Take a Chance Read Online Free PDF

subdued.
    Aidan slid off her lap to play and Jem handed Daisy the wand he’d left behind.
    Just as she was about to get up, Jeremy tugged on her sleeve.
    “Aunty Jem, you have to listen to me read,” Jeremy told her.
    “I’d love to hear you read,” Jem said and watched attentively as he pulled his reader out from his homework folder.
    He opened the small book and Jem dutifully listened and tried to ignore the chaos in the room around her. Near the lounge doors Aidan and Daisy pulled more toys out from goodness knows where then started fighting over a fairy dress.
    Fortunately the story was short. Jem praised Jeremy’s reading and took the reading record book he handed her to the breakfast bar. Rolling her eyes when she couldn’t see any pens in the jar between the phone and note paper she grabbed her shoulder bag which she had left on the breakfast bar and selected a pen from the side pocket.
    After filling out the reading record book she looked around and discovered Jeremy was in the middle of a computer game.
    “Hang on a minute,” she told Jeremy. “Before you start playing on the computer you need to help tidy this room.”
    “That goes for all of you,” she added seeing Daisy drop the end of the fairy dress and slink out the door. “Daisy!”
    Daisy slowly came back into the room with her brown eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip quivering. Even her cute little brown pigtails seemed to sag and look forlorn.
    “There’s too much to do!” Daisy wailed.
    “Yeah!” said Jeremy and pointed at Aidan. “And he makes all the mess while I’m at school!”
    The object of his pointed finger had the fairy dress on inside-out and looked pleased with himself as he staggered around in dress-up high heels.
    Jem knew she’d have war on her hands if she insisted on complete tidiness so she decided to attempt a minor campaign instead.
    “I need to vacuum the lounge,” she said. “You need to clear every toy from the lounge while I make the beds upstairs and have finished by the time I come back down.”
    “Are you going to vacuum the family room too?” Jeremy asked.
    At that moment he looked suspiciously innocent and Jem sensed she’d opened her request to interpretation but couldn’t work out how. She blinked but the family room was still in chaos. It’d take a bobcat to clear it in an afternoon. “No, I’ll leave that until tomorrow.”
    “Okay. Come on you guys, help me,” Jeremy ordered. Daisy and Aidan reluctantly followed him.
    That seemed too easy but she wasn’t about to question the best thing that had happened all day so headed upstairs without further comment.
    She was only halfway through making up the second bed when she heard the sound of the computer game faintly in the background.
    How could they have finished already?
    Jem finished making the bed and dodged toys as she went down the stairs. She checked the lounge and they had indeed cleared it. Suspicious, she checked behind the couch and in the few cupboards and drawers the room contained. No toys. She went into the dining room which still contained the ironing and back into the kitchen. From her vantage point the number of toys in the family room appeared to have multiplied.
    “You haven’t put the toys away, you’ve just shifted them,” she muttered, annoyed with herself.
    Jeremy heard her and spun around on the swivel chair by the computer.
    “You aren’t vacuuming in here today and the other room is clear like you asked.”
    He shrugged then turned back to his game.
    Jem had to bite her lip to stop a smile of unwanted amusement showing. Now she knew what was wrong. She needed to be specific in her orders. She had heard Jessica bemoan many times how Jeremy would find the loophole in instructions and would exploit it. Okay, today they had put nothing away but the lounge had been cleared so she’d call it a draw.
    She left the kids to play and finished making the beds then came downstairs and moved towards to the kitchen.