A Family Affair (Hunter Street)

Chapter Six -- A New Member of the Family

THUNDERING DOWN THE stairs just as actual thunder sounded, Evie let out a loud huff. No one had woken her up, so she slept in a little too late if they wanted to get working on figuring out how to get the notebook from the boys together. It wasn't her fault, though. She had gone to bed late the previous night because the girls had tried to watch some movies together. Evie wasn't used to staying up that late and waking up early like the rest of them. She was still treated as the littlest sister -- like a little kid-- which annoyed her. 

She landed in the hallway, and she took a few steps to the right before peeking into the game room. No one was in there, which made sense concerning the chatter coming from the kitchen. Before she went into the kitchen, she checked out the chalkboard set up in the middle of the room. There wasn't much on it, besides the note from the beginning of the adventure as well as the message from the vinyl record. They hadn't gotten very far, but it was still the beginning. 

Evie sighed to herself, blowing blonde pieces of hair out of her eyes. She scrubbed a hand across her tired face, wanting to go back to bed. She knew she couldn't go back to bed yet, though, because she had to eat breakfast and get working on this adventure. Maybe they'd listen to her talk about her ideas about what's going on in this adventure. 

She backed out of the room and headed down the hallway, her high tops tapping softly against the tiled floor. Stopping just outside the doorway to the kitchen, she listened to the girls chatting amongst themselves as dishes clinked. For a second there, Evie wanted to run back to her room and hide under the covers, but that wasn't like her. She was better than that, even if they weren't treating her like she was part of the group.

"We could always steal the notebook from them," Sophie said with a shrug as Evie stepped into the kitchen. Her plate was pushed farther in front of her, probably because she finished eating, though there was almost a full pancake on her plate.

"No way," Tess said, shaking her head. Evie noticed that she was wearing Erik's apron around her waist, and she frowned. She stood at the oven, flipping a few more pancakes on the stove. Evie hoped it would be better than the last time that Tess made pancakes, right before she left for Africa. "We won't stoop to that level yet."

"What are you guys talking about?" Evie asked, sitting down next to Jasmyn against the wall at the kitchen table. Anika sat next to Sophie on the opposite side while Jennie sat at the end of the table. Evie assumed Tess sat directly across from Jennie when she was eating. "What did I miss?"

"Not much," Jasmyn answered with a smile on her face. She didn't look like she felt bad for leaving Evie out of the loop. "We're just trying to figure out how to get the notebook from the boys."

"Are you hungry, Evie?" Tess asked her. She plopped the final few pancakes on a plate and walked it over to her. Evie took it gratefully, saying a quiet thank you to her oldest sister. "I made breakfast this morning."

"Actually, Sophie made breakfast, you just cooked it," Anika said, laughing. Evie barely looked at her as she focused on her food even though she wasn't that hungry yet. She was afraid to look at Anika in case she would accidentally blow up. "We all know how your food turns out."

"Excuse me," Tess said, fixing a glare on Anika. She leaned against the cabinets in the kitchen as she turned the stove off. "I learned so much about cooking while I was in Africa. You guys are too scared for me to cook again, though."

"That's the truth," Anika said, nodding. "Anyway, we need a plan." Evie watched as Tess quickly untied the apron from around her waist and threw it onto the island. She ran over to the table and slid into her chair, giving Anika her entire attention. Evie picked at her food as Anika started talking, staring out the window. Light rain trickled down the window, and it was like the weather matched her mood. "The boys are ahead of us already, which is terrible because I need to win this."