Some Saturday, Late April 2010

Joey: 17 years old (May birthday)
Tristan and Leah: 14 years old (August birthday)
Roy: 13 years old (February birthday)

She shoots! She scores! Or technically, she kicks, she scores. Do you still call it shooting in soccer?
There was only a couple minutes left in the game and Leah’s team was now up by three.
About halfway through the game a couple of guys from the high school came by and sat in the stands. One of them had a younger sister on the team.
Leah didn’t really care about the whole upperclassmen crap, nor the fact they were guys and probably somewhat attractive. None of those things gave them a higher status in her world. However, she had noticed that this particular group was some of the varsity soccer players. That, she did care about.
It was the team captain, Zachary, a few others, and then the freshman who made varsity that year, Adrian. It was her goal to skip over the JV team as a freshman as well so she needed to impress them. Even if they were from the guys’ team. If she could impress them, then how hard would it be to impress the girls?
The whistle blew signaling the end of the game. She went through the motions. Shaking hands, getting some water, getting a pep talk from coach, and then, usual for Leah, she was attacked by a sibling. This time it was Joey. He slung an arm around her shoulder and smirked. “I think those guys were checking you out.” He nodded towards the soccer players.
Leah rolled her eyes and shoved his arm away. “They were just watching the game. Unlike you.” She had noticed him and Twist playing catch with their mouths and a bag of popcorn most of the game.
“Oh, c’mon. It gets boring after awhile. You’re always doing the same thing.”
“Yet somehow beating the same video game three times in one week didn’t bore you?” She asked with one eyebrow raised.
“Hey! Not fair!-” Leah ignored him from then on. She had noticed Zachary coming towards them.
“Hey, you’re name is Leah, right? You’re Joey’s younger sister?”
Joey was a senior and rather infamous for his shenanigans. It didn’t surprise Leah that they knew him, but still, she wasn’t too sure about claiming him. Especially to the team captain of the soccer team. She just gave a small nod. “Uh, yeah.”
Now it was Joey’s turn to roll his eyes. “Seriously, suddenly when you have to own up to being related to me you’re quiet? Or are you star struck by your ‘heroes’? Or should I say, the guys who are way too old for you and shouldn’t even think about flirting with you.” He gave the boys a pointed look. Joey was by no means muscular, but he was tall. Oh, and also a hacker. He had the capability to suddenly crash all the printers in the school when you only had two more minutes to turn in a paper worth a whole letter grade.
“Why? So they can flirt with you instead?” She snapped automatically, not even thinking about her current audience.
All of them laughed. With one last roll of his eyes Joey decided it was time to go get another bag of popcorn and see how many times he could purposefully miss Tristan’s mouth. Few things gave him as much joy as seeing Twist get nailed between the eyes with a piece of popcorn. The confusion his brother’s face could display was unbelievable.
“You’re funny.” Zachary said once he was gone. “For what it’s worth I won’t try to flirt with you, I won’t make any promises about Adrian though.” He teased the freshman.
Adrian shook his head. “Oh, shut up.” He said to Zachary before looking at Leah. “All things aside, you play soccer amazingly. No flirting intended.” He winked.
“Charming.” Leah said, sarcasm was very evident.
“Oohh.” The team laughed again.
“LEAH! LEAH! Hey, Leah. Joey said I should come over here and ask yo-” Tristan wasn’t even allowed to finish the sentence. Leah knew if Joey sent him it couldn’t be good.
“Twist. Hey, I think it’s time to go. Don’t wanna keep mom waiting.” She spun him around and started pushing him towards their mom and James. James, at that time, was simply their mom’s boyfriend.
“See you later.” It was Adrian who called after her. “Good luck dealing with your brothers.”
She gave him a quick wave and then turned her attention to beating up and scolding her brothers.

Wednesday, July 9th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (May birthday)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (August birthday)

Roy: 16 years old. (February birthday)

The sunrise was beautiful but that was the last thing on Joey’s mind as the island of Puerto Rico came into view. Three days. Three full days without his phone or Internet. Oh, and a half. You can’t forget the day of the departure. Three and a half freaking days.

He stood on the main deck, staring at his phone screen. As they neared port he watched the signal bars appeared one at a time. Oh, thanks god for US Territories. Messages, emails, app notifications, his phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.

Finally! Communication to the outside world! Or to the web world. Whatever, it was his world. He only had access to it for 10 hours.

First things first, he checked his texts. He scrolled through the list of new ones until he found the name he was looking for: Zola. 4 new messages.

July 6th 7:26pm: ‘Dude, you better be having fun.’

July 7th 3:52am: ‘You better be tanning, not hiding inside.’

July 7th 11:47pm: ‘Seriously, how are you surviving without your phone?’

July 8th 3:18pm: ‘You wouldn’t believe how boring it is without someone else who has been into Facebook’s database.’

He shook his head as he began his reply. ‘You expected me to be tanning at 4am?’

It was only shortly after six, Puerto Rican time. That made it 1am on the west coast. Maybe she’d still be awake.

It only took three minutes for him to find out she was. ‘I knew you weren’t seeing the messages. Just curious as to your attention to detail.’

He continued to text her on his way down to get some breakfast, checking his other messages, emails, and social networks in between.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Omelet. Bacon. Chocolate milk. Yum. Perfect breakfast. Especially after completely losing his dinner the previous night, yet again. It had gotten to the point where he just didn’t bother eating much for dinner, but that was until their was seafood on the menu. You could probably call seafood a vice for Roy.

The boat seemed to pick up speed every night, something Roy’s stomach couldn’t handle evidently. At least by every morning they had slowed down enough that he could fully enjoy his breakfast. This morning they were at a full stop by the time he got to the buffet.

About halfway through breakfast Roy received some company. Leah set her tray down on the table first before sitting down in the chair across from him. “Feel any better?” She asked. She had a piece of breakfast pizza on her plate and a glass of water.

Roy nodded. They ate in silence until Roy finished his food and looked at her. “Did you see Joey this morning? He was already out of the room when I woke up?”

“I saw him sitting somewhere on the other side of the boat, glued to his phone.”

“Oh, that’s right. We can use our phones here.” Roy didn’t really care either way. “He’s been going crazy without his.”

Leah rolled her eyes. “He’s such a nerd.”

“You say that about everyone.”

“You’re a nerd, too.” She ate her last bite of food.

Roy just nodded, it wasn’t like he didn’t expect that response.

“Are you going onto the island today? I heard that it’s a really hot one.”

Roy shrugged. “Probably for a little bit.”

“Cool, I’ll go with you.” She still wasn’t getting along with Tristan. Especially after Monday night when he got them kicked out of the teen club.

He hadn’t been wearing his glasses, surprise surprise, and he was hyper after having two desserts for dinner. He came bounding into the club (which was really just a room with some nice places to sit, a small dance floor, some tvs, and some video games) and knocked over a tray of drinks. It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had stopped there, but no. He had to then trip and knock over another person, who received a minor injury. Proceeding that he also managed to break two chairs as well.

She’s avoided Twist since then. She tagged along with her other two brothers or her mom and spent a lot of time alone.

Usually spending that much time away from her twin would make her rather irritable. However, she was still annoyed enough with him that it seemed she was more snappy while in his presence.

Roy nodded. “Alright.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tristan woke up and glanced across the room. He looked at the clock and realized it read ten o’clock. One wonderful thing about vacation, all the sleep you wanted was yours. He yawned before sitting up.

*Bang*

“Ouch.” He still hadn’t gotten used to be so close to the ceiling.

He got down from the bed and looked around. Everyone was gone. He shrugged. He’d find someone eventually.

He headed out of the room to find some food. According to Tristan the deli had the best grilled cheese sandwiches. So far, he’d eaten one a day.

As he searched for a table he spotted someone to sit with. “Joey!” He bounded over towards him.

Joey didn’t even look up. His eyes were glued to his phone. A plate of cold and half eaten breakfast sat in front on him. At least he wore a smile though.

“What’s got you so happy? ” Tristan sat down beside him.

Nothing.

“Joey?”

Nothing.

“Dude!”

Nothing.

“Earth to Joey!”

Absolutely zilch.

“HEY!” He went to wave his hand in front of the phone and ended up hitting the device, accidentally sending it into the air.

The phone landed on the ground a few feet away… In pieces.

Both of their eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, Joey! I’m sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to! I’m sorry!” Tristan spat the words out as fast as he could. He knew how attached to his phone Joey was and he didn’t want to get in his bad side.

Leah wouldn’t hang out with him and Roy always was somewhere that didn’t allow noise. Joey was the only person he had been able to hang out with that week. Or at least the only person that didn’t mind him hanging around.

Joey was silent for more than a few moments.

Joey didn’t explode instantly like Leah would have. He was more like a pressure cooker. He boiled and let everything build up before all was lost.

