Lockwood and Co. The see-through girl.

Chapter 10

You could say my mother was a nice woman. A jolly chubby woman like Mrs Weasley or something. Kind, caring. Always putting others before herself.

But then you'd just be lying to yourself.

Of course she shook Lockwood's hand, smiled at George and ushered them in. But she didn't hug or kiss me. She looked at me and I took that as a welcome. 

I was just about to show Lockwood and George up to their room when I was bombarded by a tidal wave of sisters.

Here they are in age order, oldest to youngest:
Elizabeth
Catherine
Alison
Peggy
Harriet and Samantha (identical twins)
Mary
Me.
Yeah, they were alright. Kinder (and much more hygienic) than George, a bit more open than Lockwood and they were my sisters, so I loved them, right? Wrong!
Well, in some cases. Elizabeth practically hated me. She was a kind of mini doppelgänger of my mother, so much so that Lockwood had to look twice.
Alison was a sour girl but I got on with her if I really tried.
The rest of them? I loved them but Mary was the best. It was hard to be annoyed with her. She was just so smiley! Looking back, Mary was the only thing that kept me going after the mill incident.
My smile went sour and I cringed slightly at the thought of the mill and the encounter with Jacobs but I pushed it into the back of my mind. I was on holiday! No point thinking about bad things!

Ok, that slightly failed. But who can blame me? There was just too much bad stuff here that happened to me. After the reunion ended, o managed to get Lockwood and George up into their rooms.
"Sorry, there are just too many people, you'll have to share." I bit my lip, remembering one of them had to share with me. Would I risk death from smell and waking up to yoga in the nude? Or would I risk death from pure embarrassment after the kiss? Luckily, (or unluckily) George made the decision for me.
"I'd rather sleep with the cat than with anyone else." He moaned. I shrugged.
"Ok," I shooed him off to the next flight of  stairs. "First door on the left, George!"
I turned back to Lockwood. He grinned at me.
"So, where am I going?" I felt my face go scarlet and I pointed to the room next to me.
"Uh, my room, I guess." I made a mental note to slap Elizabeth, she had decided the room placements.
A light shade of pink tinged Lockwood's pale cheeks. He cleared his throat.
"Right, I'll set my stuff up."
I nodded and thanked God for not making my knees give way in that conversation. But then they did anyway. Then I was halfway through thanking God that no one saw that when my least favourite sister walked up the stairs.
Sneering, she made for her room but I stuck my foot out and tripped her. She fell onto the door, face first. I sniggered as she slammed the door after her.

***

"So, how was your journey up North Lucy?" My mother asked politely, sipping her coffee.
"Alright, no surprises." I said, remembering the encounter with the ghost of Lockwood's sister. He turned to me and raised his eyebrows.
Inside, I smiled in relief because he didn't see the twins giggle to each other and look at Lockwood.
"Is it your first time up North?" Samantha asked shyly. He smiled his 68% grin, the one he used when meeting new clients and nodded. They started chatting so only I saw my mother's stern glare and she motioned for me to take my elbows off the table.
"Rudeness at the table puts you off your food, and if you don't eat your food, you'd better brace yourself for your father's belt!" My mother would say. That would always make us each every scrap. The thought of a beating from our father would be enough to make us clean the toilets (an unpleasant job) if we had to.

So that was the end of the first day with my family. But probably the worst was yet to come. Gripping the door handle tightly, I breathed out deeply and opened the door to see Lockwood sitting reading his magazine.