9 Little-Bit

9 Little-Bit PEEEEEEEEEAAAAAANUUUUUUUUUTTTT!' The cry started in the living room and finished, arriving at pace, in the hallway. 'LITTLE-BIT!' replied Peanut as she scooped up her excited younger sister and hugged her. 'What adventures have you had today then?' The nickname gene was strong in the Jones family. Its youngest member had been born just over five years ago and her parents had named her Elizabeth May. Elizabeth was an unusually early talker, saying her first word (trousers') when she was just under a year old, but she had always had trouble saying her own name. ' Lilibet' was the closest she could get. Over time (and with the help of her big sister) this became

'Little-Bit'. Needless to say, the nickname stuck. ' Well,' said Little-Bit, 'today at school I was playing in the play kitchen with Marley and Marley said that he wanted to pretend-cook a fried egg in the play kitchen and I said that Marley couldn't pretend-cook a fried egg in the play kitchen because I was using the frying pan to pretend-cook some sausages and then Marley said that he could just use the oven to pretend-cook his fried egg and I said don't be silly Marley you need the hot, flat surface area of the frying pan in order to get the egg's molecules to move as fast as possible so that they collide and weaken the bonds holding the amino acid chains together thus enabling the loose protein strings to move and tangle together turning the liquid egg into a semi-solid state and if you do that in the oven the egg will eventually bake but it will take far too long.' She paused to catch her breath. And do you know what Marley did?' 'What did Marley do?' giggled Peanut. ' He went to play dressing-up with Weronika.' Despite being seven years her senior, Peanut loved hanging out with her little sister. The

combination of Little-Bit being unusually bright and Peanut embracing her inner five-year-old whenever possible meant that they shared exactly the same sense of humour. Most of their games involved the family pets. For example, Giles the dog would often find himself wearing a cap and a pair of sunglasses, propelling himself along on a skateboard trying to catch the dog biscuit attached to the end of the small fishing rod that was, in turn, attached to his cap. Their cat, Catface, on the other hand, would regularly find herself wearing a bonnet, sitting in a makeshift cat classroom and being taught her ABCs by Little-Bit. For the entirety of the game, the cat's name would be Jennifer Four-year-Old. More often than not, Peanut played the part of Lavender Well-TO-Do, a classmate of Jennifer's. 'Oh well, it's Marley's loss, I guess,' said Little-Bit. 'What's for dinner, Mummy?'