It was the summer, and on Cromwell road, the noise of the sisters triumphantly playing in the house could be heard all of the way down the street. The girls were dancing happily to a new record of Tavi’s. “I love it! This is definitely a favourite record of mine!” Indigo shouted over the music, swinging along in rhythm.

“Pretty fantastic, don’t you think?” Octavia winked.

“Most certainly” Indigo shouted back. Tavi took her hands and spun Indigo around, who squealed. Side B of the record slowly came to an end, and after they had listened to it a numerous amount of times, it surprisingly hadn’t got any scratches on yet. Tavi carefully put it back in its sleeve and slid it onto the end of the shelf, which travelled around the whole width of her and Indigo’s room. They had been collecting records for as long as she could remember. The heat of the sun had made them all rather sweaty and they ran downstairs to go outside and cool down.

Opening the front door, they skipped down the steps. All five of the sisters lay down, their heads were touching in a circle and they gazed up into the sky. “Look; it’s an elephant!” Coral giggled, pointing up to the blue sky, which had a few white, fluffy clouds in.

“And over there is a duck!” Pansie said.

“No, it’s a horse!”

“Looks more like a frog to me,” Echo laughed.

“A frog? How does it look anything like a frog!” Coral raised one eyebrow in that funny way people did on telly.

“Coral, what are you doing with your face? You look so funny!” Indigo laughed.

“It’s what they do on television, see?” She did it again, and commented in a deep voice “Bang! and the dirt is gone.”

“You do make me laugh!”

“Why, thank you, thank you very much,” She did the eyebrow thing again and each of the sisters burst out laughing.

“Ah,” Sighed Tavi. “I do love the summer. I wish we could be by the sea.”

“Of course you do, you ALWAYS wish you were by the sea.” Echo said loudly. “I wish we were in an exciting city.”

“I wish we were shopping,” Pansie said.

“I wish we were lost in a forest.” Indigo said broadly.

“I wish we could fly” Whispered Coral.

“You should be more realistic, Coral, honestly.” Pansie shook her head, giggling.

“Maybe so.”

The girls turned their heads as they heard a car roll onto the gravel. Their parents were home from work. They began to get up as the car doors opened. “Hello girls! How are you all today?” Their father said cheerfully. He got his briefcase out of the car boot and started to walk to the front door. The sisters all ran up to him and kissed him on the cheek in turn. Mr Hawkins did love his daughters very much, although it must have been hard for him to live in a house full of hormonal women who talked about everything quite freely. How he managed to entertain five girls every day, no one knew. His daughters loved their father, however plain he was, and often made him dinner and when he was asleep, they would cover him with makeup. Coping with them must have been a slight understatement.

“What have you girls been doing today?” Their mother asked curiously, dressed in a smart skirt and white shirt, and looking all very business-like.

“We danced for a bit, and then played some games. Then we danced some more and tried to make pictures out of clouds!” Tavi exclaimed, watching her parents smile at how utterly bonkers they all were.

“Well, come inside and I shall make you all some tea.” Mrs Hawkins said, hoping they would all calm down from the fanatic day of dancing they’d had.

As you walked into the house, the scent of flowers drifted right up your nostrils. There were types of flowers everywhere; Mrs Hawkins had a slight obsession with the things. Surprisingly, the downstairs of the house was rather clean for the many people that lived there. After all, when Mrs Hawkins wasn’t at work, or upstairs hovering the girls rooms or picking up dirty clothes and other possessions that were draped upstairs, she was happily cleaning the rest of the house.

After tea, the sisters gathered into Pandora’s room. They watched her pull on a large woolly jumper and grab a bag. She opened the window silently. “Please, could you just cover for me tonight” She whispered. “I’m begging you. I’m meeting up with Blake. I promise I’ll be back by morning.”

Tavi sighed. “Do we have to?” She asked.

“Yes”

“Ugh.”

“And what if you aren’t back by morning? What if mother finds out? What happens then?” Indigo asked with her matter-of-factly voice. She smirked as Pansie tried to develop an answer.

“She won’t, it’s fine. I promise you I’ll be back by sunrise. I promise,” She held out her pinkie finger and linked it in turn with each of the girls. “And if mum does, tell her you didn’t know.”

“Whatever, just go. Have a fun time,” Tavi said as we left the room.

“See ya, Pansie,” Said Echo.

“It’s Pandora. Bye,” Pansie said as she climbed out of the window. She climbed down the large vine that travelled up the house. She hit the floor with a small thump and silently treaded onto the gravel and made her way down the path.

