The Sweetest Baker

Chapter Eleven--When Will The Chaos Ever End?

 The next day, everyone but Nora was upstairs working on getting the house ready. Mom's flight was expected to land soon so I made myself busy with vacuuming the floors desperately hoping I wouldn't step on anything. While I was thinking of that, I stepped on Sarah's lacrosse stick. Turning the vacuum off, I turned to my sister who doing the dishes.

"Sarah! How many times do I have to tell you to pick up your darn Lacrosse stick?!" I shouted at my sister.

"Fine!" she groaned grabbing it and taking it to your room.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! We don't have time for this attitude of yours, young lady," Dad shouted stopping her on the steps. Despite his best efforts, I still hadn't forgiven him for what he put me through. Still, I gave him a thankful grin as he moved around the room obviously not seeing Nora. "Where's your sister?"

I shrugged wishing I knew where she was. I really needed the extra help down here. With a command to go wake her up, I ran up the steps pounding on her door.

"Nora! Come on! Let's go! We gotta do some extra cleaning!" I shouted trying to open the locked door. Nothing. I stood there banging a minute longer before I heard, "Okay, Hunter."

Something told me she wasn't up though.

Figuring I'd just let Dad handle her, I went down half of the steps where Dad did not look amused when he heard her door was locked. He looked about ready to storm up the rest of the steps when the phone rang. I ran downstairs behind him to keep an eye on my siblings. It was a good thing I did because I could see Kyle and Nigel's stuff in the closet and growl at Dad. He just told them to go upstairs and get ready. With a sigh, I got the stuff out of the cabinet and tried whatever I could to clean it up having my sisters help me when needed.

I rubbed my eyes exhausted as Sarah and the twins put the toys in the toy bin and Lorraine and I dealt with everything else. I didn't want to have to do this and Mom told me not to put any more pressure on myself but I had been so used to doing it that my first instinct was to do it without Mom or even Dad asking.

Dad looked stressed while he was on the phone snapping at Henry not to eat the snacks that were for Oprah's people and just about breaking a vase. Putting the blanket I was carrying down, I ran over to help him snapping over at Henry and then pointing to the outside. He sighed going outside with his brothers which I noticed didn't include Mark. I tried not to worry about him as Dad hung up turning to me.

"Your Mom's plane is landing in forty-five minutes. She wants to make sure you get there in time," he informed me. Grabbing my purse by the door, I turn to Lorraine.

"Make sure you ladies clean this up, okay?" I asked reaching for my phone at the table. Turning to Dad, I thanked him as I left waving at the boys from outside.

"Great work, everyone!" I praised. "Charlie. Make sure your brothers stick to it, okay?"

"Sure thing, Hunts!" he called over the lawnmower as I got in my car about to drive off. I was happy to be the one that got to be the first to see Mom. She would know how to control my siblings because obviously, I didn't.

~~~~

"Mom! Over here!" I called at the drop-off honking my horn for her. Mom smiled fixing her bag as she ran out of the airport and I ran to her. The hug she gave me felt warm and comforting. She played with my hair reassuringly.

"It'll all be okay, sweetheart......I'll help you get this sorted," she whispered kissing my cheek. "Thank you so much for that family photo and for calling me when you knew your siblings needed me. I promise. We'll get this sorted, your father and I both. We'll talk more about what happens next in the car." I nodded helping her lift her bags to the back of the car.