Opposites Attract?

three

  THE DOOR slammed and I heard keys jangling despite music blasting in my ears. I paused the song and hopped off the stool to help my parents with the groceries. Walking out, I stepped into the center of the path as the twins dashed past me and I saw a slab of chocolate in Daniel's hand. Grabbing the extra grocery bags, I heaved them towards the kitchen and swept all my work aside on the counter.

"Hey, how was work?" I asked them, kissing them both on the cheeks. I reached into the bags for some fruits as I was craving some milkshakes. Rummaging through the fridge, I only found two lonely apples sitting in the fridge.

My dad yawned. "It's tiring. Who knew working in the headquarters would be different from just a branch office?"

Both my parents worked at the same office, although in different departments. My father was the Head of IT whereas my mother was the Director of Marketing in the company, TopCorp. Similar to the large toy making companies in the world, TopCorp made toys with techinical parts. My dad has an important role in making sure the toys appeal to the crowd and find ways to improve old products.

"How was school anyways Jasmine?" my dad asked. I shrugged and replied with a cliché response which was 'okay' and searched through the bags as my mom unpacked.

"Do we have any other fruits except for apples?" I asked, breaking off a piece of chocolate from the twins and nibbled it gingerly.

"Who doesn't like apples?" my brother's voice came in. He waltzed into the kitchen area, grabbed an apple and tossed it in front of me.

"Eighteen years of being my older brother, you have finally realised it! And the Oscar goes to Peter Darling!" I clapped sarcastically. He grabbed a huge bite out of the apple and made a 'mmm' sound to tempt me. My unimpressed look didn't entertain him and he continued eating the apple as if it was the food from the gods.

My mother passed me a bunch of bananas, a punnet of strawberries and blueberries. "That's what we bought today fresh from the market." I balanced them carefully across to the blender and grabbed vanilla ice cream out of my brother's hands and milk from my dad. Adding two dollops of ice cream and a cup of milk, I tossed a generous amount of fruits in and began blending it.

"My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and damn right, it's better than yours." I sang as the blender blended all the ingredients together. Once it was done, I poured it into six mugs and served them to everybody.

Michael gave it a sniff whereas Daniel just gulped the mug down without even asking. "What is this Jazz?"

"I don't know but it's good." Daniel said, his lips covered in milkshake froth. I giggled at him and wiped him clean.

"It's a milkshake. Try it." I urged him. He took a tiny sip before grinning and gulped the whole thing down. Washing up after I was done, Peter gave me a little nougie on my head and I returned his favour with kicking him in the shin.

★ ★ ★

Entering my room, I felt something amiss. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind screaming something's off but everything looked normal. Everything save a tiny paper airplane on my bed. Walking towards it, I heard my door shut loudly and didn't give much care to it.

Tip of advice: lock your windows -Connor

"What in the world?" I mumbled, scratching the back of my head. My windows were shut but it wasn't locked but who cares right? It's California, no one's going to rob me right? Besides, we were living in a small town near to the beach, I highly doubt anyone wants to attack a family of six.

But something felt off. Swiftly turning around, I almost screamed. There he was, Connor Marks just lazing about on my bed flipping through my sketchbook. My sketchbook didn't have great drawings, just mainly doodles I copy off the Internet and remake them as my own or basically just rants.