Completely & Stupidly: Forever and Ever

Chapter 12. Vanessa

 Vanessa's hair trial went as well as it possibly could. She loved the finished result and after staring at herself in the mirror for a few minutes with happy tears in her eyes, the hairdresser showered her with compliments and then quickly took it all back out again and packed everything up, leaving her with delicate curls that danced around at her shoulders for the rest of the day. Lunch time had been and gone and before she knew it it was three o'clock and she needed to pick the little ones up from school. When she returned home with two tired little boys, she made them a quick snack and left them playing with toys in their bedroom, then found herself with nothing left to do for the rest of the evening, except to wonder where Charity had gotten to. She'd received a text to say that she'd managed to pick up the name cards from the printers, thankfully without a problem, but there was something else she had to do whilst she was out and that she wouldn't be long, and yet two hours later there was still no sign of her. "Hi" a voice chirped from the front door, signalling that Sarah had arrived home. "Hey, how was your day? Where's Noah?" Vanessa called out from the kitchen as she washed up discarded cups and plates, noticing that Sarah had come home alone. "Boring as always, and no idea, I haven't seen him since lunch" She shrugged. As she stepped into the room, her eyes lit up. "You look nice" She told Vanessa with a big smile. "How did the trial go?" She added, remembering that the hairdresser had been. "Really well, here, look" Vanessa buzzed, unlocking her phone to show her a photo she'd taken earlier. "Aw, you look amazing. Granny is going to be so shocked" Sarah gushed. "Uh, are you saying I don't always look 'amazing'?" Vanessa joked, playing the offended card, popping one hand over her heart and inhaling sharply. Sarah let her head droop and smiled shyly, "You know what I mean" She mumbled. Vanessa laughed and slid her phone into her back pocket. Just as she sat down, it started to ring and she sighed and reached for it as it vibrated in her jeans. "Trace?" She asked once she answered and didn't hear a voice right away. "V, I'm coming round the corner, open the door, my hands are full". Tracey's voice sounded far away on the phone, but as they were about to hang up she could hear her voice in real time through the open window. Being the closest to the door, Sarah opened it and leaped aside, letting Tracey in. As she stepped over the threshold, she stumbled over a school bag and almost fell, whilst holding a big cardboard box. "What's that?" Vanessa asked. "This is comedy gold, this is" Tracey announced, dropping the box down onto the coffee table, careful not to let her phone, which was resting on top of it, crash to the floor. Not knowing what to expect from her sister and her crazy sense of humour, she anticipated what was about to happen as she delved into the already ripped open box. "Ta-dah" Tracey giggled, holding up a white t-shirt with a pink slogan upon it. "What does that say?" Vanessa squinted, not noticing straightaway what was written upon the shirt. "Les-be-hens'' Tracey announced slowly, grinning as if she were really proud of what she had done. "Les-be-hens?" Vanessa questioned, and then the penny dropped. "What the hell have you got that for?" she asked, confused. "Lesbian hen do, Les-be-hens" Tracey over explained. Vanessa rubbed her face with her hands. "We're not lesbians, Tracey'' Vanessa pointed out, which made Sarah laugh. "Yeah, technically, I know that, but it's funny" Tracey said, now a little deflated that her sister hadn't found her novelty gift as humorous as she had. "Yeah, it's a funny play on words, but I'm not wearing that'' Vanessa told her, now laughing along with Sarah as she stared at the hideous t-shirt. "What? I paid fifty quid for all of these'' Tracey gasped, showing Vanessa the job lot of matching shirts inside the box. "You'll have to take them back", "I can't, they were personalised" Tracey told, flashing the back of the t-shirt that she was holding, which read 'Dingle to be', along with the others that had the names of their friends on them. Vanessa laughed harder. "I'm sorry, I appreciate the idea but you'll have to chuck them on eBay or something" she giggled. Tracey threw the t-shirt into the box and threw herself towards the back of the sofa, slouched and with a face like a sulking toddler. As Vanessa and Sarah laughed, Charity and Noah bounded in through the back door, taking them by surprise. "Don't look at me. Whatever you do, don't look in my direction" She demanded, poking her head around the corner. "Where have you been?" Vanessa asked, struggling to keep her eyes away from her fiancé, who sounded extremely stressed. "That's for me to know, and, you know" Charity wavered, beckoning for Sarah to come and help Noah with the shopping. "We might need to get another milk" She told, remembering that the one she'd bought had gotten warm in the boot of the car but thankfully she'd not bought anything frozen, so the bags weren't filled with defrosted meats this time, as she had taken a lot longer getting home than she had anticipated. Boredly, Noah made a second trip to the car to retrieve the last of the shopping, while Sarah took hold of the little bag of name cards and put them on the counter top. "Trace, I need you upstairs" Charity said in a loud whisper, although not sure why as she knew Vanessa was going to hear anyway. "Wrong sister" Tracey joked, sitting up and forgetting she was supposed to be throwing a silent tantrum. Charity furrowed her brows and exhaled loudly. "Alright, I'm coming" Tracey spoke through a long sigh, and slowly trudged up the stairs. Sarah ran up behind them, excited to see what was going on, while Noah dropped off the last bag by the back door and threw on his headphones and headed to his room in silence. Vanessa found herself sitting alone in the living room. "I'll put the shopping away then, shall I?" She spoke out loud to herself as one of the bags fell onto its side allowing tins of beans and soups to roll out and circle around each other on the floor.