Never Fall in Love with the Fisher Boys

5- Bears?

I was getting better at finding the stairs, just a few wrong turns and I was there. It was exciting for me and I felt like it was almost symbolic for me starting to fit in. Things might be starting to look up for me now that I’m getting used to how things work around here.

Everybody was at the breakfast table, loudly scarfing down their breakfast like they were wild dogs or something and it was almost scary. I sat in a chair next to Ace and Andy while I politely ate the French toast and then secretly passed the eggs to Ace who gave me a thank you smile but luckily, didn’t say anything out loud so that I wasn’t mauled by hungry teenagers. I learned my lesson the first time.

It unfortunately didn't go unseen though, "Hey, that’s not fair, I wanted those eggs," I heard Will whine.

“Well, last time I offered my eggs out loud, I got mobbed," I defended apologetically.

“You’re picking favorites,” He accused me. “And that’s just cruel.”

“You’re just a baby,” Ace told his big brother. “And you can’t have my eggs. Baby.”

Will only just rolled his eyes at the little boy, only proving Ace’s point even farther and that made me laugh. Will shot me a dirty look but I just shrugged back at him in a ‘he has a point’ kind of way.

“So, Maddie, how are you adjusting?” Mr. Fisher wondered, reminding me that there were other people at the table.

“Oh, yeah I’m doing fine,” I assured him. It still hadn’t been very long, just a few days, and I spent most of my time cowering away in my room. I felt bad for that because I knew that Mr. Fisher wanted me to get along with his family so I guess that I should have gone out and socialized but I just wanted to take this kind of slowly. I’d get used to the new environment first and then I’d get used to the people. Which wouldn’t be easy easy considering how abrasive they all were.

“That’s good,” He nodded, stabbing his French toast. “I’m sure that the boys are making you feel welcome.”

“For the most part,” I said, thinking of how I got thrown into the lake two days ago and that wasn’t very welcoming but other than Andy, who I could hear laughing quietly beside me, the other people were pretty nice, I guess.

“That’s good to hear… I think. Do you have any plans today?” He continued asking me questions.

“I was just going to go for a run or something but other than that, no,” I replied with a little shrug, cutting up my syrup-drenched French toast. They had a chef there that cooked breakfast and dinner but I’d never met the chef because he was always gone before I came down for meals. Whoever the person was though, he was very talented. Everything that I ate at that house was delicious.

“There’s a really cool trail around the lake,” Will spoke up. “I can show it to you.”

I’d seen the trail around the lake but on the other side of the water, it faded into a group of trees so I guess if I wanted to run along that trail, I shouldn’t do it alone because with my luck, I’d get incredibly lost in a forest even as small as that one looked. Even though it looked cool, I’d still prefer to run alone but I didn’t know how to tell Will that. I liked to run alone because I just put my ear buds in and listen to music while I run and it was really peaceful.

However, Mr. Fisher wanted me to get along with his sons and I didn’t want to be rude to Will so I just smiled and then nodded. “Sure, that’d be great.”

“We can leave after breakfast,” Will suggested and I nodded in agreement because my mouth was full of food.

I hadn’t really seen Will that much since he had visited my room a few days ago so I wasn’t sure why he was offering to go running with me but I didn’t question it, especially since that’d be really awkward at the breakfast table in front of everybody. Maybe I hadn’t seen him because, like I said, when I wasn’t eating down here at the table with everybody, I was usually hiding from them in my room.