fuck you, peachy | skins

14. Pandora

Ayla dips her finger into the bowl of jelly which sits on the table.

"Ehh" she turns her nose up and shakes her head in disgust. "Why mango? It's one of the worst flavours". Effy sits glumly on the counter as Katie looks at herself in the reflection of the oven door. Ayla seems to be the only one that has some faith in tonight, except of course Pandora and her mum, who were drifting through the house setting things up with excitement

"Omg Eff!" exclaims Katie peeling her eyes away from her reflection "Danny and I tried this crazy sex position. Its called the pretzel dip or something"

"Yea?" replies Effy, as she bites her nails, doing her best to sound interested.

"Yeah. It was well cool. But I'm so fucking sore today" Katie chuckles, not picking up on the fact that Effy really wasn't interested and had probably fucked in that position before anyway.

"Cool," says Effy jumping off the bench and pulling out a chair around the table to sit away from Katie. Katie looks a little offended but doesn't have much time to dwell on it as Pandora calls out to her from the lounge room.

"Katie! Ayla!". The sisters move solemnly into the lounge room to find Naomi and Emily have arrived. "Katie and Emily are twins. Ayla's their older sister! C'est incroyable, baby." Pandora giggles. Ayla smiles at Emily and Naomi awkwardly in welcome.

"Sorry?" Angela asks Panda confused.

"It's French. Thomas taught me. He's such a blinking dream and" Pandora trails off as she realises she'd let herself slip a little. "Bugger."

"Thomas? Who's Thomas?" Angela asks alertly. "Pandora. I do hope you haven't been defying me on the subject of boys." The group of girls stand silently around the coffee table for a few seconds before Naomi chimes in.

"He's my boyfriend, actually. He does, um, excellent French." Thank fuck for Naomi.

"Right. Well, Pandora knows my opinion on boyfriends." Angela sighs with relief.

"They just want to get into my box," Pandora affirms.

"Yes, and I do hope all of you will respect that in this house we do not allow unruly males at parties," Angela says. Ayla knew Angela was no match for Cook who had promised he'd pop around. "I'm sure your parents would say the same thing." The girls look at each other, unsure of what to say before expressing their 'disgust' for boys.

"Eeugh. Disgusting" nods Naomi

"Um...Yeah" agrees Ayla

"Yuck boys" Katie turns her nose up. It's silent for a moment as the girls gulp, worried Angela knows they are blatantly lying.

"There you go, Katie and Emily. Completely identical." continues Panda.

"Are you interested in all the same things?" asks Angela. Ayla raises her eyebrows as Emily and Katie look each other up and down.

"I don't think so," says Emily

"You like Twister, though? It's brill!" Panda blurts out excitedly, completely changing the subject.

"Pandora gets over-stimulated. We do exercises nightly," reassures Angela. "Oh, I've left pyjamas out for you all. They're pink and clean. Very, very clean."

"We love some clean pink PJs." beams Ayla, half-serious as Panda ushers the girls upstairs towards her room. At the top of the staircase, Emily pulls Ayla aside to talk to her privately as the rest of the girls go into Panda's room.

"I brought drinks. They are out in the garden in case you want some" says Emily

"Naw thanks little sis" Ayla replies pinching Emily's cheeks playfully, making Emily flinch. Ayla turns on her heel about to walk into Panda's room before Emily tells her to wait a minute.