Secret Singing Superstar

Thirty-three ~ ♫♪♫

Winter was really descending now, because the sky became more cloudy and grey, the wind became colder and the ground, walls and leaves of trees were as cold as ice. Claire's breath made little puffs in the freezing air. She was so cold that she'd had to wear an extra fluffy scarf and gloves on her numb fingers.

She and her sister Elaine had made a mistake to tell their parents that they were going to walk to and from school, as now Claire felt like she was slowly turning into an ice-sculpture. She was sure that Elaine felt the same after taking one glance at her.

Elaine swore a few times under her breath. "Damn this winter! Who knew it could get so cold so easily! It's only midway through July!"

"That is halfway through winter," Claire pointed out. "It's expected to get this cold; although I read on the newspaper that it's going to be the coldest winter yet in this century."

Elaine raised an eyebrow. "Good to know we're facing an icy apocalypse, but why on earth d'you read the newspapers?"

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. Dad read them and they seemed interesting."

"Now I understand why your friend Claudia wanted to give you a newspaper subscription for a birthday present," Elaine said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey! She was teasing me!"

"Yeah, sure. Hey, isn't that Leanne?" Elaine pointed to where another girl was stepping out of a car a few metres ahead. Claire immediately recognised her long legs, skinny frame and thick hair.

"Leanne!" she called. The other girl turned around in the opposite direction, so Elaine had to call her again for her to turn around and see them. Leanne's frown cleared and she smiled as she waited for them to catch up with her.

"Couldn't you see us? You looked in exactly the wrong direction when I called you," said Claire, grinning at her best friend.

"I didn't know where I heard my name from," said Leanne, shrugging. Her eyes were bright and she looked happy. Claire hadn't seen that expression for a long time. Leanne only looked like that when she was truly happy. Had she forgotten about her argument with Cailyn? Claire sure hadn't, but she didn't want to ruin Leanne's mood.

The three of them parted at the school foyer; as Elaine was two years older than Claire and Leanne. The two girls than continued walking to their homeroom.

Claire paused at the bottom of the stairs as she saw Cailyn talking to Claudia at the top; she was about to tell Leanne to take the other staircase up when Cailyn noticed Leanne. Claire was expecting her to curl her lip and walk away, but she did quite the opposite.

"Mummy!" she cried, running down the stairs and hugging Leanne tightly.

Claire gasped. "You guys are talking again?" Her eyes widened. She couldn't believe it.

Now everyone was finally back to normal...except Helina's secret problem that she wasn't telling anybody. There were probably more secret problems, but Claire wasn't aware of any more.

"How are you, child?" Leanne murmured to Cailyn, who was still hugging her.

"I'm good, mummy. You?"

"What the - " was all Claudia could say about their weird conversation.

Claire was confused too, but then she remembered. "Oh. They're referring to the Bok Choy Family. They're mother and daughter, remember?"