Chapter Twenty Four

                                    

                                          
Lily was quietly drawing on the page Alice had given her, letting her hand move randomly to create soft lines. Alice was grinding her pencils almost through to the carpet, but had her tongue sticking out in concentration. She had something in mind but was keeping it a surprise until the end. Whatever it was required a lot of colour because she was holding a stack of rainbow pencils in her other hand.
                          
Jack held up a pencil, confused. "This looks the same as the pencil I was just using." 
                          
Alice was too focused on her drawing, so Lily explained. "That's different. You were using a HB pencil, that's a 4B one." 
                          
"Huh?" 
                          
"It's a bit thicker." 
                          
"Great, maybe my stick figures will look like stick figures." Jack mused and went to scribbling. Lily was only back to her drawing for a few seconds before she heard the witch sigh. "No, now he looks ill." 
                          
Alice looked up, covering her drawing with her hands and stared at Jack's drawing. She immediately burst into giggles. 
                          
"He's wonky!" The little alpha laughed, tucking her wild black curls behind her ears. "What's he holding?" 
                          
"A flower!" Jack frowned. "Right?" 
                          
"He... He..." Alice snorted. "He's holding a cooking thing! One of the ones w-with the loops!" 
                          
"A whisk?" Lily chuckled, putting her pencil down. 
                          
"Yes!" Alice's squeaky laugh bounced around them. "It's a whisk!" 
                          
Jack grinned. "That's not a whisk! It's a flower!" 
                          
"It's a whisk!" 
                          
Lily raised a finger. "It does look like a whisk Jack." 
                          
"Shut up the experts are talking," Jack smirked before digging into her pocket. Lily caught sight of a seed rolling between Jack's fingers as the witch looked at her drawing. "So you're telling me that my drawing..." 
                          
Alice gasped in awe as Jack's magic glowed around her hands, green light warming the room, and when Jack opened up her fingers a daisy lay in her palm. "...doesn't look like one of these?" 
                          
The wolf dropped all her pencils from her hands. Her bright brown eyes, her father's eyes, were wide as she stared at the flower Jack had sprouted. Jack blinked at her fascination and handed it to her. 
                          
Alice jumped as the daisy was held up to her to take. Gently, she slowly reached up and took the little flower from Jack's hand. Alice sat and stared at the daisy for a while and Lily smiled, wondering the last time she'd been given something so lovely. 
                          
"This is mine?" Alice asked in a small voice, turning her big eyes onto Jack, pleading. 
                          
Jack smiled. "Yeah, 'course, it's all yours." 
                          
Alice giggled. "It's a pretty whisk." 
                          
Lily laughed as Jack shrugged. "My drawing is pretty spot on, if I do say so myself." 
                          
"Except no one walks like that dude does." Lily pointed to the lopsided stick figure. 
                          
"Not yet!" Jack declared and they all laughed. Alice placed the daisy by her bed, next to the picture of her family. Lily hadn't met Roman, her and Andrew's father. He was a large man with deep, dark skin with a bright smile, the opposite of his wife's fairness and gentle upturned mouth. Both Alice and Andrew took after their father in hair and skin, but Alice had his kind brown eyes while Andrew had their mother's bright blue - it was something the girls at school swooned over when Andrew looked their way. 
                          
A knock on the door announced the brother in question. Andrew poked his head around the corner and smiled at them. "Hello ladies." He purred, looking at the drawings they'd done. Alice quickly slapped her hands over her picture. "What are you drawing Alice?"