Cody learns to love

The one chapter where Emerie meets all her brothers

  Emerie was really excited to meet all her brothers. She was a little afraid before she met Cody but the man was so cool and so kind that Emerie loved him already and she couldn't imagine the rest of her brothers being bad.

  When they reached the house that she was going to be living in and that was, by the way, amazing, no one was there yet and Cody told her to get some sleep before everyone arrived. Emerie thought she was too excited to sleep but as soon as she touched the incredibly soft bed, she fell asleep. Cody apologized for her having to stay in his bedroom for the moment but Emerie liked Cody's room. It was so much fuller than her old room!

  When she woke up a few hours later, the house was no longer silent. She could hear someone talking in hushed tones, distant laughing, the sound of pouring water...

  Emerie got up. She was wearing the loose t-shirt and pants with cute kittens Cody called pajamas that she picked in the mall. She liked the colorful design, it was so different than her old uniform! She wondered if she really could wear clothes like this all the time.

  Emerie slipped into the strangely comfortable shoes that Cody found her. They forgot to buy her shoes but Cody said that they wouldn't be returning to the mall for now and that he will borrow her some shoes. The shoes were red, Cody said they used to belong to Fox but he grew out of them. He promised that Emerie could get her own shoes later. Honestly, Emerie didn't know why she would need one, these ones were good.

  There was a knock on the door. How did one answer a knock on the door? Nala Se never bothered to knock. "Yeah?" Emerie tried. She hoped it was an acceptable answer.

  "Can I open the door?" she heard Cody's voice. Why was he even asking?

  "Yeah, sure!"

  The door opened, revealing Cody. "I thought I heard something. Wanted to see if you are awake. Do you feel like meeting your brothers now?"

  "Yeah! Are they all here now?"

  "They are. I guess you are going to get dressed and then come into the living room?"

  "But I am dressed," Emerie didn't understand.

  "Well yeah, but you are only in your pajamas. I mean, you can wear them if you want, I know it's comfy, but we usually wear pajamas only to bed. No one will mind here and it's not really forbidden on the outside either but people will look at you like you are weird."

  "Why?"

  "It's just that people usually don't go out in their pajamas," Cody explained.

  "Okay, I will change," Emerie agreed. She didn't want anyone thinking she was weird. She wasn't weird! She just didn't really know the regulations.

  "I will leave you here to change and I will be waiting for you in the living room. You know where all your clothes is, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "Great. Call if you need anything."

  Emerie didn't really know why Cody always repeated that but she didn't ask. Cody would probably ask similarly like when she asked why he was always asking her if she was okay with what they were about to do. And his answer couldn't be furter from satisfying. No answer has ever confused Emerie more than 'Your opinion matters.' has. She also didn't ask why was Cody leaving the room every time she changed her clothes again. 'Your privacy is important.' was probably the worst answer she has ever gotten. Well, it's not like Nala Se really answered her questions but at least Emerie somewhat understood what she wanted from her and why.

  It wasn't that she didn't understand what Cody wanted her to do when he told her to change. It was just, sometimes she had trouble guessing why. But she wouldn't disobey, not when Cody was so nice to her. So she changed into the black jeans and one of the colorful t-shirts that Cody bought her. She chose the one that was blue with glitters, it was her favorite because of how it shone when under direct light. It was so much more beautiful than the boring Kaminoan uniforms!

  She felt confident when she opened the door and then she didn't. Because there were so many copies of Cody of all ages and she was related to all of them and was supposed to live with them.

  Only there was no time to worry before she had two identical children - they had to be clones, there was no other way - running to her and quite literally jumping at her. Was that supposed to be an attack or was that some form of greeting?

  "Fives! Echo! I told you not to jump at people until you know it's okay with them," Cody chided lightly. The boys - Fives and Echo - let go of Emerie but remained close, each by one of her sides. "Sorry, Emerie," Cody apologized. "Fives and Echo are just eager to meet you."

  "We will watch lots of princess movies together," the one on her right said. Whatever that meant, it kind of sounded like a threat. Were children supposed to threaten? Maybe it was just that Emerie skipped that phase of her development. It was hard to tell sometimes.

  "You see, Echo here is very excited to have a sister," Cody explained. "He is very social and very talkative, right, Echo?"

  The boy, apparently Echo, nodded, then scrunched up his nose in confusion, then asked: "Cody, what does 'social' mean?"

  "A social person likes to make friends and to talk to people a lot."

  "So I'm social," Echo guessed and when Cody nodded, he continued: "And Fives is social too. And Kix is a bit social and Jesse is social and Fox isn't social and Wolffe is only a tiny little bit social and Rex is social and Bly too and... are you social, Cody?"

  "Just a little," Cody messed up Echo's hair with a quick gesture of his hand. Sometimes, for all his kindness, the man didn't make sense. Why would he even do that? And why didn't Echo seem to mind his hair being messed up like that?

  "Well, you've met the twins," Cody stated, as if it wasn't obvious.

  "I'm Fives," the boy on Emerie's left announced proudly.

  Like, wasn't that obvious? Maybe Fives was just a little slow. "Uh... nice to meet you?"

  "Nice to meet you too," Fives grinned up at her. "Come on, we will show you everyone and everything," he warned before he started dragging Emerie across the room. Was that how children were supposed to behave?

  To Emerie's disappointment, she didn't get to meet Fox right away. Not that the other brothers weren't fine but she wanted to meet Fox. It wasn't fair, really, because at one point, Wolffe left to talk to Fox and Emerie wasn't allowed inside his room. Cody said that Fox didn't like new people but surely his sister and new best friend was an exception. Cody didn't agree so Emerie had to wait.

  But her waiting seemed to finally reach it's end when Wolffe entered the living room dragging a boy behind him. That had to be Fox. He looked a bit older than Emerie and he looked like a younger copy of Wolffe. So that was Emerie's new best friend...

  "Hi!" Emerie chirped. "I'm Emerie."

  Fox looked at her but he didn't say anything, he just shrugged and went to hug Cody instead. Why was he being so mean? Did he not want to be Emerie's best friend?

  "Don't mind him, he will come around," Bly whispered as he passed her. Emerie hoped he was right. Maybe Fox was just shy.

  Cody and Fox exchanged a few words in hushed tones, then Cody kissed the top of Fox's head before he pulled away. Fox turned towards Emerie with an unreadable expression. "Hi."