The rest of the sisters walked into Tavi and Indigo’s room. They sat cross legged in the centre of it. Tavi opened up her large wooden cupboard and shuffled through many boxes and board games. They sat impatiently on the floor waiting for Tavi to get what she wanted down from the cupboard. Echo suddenly sparked up an idea “Wait here, I’m just going to get something.” She crept out of the room and into Pandora’s. She grabbed as many candles as she good and found a small box of matches tucked away at the back of a tall shelf. She took the candles and matches back into their room. As she had suspected, Tavi was setting up a Ouija board, with Scrabble as a decoy in case their parents walked in.

“Here,” Echo said, passing the candles to her.

“Good idea!” She smiled; she circled them around the board and lit them one by one. She turned off the lights and the atmosphere suddenly turned scary. “Okay, if we all cross our legs and have our knees touching, this should work.” They all shuffled into position. “Now, put two fingers onto the planchette, we can talk to the spirits,” She whispered spookily, making us laugh. The Ouija board was a rectangular wooden board, with black, fancy writing written on the front. Drawings of the sun and moon were on either side of the board. Just as we were about to get started asking some questions, we heard footprints hitting the stairs. “Quick!” Tavi said, picking up the Ouija board, and putting down the scrabble one as the girls tried to speedily make some words to add on the board. The handle rattled and the door opened and they flustered to blow out the candles and turn on the lights. Coral shoved the candles under a bed.

The door opened. “Ah, here you all are. Where’s Pandora? Blake is on the phone,” Their mother held the phone to her chest, pointing at it. The sisters looked at each other not knowing what to do. Why was Blake on the phone?

“Uh, she’s in the toilet,” Indigo said brightly.

“Oh, okay dear, I’ll just go and tell her.” Mrs Hawkins said, beginning to turn and walk out of the room.

“NO!” Echo said a bit too loudly.

“I’m sorry?” Their mother looked confused.

“Um, what she meant is, Pansie is feeling a bit ill. She’s been in the toilet for a while?” Indigo shrugged her shoulders unsurely.

“Oh no, I better go and see her,” Mrs Hawkins worriedly ran out of the room.

“Way to go, Indigo” Coral said.

“What are we meant to do now?” Echo sounded worried.

“We’ll just have to wait and see.”

The sisters heard their mother gasp as she sat patiently in Pandora’s room, waiting for Pansie to appear from the window. Blake must have never turned up, since he was on the phone. “And where on earth have you been young lady!?” They heard their mother scream.

“I, uh, fell out of the window?” Pansie bit her lip. The girls listened from the hall, trying to muffle their giggles from Pansies’ idiotic response.

“Do you think I am stupid?”

“Of course not.”

“So what were you doing at one o’ clock in the morning OUT OF THE WINDOW?” Their mother was getting more and more noisy.

“I’m sorry, mum. I was going for a walk.” She hung her head in shame.

“Well that isn’t what your sisters told me!” The sisters looked at each other in fright and realised what was soon to come. They ran into Indigo’s room and shut the door quietly. They knew that as soon as mother was finished with Pansie, Pansie would come and have a go at them. The shouting seemed to go on endlessly as they sat on the two beds of the room. Coral was reading, and trying to ignore everything around her. The others were playing catch with a small pillow, silently and trying not to bring any attention to themselves. Suddenly the shouting had stopped. A door was slammed, and soon after it was opened. The thudding on the floor landing became louder and then the door of their room was wildly opened by Pansie. “WHY THE HELL DID YOU TELL HER!” she screamed as she walked up to us, standing tall. “BLAKE WASN’T EVEN THERE! HE NEVER EVEN CAME!”

“We had no choice,” Coral was scowling at her sister. Her glare was angry and she didn’t stop it.

“What would you say we should have done?” Indigo fiercely whispered.

“I don’t know, maybe make up an excuse? Say I was in the toilet or something? You are all so terribly stupid sometimes!”

“You aren’t our mother. You can’t tell us what to do, nor tell us off! The world doesn’t revolve around you, and you have no reason to think it does!” Tavi shouted. She was fluming and you could easily see it. She hated that Pansie only got away with a telling off, whereas if it was here, she would have been grounded.

“Well sorry, miss know-it-all. You aren’t better than us all, you know!” Pansie yelled back. “So whose side are the rest of you on?” She aimed her question at Coral and Echo, because Indigo was blatantly on Tavi’s ‘side’.

