Shining Heart

Part 1

It was always chaotic in the Verin household. With five children all under one roof the days were never boring, even to the dismay of Julia the mother of the household. Julia was for most of her adult life a stay at home mom, though she had many activities outside those of her childrens that kept her busy and made her some coin, while her husband Harry worked out of the home.

The two had a fairly traditional marriage, they met young, fell in love, after a few years got married, and a year after had their first child from there.

Life wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't all too bad.

On this particular day Julia found herself lost in the world of one of her many Knight Romance stories, laying across their gray coloured sectional. The TV was on one of the many random kids shows one of her ducklings liked to watch, but they were off in the house, probably making a mess.

She twirled her hair like a schoolgirl, with an internal grin plastered, reading how the Knight battled the evil Necromancer and saved his beloved from being used in a horrid ritual.

Her legs curled up under her as she read the final pages, of the Knight running down the stairs after his big fight, as he had won but his princess was still endangered. Right as he got to her-

"MOM!" one of her kids' voices squealed through their house. Julia dropped her book on the couch and hauled it up the stairs to the second story, where she could hear her daughter Joanna screaming, and one of her youngest twins chuckling in their bedroom.

Julia looked between the two rooms to see if there were any obvious issues, when nothing was visibly broken or injured, she marched herself into Joanna's room. Looking around she didn't see anything off.

"What happened?" she yelled over her screaming daughter.

Joanna stopped and pointed at the wall. "Chris keeps running in here."

Julia just stared at her child, like her sight was going through her. "Let me repeat this back to you, so I make sure this was clear. You screamed like you were hurt, because your brother was running into your room?" Julia emphasized each syllable and used her hand to help tap the air to make a point.

Joanna nodded, "He is annoying me and being rude, and he didn't listen to me being nice, ignoring him, or being mean, he'll only listen to you." she huffed.

Julia took a deep breath, "Do not ever scream like that unless it is an emergency, or next time I am going to assume your crying wolf, and it could be an actual emergency."

"But he was-"

"Joanna! NO, no buts, buts are to sit on and not use as an excuse. I'll handle him, but you wait for your volume." Julia shut Joanna's door and walked into the twins room. Kyle was playing in the corner with his Dinosaur book, and Chris was hiding under his blankets.

Julia walked in and snatched the covers back, and saw Chris hiding his face. "Where are you messing with your sister?"

"No!" he shouted, holding his hands over his eyes. A dirty or genius trick Julia thought of when her oldest was younger to tell them, their pupils turned purple when they lied.

"Show me your eyes."

Chris moaned "No, I don't want to."

Julia pulled him out of bed, "Well, if you have time to torment your sister, you have time to come help me clean the kitchen."

"Noo no oh oh" Christ whined and stopped his feet as they walked down the stairs, Julia looked back to her book that was on the couch. She would return to it at a later time, she was excited to see if he saved her in time or not.

Unfortunately, that later time probably wouldn't happen until her husband got home.

Later in the night she was sitting at the stove making dinner for everyone, as the twins ran around screaming at each other, Joanna was playing her music loudly, Tris had the TV blaring with whatever crime show she was watching, and her oldest son was sitting at the Island playing on his phone, and that was also making noise.

She kept cursing at herself to ignore the commotion, and let the kids have their fun. They weren't hurting anyone, they were being kids, she reminded herself as she heard the play fighting between the twins.

Julia stared deeply into the pot that was on the stove, waiting for it to boil, and as everyone knows watched water never boils, as she felt like it was forever with all this noise going on.

She practiced her breathing and her therapist taught her to try and calm her nerves. Nothing was working, before her top blew Harry walked through the door.

"DAD" the twins yelled and rushed towards him.

"Hi Harry," she hollered over her shoulder, turning around to watch him wrestle with the kids. "How was work," he didn't answer her or even look in her direction. "I know you just got in, can you help get the kids washed up for dinner?" also no response. Harry greeted the kids and headed up the stairs.

Julia bit her tongue, that was the typical response for anything these days. He'd come home to greet the kids, and sometimes even the cat he 'didn't like' before he would greet her.

Julia finished up what she was doing and then ran around gathering the kids up and sending them to one of the three bathrooms to get washed for dinner, as she struggled with her oldest to get off his games.

After everyone was washed, and she got the kids to help set the table, Harry finally came down, of course going right over to Xander, their oldest. They started talking, Julia watched for a moment for when they would stop the conversation.

"I made Gnocchi" she said, trying to get some conversation to start, and yet again her efforts were in vain. Julia sat there staring at Harry wondering what was going on between them.

"Mom! The pot is boiling over," Tris pointed.

"Shoot" Julia cried as she rushed over and picked up the pot and moved over to the other burner that was off. Julia pinch her nose, sighing. "Let me clean this mess then I'll serve dinner."

She got a round of okays, whatevers and sounds good. Yet no one came up to help, she sat and wondered rather she had failed or not as a wife and mother to be the only one sitting her cleaning like this.