Author's Notes: This is based on a writing excercise I was set during my Creative Writing course, and I used the characters and settings from my planned novel to complete it.

Around 6:30 AM I am beginning to wake up, or “stir my stumps” as Ma calls it, bleary-eyed and tousle-haired. No longer am I waking from an alarm at 5:oo every morning, even weekends. Instead I wake naturally, and lay listening to the sounds of the neighbourhood beginning to wake; hearing the metal clang of dustbins being moved around, cars starting up, the radio in Number Twenty-Five blaring, and next-door’s cat meowing to be let in.

At about 7 Ma comes in with breakfast – cereal, normally. She lets herself in with her key to make sure Mum and I are okay and take Josie to preschool. Ma is a priceless blessing and I am forever grateful for the day she literally walked into and took over my life. Before then I was struggling to juggle my mother, my niece, any job I could lay my hands on and schoolwork, with no help. Getting moved to London was the best thing that’s ever happened to this family.

At 7:30 I get up, take a quick shower and dress while Ma and Josie leave. I check on Mum and get her anything she needs. At a quarter to eight, my almost-but-not-quite-there-yet boyfriend Willow and his mother come over the road. Willow and I leave for school and Mrs Johnson stays to look after Mum.

I still feel bad that so many others are taking on what were previously my responsibilities, but looking at it logically – a pastime of mine – I guess if I’d tried to continue living as I was I’d have had a breakdown – maybe even as bad as Mum. Then they’d be looking after me as well.

School is … school. Lessons, teachers, detentions for late homework, and the “Philosophy Club” – otherwise known as the Society for the Prevention of Unwanted Creatures Leaking into this Dimension. But that name we keep to ourselves.

Lunchtime Willow and I walk over and collect Josie from preschool. She’s taken a definite liking to him, hanging onto his arm and telling him about her morning at ninety miles per hour. It’s best just to smile and nod when she does that.

We eat on the way back. Normally I have a salad wrap, Josie a prawn mayo sandwich and Willow … anything. Fridays the school have an extended lunch break and instead we stop at the pizza place on the corner. Willow and I take turns to pay. I drop Josie at home, Mrs Johnson goes to work, our childminder arrives for Josie and we return to school.

The Philosophy Club meet every day after school for two hours. On quiet days we do what we’re supposed to do: philosophise. However, if anything unusual has happened then it tends to take over the meetings.

Ash is also my English teacher, and he’s the researcher. He also owns a useful car for emergencies. Willow, having a mind for strategy, is the planner. If things look to be rough then I call Ma. She may be sixty-five but she’s fully trained in martial arts and handy with an umbrella. Me? I’m the investigator – and being psychic comes in really useful at these times.

Our school has an out-of-bounds-on-the-grounds-of-being-dangerous basement which happens to contain the Gateway to the Underworld. Not as in Hell, just a dimension filled with vicious Creatures that could escape at any time. After the first pest got through, we as the only people with the knowledge of its existence appointed ourselves as the Keepers of the Gateway and in charge of anything that might come through it.

It’s not a responsibility I would wish on anyone.

FIN

AN: I'm not guaranteing everything in here will be exactly like it is in the finished novels because I wrote it a while ago and some small things are likely to change - in fact I'm looking for a replacement surname for Johnson. The finished series will be called "Hidden Knight" and there's more info about in on my profile.