“We don’t take sides, Pansie. We aren’t as childish as you.”

“Ugh!” Pansie stormed out of the room and they heard her door slam.

“You know, Coral sometimes you need to stand up for yourself I’m not going to do all of your talking!” Echo hissed. Pansie had started a fight amongst every sister.

“Don’t be so ignorant, Echo! You’re never usually like this!” Indigo said.

“Well I am now. So you better get used to it.” Echo left the room in defiance. Coral got up and left too, wishing she didn’t have to. Indigo and Octavia sat in silence.

Each sister was left to their own resources. Without anyone to talk to, the house became silent. The lights were turned off, and the sisters slept until morning. The following morning, the girls didn’t say a word to each other, unless it was “Could you pass me the milk,” or something along the lines of that. They walked to school in silence, trailing behind one another. Days turned into weeks, and the girls sat with their friends and only talked to each other in front of their parents. Although, each sister had the same thought; it was going to be like this forever. They began to move away from each other, making new friends and having new interests in new things. The only time they talked was in front of their parents, to pretend that everything was okay.

Time became a nuisance when they were at home. They had nothing to do but stay out of each other’s way. Tavi and Indigo would argue about who’s records were who’s, and Coral fought against Echo about books. Pansie began to spend more and more time out with Blake; sneaking out at night and making up her own cover stories. She succeeded. At school, Echo became more isolated. She began to focus only on art and writing, and became too shy to act anymore. Tavi lost all intention of wanting to be a singer. Furthermore, Indigo carried on getting bullied; it was worse and worse every day. Coral suffered the most. She didn’t know how to cope. She lost all interest in even her most favourite subjects. One day, she was in a maths lesson at the back of the class. They were doing circumferences of the circle, and for that you had to use a compass. As she was drawing, she accidently lead the compass to her skin. It scratched her lightly, but enough to make her bleed. She thought to herself, how good it felt. The sensation of losing yourself and feeling as though you haven’t a care in the world. Since then, she hadn’t stopped. But those times, it wasn’t an accident.

***

One evening, Coral and Echo were in their room getting ready for bed. The both quietly chose a book from their shelf and sat in bed and began to read. Little did they know that their youngest sister was spying on them, as usual. They both got into bed and started to read, when Echo lied on her side and said, “I miss our chats.”

“Me too,” Coral huffed, rolling to her side also, facing Echo. “Can’t we just make up?”

“Please,” Echo smiled. They shook hands, like they watched their father do in meetings and parties. As their hands touched, Corals’ sleeve rolled up slightly, revealing long, red scars. “What are they?” Echo panicked. Indigo tried not to gasp as she watched them.

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Coral said, pulling down her sleeve, and deliberately not meeting Echo’s gaze. “You didn’t do them to yourself, did you?”

“Please don’t tell anyone,” What was she supposed to say?

“I won’t. Just please don’t do it again.”

“Okay,”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” Coral had her fingers crossed behind her back. Echo turned out the lights and they both went to sleep. Indigo snuck back into her room, wishing that she hadn’t heard a thing. She gets bullied, Coral cuts herself and who knows what the other sisters do. She couldn’t help but think, how they had all turned out to be such wrecks.

ere at music practice. Perfect, she thought, I can do this quickly, without anybody knowing.

Coral turned on both taps to a speed which would fill the bath up quickly, but not make too much noise for Pansie to realise that the water was running. She grabbed her father’s razor and undressed, settling into the bath. She had been unhappy for a long time, but hadn’t realised it up until The Argument. She wished it had never happened. Coral couldn’t even remember why she was so depressed sometimes. She washed, and began to talk to herself, calmly.

“I can’t do this anymore.” Was all she said.

Whilst Pandora was crying over a boy, it seemed as though Indigo and Octavia were having more significant problems. Still in the school, the two girls were about to head home from an afterschool music practice, in silence. They had no choice but to walk with each other, although they hadn’t much to say anymore. They saw Shaun and his gang emerging from around the corner. Of course, Tavi didn’t really know what Indigo was going through with the bullying, and only knew parts of it. But she was about to find out what really happens. The gang walked further towards the two girls, boldly and loudly.

“Well look who it is,” He started. “Indigo the freak and one of her freakish sisters,”

“Original,” Tavi whispered under her breath.

“Huh? What was that?” Shaun laughed.