It was a full minute before Joey spoke, he didn’t yell. The angrier he got the quieter his voice went. “Tristan. I haven’t had my phone for three days. Three whole days. Go get me yours, now, before I throw you overboard.”

Tristan nodded and stood as fast as he could. “Okay. Okay.” He ran off, getting yelled at for running but he ignored it.

A few minutes later he came back with his own cell phone. Joey had picked up the pieces of his own phone and was trying to put it back together, but the screen was completely dead. When he heard Tristan, which was long before he actually arrived, he looked up at him. He had calmed down, but only slightly. At least he could force himself to sound normal now.

“Thank God James bought you a new cell phone.” He took the smart phone from Tristan as soon as he was in arm’s reach. Up until a month ago Tristan and Roy had both had plain slider phones. Roy still refused to get something fancy but when James offered a new phone, Tristan went along with it.

“I’m still really sorry, Joey.” Tristan said. He really was too. Tristan might’ve been constantly destructive, but he was also constantly genuinely sorry.

Joey waved him off. “You owe me a new phone though.” When you lived with Tristan you got used to this kind of insanity.

Tristan nodded. “Alright.” He slipped back into the seat across from Joey and started on his sandwich.

Joey returned to the conversation he had been having. He typed in her number before sending a message.

‘Hey, sorry. My brother destroyed my phone.’

‘Ouch. How are you going to survive?’

‘I’m not completely dependent on my phone you know.’

‘Oh whatever.’ She had almost fallen asleep waiting for him to answer. It was  almost six am on the west coast and she had yet to sleep. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t already pulled several all nighters in a row. She had been working on writing a new program. To put it lightly, she really got lost in her work.

‘You sure you don’t want to sleep?’

‘I’m fine. What time do you guys leave the US’s mini me? ‘ It had been a few days since she spoke to him, which felt odd to her. She didn’t realize how much she talked to him until she didn’t for a few days.

‘4pm.’

‘You should go explore.’ That meant 11am her time. That meant she needed another energy drink and a really good movie. Maybe a few. She got up and got a Monster from her fridge and put The Amazing Spider-Man into her DVD player.

‘Explore? It’s hot as Tartarus here.’

‘Tartarus? Curse Apollo. I thought you were going to go work on your tan?’

‘Ha. Ha. So funny. The sun here would probably turn me into a lobster.’

‘Yum.’ She went to the DVD features menu and selected subtitles before hitting play.

‘No. Seafood is for people too sissy for real meat.’

She glanced down from her movie to see the text. ‘That’s a strong opinion. Didn’t you say one of your brothers are a bunch of seafood yesterday?’ She had to turn her attention back to the tv rather quickly, the energy drink had yet to kick in and she didn’t want to let her brain fall idle. Con #1 to being deaf: Having the volume on the tv, no matter how loud, does not keep you awake.

‘Yeah. The youngest. If you knew him you’d just further agree with my opinion.’ All of a sudden there was laughing in his ear.

He jumped up out of his chair. “What the- Tristan?! Were you reading over my shoulder?!”

He laughed in response.

“I’d throw this phone at you if I wasn’t relying on it for entertainment.” Joey snapped as he started walking away.

“Hey! Wait! I wasn’t laughing at you! I was laughing at Roy! Who are you talking to anyways.” Tristan hurried after him.

“You don’t know her.”

“Ooohhhh. Herrrrr? Joey’s talking to a girl? What’s her name?”

“Shut up, Tristan.” He rolled his eyes, he shouldn’t have said anything.

“C’mon. Just tell me her name.”

Joey knew he’d never shut up if he didn’t just tell him. “I call her Zola.”

“Zola? That’s a weird name.” Tristan never meant anything as an insult, he just didn’t really have a filter.

“It’s her screen name. Not her actual name.” Really it was only part of her screen name, but regardless, it’s what everyone online called her.

“Do you know her real name?”

“Of course I do.” He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t lying. Her name was Lucy, it just felt weird to call her that after calling her Zola online for such a long time.

“But you continue to call her by her screen name? You are such a geek.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Are we going on land today?” He asked, anything to get the topic changed.

“You’ll go on land with me?!” Tristan jumped up and down in excitement.

Joey was heading back towards the room. “Yeah, if you promise to not break anything else of mine.”

“Okay!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The horn blew loud and Joey sighed heavily.

‘We’re taking off. Talk to you in a few days.’

‘You make it sound like your in a plane.’

‘Disembarking, whatever.’

‘Talk to you later.’ She responded to him.

The bars on his phone disappeared too quickly to respond.

Without the constant buzzing of her phone Lucy fell asleep in a few minutes.

Saturday Evening, July 5th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (May birthday)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (August birthday)

Roy: 16 years old. (February birthday)

Tristan keyed himself into their room. If you’ve ever seen a cruise stateroom you know they aren’t very big. Nonetheless, it’s pretty grand, just the thought. Tristan ran in and flopped on one of the beds.

Leah was the second one in the room and she was already shaking her head at Twist. “No, don’t think so. Joey and I get the beds over here, you and Roy are getting the bunk bed.” He was already aware of this information as it had been decided awhile ago. However, the bed they had decided to be his, the bottom bunk, was currently the resting place for a luggage mat and their four suitcases.

Joey and Roy followed them in and looked around. They walked through a short, narrow entryway. Joey tried each door. Wardrobes and the bathroom.

They continued into the room which opened up to a space that held the beds, a night stand, and a piece of furniture that had multiple functions including a small vanity and dresser drawers.

All the beds were Twin size mattresses. The bunk bed was pushed with its side up against the wall. The top bunk was lowered down out of the ceiling though, rather than mounted from the floor like usual.

Tristan was too distracted with getting the suitcases off his bed to notice the balcony yet.  Joey, however, headed straight to it. The door was glass but even so, you couldn’t compare the view through a window with the one you got standing out in the fresh air and sound of the ocean.

“Mom says to unpack and then get ready for dinner.” Roy said, as he stepped out on the balcony. There was a moment where you could hear Tristan and Leah arguing before Roy shut the door behind him.  “Does the view make up for not being able to bring your computer?” He knew Joey had been a bit apprehensive about leaving his laptop behind. More so than he usually would be. Roy had a theory as to why but he didn’t say anything about it.

Joey shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet.” He said, glancing at his younger and much shorter brother.

“You can probably pick up wi-fi on your phone on one of the islands if you wanted to check anything.” Roy said, ‘or anyone.’ he added in his thoughts.

With a nod Joey turned to head inside. “We better hurry up and get ready before mom starts stressing out.” Roy followed him inside, Joey was rarely that void of words. Obviously, there was something up.

===============================================

“Tristan, you could’ve at least sorta folded your nice clothes.” Maria said with a sigh as they walked to the dining room. The boys all wore either nice skinny jeans or khakis. James and Roy wore long sleeve button ups, while Joey wore a polo. Tristan on the other hand wore a wrinkled solid color v-neck. Maria and Leah both wore casual skirts and nice tops.

Tristan was too distracted by their arrival at the dining room to respond. The space was so elegant, from the chandeliers to the fine china.

The hostess Asked how many then sat them at a round table together. Leah was already not getting along with Tristan for the night so Roy strategically didn’t sit between them, instead he let Joey take that spot. He sat on the other side of Leah and beside James. They were each handed a menu and told their waiter would be with them shortly.

An assistant waiter came by first and introduced himself before getting them their drinks. James and Maria both had wine, Joey had soda, Tristan had lemonade, and Leah and Roy had water.

Everything went peacefully for awhile: meeting their waiter, ordering their food, eating their starters and entrees, but then came dessert. Everyone, minus Roy, ordered a dessert. His stomach wasn’t feeling up to anymore food.

It arrived and Tristan was ecstatic. Chocolate cake! With ice cream!! He took a spoonful out of it and the inside was gooey fudge.

“Whoa! Joey! Do you see this?!” He flung the spoon towards Joey and the cake went flying to hit none other than Leah.

Her eyes went wide, and then filled with rage. “Tristan Lee! What the heck was that?!” She reached across Joey to take his spoon away but in the process she tipped over Joey’s soda and it splashed over both the boys and herself.

This just created more chaos. Maria and James, along with a waiter joined in as well. The parents trying to calm the situation, the waiter trying to keep the mess controlled. When it was all said and done, Leah had both Tristan and Joey’s dessert on her, Tristan had Leah’s dessert and water, everyone had some person or another’s drink dripping from them, and the Penningtons were being asked to leave the dining room.

It wasn’t until they were almost to their room that they realized something was missing.

“Where’s Roy?” Maria asked, already rather perturbed. Now to have even her good child disappearing. Obviously, it wasn’t a good night for her.

