My Best Friend's Brother

Home Alone 5

Aria walked into the Wilkerson house wearing her favorite hoodie and jeans, she was still tired but was excited to see Francis after not seeing him in so long. She saw Francis walk into the kitchen with Dewey not far behind him talking his ear off.

“And then I drew a robot, Francis. But my crayon broke. Then I had a popsicle. I mean, I had 12 popsicles. You like popsicles, Francis?”

“Shut up, Dewey. Stop bugging Francis.” Reese snapped at his younger brother, “I’m so glad you're home. You don’t know what it’s like dealing with these little kids all day.”

“Of course he does, he’s dealt with you for years.” Aria said as she moved to sit at the table, he gave her a mean look causing her to smile at him innocently. Francis gave a quick smile before he smelled the milk.

“Hey.” Malcolm greeted his older brother placing his bowl on the counter, Francis hummed in acknowledgement as he focused on the milk.

“Boys! The number for the hotel is on the counter. I left money for pizza, but I want a receipt and exact change.” Lois yelled from the bedroom, the two adults were packing to go to some wedding. Francis is in charge of watching the kids and Aria was in charge of watching Francis.

“And then it got away. But then I found another one, but it died. And then --” Dewey continued to ramble before Reese cut him off grabbing his shoulder.

“I said leave him alone you butt-munch.”

“Let me go.” Dewey struggled to get out of his brother’s grip.

“Make me.”

The two brothers started to fight and Aria watched to make sure that neither did any serious damage. Dewey somehow ended up on Reese’s back pulling at his nose, she had to admit that it was amusing to watch, Malcolm suddenly ran into the kitchen.

“Guys, quit it.” He hissed but he was ignored, “Listen for a second. I just heard Mom and Dad. They’re thinking about letting Francis come home.”

The other three froze and Aria moved out of her seat to stand closer to the boys, Dewey slid off of Reese’s back in shock.

“You serious?” Reese asked quietly so that his parents wouldn’t hear him.

“Yeah. They want to see how he does with us this weekend. Okay? So we can’t screw up.”

“Cool. Let’s go tell him.” Reese moved to go find Francis but Malcolm was quick to stop him.

“No. You know how Francis gets when people tell him what to do.” Malcolm was right. Francis didn’t take being bossed around too well and Aria can remember when he got piercings after he was told not to by his mother.

“Right. Then, what are we going to do?” Aria asked, she might not be related to Francis by blood but he was like a brother to her.

“We’re gonna be good, that’s what.” 

“How do we be good?” Dewey asked, they didn’t have much experience in behaving.

“I don’t know.” Malcolm thought for a moment, “Look, we’re just not going to do anything. That way, we can’t get into any trouble.”

“Honey, we’re late. We better hit the road.” Hal called back to his wife as he entered the kitchen.

“Fine. I’ll shave my legs in the car. I’ve marked the liquor bottles, and we can taste when it’s watered down.” Lois continued to list off things that they would realize was missing as the children followed them out to the car to say goodbye. “We love you, have a good time. And just remember, Dewey will tell us everything you did while we were gone.”