Xiomara sat at the beach; clear water and seaweed nearly covered her bare feet.
She looked up at the fast rising sun that created a brightening blood red to blood orange horizon.
She smiled and looked to her side, only, the scene turned black and simultaneously, a door slammed.

She woke up.

Laying on the sofa of a cluttered living room with a suitcase at her side.

Loelle sighed as she looked to a couple of pairs of strappy shoes - one pair of light green platforms and the other a pair of yellow stilettos.
In her hand was a white, peep toe stiletto, the other lay on the floor.
She attempted to put the shoe on, but it was too small.

The door burst open.
Xiomara rolled her eyes.

"What did you get?" one little boy of around six asked as a smaller girl tugged at the suitcase zip.

"As if I had the money to get you all something" she replied.

"Stingy" an approaching child said from the hallway. She entered; a preteen, wearing baggy pyjamas and a face full of makeup. She moved to the far end of the sofa beside Xiomara's feet, snatching the remote from the armrest.

"Broke" Xiomara answered.

"Yeah whatever" the girl flatly said as she harshly dropped onto the sofa, Xiomara screamed with pain as the girl sat on her offending foot.

This startled everyone.

"Shut up, don't wake it" the pre-teen said as she pointed with her thumb to the ceiling.

The little girl succeeded in opening Xiomara's suitcase before the boy and a forth young child; another little girl seemingly older than the other two, threw out its content.
It became clear soon that there was nothing of interest as the elder sighed.

Xiomara's phone rang.
"Can someone find my phone" she asked as she pointed to her side, towards the discarded clothing spread out on the floor.

The smallest of the children rooted through clothing until she located the phone within a jacket pocket underneath the suitcases open flap.

Receiving the phone, Xiomara smiled as she viewed the callers name - 'Loelle'.
"Hey" she greeted.

"We need to stop, I only rung to ask if you'd landed safely" Loelle said.

"May as well not waste the day sleeping, I'll milk some rest before beast one and beast two wake up" Xiomara humorsly claimed.

"Beast one's the teenage brother right?" Loelle asked.

"Nah, beast one's the baby that's louder than a chopper, beast two's only been grizzly the past year" Xiomara replied.

"Mari I'm hungry" the little boy said as he stood over Xiomara.

Xiomara huffed before nudging the preteen with her decent foot "will you fix these something?"

"No" the girl firmly replied.

"Go!" Xiomara yelled as she kicked again.

"No, you do it" the girl replied.

"My foots bust" Xiomara yelled.

"So" the girl replied.

Giving in, Xiomara sighed.
She turned to the little boy "you know how to make toast don't you?"

"You're not being rushed off your fee.. Foot are you?" Loelle asked.

"I'm guessing I will be soon" Xiomara sighed as she pulled herself to her backside "tempted to just leave all these and go to A&E".

"Where's your mum?" Loelle asked.

"Work, heard her leave earlier" Xiomara replied.

"What, wait, you must have arrived this morning" Loelle exclaimed.

"Yep, seven hour flight, an injury and an hour of sleep on the coach and I'm stuck with the kids, typical" Xiomara claimed.

Xiomara sniffed the air "Luke! That toasts' burning!"

"I thought about what you said the other day, about wanting to just work and cut all the in-between out; reminded me of myself" Loelle said.

"Really?" Xiomara casually asked.

"Yeah, I must have been about your age when I decided I wanted to tour guide, but because I didn't have a degree I had to settle for club rep" Loelle claimed.

"It's never too late to go back to school" Xiomara offered.

"No thanks. My frustration at classmates and teachers is like yours times twenty; you're a stronger person than me" Loelle claimed.

There was a loud tune of knocking on the door.

"Peri, Luke, Mish, Mari" a child's voice shouted through the letterbox.

"It's..."

"Shush!"
and
"Quiet!"
Xiomara and the preteen snapped, interrupting the forth child.

"Remember, we need to play 'nobody's in'" Xiomara claimed.

"What now?" Loelle asked.

"My aunt June" Xiomara whispered "when she visits, she leaves her kids behind and I swear they both have ADHD".

"No way" Loelle humorsly stated "you're life's chaos"

"I know, bet you're grateful your a country bumpkin only child" Xiomara quietly snarked.

"There's the flocks of goats, they're like kids to my parents too" Loelle claimed.

"Jealous" Xiomara chimed.

"Visit" Loelle mocked her tone.

"Mari, Baker, Nay" the child continued to yell through the letterbox.

"SHUT UP!" a male bellowed before loudly stomping down the stairs.

"Lou" the preteen whined as Xiomara scowled towards the hall.

"Shut up!" he yelled again as he pulled open the front door.

Two young children; a boy and younger girl barged past him in haste; the girl squealed.
A car in front of the house drove off as the children entered.

"Great" Xiomara sighed as both children entered - trampling on her clothing.

"What did you bring us" the boy asked as he rooted through her suitcase.

"Your hair looks like candy floss" the little girl said as she plunged her hand into Xiomara's hair; earning a frown and a shake of the head; which only tangled the child's fingers in there.

Elsewhere in the house, a baby cried; loudly.

"Aww hell no" Xiomara claimed.

"What now? I can hear that baby" Loelle laughed.

"Can you ring back in about an hour" Xiomara said, she hung up just as Loelle replied in agreement.

Xiomara rose further, sitting at the edge of sofa as she tidied away her clothes back into her case.

She then sat on her phone, scanning and sliding her fingers up and down.

Loelle looked towards the hotels communal pool as she held a glass of orange juice in one hand and a cracker in the other. She threw the cracker onto her loaded plate before reaching for her phone.
She made a call...
"Still!" she said as she dropped her phone back into her bag.

Xiomara looked towards the TV.
Her phone sounded, which visibly excited her, though her face dropped when she read the text..
'On my way home Xi love mum xoxo'

'Finally' Xiomara thought.

'The kids have told me you haven't cooked all day' stated a following message.

Xiomara shook her head.
She moved forward towards her suitcase and picked up a passport that was lingering outside a jacket pocket, she pushed her phone and passport into the pocket of the jacket before she took the jacket off her suitcase.
Awkwardly getting to her feet, Xiomara pulled her jacket on, then took hold of her suitcase and moved out the room.

"Where are you going?" the smallest child asked.

"I'm just going to A&E" she sweetly replied as she slowly walked out the room and down the hall to the front door.

"Not with a suitcase" the preteen with a baby on her hip said.

"I could get kept overnight" Xiomara offered.

"Do ya think so?" she asked.

Sat in a taxi, Xiomara sent a message...
'Just going to A&E'
It sent.
The receiver being Loelle.
Xiomara followed with
'first'