Phenomenal

6~ Start Of Something Good

"Classy!"

Clarissa looked over her shoulder at her name, her key in her post box, and smiled.

"Hey Lettie," she said, "I hear you started school today."

Lettie, bouncing black curls tied up in ribbons, bounded over to her, Pepper the Rabbit in her hand.

"Yeah," she said, beaming, "Pepper really likes school!"

"Does he?" she said, crouching down, "Did he make lots of friends? And does he like his teacher?"

"Yeah!" Lettie said again.

Behind them, the door opened again and one of the triplets came in.

"Lettie, you need to stop racing off. Oh, hi, Clarissa."

Clarissa looked up and - a quick check of the face - saw that it was Damien. He was carrying shopping bags - lots of shopping bags - using his back to push the door open to get into the reception.

"Hi Damien," Clarissa said, smiling at him, "Arms full again, I see."

Damien chuckled slightly. "Like I said, I'm lazy and don't like making too many trips."

Clarissa laughed as she got to her feet, opening her post box and pulling out that day's post.

"And you know, Mr. Johnson said I was good at art," Violet said, tugging at Clarissa's skirt to get her attention again.

"Yeah?" Clarissa said, opening the door to the courtyard and holding it open for Violet and then Damien before following them to the lift. "What did you draw today?" she asked, as they stepped into the lift and she hit the button for their floor.

"Our family," Violet said, pulling off her backpack and opening it, digging around inside it, following the adults as they left the lift and headed for their apartments.

"Wow, I bet that was fun," Clarissa said, smiling as she stopped outside her door and unlocked it, pushing it open and stepping in, setting her handbag down.

"And Jessie, she sat next to me, she said I could go to her house. And Timmy, Timmy has red hair like you, he said that tomorrow we should go on an adventure during break."

"Ah! Hey, Lettie!" Damien called.

Clarissa looked over her shoulder and laughed at the sight of Violet waltzing straight into her apartment, still looking through her bag and Damien appearing at the front door.

"Lettie, you can't just walk into someone home," he said, shooting Clarissa a look of apology before stepping into the apartment and catching Violet's hand. "C'mon, lets go, you're going to bother Clarissa."

"But I wanted to show her my drawing," Violet said, looking up at him.

"Another time, sweetie," Damien said, "Lets go, you need to change and I need to put the shopping away."

"Oh!" Violet turned to Clarissa, "Then you can help put shopping away, right? That way you can see!"

"Lettie," Damien sighed.

"Why don't you show me the drawing now?" Clarissa said, smiling and sitting down on the sofa.

Violet jumped onto the sofa beside her and Damien hovered at the door. She glanced at him and he grimaced.

"Lettie, you know I have a timetable to keep," he said.

"Then go put the shopping away?" Violet suggested and Clarissa snorted at the brazen attitude of the little girl.

Damien glared at his niece. "Listen young lady. I'm not comfortable just leaving you in someone else's apartment and you know I'll be rushing. You can speak to Clarissa later."