“Nothing,” She said. Shaun began to edge closer and closer to Indigo, until his face was almost touching hers. Indigo didn’t even know the reason behind Shaun bullying her; only that he got the laughs and attention from it. Indigo was shoved violently into the wall behind her, pain searing through her body. She stayed silent, and tried not to cry out for help; after all, she knew Tavi would be too scared to do anything. All of his friends laughed as he continuously hit her, and then he aimed for her face. His fist slammed hard against the skin of Indigo’s face, surely to bruise it. Indigo began to cry, loudly and obviously in pain. Shaun stepped back. Whilst the laughter of his mates carried on, his smile began to fade from his face. He knew he shouldn’t have gone that far; but it was oh so tempting; such an easy target. He knew of only one way to let all of his anger and pain out, and that was to put it on somebody else’s shoulders.

“WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR? WHAT THE HELL HAS SHE DONE TO YOU?” Tavi screamed, surprising everyone. She never usually spoke out of place, let alone shout. Shaun’s gang began to make ‘ooo’ noises from behind him.

“DON’T YOU EVER, EVER DO THAT TO MY SISTER AGAIN. DO YOU HEAR ME?” Tears were building up inside, but she knew only better to not show her weakness. Come on, Octavia, you can do this. Stand up for your sister, she said over and over again in her head.

“Okay, okay, calm yo’ head, girl.” Shaun said. He backed away, and talked to his gang in whispers. “We’re outta here,” He simply said, and they all walked off, howling and laughing on their way.

“Are you hurt? Are you okay?” Tavi said, panicking about her sister. She helped Indigo stand up and steady herself.

“I’ll be fine,” Indigo wept. “I always am, see?” She gave a half-hearted smile.

“Do they do this to you often?”

“Every day. But it was never as bad as that. You did brilliant, Tavi, thank you so much,” Indigo turned and hugged her sister. “Friends again?”

“Friends again.”

After finally making up, they walked home, encouragingly holding hands.

Coral heard the footsteps on the front porch and realised that she had to make this quick. Silent tears were running down her face. She held the razor boldly, and put her wrists under the water. Elegantly, she slid the razor, down on her wrist, hard and hoping to hit a vain. Repeating this, she did it on her other wrist. She lifted her arms out of the water and did it a few more times, before dropping the razor suddenly on the floor, her left arm hanging out of the bath tub. The noise of the blood dripping on the hard tiled floor sounded like the first drops of rain. The cut from her right wrist had begun to seep with blood, making the water churn with red and clear water. She slid her hand underwater, so more blood came out. She felt as though she had done significantly well, and relief fled to her body. She sighed happily.

“Good bye,” She whispered to herself. She fell unconscious. Only to find that she would unhappily wake up in a few hours.

Indigo and Octavia opened the door to hear small sobs coming from upstairs. Quietly, they looked at each other, and walked slowly up the stairs, to find Pansie lying on her bed crying. They edged into her bedroom, awkwardly and not knowing what to do, since they hadn’t talked properly since The Argument.

“Should we ask her what’s wrong?” Indigo whispered.

“I don’t know, what if she mentions The Argument?”

“P-Pansie, what’s wrong?” Indigo said quietly.

“It’s Blake. He lied! He cheated!” She screamed into her cushion.

Tavi rolled her eyes. “You know what they say, there’s plenty more fish in the sea!” She winced at the stupid saying.

“That doesn’t help! Could you please go, I’d rather be alone,” Pansie said.

Of course, at this time none of the sisters knew of Coral, who was in the bath tub across the hall, with a razor in her hand.

Echo was in a meeting with her teacher at school. Her parents were to pick her up at six, before they got home from work. This left her only 15 minutes to talk with her teacher, thank God.

“Are you okay, Echo?” Her teacher, Ms Dunmore said as she walked into the classroom and sat at her desk. Echo nodded, not looking directly at Ms Dunmore.

“Are you sure?” She questioned.

“Yeah,” No. Of course she wasn’t. She hadn’t been okay since she saw her sister’s scars. She was almost as depressed as Coral was now. Where was Coral? She must be at home with her sisters, she thought. She put the thought to the back of her head. What did Ms Dunmore even want to talk to her about?

“Now Echo, I’ve realised that you have been quieter recently in school? Is there are problem?”

Well this was patronising. “No, Miss. I’ve just been, uh, focusing more with my work.” The way her voice had said that sentence made it so obvious that she was lying.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, Miss,” Echo wished she would stop asking her that already.

“Well, your work has certainly improved. I’ve seen some of your writing and art recently and you can really feel the emotion,” Ms Dunmore expressed herself with the movement of her hands.

