Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The next day, I skipped downstairs early, humming a tune. After getting dressed and packing my school bag, I toasted a few slices of bread and started scrambling some eggs for me, Will, Mum and, surprisingly, Bumba.

She came downstairs half an hour later, looking as if she had spent the whole night wrestling with her cushion. Her mascara was smudged, making her look more like a goth than ever, and it honestly looked like someone had just set a firework off on her head.

I looked at her in surprise. "What's happened to you?" I asked innocently.

She glared at me. "Could ask the same thing about you, titch."

"Why? What's wrong with me?"

"It's half seven! You're supposed to be sleeping, idiot." She started fumbling about in the fridge, looking for something to munch.

"I made scrambled eggs for everyone, and there's hot toast if you want it," I told her. "The orange juice is in the fridge. I didn't take it out to leave it cold."

She stared at me. "Are you nuts?"'

"Um, don't think so. Why?"

She shook her head and served herself, spreading butter on hot toast and adding eggs on top of that. I didn't mention that she had forgotten to brush her teeth, or she would fly into one of her tempers about not telling her what to do. She started munching, then her eyes widened.

"This is delicious!" she exclaimed. She took another bite, and another.

"What did you do to it?" she asked with her mouth full. Then her eyes narrowed. "There's no drugs in here or anything, is there?"

I laughed. "No, of course not."

She threw another suspicious glance at the scrambled eggs, then shrugged and took another bite.

Just then, the unbelievable of unbelievables happened. Bumba looked up and smiled. She actually did.

I stared at her, not believingly what she had just done.

She frowned. "What?" she asked.

I blushed, shaking my head.

She gobbled up the last of her eggs and got the bottle of orange juice out of the fridge. She drank her cup of juice in silence. Then she walked out of the kitchen, full of energy. That was a good start to the morning.

After I had given Will and Mum their share of the eggs, I tidied the table and put my shoes and jacket on. I still had about five of ten minutes to go and, not having anything to do at home, I decided to go out and get a bit of fresh air.

Closing the door behind me, I started walking aimlessly to the left, not really concentrating on where I was going. My mind was in the clouds as I thought again about Zed, his eyes and Jasmine.

Turning left, I starting walking down the road towards the canal. I picked up several round, flat stones, planning on throwing it in the canal once I got there.

I was just thinking to myself how unusually blue the sky was today and how puffy the clouds looked when I was interrupted by the screeching of swans. That was a bit unusual. They were normally so quiet that you didn't realise they were there until you saw them. I didn't give that a second thought, though, and continued straight forwards, until I came to a small bend. Now I could hear real human screeching, but I turned the bend a second too soon.

There, right in front of me, was Melanie. She was stood up with her back to me and her head thrown back, screeching. I now realised it was meant to be a laugh. Next to her was Tony and the Cockroaches, all sat down under the small bridge that went from one side of the canal to the other. Little kids used to come here often to hear the echoes when they called their names out - I came to feed the swans before Melanie and the Cockroaches 'dominated' this area. No one came here anymore.