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Chapter 8: Rules

"Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind." -Douglas MacArthur

Isabella POV

Seven brothers.

 That's what I have to deal with. What in the heck happened to all the girls? Surely, they didn't have seven sons in a row. Sure, I wanted siblings but not seven and most certainly not all brothers. Isabella, there has to be a bright side to all of this, right? I mean a big family is better than no family at all.

"Sorellina, are you ok? Earth to Isabella" Ilias said waving his hand in front of my face. Which surprisingly I didn't flinch at, yay me. I realized that everyone was staring at me still. 

"Yeah, I'm ok sorry I guess I was in my own little world" I said adding a small smile at the end. If I've learned anything from being in foster care/homes is that a smile will help with almost anything.

"Alright, since we all have introduced ourselves. Bring in the food please." Dad (that feels so weird to say) says. Another set of doors that are in the corner of the room suddenly open and 4 people step out of them. With trays of food in hand. That's how much they eat for breakfast! That's probably more food than I've eaten in the timespan of the 2 years I spent with John and Larissa.

Once all of the food is placed on the table all of the others don't even take a minute to appreciate the food. Before they dig in. Let me tell you it was like war between all of them. You might think I'm being dramatic but trust me I'm not.

I was going to wait until everyone had already gotten what they wanted out of the food. But Mateo noticed me just sitting there with an empty plate in front of me. "Principessa, why aren't you getting anything to eat?" Mateo questioned me with his smile not so big anymore. (princess)

"Oh, I was just going to wait until everyone else got their food first." I reply simply, with a small smile.

Mateo's face softened a great deal. "You can always ask me to fix your plate for you kiddo, I don't mind. You should never be the last to eat so just ask one of your dear brothers to get you your food." Mateo said sweetly. 

I have never heard such sweet words before. They were so sweet I couldn't help but wonder maybe, just maybe, it will be different here. No more beating, mean words, or days without food. Maybe I can be happy here with a family to call my own. I could have a home instead of just a house. My smile grew at the thought.

"Ok I understand. I might just do that," I had to hold back from hugging him for his sweet words. Mateo swiftly grabbed my plate and started putting food on it after looking to me for my nod of approval.

 Once Mateo had put all the foods of my liking on my plate, he gently sat it back down in front of me and turned back to his own plate of food. I looked down at my plate only to see how much food he had put on it. Did he mean to put this much on it? How in the world am I supposed to eat this much? Is this what a normal amount of food looks like?

I guess I had been staring at my plate of food for a little too long. "Is the food not to your liking Isabella? If so, we can have our chefs prepare something different." Leonardo stated, at his words, everyone turned their heads in my direction. I hated when people stared at me and boy were they staring intensely. 

"Oh no it's fine, perfect even" I stated rather cheerfully. They all nodded their heads in acknowledgement and went back to eating or talking or doing both.

I ate as much of the food as I could. But after about 5 bites I was super full. I couldn't eat anymore so I just started playing with my food. Again, someone seemed to notice and decided to point it out to everyone though.