BILLIE JEAN ( eddie munson.. ) ✔

002. The Carter's Want to Have Fun..

Some people like routines.

The pan he was maneuvering over the fire hissed at the contact of the pancake with the hot oil. A second pan, right beside it on the other available stove eye, was deep frying three more eggs. These two, along with the four cucumber slices were the carbon copy of every breakfast Barry Carter ever made.

He loved his routines.

A 5AM start for the day, followed by a quick 10 minutes bathroom break then a full 20 minutes of running up and down the main street of their neighborhood, still set him up to be one of the earliest risers in the house. The earliest was obviously their father, who was well out of the house at 5AM, following a hectic schedule which required him to drive for one hour to actually get to the offices he managed to land a quick job at.

It was easy to believe Barry's stay in Japan was to blame for his obsession for order, for clearly listed activities to lay out his day, but Billie had a different opinion: he wanted to regain control of this relocation. At least that.

Unlike Barry, the rest of the Carter siblings dreaded the early rise and frankly, couldn't wait to be done with this compulsory Friday show up for the Pep Rally, so they could enjoy some proper sleep, supposedly. Everyone knew the spring holiday was for anything but sleep really.

Today, Billie was the last to collapse into the chair at their dining table. By the sounds she was making, groans and whatever else monsters in the latest horror movies were up to mutter, she was obviously brought downstairs by only the sheer strength of her hunger. A sprinkle of a miracle made it so that her muscle pain didn't make her knees give in and fold her over the stairs, crumbling on her way down into the thousand pieces she felt her body had been dissected into thanks to last night's dancing.

She didn't regret a second of it. But, oh, did she curse herself for never actually thinking it would have been a good idea to warm up beforehand.

Barry didn't have to hear more than the creak of the chair to know their sister finally joined them.

"You look dead," Devin commented, as always with a mouthful of food, barely hanging in there, behind his teeth.

"Was the math circle that... tiring?" Sam's angelic voice made it all too obvious that he was teasing her.

There was not enough energy yet in Billie's body to answer in any other way but through a roll of her eyes. However, since her stomach was growling, she spared some politeness towards her oldest brother, by first leaning back in her chair until its front lifted off the ground.

"Morning, Bear," she called a little louder towards him.

Barry's shoulders dropped with an inaudible sigh. His left hand lifted and for a moment, Billie's heart rate raised, thinking today was the day. The day in which their old nicknames elicited some emotion out of Barry, who seemed so far away from them these days. Instead of waving her for a reply, he fixed his glasses and dropped the hand back down.

Though he was there in body, his spirit was missing.

Sometimes, Billie thought he never really left Japan and the person who sat down at the table with them, straight as a pillar and eating in silence was not the same Bear who gave her the very first cassette, the very first guitar pick, her favorite pin or that safety-token teddy bear.

"Can we get pizza tonight?" Sam took a leap of faith to ask a direct question, forcing Barry to sigh.

"Why?" The light falling on his glasses made it hard to tell what was happening in his eyes.

The youngest Carter inhaled sharply. He was getting ahead of himself. "Today is the last day before spring break and of course, it's going to be the first night in which dad's not home here."