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The look of concern on his daughter's face moves Seamus deeply. "Don't worry, darling," he tells Felicity, "we'll sort dis whole ting out , don't you worry."

Felicity nods to reassure her father that she believes in him even though she does not have the first idea how to go about making the situation better, and she suspects he does not, either, but she appreciates knowing her parents are there for her.

"What do we have to go on, Dad? Like... do we even have a name... ?" Felicity asks, although she thinks she already knows the answer.

Seamus shakes his head. "I didn't ask his name, love." He shrugs. "I probably should have, speakin' with hindsight, but why would I have? I just wanted to let him know he was out of order starin' at you the way he was."

Paige leans over and taps the card that came with the flowers. "It probably starts with an 'em', right?" she suggests and looks at the other two to judge their response.

"I s'pose so," Felicity says with Seamus nodding in agreement. "It doesn't really help, though, does it, Mam? Look... we can ask Amanda when she gets here. She spoke to him on the train. Maybe there's something more she can tell us that helps. I mean, we've got barely anything at the moment so even a little bit would help. That's one of the reasons I said she should come over when she mentioned speaking to him."

"And I'll phone the school first thing tomorrow," Paige says. "Maybe there's a record of who made the delivery. And also, I'll ask to speak with Mrs Bailey and tell her what's going on. She might have some advice, right?"

"Oh, and Melvin's coming over, too, I think. He's obviously worried that someone anonymous sent me flowers and it's all creepy and everything," Felicity says as she picks the card up again and reads the message for perhaps the hundredth time but remains unable to squeeze any more information out of it.

"Melvin's comin' over?" Seamus says in surprise.

Felicity makes a vague "Mm-hmm" sound and continues staring at the card.

"Flissy, look... if your young man's comin' over here, I tink you'd better go change into sumtin' more... well... more appropriate," Seamus says, glancing briefly downward in the vague direction of the tight shorts Felicity is wearing even though the table is obscuring them from his view.

"What!" Felicity cries, dropping the card and looking directly at her father.

"Well..." Seamus lifts his shoulders and winces a little. "See... call me old-fashioned if you want, right? But I tink it's not really suitable for you to be runnin' about like... like dat when Melvin's here."

"Dad!" Felicity exclaims. "There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing! All the girls are wearing these this summer!"

Seamus fidgets on his chair and wrings his hands anxiously. "Please? For me, Flissy? Just humour your frumpy old Dad and go put sumtin' more modest on, yeah? Just while Melvin's here."

Felicity stays silent for a moment, looking intently at her father's face and thinking about what he is asking. And why he is asking it. She knows he is highly protective of her but she cannot really fault him for this since it stems from the deep love he has for his only child and how close he felt he came to losing her when the undiagnosed diabetes first kicked in and she was incredibly ill, so she decides she can put up with changing into something less trendy for his sake.

She stands up. "Okay, Dad, I'll put some sweatpants on," she says and smiles at him, receiving a grateful smile in return. "For you," she says before running up to her bedroom.

She returns wearing sweatpants, which Seamus sees and dips his head slightly in her direction to acknowledge that he considers what she is now wearing is more appropriate for entertaining her 'young man', as he put it.

Just before Felicity sits back at the table, her phone rings. "Ooh, it's Holly!" she exclaims as she hears the ringtone linked to Holly Hewson's number. She picks the phone up and answers the call. "Hey, Holly," she says and wanders into the living room to talk to her friend with a little more privacy:

"You've got good news ? Okay, I need some of that right now.

Really? Sounds awesome. Claire and Xiu are in?

Cool! I'm definitely on board with that, 'specially if the four of us are going. Should be an epic time. But look... I'd love to chat more about this, Hols, only there's a bit of mini-crisis going on here.

No, no, nothing like that. It's just... it's weird, I dunno. You won't have heard yet but you'll probably hear it at the fountains tomorrow. I'll tell it to you straight... someone sent me flowers at school today .