James looked confused. “I haven’t seen him since sometime during that fiasco.” He said as he glanced around.

Maria shook her head. “Whatever, I’m going back to the room and getting cleaned up. He’ll find his way back.”

===============================================

Maria was still lecturing her kids when they reached the rooms. James had to stop her from following them into their room. Joey gave him a thankful look and hurried the twins inside before his mom could turn back around.

They stepped into the room and right away they could all hear it. Someone was throwing up in the bathroom.

Leah frowned and knocked on the door. “Roy?” Before she could even say the name Joey had moved to the other side of the room and made it out onto the balcony. While he didn’t get motion sick, the sound or sight of someone throwing up was not something he could handle.

Roy didn’t respond at first. It was a few moments before his stomach was finally empty. At least he hoped so. “You guys get kicked out?” He asked after a deep breath. He hit the button to flush the toilet and grabbed a kleenex to wipe his mouth.

Leah rolled her eyes and opened the bathroom door. “Do you want me to find you some seasickness medicine? We have ginger capsules too.” According to their mom, they were a non-medicine way of alleviating motion sickness.

He seemed to think about it for a second before getting distracted. “Geez, you guys need to be retaught that food is for eating, not wearing.” He said, forgetting that she asked a question.

Leah made an angry motion that caused him to flinch as he stood to his feet. His light headedness was obvious but Leah made no move to help him after his comment. He grabbed onto the counter as she asked her question for a second time. The fact he was getting distracted that easily made his answer insignificant. She was going to get him medicine either way.

“I think I’m just going to go down a few floors to hang out.” He replied as he made his way out of the bathroom. His thought process led him to think that he would feel better if he went and hung out in the peaceful library.

This time Leah stopped him from falling. “Tristan, go and get some medicine for Roy from mom. Quickly.” She knew he could do quick, just as long as he didn’t get distracted.

Tristan saluted. “Yes, ma’am.” He ran out of the room.

Roy was trying to push away from Leah, gagging as he did. “Go.” Cough. “Change.” The mixture of food smells was making him sick again. His stomach was empty but that was going to stop it from having a fit.

Leah rolled her eyes but understood. “Lay down first.” She said, helping him to the bottom bunk. There was no easy way to get him into his bed on the top.

She made sure he was at least sitting before she  left him alone to change into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

By the time she was done changing Tristan was back, trying to get the medicine bottle open. Roy kept telling him he could get it but Tristan was refusing. He was determined to be the big brother and be helpful.

Leah shook her head and snatched the bottle from his hand to open it herself.

Tristan gave her a look of complete shock that quickly turned to utter disappointment. “Leahhhh! I was doing thaaat!”

Leah sighed heavily. “Go get a glass of water if you want to help.” She continued with mumbles of annoyance with him under her breath.

“Okay!!” He ran off to the bathroom, and by ran, I mean more like, made four really quick steps. That’s about how far it was from the bunk bed to the bathroom door.

Roy had laid down by now. He looked up at Leah. “You could be a little nicer to him. He’s annoying as heck but he’s doesn’t purpose to be a pain. If he’s bugging you, just leave.”

Leah gave Roy once of her signature ‘You’re an idiot’ looks. “I have been trapped in the same room as him for most of the last 36 hours.”

Before Roy could answer Tristan came bounding out of the bathroom. Water splashed all over the place. In the short distance Twist had to travel he managed to spill three quarters of the water. “Here you go!”

Leah took the water, the glass was soaked but she ignored that as she made Roy sit up and take it the medicine.

Roy tossed the pill into his mouth and downed it with the single drink of water left in the cup. “Thank you.” He said to both of them.

Leah nodded. “You should probably sleep down here tonight.” She said, she didn’t want him to get sick and be on the top bunk. The thought itself was disgusting.

“That’s okay! I’ll sleep on the top!” Tristan smiled.

“You can tell Joey it’s safe now.” Roy said as he stood. Leah stepped forward to stop him and Tristan hopped off to inform Joey he could come inside. Roy waved Leah off. “I’m fine. I just want to change into pajamas.” He was still in khakis and a button up.

Leah backed off slightly, but didn’t turn to go get Joey until Roy was in the bathroom to change. She knew Joey wouldn’t believe Tristan that it was safe.

Once Roy was safely in bed and sleeping Leah and the two boys went out to look around until they got tired. They had found a candy shop, mini golf, a track and sports area, a few good looking places to get food, and several other forms of entertainment.

When they came back to the room to sleep, Tristan was out in minutes. Sleeping soundly after a long and exciting day.

Leah took a shower and then hopped into bed. Joey was the last one to fall asleep, wishing he had phone service.

Saturday Afternoon, July 5th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (May birthday)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (August birthday)

Roy: 16 years old. (February birthday)

“Dude! Whoa!” There was awe in Tristan’s voice as they stepped out onto the lido deck.

“Pat attention, Twist!” Leah grabbed his shirt collar to stop him from running right into another person. “Seriously, why don’t you just put in your contacts? Just for the sake of depth perception!”

It was like he didn’t even hear her as he went into a dramatic coughing fit to which all of his siblings rolled their eyes. This annoyance with him spurred each of them to go their separate ways for exploring. Maria and James went to get some lunch and to just relax out in the sun. They chose to not worry about the kids wandering. They were old enough to take care of themselves. They were stuck on a ship anyways. Where could they go except for into the ocean? And even then they’d have to try pretty hard.

Roy headed off the deck and away from the crowd. After a little bit of wandering he found a quiet indoor place with air conditioning. The library. He sat with his earphones in, listening to his current favorite CD in perfect peace. Finally, he could get a break from his insane siblings after the previous 24 hours a of traveling with them.

Leah grabbed an apple off the nearest buffet and then headed up. The main deck was level ten, according to the signs when she reached the top she was on level fourteen. Though, she figured out after a little bit of looking around it was actually the thirteenth floor. Apparently, they were really avoiding bad luck. Though, from where she stood at the railing she could see the city life: office buildings lit like Christmas trees, crowded sidewalks, and bumper to bumper traffic. She couldn’t imagine bad luck when you were getting away from that kind craziness.

Joey was followed by Twist to the food. They each filled a plate with the most delicious buffet food ever. They found a table and ate it all gone before each returning for a second plate. After that they hit the ice cream machines. You might see the irony in Tristan getting a twist cone per his usual. Joey got a chocolate. Once the were finished eating, completely stuffed, they found a comfy booth and parked themselves there until told to head out for the safety briefing.

About a half an hour till set sail everyone on the ship was herded to their muster stations. A muster station is where you are to go in case of evacuation. The life boats and emergency supplies are located there. There are several stations on the boat, and everyone is assigned to one. Roy and Leah made it to the correct location without much problem, as did James and Maria. Joey and Tristan on the other hand… they took a bit longer.

Once they made it to the correct floor Tristan took to the lead, which was the first mistake made. Tristan liked to think he knew what was going on and Joey, at this point in time, didn’t really care, even though he was sure Tristan had no clue. They ended up on the front right side of the ship in station H rather than the middle left in station B.

It took asking directions three times from various crew workers before they actually found the place they were supposed to be. By the time they found it the briefing had already started. Thankfully, it had only been going about a minute.

They were instructed on what to do in case of different emergencies, what the place was equipped with, and how to use it before being released to enjoy the rest of their evening. They would be setting sail in a matter of minutes and dinner would follow.

Tristan raced Joey to the top deck, getting them both told by more than one crew member to slow down. Joey won, mainly due to the fact he had been paying attention on the way down and actually knew where he was going.

It was a few minutes later when they were joined by the rest of the family to watch the shore disappear from view.

As soon as they couldn’t see the shore anymore Tristan jumped around. “We can get into our rooms now, right?!” He started skipping away.

They had gotten rooms on the eighth floor. One for Maria and James, the other for the kids. The elevators were rather busy due to everyone wanting to get to their rooms now so they all followed Tristan down the stairs. It was only two levels, but even so, Joey complained.

“You seriously need to spend some time away from your computer. It’s 32 stairs, and we’re going down.” Leah rolled her eyes. Regardless, he kept complaining.

On the last stair she placed her step right in front of his. His face quickly met the floor.

While James busted out laughing, Leah simply smirked and kept on walking. “See, you sit so much you can’t even walk correctly.”

Roy picked up Joey’s glasses that had flown a few feet away, hiding his own smile. He knew better than to fuel Joey’s frustrations. As did Maria. She put her hand over her mouth to cover her giggles but it didn’t work for long as it turned into actual laughter thanks to Twist.

Tristan had been halfway down the hall when he heard a thud and then James’s laughter. He came running back to the common area where the stairs and elevator were. It was quite an entertaining sight. Joey face down on the carpet. Leah walking into the hall. Roy hiding a smirk, holding Joey’s glasses. James almost crying from laughing so hard. And Maria with one of the most amused looks ever. Tristan joined James in his laughter.

