It was a sunny day, and Rona's house was in a hubbub. Hannah had resumed caring duties for Rona, but Sacha had not entirely relinquished them: or rather, after she'd cooked dinner for Rona the other night and Rona had responded overly well to it, Hannah had decided that it would be good for Rona, good for all of them, if Sacha would cook again tonight: a big meal everyone could share.

"Everyone" became a rather more expansive term when Sacha got to the house and discovered that Rona's housemates were both home, in addition to Rona and Hannah. She supposed that she shouldn't be so surprised by this, but they were in truth such a rare presence on the few occasions she'd been to the house previously that she was quite taken aback when she knocked on the door and a girl she'd never seen before answered. After quickly ascertaining who Sacha was and what she was doing there, the girl resumed what she'd been doing before Sacha's arrival - and what she apparently had not been happy to be interrupted from, just to answer the door - namely, watching T.V. There was an unmistakable air of tension when Sacha stepped into the house: something that had been altogether absent when she'd been there previously, when it'd just been her and Rona. While Sacha established herself in the kitchen, Rona's other housemate walked in through the back door and looked at her, and then at the first housemate inquisitively. "Another friend of Rona's" the first housemate said in a tone that was hard to pick, but which certainly wasn't happiness. The second housemate nodded in understanding and went to see what was on the T.V.

Sacha tried to break the ice. "Are you both staying for dinner?" she asked.

The first housemate didn't say anything; the second answered: "Yeah, sure", and Sacha got the impression she was answering for both of them. So. Dinner for five, then. The kitchen barely seemed big enough.

Sacha heard someone coming down the stairs, and shortly Hannah appeared at the kitchen door. "Hi, Sash!" she said brightly. She'd only recently started using that abbreviation of Sacha's name: Sacha didn't mind, though it was odd to hear somebody outside her family call her that. Hannah crossed the kitchen to open the freezer, and pulled out a bottle of white wine. "Sauv Blanc?" she said.

"No, thanks" Sacha replied. Then she thought about it. "Actually, yeah."

"Great." Hannah got a couple of glasses. Rona's second housemate walked past to go back outside, and Hannah called out to her: "Miranda. Wine?"

"Yeah, thanks Hannah."

It was the first time Sacha had heard either of Rona's housemate's names: she didn't know when Hannah had got so friendly with them. Feeling a little bold, she said: "Uhh, Miranda - do you have any thyme in the garden?"

Miranda smiled. "Yeah, sure, follow me." Sacha did so: she couldn't remember the garden being so large. She could remember it being much weedier. She noticed a pile of garden tools and some freshly turned earth, and following her gaze Miranda said:

"Gimme some advice. Jasmine on the fence, or Banksia Rose?"

Sacha looked at the fence: it was old and splintered and could definitely benefit from being covered, any way would do. "Um . . ." Sacha shrugged. She was outside her range of expertise.

"Jasmine, I think" Miranda said. "Can't go wrong with Jasmine. There's the thyme" she pointed.

Sacha picked what she needed, feeling a little guilty for taking so much from somebody else's garden (but Miranda never said a word about it) and went back inside, leaving Miranda to her gardening. Rona's other housemate was still sullenly watching the T.V. Hannah was pouring herself a second glass of wine, and having a text-message conversation with somebody: her 'phone beeped in receipt of a message, and Hannah laughed and started tapping out a reply. Suddenly the telephone in the hallway started to ring. Sacha looked around: everyone heard it, but nobody moved. The ring was repeated by a second 'phone upstairs, same line. Sacha wasn't sure what to do: she was the least appropriate person here to answer it. As if reading her mind, Rona's first housemate shouted out from in front of the T.V.:

"Fuck it! Let Rona pick it up for once."