can't get away with ANYTHING with me around... I can though, being the oldest has its rights, doesn't it? Well, second oldest really, it's just that- no, you don't want to hear about that depressing story. But the pressure does build up sometimes, sometimes quite a lot; trying to match... her... standards of being the oldest sis...

     "JEN! COME HERE!" Mum yelled up the stairs.

     "COMING!" I shouted in reply, sticking my head out of the door, my head getting hotter and my eyes welling up with tears as my brain filled itself with memories from the past...

     "Jen, what's the matter?" Damn it.

     "Nothing babes, I'm fine," I sniffed and wiped my eyes on my sleve, slightly smudging my mascara as walked back towards Khloe.

     You know that thing I just told you about? The thing about how we can just look at each other and know what we're thinking? Well, it has its disadvantages too. I'm not supposed to bring up what happened last summer, or what happened when I was little, but I don't need to... because Khloe can see right through me.

     "Oh...", the liveliness of her voice dissolving into thin air.

     "Hey now, cheer up! No need to think about those things on Dixie's big day now do we!" I said as I gave Khloe a cuddle. She says she's too old to have them now, being a Year 7 and all, but this time she doesn't resist. "I love you," I say.

     "Love you too." Khloe replies, slightly muffled in my Gap fleece.

     "And I love EVERYONE the same!"

     Dixie has that looking-thinking thing going on too, but she was too young, and if you don't know what's being thought about in the first place, no silly little look is going to help. And thank God for it. It's her 6th birthday and I'm not going to mess it up for the world.

     "JENIFFER! HURRY IT UP!"

     "COMING!!!" I shout angrily, losing my cool, startling the birthday girl. I squeeze her shoulder and whisper a little sorry and give her a cheery wink.

     "Okay, Khloe, finish the little Princess off... And keep her busy!" I loudly whisper the last bit, making Khloe giggle under her breath.

     "Okay Jen," Khloe mumbles quietly. I swear to GOD that crying and general upsetting-ness is contagious! First Mum was in a huff, then I got it, and now Khloe...

     "Thanks Khlo-"

     "JEN... COME DOWN HERE RIGHT-"

     "COMING!!!!!" I practically scream this time. "Sorry!" I whisper to the girls for a second time and tiptoe onto the landing, gently shutting the glitterified door behind me. Wow, cleaning that mess up's gunna take quite some time! I think to myself as I wipe my purple hands onto my stain covered jeans as to make sure nothing is left astray in our perfectly placed cottage...