On a Bench

[Jamie Holgersson]

Jamie sat down on a park bench in the park that was near her home. The young girl wasn't sure what to do with herself these days. Her older brother tried really hard to keep the family together, it wasn't working. It was Him, Tyler and the little baby, Abby plus herself. The days seemed longer as the baby would wake in the middle of night crying and needing someone to care for her. The babe's mother wasn't around, the second oldest of the Valentines. With one slibing dead, Kailey, the others refusing to come home and help, it left Jamie leaving school to get away from one sibling, Kailey's twin, who wanted nothing to do with the girl. Coming home she knew she added stress onto her older brother's life but also eased some of the work load up for him. A lot of the nights the young girl would drag herself from her bed before her brother had the chance to hear the baby's cries. Holding the small thing in her arms she wondered what had their parents done that was so bad that their children deserved this life. Her parents had died in a train crash when she was very young, all she knew were her older siblings.

On the bench she had a rare chance of not doing anything. Her brother had told her to wait there while he went off to take care of something to do with Tyler, he'd be back for her at somepoint. She knew it may take him awhile whatever it was he had to do, then most likely Abby would need something and Alezander would just forget the girl. She didn't mind, she never did. She figured that she did more worrying about her older brother then he did for her. He had two younger then her to worry about after all. And Jamison always worried about her brother. She remembered that about two years ago she had actually taken care of him while he was sick, and she got the rare chance to actually go into his room. "I hope Zander doesn't take long," she said as she leaned forward putting her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. The young girl hadn't even realized that someone was nearby, near enough to over hear what she said.

 

[Peyton Davidson]

Peyton was a bit early for the event she was on her way to. Some fancy dinner that the magazine she'd done the shoot for was hosting. They'd invited her to show their appreciation for the work she'd done on the photographs and editing in the spread. They'd even sent her a framed copy of the cover. One of her shots was on the cover of Great Britain's newest up and coming fashion magazine. She smiled at the thought of it as she'd never really given much thought to being a published photographer.

Seeing as the heels she'd chosen to wear to this particular event were rubbing blisters on here heels she decided to take a seat on a bench on the way. Peyton pulled out her cell phone and texted her brother, Avery, who was supposed to be meeting her there. She simply wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to be late seeing as it was very in his nature to never be on time for anything. The blonde read the reply she got and rolled her eyes as she tucked the phone back in her pocket. It was then that she noticed a young girl sitting on the bench a few feet away from her. "I'm sorry. Were you talking to me," she said, not wanting to intrude, but the name the young girl had said struck a chord for Peyton. "Are you waiting on someone? You're sort of young to be out on your own aren't you?"

 

[Jamie Holgersson]

Jamie Valentine was naturally a sweet person, she always tried to be more grown up and very helpful around the house. While Zander did have plenty of jobs she made sure he knew that she would be fine being at the house alone or with tutor while he had to go out and work. She'd clean up the house with the muggle supplies they'd get at the stores. Afterall she wasn't old enough to do magic outside of schooling, and so it was always a difficult moment when they'd get a knock on the door because she had been practicing outside of the allowed time of the day. That was one reason why she really missed school.

Looking up she noticed a really pretty woman talking to her. "Oh no, I wasn't sorry," she said about to turn away from the women. But then the woman went on talking to her so she looked back up at her. She was really pink with bright pink shoes and interestingly she had a camera as well. "Oh, well I am 13, that's not that young," she answered back to the woman. Sitting up a bit taller on the bench to make herself seem bigger than her small size allowed her to naturally appear. "My brother Zander is suppose to come back for me." Looking around she didn't see him and was disapointed. Jamie was always trying to find a way for her oldest brother to get out and about and she figured this lady looked pretty enough. Even if she was a muggle it would be a good chance for Zander to date again. Jamie knew that Zander hadn't dated in a long time, since he went to school really. She had a photo of him and one of the girls he once dated in her room, she had taken it from his wall of photos when she was last in there two years ago. He never noticed or asked about it so she kept the picture of her happy brother. It was her goal to get him to look that happy once again.