“Oh my gosh, Joey! Stop smelling the carpet! People are going to think you’re weird!” He had noticed a few other passengers walking by and decided to add to Joey’s embarrassment.

Joey pushed himself up off the ground, and snatched his glasses from Roy. “Son of a bucket, you numb nuts. What the heck is wrong with you people?” He went on and on as he headed down the hall.

Maria reached forward and smacked the back of his head. “I don’t care if you’re twenty-one, nor do I care if you’re not actually swearing. I will still use soap to clean up a dirty mouth.”

The boys were still stifling laughter and Leah was still smirking happily. This was going to be a great vacation.

Monday, April 1st 2013

Joey: 19 years old (May birthday)

Tristan and Leah: 16 years old (August birthday)

Roy: 15 years old. (February birthday)

April Fool’s Day. The only day of the year Joey willingly woke up before 7am. He was the prankster in the family. No matter how many times Tristan tried to out do him, Joey always came out ahead.

This April Fool’s Day happened to land on a monday so everyone in the house had work or school. Joey had to set his alarm for 4:30am so he would have enough time to set his pranks before everyone woke up. The alarm only had to buzz once, this was also a once a year thing for Joey, before he turned it off and got out of bed.

Maria had married James in December, therefore this was the first April in this house with everyone living together. This meant a couple new elements for Joey to deal with. First, a bigger space. This one didn’t bug him at all, he just came up with a few extra pranks. The second element though had to be thought out a little bit more. With this being James’s first April Fool’s Day he had to decide the extent he could take his pranks.

Sure, he hadn’t really liked him when he first met him, but that was over two years ago. By now Joey had realized James was actually pretty nice, and usually pretty relaxed. He didn’t want to be the first one to anger him. So, he came to the decision to hold back on the pranks that would involve James… at least for this year.

Joey started digging the supplies he had been gathering for this day out of his closet and from under his bed. Due to the size of this house it was going to take him longer to set up but at least he wouldn’t have to worry about the creaky floorboards and doors.

In years past he had woken up Roy, who was the lightest sleeper of them all. Not that it really mattered to Roy. He would come out of his room, observe Joey for a bit, and then go back to bed with a mental note of what to avoid in the morning.

Leah on the other hand, was less calm about the situation. Not only had it been 5am on a day she didn’t have to attend her first morning class, but he woke her up whilst stealing Violet, her chameleon. He had been planning on return her that night but regardless, Leah didn’t appreciate it.

He ended up first getting beamed in the head with a water bottle, then in the back with an alarm clock. Fortunately for him, he moved quickly, because the next projectile was a picture frame. Needless to say, he never tried another prank inside of Leah’s room.

The first pranks he set up were the ones on the top floor. There weren’t as many of them as the only rooms up there were the bedrooms, which we all now know he avoids, and two bathrooms. He set up the ones in the bathrooms before throwing the rest of the supplies in a backpack and heading downstairs. Between the basement and the main floor there were pranks placed in the kitchen, bathrooms, rec room, office, and garage.

Once Joey had everything ready he returned to his room, very carefully might I add. He reached his room and instantly frowned. His door was shut. Why would he have shut his door before he left? He never shut his door Fool’s Day morning. It was an unnecessary noise.

Cautiously, he pushed the door open just enough to stick his head in.

Instant yelling. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Who cared if it was only 5:30 in the morning, he sure didn’t. “Twist, did you do this?!”

Joey flung Tristan’s door open, if the yelling hadn’t been enough the anger was certainly evident by his expression. Tristan was still rolled up in bed though and wasn’t paying much attention to his expression. “What are you yelling about?” He grumbled, still half asleep.

“My room. My computers. That’s not funny.” He wasn’t yelling anymore but his tone was enough to tell he hadn’t dropped his rage.

Half a second and Tristan was up from his bed. “Wait! What?! You mean someone got you this year?!” He went running out of his room and right into Leah who was coming out of her room in fury.

Thanks to having just woke up, her usual alertness was not present. She tumbled to the ground which just anger her more. “Why are you two yelling and running around AT 5AM?!” While Joey’s voice dropped and turned into a hiss as he became more upset, Leah’s did the exact opposite.

“Joey got pranked!” Tristan still yelled. However, his voice displayed excitement. He stepped over Leah and straight to Joey’s room, throwing open the door.

“Twist! Wait!” Joey yelled in desperation but it was too late. At least ten full cups of water were now spilt on his carpet.

The door was now wide open. Both Tristan and Leah’s eyes went wide and then they bursted out in laughter. Covering every inch of flat surface in Joey’s room were plastic cups full of water. Where his computer equipment used to be now sat cups, not a single electronic item to be seen. Not even his phone. On his wall there was taped a single piece of paper. It read ‘April Fool’s Day!’ typed out in big black letters.

Joey turned to go bang down Roy’s door as he was the only one not out there but Roy was already in his doorway, and looking quite amused.

“About time somebody got you back.” Roy said. The pranks never really bothered him too much. Especially after Joey had stopped putting as much effort into getting him a few years back. Roy failed to give the big reactions like Twist or Leah so he was less entertaining.

“Who did this?” Joey asked, looking back and forth between all of them.

They all shrugged in response.

“Joey, do you really think that someone is going to answer that honestly?” Leah gave him the ‘Seriously, are you that stupid?’ look she had perfected around the age of 7.

“Oh, whatever. I’ll figure it out later.” Joey glared at them all before heading down the stairs, or more like stomping down the stairs. He needed to find his electronics.

Too distracted by trying to figure out who had pranked him, it wasn’t after he made it through all of the top and main floor and was headed for the garage that he realized the house was void of his pranks. He looked around the garage and frowned. Each car but his own had originally been set up with an annoyance of some sort.

After checking each car he found that the brakes no longer triggered the horn in the twins’s car, that the confetti no longer filled the defrosters of his mom’s, and that loose change no longer sat in every cup holder of James’s.

His frustration was obvious as he stormed back into the house with his jaw set and fists clenched. He gave off a rather frightening aura when he was angry for those who were not used to it. Nevertheless, despite his bad boy acts, he was really rather harmless.

Joey checked the rest of the house and found that everything was back how it was supposed to be. The orange juice was actually orange juice, not mac and cheese water. The furniture of the living spaces were all in their correct placement instead of to the right an inch or two. The door handles were no longer sticky or slimy. There wasn’t an air horn to be set off behind the bathroom door. The toothbrushes had been washed clean of salt… he checked this one by looking closely to the brush… The bubble wrap set under the toilet seat was missing. The list went on and on.

The search for his computers went on for awhile before he realized he had to get ready for his classes.

His siblings had finished getting ready and were now in the kitchen eating breakfast, along with Maria and James. All immensely enjoying their peaceful April Fool’s Day morning.

Joey brought a tote up and dropped it at the entrance of his room. Time to clean the water up so he could maneuver in his room. He filled up the tote with water four times as he emptied his room of cups. Also filling two garbage sacks with the red plastic cups.

Once everything was cleaned, he started getting ready for school. Beginning with a shower, only to find out his shower stuff had been stolen. Now he had to use Tristan’s… which wouldn’t have been an issue is Tristan hadn’t used up the rest of the shampoo that morning. Joey ended up just using regular soap as shampoo and finished his shower. Thankfully, whoever was pulling these pranks hadn’t decided to steal all the towels as he had once done. Nor had they done anything with his clothes.

Although from there, things went downhill. Brushing his teeth was a disaster. Someone had added a drop of food coloring to his toothbrush which turned his teeth green. It took a few minutes to scrub it off, and even then it seemed his teeth were slightly stained.

Then went down to eat breakfast. The place had cleared out as everyone went to school or work. He thought he’d be fine, but apparently that was an incorrect assumption. His fruity pebbles were replaced with literal pebbles, as were his cocoa pebbles. He then made himself a piece of toast… and as it turned out someone had just used the last of the butter, which hadn’t actually been a purposed prank. Just a coincidence.

At that point he decided to just skip breakfast and go to school. There was no one at the school that would prank him. At least not this bad.

He got in his car and started towards his school, only as he did he started hearing clunking. After Roy, Joey was the most patient of the family. Not necessarily the best behaved or least hyper, but patient, yeah.

You wouldn’t have guessed that now as he pulled over to the side of the road,throwing somewhat of a temper tantrum. In the past everyone had been too busy dealing with the pranks dealt by him. No one had ever fooled him so he had no clue what being assaulted by pranks felt like.

It took nearly fifteen minutes for him to figure out what was wrong with the car. Someone had put rocks in his hub caps. The entire time he was trying to take them out he was swearing under his breath and chucking them into the ditch.

