The Elements Trilogy: The Tertiaries

Chapter One

"Morning darlings," Skylar stumbled into the kitchen ungracefully at six am, rubbing sleep from her eyes, and greeting her two eldest children who were at the table eating breakfast.

"Morning Momma," Arizona paused in the act of eating her cereal as Skylar leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You tired?"

"Oh, you know it, babe. When school starts, so does my job." Skylar poured herself some coffee, and looked over at her thirteen year old son who was half asleep and staring into his Lucky Charms. "Seb? You alright?"

Sebastian started, almost knocking over his bowl of cereal. "Sorry. Tired." He mumbled.

Skylar smiled, and sipped at her coffee. "You all ready for your first day of high school?"

Sebastian shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"You nervous?"

"I guess so," Seb shrugged again. "What about you, Arizona? It's your last first day of high school." He said. "How do you feel about it?"

Young," She frowned. "If Momma and Dad didn't start me in school so freakishly early, I could be at least seventeen when I graduate instead of sixteen."

"You will be seventeen, babe." Skylar reminded her. "And Connor is sixteen now too, and he's in your grade."

"Yeah, only by like, two months. And Connor skipped a grade, remember? He's a freaking genius." Arizona rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well look at who his mother is." Skylar chuckled. "He has his mother's smarts, but his father's looks. Poor kid."

"I just don't understand why you started me early." Arizona complained.

"Hey now, Connor's mother graduated at sixteen too. And I mean, I graduated at eighteen, but I still felt young."

"How long ago was that?" Arizona laughed. "Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth?"

The sound of a coffee mug shattering had the eldest Anderson kids flinching, and the now awake toddler upstairs crying. Arizona and Sebastian stared in shock at their mother, who had suddenly turned white as a sheet.

"Momma?" Sebastian prompted. "You okay?"

"Twenty."

The kids exchanged a confused glance. "Twenty what?" Arizona asked.

"It's been twenty years." Skylar said shakily. "And when Arizona graduates, it'll be twenty-one exactly."

***

"Thayer Christopher Masen, if you are not up in five minutes, you won't get any breakfast, you hear me?!" Evie yelled up the stairs.

"Ma, you realize he can't actually hear you, right?" One of Evie's twin girls asked from the living room.

"Yeah," the other one joined in. "He's deaf."

"Thayer is not deaf, he's hard of hearing, if he keeps his hearing aids on he can hear practically perfect." Evie explained to her six year olds.

Lena and Kailey exchanged looks that reminded Evie so much of her and Evalynn, somedays it was hard to believe that they were adopted. "He hardly ever wears his hearing aids," Lena complained. "He says it gives him a headache."

"It's actually the two of you that do," Thayer pounded down the stairs and winked at the twins. "Mornin' Ma."

"It's about time!" Evie said, frustrated. "You have to take the twins to school today, babe. I have to leave for work in a couple minutes."