Looking For Lucy Jo

Chapter 2

'Well, that's what Christmas is all about. I'm just glad you're still able to enjoy it. I dread to think about when you leave home for good.'

Emma put her arms around both her sister and her mum at the same time. 'You haven't got to worry about that for a while yet, Mum.'

'I suppose not,' she sighed as she peered outside for a moment, deep in thought.

'Even when they do leave us, I'm sure they'll be back for Christmas, love,' Patrick reassured her, as he stopped to take a long drink of his hot chocolate. Putting his mug down, everyone laughed at his huge melted marshmallow moustache.

'What? What? Have I got something on my face?'

'Dad, will you ever grow up?' laughed Lana.

Shaking his head, he licked off as much as he could before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. 'I don't think we should ever grow up, not really. We should always keep some semblance of our youth, don't you agree, love?'

Audrey grinned and nodded as she leaned forward to peck him on the cheek. Fred seemed to agree, too, as he jumped up and began to lick Patrick's hand.

'I guess he likes marshmallows, Dad,' giggled Lucy Jo as she began to help her brother put baubles on the tree, resulting in yet another argument.

'Muuuuuum, tell him.'

'Greg, let your sister put some of them on the tree, sweetheart.'

'But she keeps putting them all on the bottom, and it looks stupid.'

A simple look from her made him back down. He looked to the floor and handed a few over to Lucy Jo. 'Here you go, Lucy,' he muttered.

Audrey and Patrick shared a smile, just as Fred started to bark again.

'I guess they've arrived.' Patrick grinned broadly.

'Who's here?' asked Lana and Emma at precisely the same time.

oOo

'Surprise!' Declan and Saleena yelled. They carried several large, perfectly wrapped gifts as Patrick led them into the living room.

'O-M-G!' shouted Lana.

'Declan, Saleena!' yelled Emma. 'What are you doing here?'

Hugging the girls, Declan grinned a cheeky, lop-sided smile, before shaking Greg's hand and picking up Lucy Jo, twirling her around. She giggled contagiously.

'Your parents invited us for Christmas,' Saleena gushed, as she hugged the girls.

'O-M-G,' repeated Lana. 'I can't believe it. And you didn't tell us?'

'We wanted it to be a surprise,' said Audrey. 'Oh, you're soaking wet. Come on, let me show you to your room so you can get out of those wet clothes.'

Patrick clapped Declan on the shoulder, grinning at the prospect of spending some quality time with his old pal and former work colleague. 'I'm so glad you're here, mate.'

Grinning, Declan nodded. 'We're gonna have a blast.'

Saleena rolled her eyes and laughed before she followed Audrey upstairs to the guest room. Declan followed right behind her, leaving the kids to happily finish off decorating the tree.

'That was sneaky,' Emma said as she plonked herself down onto the sofa next to Lana.

'I know, but way cool, though. I wonder how long they're staying?'

Emma shrugged. 'Hopefully, the whole school holidays.' She grinned. Pulling out her mobile phone from her jeans pocket, she started texting.

'Diarmuid?'

Without taking her eyes from her phone, Emma nodded. 'Course.'

Lana shook her head before letting it fall on to the back of the sofa, her dark curls flopping over her eyes. After a couple of minutes, she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out her own mobile and started texting.

'Barber?' asked Emma.

'Course,' Lana said seriously.

After a couple of seconds, both girls began to chuckle.

oOo

Wearing dark, over-sized sunglasses, Lana pulled down her stylish hat, so it covered her ears and shivered. Grinning, she watched as her oldest friend appeared from across the road. 'Scott, you're a bit early.'

He shrugged, careful not to skid on the icy street. 'Where's Emma?'

'She's just putting her boots on.'

'Oh right,' he rolled his eyes. 'The same old goth boots?'

Lana nodded with a grin. 'Way too many laces, takes forever.'

'Do you mind?' came a voice from the other side of the fence. The sound of crunching snow could be heard as Emma walked carefully over the thick white layer blanketing the ground. 'Stop criticising my choice of footwear.' She grinned the second she saw Scott.

'You'll never change, Ems,' he laughed, as they all stood facing one another in the bright sunlight. Scott and Emma both squinted, and Lana shook her head.

'You do know that sunglasses aren't only for summer, right?'

Emma rolled her eyes as they began walking away from the house.

'So, how's it going?' asked Scott.

'Great. How about you?' Lana linked arms with him.

'Pretty good.'

'How's work?'

'Not too bad. How's the academy?'

'Amazing,' grinned Emma, as she linked his other arm through hers.

'So, you ready to tell me what really goes on over there, then?' he said cheekily.

'Nope,' Lana said, looking off into the distance.

'What Lana means is that what really goes on there is a lot of studying, the occasional shopping trip into the city, hanging out with Barber and Diarmuid...'

'Oh, you're still together then?'

'Of course. Aren't you still with Lottie?' asked Emma.

Scott shook his head sadly.

'Oh, man, I'm so sorry. What happened?' Lana asked.

He shrugged, 'Just didn't work out. We're better as pals.'

Lana pouted. 'Really?'

He raised his eyebrows and nodded. 'Really. She's fun, but that was about it, really. You know what I mean?'

'I guess so,' Emma sighed. 'No-one else on the horizon?'

'Nah... can't be bothered with girls at the moment. Too much like trouble, if you ask me.'

'Hey!' Both girls unlinked arms with him and pushed him away; his feet skidded on the ice, and before they knew it, he was sitting on his backside.

Lana burst out laughing, while Emma's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she scrambled towards him, holding out her hand to help him up. 'I'm so sorry. Are you alright?'