He return to the driver’s seat with a very loud huff as he started his car back up and finished his trek to school. From then on he had a calm day. A little annoying that he didn’t have his phone or any other electronic but he survived. At least he didn’t run into any more practical jokes.

Joey did, however, ponder most of the day on who the culprit was. Tristan couldn’t have been sneaky enough alone, and he doubted Roy cared enough to do it. Leah was probably capable but would she want to waste the time? And how did she get back into her room after setting things up without being spotted? Maybe it was more than one of them. No matter how it had happened, he just wanted his computers back in one piece.

After his classes for the day he decided to go get some fast food for dinner and then go to a friend’s house. When he arrived home it was at least midnight. Perfect timing, no more practical jokes now that the day was over. At least he hoped so.

He walked in through the front door on full alert. Everything seemed safe in the foyer so he continued into the house. Since it was a week night everyone was already in bed or at least in their rooms, which Joey was thankful for as he snuck to his own oh so carefully.

After making it to his room without incident he still opened his door with the utmost caution. For the second time that day he peaked just his head into the room.

“Hallelujah! Yes!” He dropped all his worry as he entered the room. There on his desk, were his computers, sitting neatly, just the way he had had them.

First things first, he made sure everything was there and nothing was damaged physically. Hard drives in place, no wires cut, stuff like that. Then he sat at the desk and turned them on.

He had two computers and three screens, not to mention his laptop and phone which he turn on as well. His Windows machine was connected to two screens and also ran Ubuntu. While he also had a Mac, which, of course, ran apple.

He logged in and was completely surprised. His previous desktop backgrounds were all replaced by what seemed to be a screenshot of a text document. It read:

“April Fool’s Day, Joey. Your mother was warning me about your fool’s day antics a few days ago and I decided to display a few of my own. With two older brothers I learned how to fend for myself on this day of pranks. Hope you enjoyed the surprise and hopefully you’ll go easier on everyone else in years to come.”

…it was signed with James’s name.

Joey’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?!” Unbelievable. Who knew their step-dad was capable of so much. Joey scoffed, unable to settle with the fact he had been annihilated on April Fool’s Day by James. That couldn’t be possible.

This was the guy who pretty much always was in a suit, and if he wasn’t, he still dressed well enough to be going to a formal something or rather.

His personality was much more laid back than he appeared but still. Practical jokes? Not to mention the fact he had found every single one of Joey’s and fixed them.

Joey shook his head and quickly composed an email. “I have a different proposal. Instead of me going easy on everyone next year, why don’t join forces on the assault?” He sent it off with a smirk. He may have gotten beaten down a bit this year but next year was going to be grand.

He checked a few more things on his computers to make sure nothing else had been messed with before heading to bed. As he laid down he was already thinking about a way to play defense. Never again would he be the one pranked…

“Dude. Really?!” He jumped up from bed and pulled the blankets off, sending salt flying.

Ok, so ‘never again’ restarted as he replaced his sheets.

More Friday Evening, May 30th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (Just turned 21 in the past week)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (Will turn 18 in August)

Roy: 16 years old. (Just turned 16 in February)

Quick recap: Leah drove Roy home from school early because he wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t want to bother his mom who was preparing for Joey’s birthday get together. Once he’s home he gets taken care of and then falls asleep in the guest room. Once evening hits family starts arriving for Joey’s party. On his way downstairs to greet them Joey gets a glass of water and sets it on the nightstand for Roy when he wakes. All the guests arrive and they sit down for dinner. A little ways in there’s the sound of the doorbell and it turns out to be none other than the kids’ dad, David. With whome no one has a good relationship with as they only see him once every few years.

Roy awoke to silence. Instantly, he was frowning… And rubbing sleep from his eyes, but mostly frowning. Either he had slept less than an hour or something weird was going on. If the twins were home it was never this quiet. With one glance at the clock he deduced it was the latter of the two options as it was after six. Beside the clock he also noticed a glass of water which he was very thankful for. He sat up carefully and took a few sips before setting it back down. He pushed off the blankets and slowly got to his feet. His fever had seemed to go enough that his thoughts were cleared up and while his nose was sore and a bit stuffy, at least it wasn’t doing the whole sneezing thing every few seconds.

He grabbed a kleenex and blew his nose, tossing it in the trash as he shuffled out of the room. Even out in the hallway there wasn’t any noise. “That’s odd…” he mumbled as he started checking rooms.

It was a rather big house, some called it a mansion but the Penningtons just called it an oversized living building. They had moved in when their mom married James. They went from a three bedroom house to a six bedroom house. It was two stories high along with a basement: five bedrooms and two bathrooms on the top, the master bedroom and the living spaces on the main, and then a rec area downstairs. They had a pool and hot tub out back along with a place for a bonfire. When they had first moved in the kids had been a bit overwhelmed but they got used to it over time.

Roy checked all the bedrooms upstairs and found no one so he went down to the main floor where, as he walked around a bit, he was able to hear a voice. It was only one voice though, which he found odd. Whenever they had family dinner there were usually at least three conversations going at once, and even when there was only one conversation, more than one person was conversing at a time.

He walk through the main living room, still in his pajamas might I add, and into the diningroom doorway before he realized who the owner of the voice was. He wouldn’t have ever placed it until he saw him. “Dad…?”

Suddenly all eyes were on him, he had already been a bit warm in the face but now his cheeks grew even redder.

“Oh, Roy! Hey, are you feeling better?” His dad asked, offering a casual smile, like he talked with his son all the time.

“Uh.. yeah, kinda.” He said. His eyes went to his mother and followed her as she got up from her seat to come over. Inwardly, he sighed. She was going to do the whole mothering thing.

“Roy, are you sure you’re feeling better? Has your temperature gone down?” Her hand went to his forehead to feel how warm he was. She nodded, deciding it was okay. “Come sit down, are you hungry? Do you need something to drink?” She was guiding him over to the chair she had been sitting in.

“Mom, I’m okay, you sit down and finish your meal. I’ll just go make myself something in the kitchen.” he said quietly. He didn’t really love Thai food on a usual day, let alone when he was feeling unwell.

Everyone snapped out of their silence now that they had something to focus on other than David’s presence and suddenly it was everyone’s voice at once.

Maria: “You should be resting, Roy. Not up and making yourself dinner.”

James: “Maria, sit down, he can handle himself, it looks like he’s feeling better.”

Twist: “Roy, do you want my seat? I’m finished anyways.” He ate as fast as he spoke.

Papa Mark and the other grandparents: “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better.” or something to that extent.

Joey: “Dude, seriously? It’s my birthday and you’ve got everyone focusing on you?” He was kidding of course.

Leah stood amongst the chaos and took Roy from their mother. “I’ll make sure he’s alright.” she assured her mom before quickly leading Roy out of the diningroom and into the kitchen. From the kitchen you could hear the place bursting with conversation once again.

Roy gave Leah an exhausted look. “I can make myself dinner. I’m feeling better.” He said.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Even if that was true I just wanted out of there.” She sat him down at the island that was in the kitchen and grabbed a can of soup out of one of the cabinets.

He understood what she meant immediately. “He hasn’t even met James yet.” Their mother had only gotten married a year and a half prior.

“I don’t think he really cared or took notice.” Leah said as she began preparing the soup.

“Why was he even invited?” Roy mumbled. “Or why did he even come? It’s not like he really cares.”

Leah shrugged. “Beats me. He gets an invite to all the family birthday parties. Mom feels the need to send them for some odd reason. I guess every few years it lands on a day he’s free or feels guilty and he shows up.”

Roy just nodded as he didn’t have much of a response for that. The only noise for awhile was the conversations coming from the diningroom as Leah made the soup. When it was finished Leah set the bowl in front of him along with a spoon and took a seat behind him.

“Thanks, Leah.” Roy said as he began eating slowly.

“You’re welcome.” She said and let silence set in between them. Roy was always quiet, and unlike Tristan, Leah didn’t really mind. Sure, she was loud and blunt about things, but only when she had something to be loud and blunt about. Now was not one of those times.

Roy was about halfway done with his soup when Tristan came bounding in. “Mom says it’s cake and ice cream time!” He went to pick up the cake pan that was waiting on the stovetop but Leah jumped in front of it.

“Nope, Twist, not happening. You will dump the cake all over the place. I got it. You get the ice cream.”

Tristan looked dejected, but only for a moment before he remembered Roy, he hopped over to him. “Roy?! Are you gonna come eat cake?!” He was loud as usual.

Being used to his hyperness and no longer having a major headache, Roy didn’t even flinch. “Probably not. I haven’t even finished my soup and I’m not feeling that hungry.”

Shot down again. Tristan frowned. “Alright.” He sulked over to the freezer and retrieved the ice cream and then bowls before heading out to the diningroom. By the time he reached his seat he was back to normal because, well, ice cream.

