The Chemistry Test

9. blue eyes and starry skies

Day Five

I wasn't used to waking up to a quiet household.

Ribbons of sunlight filtered through the blinds in my bedroom window, streaming across the mustard-yellow walls of my bedroom. I admired the patterns before swinging my legs out of bed and throwing on my clothes for the day.

I tied my caramel locks into a messy ponytail and descended the stairs to the living room where Emett and Hunter were sleeping safe and sound.

Emett, merely half of Hunter's height was folded into a ball, his face pressed against the couch to create a pucker-lipped expression. Hunter was sprawled like a starfish behind him, his black-framed reading glasses perched crookedly on the tip of his nose. His mouth hung wide open, as if he'd fallen asleep mid-sentence. Papers upon papers of homework assignments were littered all over the living room floor and across the ottoman while crumpled cans of root beer and cherry soda were scattered among the chaos of assignments, along with an empty packet of Extra gum. A half-eaten quesadilla stuck to a paper plate was tucked underneath Emett's head.

It was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen.

Resisting the urge to dart up the staircase and grab my phone to take a picture, I silently marveled at how adorable the two of them were.

Hunter's shoulder shifted positions as his russet eyes blinked open.  He furrowed his eyebrows before glancing down at Emett and smiling.

"Good morning."  I smiled at him.

His eyes quickly darted to meet mine.  His lips spread into a cheesy grin.  "Good morning."  He yawned, running a hand through his curls, which were an unruly, wild mess.  He shook his head back and forth to loosen some of his ringlets and re-adjusted his glasses, blinking in satisfaction.

"Long night?"  I leaned my elbow against the kitchen bar-counter.

Hunter raised his eyebrows, blowing air out of his nose.  "You have no idea."  I smiled in sympathy before he continued,  "When'd you get home?"

"Hm..."  I pursed my lips and looked at the ceiling, trying to remember.  "I'm not sure."

"Emett was worried."  He gave me a pearly-white smile.

"Emett what?"  Emett's head peeked up at Hunter as he stretched his small hands toward the ceiling, wiggling his fingers. 

Hunter and I exchanged smiles before Emett piped, "Zoe, you're home!"  He uncurled himself from his laying position and darted over to me, wrapping his small frame around my waist.  I smiled and crouched down to meet his height and gave him a big hug. 

"Guess how late I got to stay up!"  He gave me an exhilarated grin from ear to ear, bouncing on his toes.

I looked up at Hunter, who seemed a little panicked as he slurred, "It wasn't that late-"

"Three-thirty A.M.!" Emett's light eyes sparkled with excitement.  "Cool, right?  Hunter is rad." He said, his voice dropping in an attempt to sound like Hunter. He turned to grin at his tutor, who smiled and shook his head.

"Super duper rad, dude."  I mimicked the two of them, all of us breaking out into laughter.

"We gotta clean this up, bud."  Hunter muttered to Emett as he swung his legs over the couch and boosted himself to his feet, his curls bouncing.  He began to pick up some of the mess they'd left on the living room floor and waved Emett over.  Emett skipped to help Hunter, willing to do anything to be like his tutor.  Hunter ruffled Emett's soft blonde hair endearingly as the two of them began to clean.