The Fifth Wife

17. Family

Katherine Howard POV

Jane pulls me tight in her arms and I can't stop smiling. I feel a buzz coming from her pocket and laugh. She laughs too and pulls out her phone.

"Hello? Can't I enjoy some time with my daughter? Yes, we're coming home soon," I hear Jane talking to the phone. She hangs up and turns to me, "That was Anne, she's hungry." Jane explains shaking her head. I laugh and follow her to the car. We drive to the house and walk in together. I can hear footsteps running down the hall as I take off my shoes. Anne appears in the doorway jumping up and down.

"Come on!!" Anne says, trying to pull Jane to the kitchen.

"Anne I will make you dinner! Let me take off my shoes," Jane says laughing. We follow Anne to the kitchen, which is decorated with balloons and a giant banner that says 'CONGRATULATIONS!'. The rest of the queens are standing below the banner waiting for us.

"Aw, you guys didn't have to do all this," Jane says smiling

"We wanted to!" Anna says. I smile brightly and look at the rest of the queens. "How'd it go?" Anna asks curiously.

"Well... I can proudly introduce you all to Katherine Seymour!" Jane says putting an arm around me. Everyone claps and smiles, and Anne screams with excitement. The rest of the evening we celebrate and before going to sleep Jane gently kisses me on the forehead and says,

"Goodnight, my lovely daughter."

I wake up with a smile and lie in bed for a bit. She really cares about me! Jane is... my mom! I change and run downstairs, I enter the kitchen and see a bunch of paper stretched out over the table. Jane is shuffling through the paper as I sit down.

"Morning!" I say happily

"Morning, did you sleep well?" Jane asks, still looking at the paper

"Yup! What are you looking at?" I ask curiously

"Registration things for school, and for my job," Jane explains. I nod and make something to eat. Realizing that it's quiet I ask,

"Where are the others?"

"Catherine is at her job, Anne's looking around at a university, Parr's upstairs writing, and Anna's in her room. Actually, could you go check if Anna and Parr are coming down later for lunch?"

"Yeah, I'll go once I'm finished eating... if that's okay!" Jane nods and I finish eating before running back upstairs. I knock on Parr's door first.

"Come in," I hear her say. I walk in and see her sitting at her desk, her bed is covered with notebooks and paper.

"Jane was wondering if you're coming downstairs later for lunch?" I ask

"Uh... I don't think so..." Parr says without looking up

"Okay," I say as I quietly exit her room. She should eat something... it's her choice though. I walk over to Anna's room and knock. I hear footsteps approach and the door opens.

"Hi Kitty!"

"Hi! Are you coming downstairs to eat lunch later?" I ask

"Yeah, I'll come down," Anna says.

"Awesome!" I say as I look around her room. Her bed is pushed to the left side, with a bunch of workout stuff on the right.

"I'm setting up for my work," Anna explains with a smile.

"Cool!" I respond nodding. Then I go back downstairs and tell Jane, "Anna is coming down, but Parr said she's good."

"Okay, thanks for doing that!" Jane says. She hands me a piece of paper. "Can you put a checkmark next to the classes you want to take?" I nod and look at the page. I check off chemistry, physics, history, math, English, drama, music, and dance. "Great! Now we just have to go shopping for your school supplies." I nod and then ask,

"Where are you working?"

"I'm going to be working at a daycare, but I'll mostly be doing paperwork and such."

"Sounds boring..." I say smiling a bit

"I know, I'd much rather be going to school!" Jane says looking at me.

"Me too!" Anna says from behind us. I jump a bit since I didn't hear her come down. We all sit to have lunch, ad afterwards I ask,

"Can we buy my school stuff today?" Jane looks up with a small frown.

"I have an interview in an hour, so I don't think I'll be able to. I'm sorry Kitty," she says looking apologetically at me. I nod and say,

"It's okay..."

"What if we go together?" Anna asks looking at me, "We would have to take the bus, I'm not really busy today." I look at Jane who says,

"If you want to, that's okay with me!"

"Okay!" I say smiling at Anna. The bus might be a bit scary... but Anna will protect me. She always has. We get on the bus and I sit next to a window, with Anna beside me. I stare out the window as we drive to the mall. I get off quickly and relax as I feel space around me.

"You good?" Anna asks

"Yeah," I say as we walk into the mall. We reach the store we were looking for and go inside. I choose a backpack that's black with different colour pink dots, pink binder, pink pencil case, and lots of other stuff. Pretty much everything I choose is pink, besides the keychains I pick out. I choose a different colour heart for each queen: gold for Catherine, green for Anne, silver for Jane, red for Anna, and blue for Parr. After paying for everything we take the bus back home, unfortunately, the bus is really full. I look around the bus and then look at Anna. There aren't any places for two people to sit... I bite my lip and see Anna come to me.

"It's okay Kitty, how about I sit over there," she starts saying and pointing to a free seat. "and you sit over there?" She continues, pointing to another free seat two rows down from her. You'll be so far away... at least I don't have to sit next to a man... I nod and walk to the seat.

"Uh... excuse me? May I sit here?" I ask the woman quietly. She nods and I sit down, being extremely careful not to touch her. You're okay... focus on your breathing. You're almost home... We drive through the city and finally reach our stop. I quickly get up and pretty much run off the bus. I wish I could have stayed near Anna... I hate strangers. I come off the bus and we walk into the house together. I go up to my room and put all my stuff down. Once everything is organized I go back downstairs.

"How did it go?" Jane asks when she sees me

"Good," I say smiling a bit. Don't tell her about the bus she'll just get worried, and it was fine. "I got all my stuff."

"I'm guessing it's pink?" Jane asks smiling. I nod and say,

"Of course! Except for the keychains!" I reply and run back upstairs to get the keychains so I can show her. "Each one represents one of the queens, so you're always with me," I explain.

"Baby, that's so sweet!" Jane says smiling. She then pulls me into a hug before getting everything ready for dinner. Everyone sits down and starts eating, after a while Jane says, "While we're all here I wanted to talk about something. Since we've all gotten used to being in 2020 I wanted to establish a rule that I think is very important." Everyone nods and Jane continues, "Nobody has done this so far, which is amazing, but I think it'll help if we actually make a rule about it. This rule is: No looking up each other's pasts. You can look up stuff about yourself if you want, but don't start researching other people unless you have their permission. Does everyone agree?"

"I think that's a good rule," Catherine says when Jane's finished talking. The rest of us agree quickly before going back to eating. That is a good rule... I don't think I ever want the others to know what really happened to me. Everyone finishes eating and we all go to bed. It takes a while for me to fall asleep, and luckily when I do, no nightmares bother me.