Leah looked at Roy. “At least come out and sit with us, it’s Joey’s birthday. I know dad’s presence is a bit unsettling but think about how it is for Joey… and then if you’re not out there on top of that…”

He took a deep breath but then nodded. “Okay.” As strong headed as Leah was, at least she was usually, or occasionally, depending on who you asked, right about what she was strong headed about.

Roy followed Leah out into the diningroom and sat in the chair she had been in at her command. He gave her a miserable look as he realized it was beside their dad but he sat down anyways, not wanting to feel her wrath.

The cake was set before Joey and twenty-one candles were lit. The song began.

“Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday to you,

happy birthday, dear Joeyyyyy,

happy birthday to youuuuuu~!”

Joey blew out the candles and everyone around the table clapped. Tristan began picking the candles off the cake in an expert manner, ready to eat it at that very moment.

“Slow down, it needs to be cut before it’s served anyways.” Joey grabbed a knife and began cutting the cake up into pieces. He served out the cake while Papa Mark served out the ice cream. They ate and Joey opened up the cards given to him by the grandparents, siblings, James and his mom, and the one from his dad as well. He thanked everyone as he went. Except for Tristan. The card from Tristan wouldn’t open, he had glued it shut, so instead of a thank you Tristan got a card in his ice cream.

They continued to converse long after the cake and ice cream had been eaten and the leftovers put away. David had bowed out shortly after the cake though with awkward goodbyes from everyone. After he left it was realized he hadn’t even been introduced to James, not that anyone really cared though. Tristan was the only one to offer more than the word ‘goodbye’. He also offered a wave.

It was getting late and Roy was starting to get tired and warm again as the medicine he had taken was wearing off. Once someone took notice they decided it was time to call it a night.

Hugs went around, twice for Tristan, and Joey thanked everyone once again before the grandparents took their leave.

Exhaustion had set in from the long night so they all headed for bed. Before Maria went into her room she instructed the older three to make sure Roy was taken care of before they went to sleep. She continued to talk until she got an affirmative from each of them.

Once the kids reached the top floor Leah was the one to make sure Roy got some more medicine and made it to bed with a glass of water on his nightstand. She said goodnight to him and vice versa before she left the room, turning the lights out as she did.

Out in the hallway, Joey stood waiting for her. “What do you want?” She asked with a yawn as she walked in the direction of her room. They may have celebrated his birthday that day but it has actually been three days earlier so she didn’t feel the need to be overly kind.

“Just making sure he got in bed alright.” Roy was the baby of the family and everyone realized he wasn’t as obvious about how he was feeling or what he was thinking, and therefore they were usually secretly concerned over him.

Leah nodded. “He’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be feeling better in the morning.” She said as she stepped through the doorway of her room. “Goodnight.”

Joey headed into his own room. “Night.” He said.

Tristan could hear them from his room cue to the fact he left his door open most all of the time. He came out of his room now in his pajamas. “How long do you think til we see dad again…?” He asked, speaking his mind wasn’t an issue for him either.

Joey just shrugged. “I don’t know, it doesn’t really matter. His presence doesn’t do much anyways.”

“Probably a few years.” Leah said with a sigh.

Tristan nodded slowly as he was thinking this over. “We might be gone to college… It might only be Roy left then…”

This made both Leah and Joey frown. “I hope it’s not. Honestly, I would be fine with him just not showing up for anything again.” It was Leah who spoke. Joey just nodded his agreement.

Now Tristan frowned. “Yeah, I guess… Well goodnight.”

“Night, Twist.” Leah said at the same time Joey gave a similar reply.

Within half an hour the house was completely silence besides a few snores as everyone was sleeping.

Friday Evening, May 30th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (Just turned 21 in the past week)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (Will turn 18 in August)

Roy: 16 years old. (Just turned 16 in February)

Quick recap: Roy got sick and Leah drove him home from school as he didn’t want to call home and bug his mom who was preparing for Joey’s 21st birthday party. He gets inside and his mom attempts to take care of him but instead he convinces her to get back to preparing for the party, not before she realizes she can get Joey to take care of him though. Joey attempts to be a caregiver but fails enough that Roy gets him to go away. Roy finally gets his medicine and then falls asleep in a unusually quiet house.

Joey was upstairs on his computer still when the clock hit five o’clock and the first guest arrived.

Maria yelled up at him to come down so he reluctantly told his newest online friend he had to go and wished her a goodnight before logging out and hurrying to get down the stairs. Before he reached the stairs though he went past the guest room. He paused a moment and peaked into the room. Roy was still curled up under the covers, sleeping.

Joey turned around and headed to the bathroom was right down the hall. He filled up a glass with cold water and brought it back to the room. On most occasions it would be dumped on his younger, defenseless sibling, but in this case, it was set on the nightstand.

He was being yelled at again so he hurried up out of the room and down to the front foyer to greet the guests. They had only invited family, Joey hadn’t really cared that there was a party anyways. He was finally twenty one and school wasn’t currently in session. He had already spent his actual birthday out messing around with a few friends but it wasn’t anything special or grand. If you wanted to make it sound better you could say Joey was a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to friends, but really, he just didn’t care for a lot of human interaction. Not physically anyways, over the computer he didn’t mind it.

The guest list for this party consisted of the family that already lived at the house, his father whose name is David (who nobody expected to show up), and all the grandparents (the ones still living at least, Maria’s father and James’s parents).

When Joey came down the stairs Maria’s dad, his grandpa, was standing in the entryway. Joey offered him a smile, “Hey, Papa, thanks for coming.”

“Of course, happy birthday!” He smiled and handed Joey a card.

Maria took a step back towards the stairs, “Leah! Twist!” Twist was a nickname given to Tristan when the twins were just learning to associate names with people. Leah was having trouble with R’s, as most toddlers do, so everytime she referred to her twin it would sound like ‘Twistan’. It got to the point where everyone just shortened it a bit and it became his second name. “Come down here! Papa Mark is here!”

There was a sound of a door and then quick footsteps. Tristan came running down the stairs, straight into Joey who still stood at the bottom of them.

“Oofta!” Tristan made this noise at least five times a day thanks to running into things when he wasn’t paying attention.

Joey was knocked off balance, but only slightly. He was used to Tristan’s lack of attention and knew to turn and catch Tristan before he could fall over. “Twist, slow down. You’re going to break your face.”

Tristan was rubbing his nose. “You’ve got a hard back.” He mumbled a complaint before remembering why he was running in the first place and hopped over to his grandpa. Twist gave him a hug. By the time Tristan let him go Leah had made her way down the stairs and she gave him a hug as well.

Soon James got home from work and his parents showed up as well. All greetings were exchanged with a question about Roy each time someone arrived. It was explained that he was sleeping because he had come home early from school sick.

Maria led them all to the diningroom and enrolled Leah’s help with getting the food brought out. She had made Thai food for dinner as that was Joey’s favorite. He liked anything with some spice behind it really.

They each took a spot around the table and said grace before serving themselves and digging in. With eight people around the table the place was none too quiet, especially with this family. Thankfully, the doorbell was loud enough to be heard throughout the giant house and over a crowd of people. Tristan was up and for the door before anyone else had time to react.

The sound triggered a confused expression to cross Maria’s face. “Were we supposed to receive a package or something tonight?” she asked James. He shrugged in response.

There were a few moments of silence, which was odd when Tristan was up and running around the house. Then footsteps, two sets.

Tristan appeared in the entrance of the room with a small grimace. “Uhm… dad showed up!” He tried to sound cheery but even he seemed at a loss for words as he returned to his seat.

David, the kids’ father stood behind him. “Hey, sorry I’m late, I got held up at work.”

“Oh, no problem…” Joey spoke because no one else was and he figured since it was his birthday, it was his job. “Thanks for coming… Want some dinner? It’s Thai food…” his sentences all trailed off rather than having a definite end.

“Sure!” he smiled at him. “And happy birthday.”

Joey nodded. “Thanks.”

There was an awkward aura hanging around. David and Maria had gotten divorced around about eleven years prior, so about the time Roy was 5. Since then the kids had only seen him a handful of times, even though he only lived in the next town over. His appearances were never expected. The last time he showed up was Roy’s thirteenth birthday. Roy was already the quietest one in the family but that night he was pretty much silent. He was the only one of the kids who took after their father in physical appearances with his light colored hair and eyes but he was also the one who remembered their father the least, hardly at all.

With a glance around the table and a moment of silence David took notice that one was missing. “Where’s Roy? He asked as he took a seat. There had only been one seat left at the table between Leah and James, it had been meant for Roy but since he was sick it was vacant.

Maria sighed lightly, she sat on the other side of James who had gently taken her hand in his, offering silent comfort. He knew better than to speak and make things worse. “He came home sick from school so he’s upstairs sleeping.”

