Imaginary

The first visit

Enya's mum woke her up at 7am the next day, carrying a mug of peppermint tea and a vegan cheese toastie on a tray.

"Mum, I don't feel very well," complained Enya.

"But are you really ill, or do you just need a day off?" said her mum, winking at her.

"I really, really need a day off," confessed Enya.

"That's fine with me," said Enya's mum, "I'll phone school and tell them that you're ill. Honestly, I think teens these days don't get enough free time. Seven blooming hours of school five days a week and then an hour or more of homework on top! Enough to make any non-superhuman tired!"

"Yeah, I don't think I get enough free time, frankly," said Enya. Her mum left the room. She reached over to her bedside table, pulled her phone off the charging lead and began to text Carrot.

Enya: my mum was incredibly easy 2 work with. I even managed 2 tell her I wasn't ill! How has it worked on your parents?

Carrot: not great :/ They didn't believe me 4 a while & I've had 2 take an unnecessary paracetamol. Also my gran is here :( I can smell her excessive perfume from all the way upstairs!

Enya: Oh no, do u'll be able 2 sneak out ok?

Carrot: Ye, the stupid old bat should be easy enuf 2 fool

Enya was interrupted from her texting by her mum entering the room.

"I've got to go to work now," said her mum, "but if you wanted to leave the house at anytime today, I have a selection of unusual outfits, face paint and wigs in my wardrobe."

"Um, thanks. Bye, mum," said Enya. Once her mum had left the room again, she continued to text Carrot.

Enya: wtf my mum just told me she has face paint, wigs and unusual outfits in her wardrobe which I'm free 2 borrow if I wish 2 leave the house

Carrot: Wow..... We're still meeting at Elkwood Park in 1/2 an hour, right?

Enya: Yep, I'll bring along some disguises 4 u

Carrot: Cool

Enya climbed out of bed and walked into her mum's room. She opened the wardrobe. Sure enough, it was filled with a whole variety of disguise materials. After a few minutes of looking through everything, Enya decided on disguises for herself and Carrot. She chose a t shirt with a picture of a cat on it, some black and white stripy leggings, some red high heels, a  maroon beret and some purple sunglasses for herself. She chose an orange jumper, some blue velvet leggings, some pink trainers, a black cap and some green sunglasses for Carrot. She put on her disguise and shoved Carrot's disguise, the business card and her phone into a yellow Nike rucksack she had found in the wardrobe. Enya rushed downstairs, put her coat on, unlocked the door, went out of the door and locked the door again.

Enya walked along the dull and almost deserted streets of Elkwood. The walk to the park took her about 20 minutes. When she reached the park, Carrot was already there, sat on a swing on the playground. Enya rushed over to Carrot. 

"Oh gosh, you're still in your pyjamas!" exclaimed Enya, looking at Carrot's clothes.

"Yep, I thought that seen as I'd just be getting into a disguise once I got here, it wouldn't be worth changing into proper clothes. So I decided just to shove a coat over these and hope no one would notice," explained Carrot.

Enya opened the rucksack, pulled out Carrot's disguise and handed it to her. 

"This is quite a random outfit," laughed Carrot, examining the various parts of the outfit Enya had brought her.

"I know right," said Enya, "maybe you should go and change behind that big bush over there?"

"Good idea," said Carrot, walking towards the bush with her outfit in her hands.

Once Carrot had changed into her disguise outfit, Enya put Carrot's pyjamas in the rucksack and the two girls began to walk to the address given on the business card. 

"I'm so excited about how we might finally get some answers!" exclaimed Enya.

"Me too!" said Carrot.

"Eleanora, Sienna, Serafina and Harriet will all be wondering where I am," said Enya, "I was considering asking them to come along too but I figured it would be easier to do this with just the two of us."

"Alexandra will wonder where I am too," said Carrot.

The walk to the address on the business card took about an hour. When they reached the building, Enya and Carrot were surprised to see what it was.

"A care home!" exclaimed Carrot, shocked.

"No wonder it gave a room number!" said Enya.

"I know, I was expecting it to be a block of flats or something," said Carrot.

Enya and Carrot entered the care home. The entrance door led into a reception.

"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the receptionist.

"We've come to visit our granny. Room 23," said Carrot.

"During school hours?" asked the receptionist, suspiciously.

"We're homeschooled," lied Enya, "and we have a days break every Monday. This Monday we decided it would be nice to visit granny."

"Fair enough," said the receptionist, "you can go and see her now."

Enya and Carrot walked along the care home corridor to room 23. They opened the door and saw an old woman, maybe about eighty years old, sitting in an armchair.

"What do you want, dearies?" she asked.

"I had an imaginary world with lots of imaginary friends and stuff in and last week it all came to real life. My imaginary friends now all go to my school. And my imaginary mum slipped a business card with your address on it under my pillow. It said you were an imagination interworld expert so I though you might be able to explain to us what's going on," explained Enya.

"That's for me to know and you two to find out," replied Margret Hud, smiling and winking at the two girls.

"Erm, thanks and bye then," said Enya. Margret waved at her and Carrot as they left the room, closing the door behind them.

"Well, she was helpful," said Carrot, sarcastically, as they walked back through the corridors to the reception.