Paradox

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

            The alarm went of, blaring away jauntily from its perch on the nightstand besides the girl’s bed.  A groan came from beneath the wine red comforter; the mass of blankets moving, a hand coming out from beneath them, feeling around for the clock that had disturbed her sleep.

            “Shut up,” she told the clock, finally finding the snooze button and slamming down on it, rolling onto her back, pulling the covers from her face, her almost white, blonde curls sticking up at odd angles.  She moaned, the early morning sunlight spilling in from the curtains she had not fully closed.

            She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, tugging her dark blue nightshirt down, kicking the covers aside, letting her feet hang from the bed while she stretched her arms, making little moaning noises when her joints popped.

            Sighing, she stood up, glancing at her clock.  It was a little before six, long enough for her to prepare breakfast and lunch before getting her little brother and sister up, the dull pain in her stomach reminding her that her mother and older brother were gone now, and not coming back.

            Shaking her head to get rid of the dark thoughts, she tapped her cheeks with both hands to wake herself up.  She still needed to do some things, so she headed straight to the bathroom to take a quick shower before getting dressed, not bothering to dry or brush her hair after realizing she had taken longer to shower than she had intended.

            She had only pulled on old clothes since she needed to cook, and once the twins were up things usually got messy.

            She hummed while preparing breakfast, toasting bread, cooking bacon and eggs and reheating the mashed potatoes from the night before, setting three places on their old table that could seat eight, leaving out the bottles of orange and grape juice on the table before heading back into the hallway, the warm fuzzy carpet tickling her feet as she passed the photos that hung on the wall, trying not to look at them.  Sparse light fell in from the windows installed in the slanted ceiling.

            “Neah, Nao?” she called, hearing small noises coming from the room they shared.  They did not want to change rooms now that there was a third one free since their older brother’s death.  Since the day he and their mother had died in that car accident, nobody had entered their rooms but their father the few times he was home.  Usually he was on business trips, leaving his children alone.

            They did have a good neighbor who checked in on them a lot, who was almost like an older brother or an uncle.

            “Good morning Chihuahua!” two voices called, the door of their room flying open, two round faces with dimples greeting the girl who had woken up extra early for their sake.

            “Good morning Dean, Naomi,” she made the extra effort to call them by their full names instead of their nicknames, hoping they would stop calling her by nickname.

            “Morning Chiwa!” the twins cried, their strawberry blond curls falling everywhere, the one’s hair longer than that of the others.

            “We smelt breakfast so we got dressed already,” the twin with the shorter hair said, his silvery blue eyes wrinkling at the corners as he smiled.  He was a little taller than the girl at his side, but not by much.

            “I can’t fix my hair though,” the girl frowned, grabbing fistfuls of her curls.  “Could you help me Chiwa?” she asked.

            The twins were around twelve, but could have passed for younger if one went by their height alone.

            “Dean, you go brush your hair,” Chiwa said assertively, pointing down the hall in the direction of the bathroom door.  “I’ll help your sister,” she added, gesturing for Naomi to go get the brush.