Lana continued to laugh, tears falling down her cheeks.

'I can't believe you just did that,' Scott said, open-mouthed.

'I know, I'm sorry,' Emma breathed as she helped him to his feet.

'C'mon, let's just leave her,' Emma said, shaking her head as the two of them started to walk off, leaving Lana doubled over with laughter.

'Will she ever change?' Scott asked.

Emma shook her head. 'Nope. Never.'

As they started walking away from her, a huge black jeep skidded around the corner. The bright morning sun glared off the windscreen, and they couldn't see the driver as the vehicle seemed to hop along the treacherous ice.

Emma dropped Scott's arm and turned to look behind her, where Lana was still giggling with her hands on her hips, facing the opposite direction. She went running towards her sister, but her boots couldn't gain traction on the slippery surface, and she fell hard to the ground.

Scott watched in horror as the vehicle seemed to move in slow motion, getting closer and closer to Lana, who appeared to be oblivious to what was happening.

But, right at the last minute, she turned around, saw how close she was to being hit and ducked out of its way, throwing herself over a snow-covered hedge.

'Lana!' screeched Emma as she finally managed to stand up, her feet teetering. Scott grabbed her, and they both just about managed to run across the road as the jeep continued on its way.

'O-M-G!' squealed a voice from the garden.

'Are you okay?' Scott shouted as he ran to the nearby gate, Emma in tow.

'I...I think so,' she winced, rubbing her back. 'My bum and lower back took the brunt of the fall. I didn't land the way I usually do.'

'Huh?'

'Oh nothing,' she muttered as Emma pulled her to one side.

'Seriously, are you alright? Why didn't you land on your feet? You always land on your feet?'

'I think it's because it all happened so quickly. I didn't have time to even think. I'm okay, though. Honest.'

Emma hugged her.

'Was that a Hummer?' Scott asked, still watching as the giant black jeep sped off into the distance.

'I didn't get a chance to look at it, Scott. I was too busy running for my life,' Lana moaned.

'I think it might have been,' Emma replied. 'We don't get many of those on the island.'

'Many? I've never even seen one here before. It looked so cool.'

Both girls glared at him.

'Sorry. Point taken.'

OoO

'I can't believe he made you come down here,' Stan snarled at his more attractive brother, who was sat beside him.

'I'm just here to make sure you don't do anything stupid.'

'Oh, so now I'm stupid, huh? Doesn't he think I'm up to the job? All I have to do is snatch some snivelling little brat.'

'I guess he thinks this is more important than usual. He wants to be sure everything goes smoothly.'

'Smoothly? And he doesn't think I can do that? What does he think I am? I'm not a kid anymore.'

'Maybe he just wanted someone more mature to keep an eye on you, or something... Look out,' yelled the other man, pulling the steering wheel away from the girl in the road.

'What the hell?' shouted Stan. 'I did see her, you know?'

'You what? You almost killed her. Let's go back and make sure she's okay.'

'Hell no. We've got a job to do. We need to go and plan everything to the last detail. She's fine. She jumped over the hedge.'

Shaking his head, he closed his eyes for a second. 'Why does father want this little girl, anyway?'

Stan shrugged. 'Mum wants a daughter. Something like that, anyway.'

'So now we just take someone else's child? It's not right.'

'And you wanna tell him that?'

Archie stiffened.

'I didn't think so.'

'There must be more to it. If he could have any child he wanted, why this one? Why come all the way here? What's so special about her?' he said, glancing down at the photo of the cute girl holding hands with a slightly older boy as they walked along the beach. 'There must be another reason.'

Stan shrugged. 'Does it matter? Dad wants her, and we have to get her for him. If we don't...'

'He'll kill us. I know, Stan. I know.' Archie looked out of the window, off into the distance, wishing he'd been born into another family.

CHAPTER 2

'Apparently, someone's bought old Josiah's house.' Patrick cradled a bottle of beer as he dunked a couple of Mexican chips into the chilli dip on the coffee table before popping them into his mouth.

'Oh, really?' Audrey replied.

Nodding, he turned to Declan, who was standing next to the Christmas tree admiring Lucy Jo's angel, perched on top. 'Josiah Grimshaw used to own the old farmhouse up on the hill on the other side of the island. He died earlier this year.'

'Yes, it was all very sad,' Audrey added.

Declan smiled sadly, glancing across at Lana and Emma knowingly. He knew all about Josiah, of course, because the man's ghost had travelled with the girls to London and had taken up residence at the academy for a short time before his mystery was solved.

'Who's the new owner, Dad?' asked Emma, in between texting her boyfriend.

'Nobody seems to know. It's a bit of a mystery,' he laughed.

Lana raised her eyebrows and elbowed her sister in the side; Emma promptly responded in the same way.

'What's for dinner, Mum? I'm starving,' Greg asked as he appeared in the doorway, rubbing his stomach.

'Lasagne. It'll be ready in ten minutes if you want to go and wash your hands? Go tell Lucy Jo to come downstairs, too.'

Turning, he almost ran straight into Saleena.

'Whoa, slow down there, kiddo.'

'Sorry,' he whispered, his cheeks turning a much darker shade of pink, before running up the stairs. The creaky stair squeaked loudly as he caught his foot on it.

'Lucy Jo was just showing me her Monster High dolls,' Saleena said, as she picked up her glass of white wine. 'They're really cool. I've never seen them before. Have you seen them, Dec?'

Shaking his head, his eyebrows knitted together. 'I'm more of an Action Man myself,' he chuckled, before placing his hand protectively on her lower back.