Yes! That's exactly what me and Amanda thought when I picked them up from Bailey's office! They even had a card attached that was signed with an em.

I wish! No, that's the thing... I rang him, you know, to thank him and everything, but he said he didn't send them.

No, I don't think he's messing with me, Hols. He wouldn't do that, I'm sure of it.

Yeah, well... you can imagine maybe I've got two admirers now, one of them secret? Well, that would be brill and all but when I rang Amanda to tell her that the flowers weren't from Mel, she tried to think who they could be from. Turns out... well... when me and her went to the beach the other week, there was this guy just, like, staring at me, total perv, for ages. Creeped me the eff out.

Yeah, Dad went over and asked him what he was up to. He made up some stupid crap about me looking like his missing daughter or something. We didn't believe it but he left the beach soon after and we thought that was the end of that.

No, I never got a close look at him. He was staring at me from a ways off. It was Dad and Amanda who spoke to him. I'll ask them to write down a description of what they remember, see if it rings any bells.

That's what I was getting to. Amanda was on the train comi---

No! There was this silly incident at the beach and she decided to leave early . Anyway, she was on the way home and guess who was on the train with her?

Got it in one, Holmes! He talked to her when he was getting off the train and he sorta hinted... well, more than hinted. I think Amanda said he actually came out with my name and that I go to St Tibb's.

We think he must have overheard Mam and Amanda talking when the train stopped at our stop. I'd asked her to go check on Amanda, if she was okay getting the train back on her own, and they said a few things which I guess is where the creepy dude worked out my name from and which school I go to. Not that's there a huge choice for him to pick from, but still... Anyway, the card's got my name on and it was delivered at school, so we're thinking it's him. That's the exact info he repeated back to Amanda. It's gotta be him, right?

I'm completely freaking it, Hols, no lies. I mean, what does he want? Amanda reckons he was about thirty or so. What does a thirty-year-old want with me? I mean, apart from the obvious, which I don't even want to think about. The message on the card is total sketch, talking about kisses and how pretty he thinks I am. And, like, now I'm looking over my shoulder every five seconds.

Where I live? No, I don't think Amanda said he mentioned that. If he's only basing his stalking on what he heard Mam and Amanda say on the train then I don't think he knows where I live, thank God.

Amanda and Mel are coming over soon, and me and them and Mam'n'Dad we're gonna put our heads together and see what we can come up with. Amanda talked to him a bit, and Dad talked to him, too, so there might be something more they can remember.

Look... about your music thing... put my name down as interested, okay? But the way things are going at the mo? I'm not even sure I should leave the house, gotta be honest, never mind go to Manchester."

The doorbell rings out and Paige gets up to see who is there.

Felicity continues her conversation:

"Oh! There's someone at the front door, Holly! That'll be one of them now. Look... I'll keep you updated if something more happens, okay? And put my name down for going to that show but... I dunno... write it in pencil or something 'cos I just don't know right now.

Okay, I will. And you stay well, too, girlfriend.

Bye!"

Felicity ends her call and looks up to see her mother standing there with Melvin, smiling at her and giving her a shy wave.

"Mel! You made it!" Felicity shouts with obvious delight in her voice. She feels the urge to rush forward and throw her arms around him but the presence of her parents puts a dampener on that instinct and instead she steps forward and gives him a huge smile and a friendly pat on the arm.

"Come on into the kitchen, Mel!" she says and pulls at him in the direction of the door leading into the kitchen. "I think Dad's gonna make us some cold drinks and put some food out. He loves doing that kind of thing when I've got friends over."

"Will you be joining us, Mrs Byron?" Melvin asks Paige as Felicity pulls him away from her mother and toward the door.

"I definitely will, Melvin," Paige says, highly impressed with what she has seen so far of what could possibly be Felicity's first boyfriend. "We need everyone's input on this."

(Posed and rendered in PoserPro 11, clothes created in Marvelous Designer 9.5, postwork in PSP 2022.)