 

[Peyton Davidson]

"Your brother just dropped you off and said he'd be back for you," Peyton asked curiously. She heard Zander's name again and knew it had to be who she thought it was. So he has several to take care of including one that is a teenager...this explains so much now she thought to herself, feeling a little bad about how things had gone down between the two of them the prior year. She looked around to see if he was anywhere to be seen, but no such luck. Peyton looked back at the young girl beside of her. Well I still have a few minutes before I have to leave for the reception...maybe I could get a little bit of inside information on him she thought wondering if that was strange, but ignoring that thought. "So what's your name? I'm Peyton," she introduced herself to Zander's little sister. She noticed that she was staring at her camera and she smiled. "You wanna try it," she asked as she held up the camera to the young girl.

 

[Jamie Holgersson]

Jamie looked up at the woman wondering why she was so curious about why she was there. Most people would've glanced her way and then walked away. "Well Tyler had to be somewhere so Zander took him there telling me to wait here in the park. I'm guessing Abby'll need something by now, either a changing or food then a changin'," she admitted to the person sitting on the bench with her. For some reason Jamison felt like she could actually trust this person. The young girl didn't actually know what it was about the woman that made it seem like that but it twas there.

"I'm Jamison, but everyone calls me Jamie, blame Alezander for that," she said exchanging introductions with the woman. She did know better than to say her last name, no matter how nice the woman may seem she was still a stranger. Most likely the woman was a muggle as well, so it wouldn't do well to bring up that her older brother needed a night out with a girl. Glancing down at the camera she smiled. She hadn't ever worked one before, not even a simple film one that almost every muggle seemed to carry around when traveling. "Cool!" She said excitedly waiting for futher instruction.

 

[Peyton Davidson]

Peyton tried to remember back to a little over a year ago, but she couldn't for the life of her remember how many siblings Zander said he had. She only remembered it was quite a few because she had considered herself lucky to have just her three older brothers. "Jamison? I like that name. It's different," Peyton said with a half grin and a nod. The blonde watched as the young girl took the camera and she smiled. Jamie looked excited when she took the camera which also excited Peyton because she remembered the first time she held a camera. She'd been hooked ever since she snapped her first shot.

"Just look through this little hole here and then turn this here to zoom in and out and then turn this here to focus things into view. When you have what it is you want to take a picture of then press this button here," she instructed the young girl. "Give it a try," Peyton said with a grin. "So how many of you does your older brother care for and do you get left alone like this often," she asked nonchalantly as Jamie played around with the camera, getting a feel for it.

 

[Jamie Holgersson]

Jamie smiled at the older woman sitting with her. It was nice to have someone to talk with while waiting for her older brother to return. She wondered if the woman had somewhere else she needed to be, but figured she'd tell Jamie when she needed to leave. Jamie was old enough to take care of herself and wait patiently for Zander to return with her two younger relatives. She actually wasn't sure if she should call Abby her sister, after all it was Mara's baby girl. And Mara was her older sister, so really Abby would be her niece. But Zander was raising the child and Jamie considered her older brother more of a father than anything else. So really the two girls shared the same father in a way, neither actually belonged to him, but were just related to him. "And Alezander isn't? Esmeralda is my middle name, talk about learning to spell that back when I went to mugg-Primary school," she said quick to catch her mistake of almost calling the school a muggle school. It would be a difficult to explain to the woman sitting next to her, a muggle. "And there's Mara and Ciel, Kailey and Justin, Robin and Kyle, and Tyler. I guess Zaner and I got the odd names of the bunch," she said naming off all her siblings to the woman. She didn't even try to match up the twins correctly. After it was Robin and Mara who were twins but she didn't bother with all of it anymore. Her, Zander, and Tyler were the only ones in the family who had been born as twins, it was almost funny that they were the only ones left.

Jamison took the camera in hand and did what Peyton had told her to do. She smiled as she focused on a fountain and snapped a picture of it. She back her head away from the camera wondering if she had done it right when she heard the question from the woman. At first it made her wonder if the woman belong to Child Services and would take her from her older brother. "He works, he has a few jobs and manages working a home most of the time. And no I don't, he is very protective of me and the others at home. But he was running late in getting Tyler where ever he needs to be and he forgot my bus pass so I couldn't get on with him," she said to the woman shrugging her shoulders. It wasn't the big of deal, she wasn't far from home, she just didn't have the key and it was a nice day.