He didn’t appear too concerned. “That’s too bad. Hopefully he’s better soon.” David said.

Maria nodded in response and went back to eating. Everyone else continued to eat as well, in silence now rather than bursting with conversation. David served himself on the plate that had been set out at the seat and began eating

Papa Mark was the one to break the silence. “So, David. What have you been doing that’s kept you so busy?” There was obvious spite behind the words, and rightfully so. Maria gave him a look to watch it anyways. It was Joey’s birthday and it was bad enough that David was making it awkward without her father adding to that.

Everyone was looking at David now. The three kids deep down were hoping he would say something that was actually excusable, like fighting world hunger in africa or something. Neither Leah nor Joey would admit to the wish though. Joey liked to act like he didn’t care their dad was always missing. Leah just liked to act like she didn’t need anybody in her life, but that was a more recent act she acquired.

“Oh, still doing police work.” he said. “I’m now the captain over the main station.” Not good enough of an excuse to disappear for three years, his excuses never were. One of the most annoying things about his excuses though were that they never really sounded like excuses. Just facts, like he didn’t need to excuse himself for never seeing his children.

“Dad…?” A voice came from the diningroom doorway.
Hehe, this story was only supposed to be one post, but more stuff keeps happening. To be continued (and possibly finished) next week.

A Little Later Friday Afternoon, May 30th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (Just turned 21 in the past week)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (Will turn 18 in August)

Roy: 16 years old. (Just turned 16 in February)

Quick recap: Roy got sick and Leah drove him home from school as he didn’t want to call home and bug his mom who was preparing for Joey’s 21st birthday party.

As Leah left Roy trudged into the house. First thing he did was go and find his mom, knowing if he didn’t Leah would be furious with him for not doing what she told him to. He found his mom, Maria, baking a cake in the kitchen. It was marble cake, Joey’s favorite. There was nothing quiet about his entrance into the kitchen as he was shuffling his feet and sneezing at the same time.

Maria looked up from her baking in surprise. “Roy! When did you get here…?” she then noticed how red in the face he was. “Oh honey, you need to lay down right now.” She dropped everything she was doing and started guiding him to his room.

Once they entered the room she flipped on the lights. “Change into something comfy… and no, not a comfy sweatshirt, get a t-shirt on. I won’t have you overheating.” And with that being said, she left the room. She knew her son well enough that comfy automatically meant sweatshirt in his mind, he wore hoodies around the house even in the summer.

With a slow glance around the room Roy decided on pajamas, mainly because they were the only thing out and not put away or in the dirty hamper. He took his time changing into them before crawling into bed. Without anything covering his arms the cool air of his house felt freezing against his burning skin so he covered up with his blanket. He sniffled but then sighed lightly in relief, just laying down made him feel a little better.

There was a knock on the door a few seconds later and his mom reentered the room with some medicine. “Here, take this and then get some rest.” she handed him the medicine and a glass of water.

Roy sat up and reached out to take the water… but then he sneezed. The water slipped right out of his hand and spilled all over him and his blankets. “Oh crap… I’m sorry, mom…” he hadn’t wanted to distract her from the party preparations but obviously, that wasn’t working.

“You’re fine.” she said as she quickly picked up the water glass and set it on his nightstand, “Why don’t you go lay in the guest room? I’ll get you a new cup of water and replace your sheets.”

“I can get my own water,” he sniffed,  “you can go back to getting things ready for Joey.”

“Oh, that’s right, Joey is home!” No one in the house knew how to keep quiet, well other than Joey and sometime James, their stepdad. “You aren’t taking care of yourself but Joey can handle it.” she started out of the room, yelling for Joey as she did.

Roy groaned, because of both her yelling and the thought of having to depend on Joey. He grabbed a kleenex off his nightstand and threw it in the general direction of his trashcan. It missed by a few feet but at the moment, he didn’t really care. Slowly it registered in his brain that his shirt was soaked as well so he got up and changed his shirt.

“Yeah, yeah! I got it!” Joey was yelling to their mom as he entered the room.

Roy flinched. “Joey. Please. Keep. It. Down.”

Joey looked at him, one eyebrow raised. “You look like crap… kinda like when you laid out in the sun all day la-”

“Don’t go there, it’s not my fault no one woke me up.” he said, having meant to cut him off  sooner but his focus was still lacking.

“Oh whatever. Mom said I needed to make sure you took some medicine and got into bed but not your bed because there’s water spilled on it so let’s get moving.” He said. He had been in the middle of a rather interesting conversation over an online game with someone so he was hoping to get this done fast.

Roy shook his head. “Just go back to what you were doing,” he sniffled, “I can handle myself.” In his mind it was more like, ‘You’re just giving me a bigger headache anyways.’

Joey grabbed his wrist and began tugging him out of the room, “No can do, little dude,” Roy was a good 5 inches shorter than Joey with no evidence anytime in the previous that he would be getting any taller, “Mom said if I didn’t take care of you she wasn’t letting me have cake tonight.”

Roy stumbled out of the room, “Why are you even home so early?” Joey was 21 and still lived at their house. There was several reasons for this; the college he was going to was only ten minutes from their house, after their mom remarried they moved into a rather nice house and their rooms were just as nice, plus, this way he could eat real meals rather than ramen every night. Usually he had classes on fridays but it was Joey’s second week off of school and obviously Roy’s thinking was somewhat impaired at the moment.

“You must seriously be out of it. I’ve been done with school for the year for two weeks.” Joey was pulling Roy down the hallway, only kind of making sure he stayed on his feet. He really wanted to get back to his computer.

Roy blinked a few times when his vision blurred just a bit due to the light-headedness he was experiencing. He pulled his wrist from Joey’s grasp and caught himself on the wall before he could fall over.

Joey stopped and turned to face him. “Dude, come on!”

There was an attempt at a response but then a sneeze instead.

“Eww, Roy, why didn’t you bring kleenexes with you?”

“Thank God you don’t have a girlfriend. You would be murdered for a comment like that.” Roy mumbled out. He started walking again carefully down the hall and into the guest bedroom. “I got it from here. Just change my sheets and then you can tell mom you took care of it.” he said.

“Alright, alright, fine.” Roy may have been tiny (from his point of few), younger, and sick but Joey didn’t mess with him. Being the youngest, Roy learned how to take revenge a long time ago. The siblings also learned a long time ago that Roy would take a lot but if you push it too far you’ll regret it more than most people regret trying anchovy pizza with peanut butter on it… Ok, so maybe Tristan was the only one to ever try that, but let me tell you, he regretted it a lot.

Roy shut the door behind him with a small sigh of relief before a sneeze and a groan. He could feel his heartbeat in his head and it wasn’t pleasant. There was a minute of silence and stillness before he ventured back out in the hallway, just wanting to make sure Joey and his mother were gone. He went to the restroom and took the medicine Maria had wanted him to, holding back a few sneezes so that he wouldn’t alarm her, and then returned to the room.

After getting into the bed and pulling a blanket over him he was able to release a deep breath. It was only a matter of minutes before he was asleep, thankful the twins weren’t home and that Joey was obviously distracted by something, so it was quiet in the house.

And to be continued… yet again~! xD

Friday Afternoon, May 30th 2014

Joey: 21 years old (Just turned 21 in the past week)

Tristan and Leah: 17 years old (Will turn 18 in August)

Roy: 16 years old. (Just turned 16 in February)

Roy stepped out of the car, “Thanks, Leah.” he said as he shut her car door behind him.

About 25 minutes earlier~

Leah and Tristan kept the same class schedule, not really by Leah’s choice though. Tristan waited until she had her schedule set and then copied it. It made it easier on him because then he could just ask her what they had for homework or whatever else he happened to miss due to his short attention span.

Anywho, Tristan was walking backwards down the hall towards their next class. He was turned to face Leah and one of her friends, Grace. They were conversing about the soccer team they both belonged to. The discussion seemed to be over who should switch positions with who for the next game after the loss they had had earlier that week.

“Oh, totally, Alicia needs to be benched and Trish put in her place.” Tristan said in a mock serious tone.

Leah rolled her eyes and swung her math book forward, hitting Tristan hard, “They aren’t even on the soccer team!”

“Hey! Tha-Oof!”

“Tristan! Watch out!” Leah yelled at him, he had knocked over another student. As she went to help the other kid she realized it was Roy. She frowned, of all people in the school Roy should’ve heard Tristan coming and known to get out of the way. “Roy, you okay?”

He looked up at her, slightly dazed, from where he had fallen. “Oh… Yeah… I-I’m fine.” he spoke slowly. He was the palest in the family, having somehow inherited their father’s complexion while everyone else had gotten their mother’s, and right now his face looked like the last summer when he had fallen asleep out in the hammock all day and came in completely sunburnt.

