Family

9 years old

Ali's pov

"I brought them" Aria smiles, holding up a bag of sausages

"I'm not surprised, we all know how much Aria loves her sausages" Hanna pauses with a snigger "don't we Ezra?" She cheekily smirks

"Shut up, they are vegetarian" Aria laughs, throwing an outdoor pillow and hitting Hanna straight in the face

"Just put them there" Emily says, pointing at the table next to her while she continues to cook the burgers on the bbq

Aria places her vegetarian sausages on the table before joining us on the outdoor sofas. The kids play on the wooden climbing frame that Emily built for the girls as Emerson sleeps in his crib next to me.

"I can't believe how fast they have grown. Lily and Grace are nine today. I actually can't believe that" Hanna smiles as she watches our children run around our backyard

"Nine, eight, seven, four, three, two and this gorgeous boy who is only one and a half weeks old" Toby smiles listing our children's ages as he strokes Emerson's rosey cheek

"That's only five ages Toby" Hanna giggles as if Toby said something stupid "and there are seven children"

"Yes, because Lily and Grace are twins so they are obviously the same age and, Harper and Abigail are only a month apart and both their birthdays have been so they are also the same age"

"Oh yeah. I forgot me and Spence were pregnant at the same time" Hanna laughs before continuing "we should do that again"

"No we shouldn't" Spencer and Caleb say in sync before sharing an awkward smile between them

Ever since the whole Spaleb incident, they have never been the same. Despite trying their hardest to go back to being friends like they were before there is always a hint of awkwardness in the air between them: I think that the awkwardness is created by their question of "what if?";what if Hanna didn't break up with Jordan and Yvonne didn't die, would they still be together? If they stayed together would they be married now? what would their children looked like? Where would they live? What would they work as? I think this because my eyes used to have the same glaze over them whenever I looked at Emily and asked myself that same question "what if?". However Emily totally disagrees and believes they are awkward because they realise how stupid their relationship was.

Emily's pov

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear GraLil....cey..." we all sing in unison and as usual we stumble over their names as some people sing Lily first and some sing Grace. After the confusion of their names everyone goes silent except from Harper who finishes the song by sweetly singing "Happy birthday to you"

Alison and I have been mothers for nine years today however the lead up to Lily and Grace's birthday has always had the same questions; do we buy one or two cakes? Do we buy shared presents? If we don't buy them shared presents will we buy them the same things? Who's name do we sing first when singing happy birthday to them?

Lily and Grace always get a few big presents to share which they don't mind however, there are always tantrums when they get a card to share and there is no exception this year:

"This is from Grandad" Alison smiles, holding out a card. Grace stretches out her arm and takes hold of the card staring at the blank envelope

"Where is mine?" Lily questions

"There isn't a name on the envelope so I don't know who's that is and I'm trying to find the other one" Alison sweetly smiles as she flicks through the abnormally large bundle of cards