Woah, soppy much. “Thanks?” Echo questioned. She liked Ms Dunmore a lot, more than all of the other teachers. But she was just like all of the other teachers; completely missing the point.

“Yes, it’s a good thing. I’m very impressed and you should continue. Perhaps start writing with a few friends? Or your sisters? I know Coral certainly loves to write.”

“Maybe, it sounds like a good idea, Miss.” Echo looked at the clock behind her. 5 more minutes. Her parents would be early. Where is Coral? Something was going on and she needed to find out.

As predicted, her parents were early. “See you soon, Echo,” Ms Dunmore said as she got up from her chair and walked out of the classroom behind Echo.

“Bye Miss,” Echo said as she walked out of the classroom, relieved that the session had finished.

“You alright, sweetheart? Mr Hawkins asked Echo, putting his arm around her shoulder as they walked to the car.

“Of course,” Echo said, and she tried to give a smile.

“WE’RE HOOMEEEEEE!” Mr Hawkins said in that cheerful voice that he did every evening. To his surprise, nobody came running to him as usual. “Hello?” He said loud and clear, confused. He glanced at Echo and his wife, who looked back worriedly. They began to walk up the red carpeted stairs in the centre of the hall. Pandora’s sobs became louder as they reached the landing.

“Oh, sweetie, are you okay?” Their mother rushed into Pansie’s room, Echo stood still behind her.

“No! I’m not okay! Blake cheated,” She sobbed some more, Mrs Hawkins rubbed Pansie’s back. Echo rolled her eyes at this and began to walk away. She went into her room to find that Coral wasn’t there. She walked into Indigo’s room, and saw her black eye. “What happened?” Echo gasped. Indigo was about to speak but was stopped as Tavi chipped in.

“What do you care?” Echo looked down, before looking around the room to find that Coral wasn’t in there either. She walked further down the hall and tapped on the bathroom door.

“Coral? Are you in there?” No reply. Echo slowly opened the door, all her attention was drawn to the bath tub. There was her sister, lying unconsciously in her own blood. A razor was on the floor, her arm was flopping over the side. Blood was everywhere. “M-Mum!” Echo cried. Tavi and Indigo came running almost immediately.

“Call an ambulance!” Indigo shouted. Echo was next to Coral, shouting at her to wake up, nothing would work. They heard the ambulance sirens scream loudly outdoors, as two paramedics ran inside to come and investigate. Mr and Mrs Hawkins were crying uncontrollably and got on the ambulance with Coral. The four sisters stood together as one in front of the house, watching the ambulance leave.

They smiled at each other, and although they were worried and anxious about Coral, they couldn’t help but feel relieved that they were almost all together again. They walked all the way to the hospital. For the first time in weeks, they were talking. On the way to the hospital, they told each other what had been happening. They got to the reception desk and asked to see their sister. Courageously walking down the corridor, the four were linked arm in arm, ready to welcome their sister back home.

Mr and Mrs Hawkins left the ward as the four sisters walked in. Indigo had a large purple bruise on her left eye from when Shaun had punched her earlier. The ward smelt of disinfectant, and Pansie wrinkled her nose. The four of them kneeled down by Corals bed. Echo smiled faintly, sadness in her eyes. She hated seeing her sister like this. Coral had two white, thick bandages on each of her wrists. Pandora reached out and held her hands, her eyes red and puffy from her crying.

“I’m sorry,” Pansie said. Her voice was breaking, as if she was going to cry. “I should have paid more attention. We all should have. This is all my fault.” She hung her head as if in shame.

“Don’t be, you have no need to be,” Coral tightened her grip on her sisters hand. The sisters were all connected; Tavi was holding Pansies’ shoulders, and Indigo was edging behind Tavi, holding her hand. Echo was silent, and plaiting Corals hair, sitting on Pansies lap.

“If you don’t mind me saying, I think we are all to blame,” Tavi sighed deeply. They all knew she was right.

“I’ve missed you,” Coral smiled.

“Me two.”

“Me three,” Cried Pansie.

“Me four,” Indigo said.

“Me five,” Echo whispered. The girls laughed together. None of them needed to speak aloud to know that they were never going to argue again. The Hawkins’ sisters all sat around Coral, laughing and chatting. The atmosphere around them was serene and beautiful. Each girl was so terribly different from the others; which made them all so similar and made them realise, that never were they ever going to find anyone better than their own sisters.