Introduction to the Phillips Family.
George Lucas Phillips married Alison Michaela Phillips
Together they had twelve children
Lark Aidan Phillips - 18
Swallow Grace Phillips - 17
Rhea Taylor Phillips - 16
Heron Alexander Phillips - 15 (Gannet's twin)
Gannet Leondre Phillips - 15 (Heron's twin)
Willet Aidan Phillips - 12 (Linnet and Rosella's triplet)
Linnet Rose Phillips - 12 (Willet and Rosella's triplet)
Rosella Marie Phillips - 12 (Willet and Linnet's triplet)
Koel Frederick Phillips - 10
Finch Ryan Phillips - 8
Starling Kyle Phillips - 4
Swan Leah Phillips - 2
Welcome to my life as one of TWELVE children. As you can probably tell, my mother and father love kids, and for some unknown reason, have twelve of us, ALL with bird names. My mother just had to give us bird names, My name is Swallow, and I have one older brother, Lark, and six younger brothers. The twins, Heron and Gannet, followed closely by one of the triplets, Willet, then Koel, Finch and Starling. I also have four younger sisters. Rhea is the eldest of my younger sisters, followed by two of the triplets, Linnet and Rosella, and finally, Swan who is the youngest of us all. So all up, that's seven boys, and five girls. Welcome to my crazy, unpredictable life.
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"Shoo, older kids on the couch, younger ones on the floor" I hissed to the triplets as they occupied the couch. I gave them my signature death stare, my blue eyes glaring into those of Willet.
"Why should the older kids get the couch? What happened to first in, first served?" Linnet demanded rudely. Linnet was always the feisty one, followed closely by Willet. Rosella was very reserved, and tended to let her siblings do all of the arguing for her.
Lark glanced at me before looking at the triplets. "Guys, you know the rules, listen to Swallow please, you can have the couch when we leave" he bargained. Lark was the apple of my parents eyes, the first born gem, and who could blame them? Lark was handsome, with big blue eyes and sandy blonde hair, and the younger kids loved him. They clung onto every word he said, and obeyed without argument.
"Fine" Linnet said, sounding a tad annoyed.
The triplets moved down onto the floor next to Koel and Finch, who were playing trains with Starling. Starling was giggling, making his train crash into Koel's.
"What did I miss?" entered Rhea, who was carrying our youngest sister, Swan. Rhea placed her onto the floor next to Rosella, who happily began to play with Swan's hair, tying it in plaits and all sorts of funny hairstyles.
Rhea moved over and sat next to me. Rhea was beautiful. She was tanned, and had long, curly brown hair. Her eyes were a bright green, and were almost mystical. She was the opposite of me. I had blue eyes and blonde hair, and was much paler than her.
"Nothing much" I replied truthfully, as I fiddled with my blonde curls.
Rhea laughed. "I bet you Mum is going to tell us she's pregnant again". Although it was meant to be a joke, I knew it wasn't. Every time we had a family meeting, Mum had told us that she was having another baby. To be honest, it was getting old.
"Yeah" I laughed awkwardly.
Suddenly, the door opened and Mum and Dad entered the room, sitting in their usual chairs across from us kids.
"We have an announcement to make" Dad began enthusiastically, gripping my mothers hand.
Rhea leaned over to me. "Wait for it" she whispered.
"We are having another baby! Lucky number thirteen" Mum yelled excitedly, placing her hands on her stomach.
Lark ran up to mum and hugged her, generally happy about this news. He was always so excited to have another baby in the family, but then again, he was so selfless, all he wanted was for my parents to be happy.
My siblings all ran up and embraced my parents in a group hug. Except me. I sat on the couch and didn't move. I was over having siblings, in fact, I was sick of it.
After my siblings had left the room with my mother to celebrate with the traditional “Baby on the Way” cake, I was left sitting on the couch, just my father and I in the room. My father sat next to me, his arm around my shoulder.
"Swallow? What's wrong, I thought you would be happy for your mother and I?" My father asked, genuinely oblivious to my actual feelings.
I removed my fathers arms from around my shoulders.
"Don't patronize me" I snarled. "You know exactly what's wrong. Have you ever thought that maybe you’ve had enough kids? I'm sick of it”.
I got up from the couch and began to head up to the “girls room”. Our parents had a large four bedroom home, which wasn’t exactly large enough for our growing family. They were in the process of looking for a new house, but nothing quite suited our family’s needs, so in the mean time, we had to make do with four bedrooms, the girls room, the boys room, my parents bedroom and a nursery for the younger kids and new arrivals.
My father grabbed my hand gently, signalling for me to come and sit down and talk. My parents loved to talk about anything and everything. Their view was that “no child should be unheard”. Their bedroom was alway full of children, especially at night, all the little ones wanting to tell my parents about their day or the older ones getting something off their chest. They told us that “no matter what hour of the night it is, come and talk to us if you need us, we are always there”. Corny huh?
“Dad, I’m not in the mood to talk. I just want to be alone” I replied, calming myself down.
“Swallow, No child should be unheard, so tell me what’s on your mind” he said sympathetically and he scooched over and patted the seat next to him.
“Jesus Dad! Don’t you get it! Not every child wants to talk about everything! You want to talk? Fine! Stop having kids!” I screamed as I ran out of the living room. I looked back at my father, who looked utterly shocked. To my left, the noise from the kitchen had stopped, and my mother and all of my siblings were staring at me as I stood in the hallway.
“Well go on! Celebrate the new baby! Don’t let me ruin your so called, celebrations!” I remarked rudely as I headed up the staircase towards the girls bedroom.
I entered the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Rhea’s picture of us girls fell off of the wall from the impact of the door slamming, smashing the glass.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I yelled, throwing myself onto my bottom bunk.
Our room was very girly. The cream walls were covered in pony stickers and glittery flowers. The room was ultimately designed for five to seven year olds, but I didn’t complain.
“It’s just not fair!” I cried into my pillow. “I have eleven siblings! Why does it have to be twelve!”.
I turned over and lay staring at the top bunk. I heard a knock on the bedroom door. “Swallow, sweetheart, are you okay?” my mother asked softly from the other side of the door.
“No, go away!” I yelled rudely.
“The door opened and my mother entered the room. I sat up and hugged my pillow, and she sat down next to me.
“I think it’s time” she said sadly.
My mother sighed and held my hand gently.
What could she possibly have to tell me?
