Hanging by a Thread 🕷 Peter Parker

eleven

Alexandra

Sunday mornings in the Wallace household were Alexandra's favorites. Especially the last Sunday of each month, which, luckily, was what this Sunday happened to be. Alexandra always got up early on Sundays, it was the day that her father, Colin, didn't go into work at all. She and Leo always made a pancake breakfast for him (he tended to wake up late on that particular Sunday, seeing as though it was the one day a month he got to sleep in) and they all sat and ate together as a family.

That morning, when she woke up, Alexandra practically leapt out of bed and ran down the hallway into the kitchen. Leo was already awake and getting the supplies out and ready to make pancakes. "Good morning!" Alexandra greeted happily, planting a kiss on her father's cheek before grabbing a measuring cup from the cabinets.

Leo laughed a bit. "Good morning, sweetie," He said. "You're in a chipper mood this morning."

Alexandra looked at him and smiled widely. "It's the one day out of the month I get to see Dad for more than two minutes at a time, so yeah, I'm pretty chipper," She replied.

"Well, it's seven now, so he'll probably be up in about an hour," Leo said, checking his watch. "So why don't we get started on breakfast?"

"I bet I can make more pancakes faster than you!" Alexandra said as she began to fill the measuring cup up with water at the sink.

"Oh, you're on."

They, of course, made a complete mess of the kitchen. Leo and Alexandra weren't very good at cleaning as they went along, which is what Colin preferred that they did. But, he wasn't around enough of the time to enforce this little rule. So, Alexandra and Leo got away with making a mess of the kitchen and then having to clean it up all at once later.

It didn't really matter all that much to them, it just meant they got to see who could clean more dishes faster. Alexandra and Leo were always having little competitions like that. Colin had long since stopped trying to stop their fun.

"Ha! Ten pancakes!" Alexandra exclaimed triumphantly as she held up her plate of pancakes. "Beat that."

"Dang, that sure is a lot of pancakes," Leo admitted. "Buuuut, I made twelve, so." He shrugged. "I win."

"What?!" Alexandra exclaimed. "That's not true, the mixture package says ten pancakes per pack! Let me see your plate—" She reached out to grab the plate from her father's hands, but Leo pulled it away.

"I don't think that's necessary!" Leo replied hastily.

"Ooh, you are so lying," Alexandra said.

"I'm offended." Leo gasped. "Here I am, your poor father, slaving away over a hot kitchen stove to make you pancakes for breakfast and you accuse me of lying? For shame, young one." He ruffled her hair and Alexandra groaned.

"So, we are having pancakes."

The two of them turned around to see Colin standing at the entrance to the kitchen with a slight smirk on his face. He always seemed to enjoy the two of them bickering. Alexandra's face lit up and she set her plate of pancakes down and then rushed over to her dad, wrapping him in a hug. "Yep, pancakes!" She said. "As always."

So, the three of them sat down to a pancake breakfast. There was no way they were possibly going to be able to eat all of the pancakes, but it didn't matter. That just meant they would get to have breakfast for lunch... and for dinner... for the next two days.

"So, how are things at work, anyway?" Alexandra asked. "You must be dealing with a really big case."

Colin paused a moment before nodding. "Yeah, it's been a hard one," He replied. "Pretty sure we've almost got a handle on it, though." He was vague with the details, as he always was when it came to his work.