Making five >>>
A Summer To Remember
More of Mettleham: Kate's Exciting Life

Description
The look of concern on his daughter's face moves Seamus deeply. "Don't worry, darling," he tells Felicity, "we'll sort dis whole ting out , don't you worry."

Felicity nods to reassure her father that she believes in him even though she does not have the first idea how to go about making the situation better, and she suspects he does not, either, but she appreciates knowing her parents are there for her.

"What do we have to go on, Dad? Like... do we even have a name... ?" Felicity asks, although she thinks she already knows the answer.

Seamus shakes his head. "I didn't ask his name, love." He shrugs. "I probably should have, speakin' with hindsight, but why would I have? I just wanted to let him know he was out of order starin' at you the way he was."

Paige leans over and taps the card that came with the flowers. "It probably starts with an 'em', right?" she suggests and looks at the other two to judge their response.

"I s'pose so," Felicity says with Seamus nodding in agreement. "It doesn't really help, though, does it, Mam? Look... we can ask Amanda when she gets here. She spoke to him on the train. Maybe there's something more she can tell us that helps. I mean, we've got barely anything at the moment so even a little bit would help. That's one of the reasons I said she should come over when she mentioned speaking to him."

"And I'll phone the school first thing tomorrow," Paige says. "Maybe there's a record of who made the delivery. And also, I'll ask to speak with Mrs Bailey and tell her what's going on. She might have some advice, right?"

"Oh, and Melvin's coming over, too, I think. He's obviously worried that someone anonymous sent me flowers and it's all creepy and everything," Felicity says as she picks the card up again and reads the message for perhaps the hundredth time but remains unable to squeeze any more information out of it.

"Melvin's comin' over?" Seamus says in surprise.

Felicity makes a vague "Mm-hmm" sound and continues staring at the card.

"Flissy, look... if your young man's comin' over here, I tink you'd better go change into sumtin' more... well... more appropriate," Seamus says, glancing briefly downward in the vague direction of the tight shorts Felicity is wearing even though the table is obscuring them from his view.

"What!" Felicity cries, dropping the card and looking directly at her father.

"Well..." Seamus lifts his shoulders and winces a little. "See... call me old-fashioned if you want, right? But I tink it's not really suitable for you to be runnin' about like... like dat when Melvin's here."

"Dad!" Felicity exclaims. "There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing! All the girls are wearing these this summer!"

Seamus fidgets on his chair and wrings his hands anxiously. "Please? For me, Flissy? Just humour your frumpy old Dad and go put sumtin' more modest on, yeah? Just while Melvin's here."

Felicity stays silent for a moment, looking intently at her father's face and thinking about what he is asking. And why he is asking it. She knows he is highly protective of her but she cannot really fault him for this since it stems from the deep love he has for his only child and how close he felt he came to losing her when the undiagnosed diabetes first kicked in and she was incredibly ill, so she decides she can put up with changing into something less trendy for his sake.

She stands up. "Okay, Dad, I'll put some sweatpants on," she says and smiles at him, receiving a grateful smile in return. "For you," she says before running up to her bedroom.

She returns wearing sweatpants, which Seamus sees and dips his head slightly in her direction to acknowledge that he considers what she is now wearing is more appropriate for entertaining her 'young man', as he put it.

Just before Felicity sits back at the table, her phone rings. "Ooh, it's Holly!" she exclaims as she hears the ringtone linked to Holly Hewson's number. She picks the phone up and answers the call. "Hey, Holly," she says and wanders into the living room to talk to her friend with a little more privacy:

"You've got good news ? Okay, I need some of that right now.

Really? Sounds awesome. Claire and Xiu are in?

Cool! I'm definitely on board with that, 'specially if the four of us are going. Should be an epic time. But look... I'd love to chat more about this, Hols, only there's a bit of mini-crisis going on here.

No, no, nothing like that. It's just... it's weird, I dunno. You won't have heard yet but you'll probably hear it at the fountains tomorrow. I'll tell it to you straight... someone sent me flowers at school today .