“Dude, what’s your issue?” Leah didn’t do sympathy very well.

Grace laughed, knowing Leah wouldn’t pick up on what was wrong on her own she decided to just tell her. “Leah, he looks sick, you should take him to the nurse, I’ll see you at practice later.” she said before hurrying off down the hall, not wanting to be late for her own class.

Leah blinked and looked back at Roy, “Sick? Why are you still here?”

Tristan had stayed silent and still for too long enough now… at least a full thirty second, so he got moving. He reached down to help Roy to his feet, just a little too fast. “Sorry, bro, didn’t mean to run ya over. Whoa! You feel like you just ate one of those gross peppers Joey likes! Why don’t you take off your sweatshirt? I thought you were smart.” he spoke sentences as if they were just one word, making up for his half a minute of silence.

Roy didn’t seem very balanced. From his point of view the hall spun around him. He half heartedly attempted to focus on Leah as he sniffled one before speaking. “There’s only one more class left… I’ll… I’ll be okay.” It took him some time to get the whole sentence out. In his last class he had lost the ability to concentrate as he had started burning up. Figuring it was just because school was only a few days from being over so they were avoiding paying for the air conditioning at all costs. he pulled off his favorite blue hoodie that he wore more often than not, but he had just ended up shivering so he put it back on. When he had gotten up to leave the classroom he had gotten light headed but he ignored it. Normally he would’ve called his mom to have her come pick him up but he knew she was busy preparing for the birthday party for Joey that night. With that in mind he had decided to just tough it out and ride home with the twins after school like always.

Leah shook her head at the two of them. “Tristan, you go to class, I’m going to drive Roy home.” It was one of the last days of classes so she wasn’t too concerned about missing a class and she figured if she sent Tristan it would be practically torture for Roy. Tristan drove like he walked… never in a straight line or at an even pace. Not only that but he was easily distracted by anything imaginable.

“Leaaahhh, if you’re skipping class I wanna too.” Tristan whined. “Ouch! Would you stop using books for weapons!” Leah had hit him with her math book once again.

“Go to class and they’re just watching a movie today, you’ll be fine.” she said. They only had two more days of school and were finished with the actual learning part of the year, so they were just watching movies or playing games in most of their classes now. Not to mention Tristan was almost as bad of a passenger as he was a driver so if she could avoid taking him with them she was going to. Roy would thank her later, she was sure of it.

Tristan’s shoulders slumped, taking on a rejected expression. “Fine, I’ll see you later.” he said, “Get better, Roy.” he patted him on the head before heading towards class.

Roy flinched, “He doesn’t,” he sniffed “understand the word gentle… and why does he pat me on the head?” Sniffle, “He’s only a few inches taller than me…”

“You should know that even as his twin I don’t understand why he does almost anything.” Leah spoke as she motioned for him to walk with her “C’mon, let’s get you home.”

He sneezed and then groaned. “I’m coming…” he coughed and then sniffed before trudging behind her down the hall. He moved slow thanks to the unsteady world around him but he made it out to the car with Leah.

Leah unlocked the car and got in, not even thinking to offer any help to Roy, he managed just fine anyways though.

She waited until he was buckled before starting the car and starting the drive home. Since their mom had gotten married a year and a half earlier they had moved to the other side of town to one of the nicer neighborhoods. None of them had wanted to leave the high school they were already attending though so now they just had a little further of a drive, about fifteen minutes or so.

It was silent for about five minutes, with only a sniffle or cough from Roy every now and then, when suddenly there was a sneeze. The car jerked just a bit and there was a loud honk behind them.

“Roy!! What was that?!” Leah yelled at him, quickly getting the car back under control.

“A sneeze…” he said flatly, although it sounded a lot like “Ah thneed” thanks to his stuffed up nose and now voice.

“Could you not?! I’m trying to drive!”

“You’re hurting my head…” he complained.

“You’re head will hurt even more if you startle me again and cause us to wreck!” she still yelled.

Roy moved away from her as much as was possible when sitting in the passengers seat. “Leah, I can’t help i- ah… ak-choo! Uggghh…” he held a hand to his head and closed his eyes.

Leah glared at him for a split second but didn’t yell when she spoke this time. “Just get a kleenex from the glove box, I don’t want your snot all over my windows.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” he sniffled but then did as he was asked and grabbed a few kleenexes from the glove box.

The rest of the drive was pretty quiet other than a few more sneezes from Roy and when they arrived home Leah pulled into the driveway and parked. “Make sure mom knows you’re home.” she said, having realized that the reason he hadn’t called her in the first place was because he knew she was busy today.

“I’ll be fine.” he said even though he felt like his whole body was on fire and his head was about to burst.

“Roy, do I need to come inside with you and make sure you get taken care of?” Usually, that would be a caring remark, but from Leah it was a threat. When you are sick, neither of the twins are good companions. Tristan is no where near calm enough to be able to do any good and Leah, she’s just a bit rough around the edges, plus, she’s never successfully made a can of soup… or really anything for that matter.

Roy quickly shook his head and then regretted it, he took a second to let things slow down around him before speaking. “Fine, fine, I’ll tell her I’m home.” he said before stepping out of the car. “Thanks, Leah” he added before shutting the car door and heading inside the house.

To Be Continued… 😀

Some Saturday, April 2014

“MOOOMMM!!! TELL ROY TO CHANGE!!! HE’S MAKING ME SNEEZE!!” Leah yelled from the kitchen.

Roy had just arrived home from their mom’s pet shop and was covered in cat, dog, and whatever other fur he had happened to come in contact with that day. He had come home starving and went right to the kitchen, only Leah happened to be in there already, eating a popsicle. Which wasn’t an issue to him but she was extremely allergic to animal anything: fur, saliva, smell. Well, the latter was just her claim.

“Just take your popsicle outside. I’m starving.” Roy said, sounding eons calmer than she did, but that was the usual.

Leah ignored him as she sneezed and yelled for her mother once again. Instead of a response from her mom though, she got one from her twin, Tristan, or I guess, not so much a response as a ‘he came bounding into the kitchen with a comment having nothing to do with her hollering’.

“Ohh!! Mom got popscicles?! I want one!! You better not have eaten all the orange ones!” He was 17, as was Leah (they are twins after all), not that they ever actually tried to sound like it. Especially not when they were at home with just the family.

Leah rolled her eyes, “She just bought them today! You really think I could eat all eight orange popscicles in three hours?!”

When the twins interacted with eachother at home it was mostly yelling, not much talking.

“Well, I don’t know! I bet you could do it if you wanted to!” He exclaimed, practically knocking over Roy in his rush to get the frozen treat from the fridge.

Roy was almost two full years younger than the twins, and at least three inches shorter than Tristan, while hardly having an inch on Leah. He was also the mellow one of the family. Needless to say, if Roy stood between Tristan and a sweet snack, well, he didn’t stand between them for long.

“Ugh! You two are so stupid!” Leah huffed as she stormed out of the kitchen, giving up on Roy changing and Tristan getting a brain.

Tristan hardly even noticed, too busy holding wrapped popscicles up to the light. He was trying to see through the wrapper and find an orange one. Roy on the other hand just ignored the insult as he made himself a sandwich.

On Leah’s way to her room she passed by their oldest sibling’s room. He was swearing at his computer which caused her to peak her head in out of curiousity. “Whatcha working on?” She asked.

“Nothing!” He said, quickly minimizing a command prompt.

Leah shook her head, “Are you trying to hack James’s computer again? I’m telling you guys, he’s perfectly normal.”

James was their step-dad. The boys, or at least Joey and Tristan, had a theory he wasn’t just a really successful business man, but some undercover astronaut spy monkey… Or something stupid like that, as if Leah actually cared enough to remember a stupid theory of her brothers’.

“Would a ‘perfectly normal’ guy have a computer with such high security that I couldn’t crack it? No! There would be no need for it!” Joey didn’t even look over his shoulder at her as he spoke. He was too busy having bringing the black window with typewriter font back up and bashing away at the keyboard again.

“He owns a million dollar company, do you really expect him to own a plain home computer that can be cracked by a simple minded college kid?” she asked before taking another bite of her popsicle.

Joey, much like the rest of them, was actually pretty book smart, logic on the other hand he lacked sometimes. “Psh, sister, I can’t believe you’re so naive that you’ve bought into his little scheme.”

She rolled her eyes. “Maybe you’re just losing your touch. It’s all those college classes, messing with your coolness that allowed you to hack computers.” Leah’s voice dripped sarcasm. She backed out and shut the door before he had a chance to respond.

Leah walked the rest of the way down the hall to her room. She stepped inside and shut the door behind her before sitting in her desk chair. Finally finishing her popsicle in peace… which was blue might I add.