Smiley and Sunshine

11.

"She's fine, Austin. Everything's fine. No need to panic " Austin mumbled to himself as he hurried up the pathway to the front door. "Except if it was fine, then Hayes wouldn't have been hurt in the first place, Colton."

He received a text from Colton about 30 minutes ago saying that Hayes hit her head but she was perfectly fine. Perfectly fine. No, everything was not perfectly fine, Colton. What did that even mean? At that point, his meeting was wrapping up so he decided to wait until he got home for answers. It was a bad decision. His brain was going haywire the whole drive home that he barely remembered the route he took.

His little girl was hurt. His baby sister. His Sunshine even on the most cloudiest day. He needed to find some bubble wrap, pronto.

Unlocking the door, he stepped inside to a quiet home. Too quiet. Especially for his bunch of rowdy siblings. Picking up the abandoned nerf guns that were left laying in the foyer, he moved them to the kitchen table as he passed by. He could make out the muffled sounds of a football game playing on the television coming from the family room. Not seeing any bodies in the kitchen, he continued on his way.

"Hey man," Colton greeted, without looking away from his laptop. He was in the midst of grading essays from his gremlins. "You missed lunch. Did everything go okay?"

Austin nodded, too focused on inspecting Hayes to make sure she was still in one piece to realize Colton didn't see him respond.

"Bro?" Colton glanced up at him, a smirk forming when he saw how concerned Austin looked. His big brother was such a softie. Snuggled next to Colton on the couch was Hayes who looked very cozy tucked under his right arm. She felt much better now, having been more scared than actually hurt. The bump was nothing that an ice pack and a bowl of ice cream couldn't fix. Colton promised not to tell Austin about the latter, so she would still be able to have ice cream for dessert. But that didn't mean she wouldn't take advantage of snuggling close to her brother.

"Yeah, hey guys. Where's the rest of the gang?" Austin asked. Dakota was in the room too, but was apparently so engaged with the game that he didn't acknowledge his brother. Dakota didn't even like football. Austin winked at Hayes as he took a seat on the couch. He felt his whole body relax now that he had been able to see with his own eyes that Hayes was perfectly fine. She did have red-rimmed eyes indicating she had been crying which was worrisome but apparently nothing Colton couldn't handle. Which was good, considering he worked with kids as his job.

"Baker's in the backyard with Dumb and Dumber, and Smiley's in his room." Colton replied.

Wait, what?

"Why isn't he outside with them?" Austin was confused. It was out of character for Glen to not immediately jump on the opportunity to hang out with his brothers. And now he was worried again.

"He was not allowed." Dakota answered, finally turning away from the game. There was a cheshire grin planted on his face. This only meant one thing. One of his siblings was definitely in trouble.

"Not allowed?"

"Yes, not al-looowe-d." Dakota repeated more slowly this time as if Austin didn't understand him the first time.

"Thanks smart ass. I meant, why not?" Austin rolled his eyes. It was like pulling teeth to get the answers he wanted.

"They're being punished." Colton stated. He closed his laptop, done with grading for now, and put it on the coffee table. The conversation that was about to take place was way more intriguing than reading persuasive essays. Hayes waited for him to get situated again before curling up against him.

"Let me guess, burpees?" It was a classic Baker punishment. "What for?"

"27 of those motherfuckers," Dakota snickered at his brothers' misery. The number of burpees assigned was the combined ages of the accomplices.