Phoenix Simpson [PUBLISHED]

7

Phoenix Simpson

Chapter 7

As soon as I walked inside, I knew we had a visitor. Blinking once, hard, I headed to the kitchen to see who was round.

Maisie was sat at the dining table as if she lived here with us, and the sight made me think back to Coral in the beginning, except Coral had been meek and Maisie was not so shy. She was leaning back in her chair, a baggy patchwork looking t-shirt hung off her frame, probably something she'd stitched herself by the look of it. I could just make out the same style of baggy trousers she was wearing, this time green and tie-dyed. She could have told me she was a street urchin, and I would have believed her.

"Hey, Phoenix," Coral looked up and saw me standing in the doorway.

I nodded in response, my eyes moving straight back to Maisie.

"Hi," she smiled and waved, then pointed at me. "Must be maftin' out there!"

I frowned at her.

"Maftin'?" Coral repeated.

"Oh," Maisie smiled as she realised we didn't understand her Northern slang. "Maftin' means really hot."

It wasn't that hot, but I wasn't in the mood to explain that I'd been running. It was quite obvious.

It seemed to be a full house on first glance. Only a few of the boys weren't present. Along with Maisie and Coral, were Gomez, Giovanni, Walter and even Eli. I arched a brow at seeing Eli out of his room, but by the scowl on his face, he was only after food and not looking to be roped into the conversation the girls were mostly having.

"Where's Severn?" I asked Gio and Gomez.

"Asleep," they answered.

Walter was rifling through the fridge, his back turned to us as he looked for God knows what. Eli was clearly waiting to get a chance to find something to eat too, huffing and puffing as he stood there, arms folded across his chest. Just as Walter finally pulled back from the fridge with a punnet of green grapes in his hand, Maisie hopped to her feet and made a beeline for him. She hadn't stopped talking the whole time either. There was a constant drone in the room, and it was coming from just her.

"I don't know what you're saying," Walter said blankly as he looked down at her.

"Walter!" Coral looked at him, appalled.

It only made him crack a smile in response before he fixed his attention back to the teen in front of him.

"I was saying," Maisie slowed down and spoke with more emphasis. "Can I have some of your grapes?"

"I like the way you say 'graaapes'," Gomez grinned, mimicking her accent.

"Where in the North are you from anyway?" Giovanni asked her, smiling as he watched her pluck grapes from Walter's tray in his hand.

"It's funny how you Southerners say 'The North' as if it's one big entity. There's actually loads of places up there," she said through a mouthful of green mush.

"Well, we've never been up North, sooo..." Gomez trailed off with a smirk.

"You also didn't answer the question," Gio reminded her.

Maisie rolled her eyes and went to sit back down again when Walter pulled his grapes away – signifying he wouldn't be sharing anymore.

"I'm from Leeds, which is in Yorkshire, which is in the North," she said.

"And how come you're all the way down here in Dover?" Gomez asked a question that I was wondering myself. "This is like, as South as you can get."

She shrugged, "My family moved a couple years back. My dad got a job here."