A Family Affair (Hunter Street)

Chapter Twenty Three -- A Shocking Reveal

"LET'S GET TO work!" Jake said, nodding enthusiastically at everyone. Oliver and the other boys, besides Daniel, were standing in the living room of Daniel's apartment, getting ready to clean everything up. It was time for them all to go back to the Hunter House and for Oliver to go home since the treasure hunt had ended in Daniel getting hurt. "I want this place to look spotless. If I see a small stain or anything like that, I will not be happy. Okay?"

"Okay, Mr. Clean," Max said with a straight face. Sal burst out laughing, and the two of them high fived each other. "Though, I don't know when Mr. Clean got black, but hey, at least you have hair, right? You would horrible bald."

"No more joking," Jake barked, sounding like a drill sergeant. "We are cleaning up this apartment, and that is all we're going to do. Understand?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Sal and Max said, both saluting Jake. 

Jake looked at Florian and Oliver, who hadn't joined in on the saluting. Oliver placed his hand against his hairline, saluting Jake quickly. He didn't dare start laughing based on the intense look in Jake's eyes. Florian was the only one who didn't join in, but that was okay because Jake dismissed them to get cleaning up.

The thing was, Oliver didn't want to clean up the apartment because he didn't want to go home. However, he knew he needed to go now. It was time. He had been in the city for way too long. He and Jasmyn were going to go to the forest together since the treasure hunt was officially over. He was going to miss everyone so much. He was going to miss playing video games with Jake and Max. He was going to miss learning more about electronics with Sal. He was going to miss being with Anika and laughing about anything and everything. 

But he knew that he missed his home a lot. He missed the simplicity of the forest, where he didn't have to worry about getting hit by a car every single time he walked on the sidewalks around the city. He didn't have to stay up every night because he couldn't sleep with all the noise from the city, the cars honking and the people yelling. He could just sit and relax at home with his mom. 

"Oliver, are you helping us?" Florian asked with his angry glare pointed at Oliver. As Oliver's eyes cleared, he realized that everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to start cleaning up Daniel's apartment, too. "Or are you just going to stand there and watch us do all the hard work?"

"Sorry, sorry," Oliver said, shaking his head, dispersing his thoughts. "I'm helping. Don't worry."

While Jake swept up the whole apartment and Sal vacuumed the rest of the floor space, Oliver knew he wanted to get the pictures that Daniel made him take down when they all first moved into his apartment and put them back up. Max and Florian were tasked with cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, respectively. While he walked to Daniel's bedroom, Oliver heard Florian grumbling to himself that it wasn't fair that he was forced to clean the bathroom, that it was three Hunters versus one Lukas. He couldn't help but laugh softly at Florian's grumbles.

As he stepped into Daniel's bedroom, he headed over to his closet, where Oliver and Daniel had put all the pictures of him and Sophie when this whole adventure first started. For just a moment, he wished it was still that moment because he didn't want to go home. But his homesickness started seeping into his chest again, so he shook his head once more and picked up the picture frames that were sitting in the corner of the closet, next to a pair of Daniel's shoes. The top picture frame contained a picture of Daniel and Sophie grinning to the camera, each looking so happy to just be together. In the background of the picture, Oliver noticed that they seemed to be at the zoo because he recognized the waterfall. 

Oliver smiled to himself. The zoo now contained great memories for him, not just because of Anika but because he could remember going there with Markus when he was little. The memories slowly started coming back to him once he started spending time with Markus, and he was glad. Markus was a great man, and he considered him more of a father figure than his biological father was. When Anika and Oliver had met their biological father, he knew that they wouldn't click like they did with Markus. He was just this random man that lived in a totally different country who had known their mom for a short amount of time. That was it, nothing more.