Miss Braxton: Home and Away Fanfic

Chapter 5

My week with the Braxton family was probably and easily one of the best weeks of my life. I felt instantly comfortable; how could I not when they put so much effort into making sure I was? It was blissful. Never had I been able to take so much time out of waitressing to do the things I loved to do, such as surfing and walking and socializing and generally enjoying the wonderful things a care-free life had to offer.

It reminded me of back when I was still a child and mum wasn't ill or depressed. In the height of the summer, when I was off school during the Christmas vacation, mum would temporarily take some rare time off work. She would take me up to a little lake-side cabin in the back of beyond, where everything seemed to glow with life. The bush around the cabin teamed with beautiful life. At the back of the cute, homely little shack, there was a path that only my mother and I used to use. A short trek through the sweet-smelling eucalyptus and Banksia trees wound us up at the edge of a serenely quiet beach, with white sands and waters as cobalt as a cloudless sky. We spent a few days there, basking in the sun's warmth and soaking up whatever brief relaxation our hectic lives had to offer. It wasn't very often that mum and I got to relax and enjoy time together. These pleasant days were very few, hence why the infrequent occasion had stuck so clearly in my mind. To me, living with my brothers for the week was like reliving that trip with mum. It was surreal and I relished every second of it.

I couldn't quite believe this was my brother's lives day in and day out. Almost everyone in the family (even including friends of the family) worked for Brax, in either the gym or the restaurant, which ultimately meant that between them all and the other workers rostered on, they had plenty of free time off. Bianca was the headmistress at Summer Bay High, which had me worried a little because I didn't much like the idea of admitting to a school principle that I was under-educated for someone my age. I worried that she might catch me out with a question or figure out I wasn't attending any schools back in the city. Ricky was a photographer, but was taking her job lightly because of maternity leave, only turning up very occasionally. Phoebe, who was away at a gig, made, wrote and sang music as a profession, taking gigs whenever she could here and there.

On the first night, the family tried to settle me in and offered me a room in the main house that they said used to belong to Casey, but was later occupied by Andy until he'd decided to move out. I'd brought near to nothing with me in my rucksack except a change of clothes and a photograph of me and mum and one of me and my best friend, Flynn. That made unpacking a breeze.

When I was introduced to Darcy, I couldn't believe the obvious resemblance between us. She was blonde and blue-eyed like me, with a radiant smile that never left her lips. Darcy was as adorable and bubbly as a puppy. When she found out who I was, she nearly cried of happiness and tried her best to squeeze the life out of me in a bear hug. It was safe to say that Darcy was ecstatic to have an auntie just a few years older than her around the house, because she was seemingly sick of living with boys. When she started calling me her auntie though, it just didn't seem right, so we agreed to call each other cousins instead, which worked much better for me. Darcy followed me everywhere I went, asking questions and telling me all about the Bay and her life with the family. When she asked me if I could braid hair, and I told her I could, I swear she stopped breathing for joy.

I spent a phenomenal amount of time with her. She was incredibly smart and funny. It was a breath of fresh air for someone like me who never got to spend time with girls, doing things like gossip or braid hair or paint nails. In all honesty, it was a bit too childish and girly for my taste, but so long as it made Darcy happy, I was content to go along with it.

After having bonded with Darcy and had dinner with the rest of the family, my 'cousin' and I settled down onto the sofa to watch a film and drink hot chocolate. Darcy fell asleep halfway through and had to go up to bed to catch some sleep because she had school in the morning. It was then that I decided to wonder outside into the cool night air and catch my breath. I took a seat on one of the chairs in the garden and breathed in lungfuls of fresh air.