Counting by 12

Chapter 2

Once I wake up in the morning I quietly get dressed without waking up Maya. I head downstairs into the kitchen.
"Good morning miss, would you like me to make you breakfast?" Cook asks as I walk through the door.
"No I'm good, I think I'll just eat another one of Macy's croissants" she nods as I grab a croissant and add strawberry slices to it. Eating the croissant I head back upstairs and shake Maya awake. She rolls over, groans, jumps out of bed, then gets dressed quickly and heads to the kitchen. She grabs a bowl of blueberry and mixes them in yogurt. I grab my favorite camera and head outside where everyone is already busy for the 3 day weekend due to teacher conferences. Ariel  is showing Mom the dance that we worked on last night. Maddison is painting on a section of the wall that, by some miracle, hasn't already been painted on.  Charity is on the grass strumming on her gutiar. Nicole is singing along to Charity's music. Zoe is playing a one- on one game of soccer with Macy while Candace takes pictures of it. Emma is writing in her notebook while Victoria reads over her her shoulder. Danielle is talking to Natalie about a movie they watched last night and in the middle of it all is me taking pictures of all the activities.
"Hey Blake, come read this" Victoria says waving me over. I run over there and plop down next to Emma. She silently hands me her notebook and I skim through the newest addition to it.

Sofia reached out carefully as if just touching Nate would make him shatter. He looked at her and Sofia could see his tough exterior shatter.
"She was my only family" he cries out and she gently strokes is back.
"Shh" she says trying to soothe him and his shoulders slump as sobs shake his body. "What happened" she asks carefully.
"Rebecca was driving home and a drunk driver pulled out and killed her instantly. She was only 17" Nate cries.
"It's okay everything will be okay. I'm here for you." She says softly. He sighs then brushing the tears out of his eyes stands up stubbornly and offers his hand to her.
"Come on we have to get back to class" he says, his voice raspy from crying. They head inside together ignoring the eyes of all their classmates.

"Good job Emma. Thats a very beautiful story." I compliment her. She inclines her head then looks up at her with her violet eyes. Her eyes are shining with pride and thanks. She starts writing more in her notebook, and I leave her and Victoria alone to continue writing. Ariel waves me over. I walk to her and mom.
"Blake show Mom your routine for the show case it's very beautiful" she says. I leap into my routine and all my sisters gather around me to watch. When I land the final step they all applaud and compliment me then head back to their activities.
"Great lob Blake. Ariel's right  it a very beautiful routine" Mom says then heads inside. Maya comes out finishing up her yogurt and nearly gets run over when Candace runs over to her.
"Maya" she yells jumping at her.
"Hey squirt"
"I'm not a squirt"
"Yes you are"
"No I'm not"
"Yes"
"No"
"Okay Candace your not a squirt" I say coming over to them. She sticks her tongue out at Maya and runs back to take more pictures. Maya and I burst out laughing then sit on a bench to watch the activities. A few hours later Mom and Cook come out 7 different times carrying a variety of food. Since we all are picky eaters it takes a big variety of food to make us all happy.
"Lunch" mom calls out and we all take a seat at the picnic table including Maya. For drinks there's lemonade, Pepsi,
7-up, water, and iced tea. For food there's sushi, spring rolls, pasta carbonara, salad, a variety of fruit, and sandwiches. We all dig in and soon the food is gone. After that we play games of soccer, volleyball, and basketball. We jump into the pool to cool off after changing into our bathing suits. Maya and Ariel decide to have a chicken fight against Emma and Victoria and win. Later the older kids lay out in the sun while the younger kids stay in the pool.
"How's school so far Ariel?" Maddison asks.
"It's good, hard work. But I enjoy it" Ariel replies
"So, any cute boys" Charity asks and we laugh.
"You know she's still got that boyfriend Adam or whatever his name is" Maya replies for Ariel.
"His name is Brandon and we broke up like 4 months ago" she says.
"When's your next concert?" Nicole asks.
"In 2 months in July" she says. "Enough about me how bout you, Blake"
"What do you mean" I ask genuinely confused.
"How's school any new love interests" she says wiggling her eyebrows.
"All the boys are doofs and schools to important right now to think about boys, what about you Charity" I ask.
"Same" she replies flippantly. "College is to important to screw it up with a dumb boy"
"Anyway enough about boys how's soccer going" Maddison asks Zoe.
"Scouts keep showing up at my games and the girls are getting jealous, especially Ryan. Even though I don't think they realize we're just sophomores and can't get any scholarships yet, although 4 scouts have offered me a spot on the national team, I'm to young and still want to get through school first before I make a life altering decision. Enough about me" she says waving her hand as if to clear the air"what about you, Maddison?"
"Me? Well... There's nothing to really say right now I'm in the middle of a painting that's going to be released soon but that's it" she says shrugging her shoulders. "What about you, Blake"
"Well I'm in a few different acts for the school showcase, but that's about all I'm doing right now" I say.
"Ooh I have an idea lets go watch a movie" Ariel says. We gather our stuff, throw it in our rooms, then plop down on the couch.
"Ok let's vote on the genera." Nicole says as all 13 of us (including Maya) settle down around the tv. There's 4 votes horror, 1 vote comedy, 2 action, 1 vote romantic, and 5 votes realistic fiction. The choices of those are mean girls, divergent (I don't know how that's realistic fiction), a dance movie, a singer movie, camp rock, and vampire academy (once again not realistic fiction don't know why that's in there.) Eventually it comes down between divergent and the dance movie. 6 votes divergent 6 votes dance.
"Ok" Ariel says "who didn't vote?" Meekly Nicole raises her hand.
"I hate getting in the middle of the argument, but let's watch the dance movie" she says quietly and half the room cheers while the other half boos. Later when the movies over we all settle down on the floor and paint our nails. Of course the older girls have to help the younger ones for fear that they'll get it all over, and we can't have that because dads coming home tomorrow. Just the thought of it fills me with dread. He's never home and when he is one or more of the girls is getting and a fight or argument with him. It's not pleasant to have us all sit down at the dinner table, all sitting with ridged silence until someone breaks it and he tells us children should be seen not heard. Then all the girls come in their defense and all hell breaks loose. I shudder at the thought and go back to painting Candace's nails.
"Thank you Blake their beautiful" she says after they dry.
"Your welcome. Well I think they're dry now your free to touch things" I say and she jumps up and immediately starts taking pictures. I grab my camera too and take pictures of all the festivities.
"Dinner" mom calls out and ushers us to the table. We all sit down oldest to youngest and wait for our mom to tell us we're aloud to eat.
"Oh you don't have to wait when your fathers not home, go ahead eat" she says motioning for us to grab some food. My plate consist of salad, fruit, lasagna, and a bowl of soup. Cook pours me some iced tea as I dig in. Later Cook comes out carrying cheesecake and passes out a plate to each kid depending on their taste of food. She hands me a strawberry and blackberry cheesecake.
"Thank you. This looks amazing" I say and she beams and sits down in fathers spot to eat. When Fathers not here she sits in his spot because Mom refuses to make her eat in the kitchen like Father does when he's home. She eats the leftover food and Mom even offers her a piece of cheesecake witch she refuses muttering something about not wanting to impose. Later that night we all sit outside wrapped in blankets and drink hot cocoa. I take tons of pictures and Mom comes out and makes a bonfire. We stay up late into the night talking and laughing until slowly we all fall asleep around the fire.