Yes! That's exactly what me and Amanda thought when I picked them up from Bailey's office! They even had a card attached that was signed with an em.

I wish! No, that's the thing... I rang him, you know, to thank him and everything, but he said he didn't send them.

No, I don't think he's messing with me, Hols. He wouldn't do that, I'm sure of it.

Yeah, well... you can imagine maybe I've got two admirers now, one of them secret? Well, that would be brill and all but when I rang Amanda to tell her that the flowers weren't from Mel, she tried to think who they could be from. Turns out... well... when me and her went to the beach the other week, there was this guy just, like, staring at me, total perv, for ages. Creeped me the eff out.

Yeah, Dad went over and asked him what he was up to. He made up some stupid crap about me looking like his missing daughter or something. We didn't believe it but he left the beach soon after and we thought that was the end of that.

No, I never got a close look at him. He was staring at me from a ways off. It was Dad and Amanda who spoke to him. I'll ask them to write down a description of what they remember, see if it rings any bells.

That's what I was getting to. Amanda was on the train comi---

No! There was this silly incident at the beach and she decided to leave early . Anyway, she was on the way home and guess who was on the train with her?

Got it in one, Holmes! He talked to her when he was getting off the train and he sorta hinted... well, more than hinted. I think Amanda said he actually came out with my name and that I go to St Tibb's.

We think he must have overheard Mam and Amanda talking when the train stopped at our stop. I'd asked her to go check on Amanda, if she was okay getting the train back on her own, and they said a few things which I guess is where the creepy dude worked out my name from and which school I go to. Not that's there a huge choice for him to pick from, but still... Anyway, the card's got my name on and it was delivered at school, so we're thinking it's him. That's the exact info he repeated back to Amanda. It's gotta be him, right?

I'm completely freaking it, Hols, no lies. I mean, what does he want? Amanda reckons he was about thirty or so. What does a thirty-year-old want with me? I mean, apart from the obvious, which I don't even want to think about. The message on the card is total sketch, talking about kisses and how pretty he thinks I am. And, like, now I'm looking over my shoulder every five seconds.

Where I live? No, I don't think Amanda said he mentioned that. If he's only basing his stalking on what he heard Mam and Amanda say on the train then I don't think he knows where I live, thank God.

Amanda and Mel are coming over soon, and me and them and Mam'n'Dad we're gonna put our heads together and see what we can come up with. Amanda talked to him a bit, and Dad talked to him, too, so there might be something more they can remember.

Look... about your music thing... put my name down as interested, okay? But the way things are going at the mo? I'm not even sure I should leave the house, gotta be honest, never mind go to Manchester."

The doorbell rings out and Paige gets up to see who is there.

Felicity continues her conversation:

"Oh! There's someone at the front door, Holly! That'll be one of them now. Look... I'll keep you updated if something more happens, okay? And put my name down for going to that show but... I dunno... write it in pencil or something 'cos I just don't know right now.

Okay, I will. And you stay well, too, girlfriend.

Bye!"

Felicity ends her call and looks up to see her mother standing there with Melvin, smiling at her and giving her a shy wave.

"Mel! You made it!" Felicity shouts with obvious delight in her voice. She feels the urge to rush forward and throw her arms around him but the presence of her parents puts a dampener on that instinct and instead she steps forward and gives him a huge smile and a friendly pat on the arm.

"Come on into the kitchen, Mel!" she says and pulls at him in the direction of the door leading into the kitchen. "I think Dad's gonna make us some cold drinks and put some food out. He loves doing that kind of thing when I've got friends over."

"Will you be joining us, Mrs Byron?" Melvin asks Paige as Felicity pulls him away from her mother and toward the door.

"I definitely will, Melvin," Paige says, highly impressed with what she has seen so far of what could possibly be Felicity's first boyfriend. "We need everyone's input on this."

(Posed and rendered in PoserPro 11, clothes created in Marvelous Designer 9.5, postwork in PSP 2022.)

Making five >>>
A Summer To Remember
More of Mettleham: Kate's Exciting Life