Meeting the Higher-ups

Chapter 6 ~ Second Day (Part 1)

The next day I woke up feeling like I had to go to school, but then I realized that it was summer vacation now and laid back down. After a few minutes of not being able to fall back asleep, I grabbed my phone and checked Facebook. Nothing new. My parents send me pictures often of their trips, but they don't post any on social media while they're actually on the trip because they don't want people knowing that I'm home alone.

After a few minutes, I got up and snuck around Hanji, being careful not to wake her up. I better make breakfast for them. I made my way to the kitchen but saw Levi on the couch, reading a book.

"Oh, good morning, Levi. I didn't know that you were up." I said to him.

"Yeah, because you were asleep." He said back, not taking his eyes off of the book. I just chuckled because I was used to his remarks and such from the anime.

"What are you reading?" I asked him.

"Don't know." He replied. This made me chuckle again.

"Well I'm going to be in the kitchen cooking breakfast if you need me." I told him before walking away. He didn't do anything in response.

I walked into the kitchen and thought about what I should cook. Pancakes and bacon sound about good. Deciding on that, I got out the ingredients.

While I was mixing the pancake batter, I heard a voice from above and in front of me making me jump a little.

"Good morning, Emma."

I looked up and saw that it was Erwin. "Oh, good morning, Erwin. How are you?" I asked him with a smile.

"Well, thank you." He replied, returning the smile.  His expression then turned a bit serious. "Emma, I really hope you don't mind all of this that much. I'm sorry if we're troubling you." His voice was a bit tinted with worry. It made me stop what I was doing and look up at him.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Well, with us suddenly dropping in all of a sudden-"

Getting what he was saying, I quickly cut him off. "No, no, it's fine. Really. I'm really glad to do it." I said while waving my hands. I then went back to what I was doing but continuing the conversation with Erwin. "It's pretty cool having some of my favorite characters here with me, so I'm more than happy to take care of you guys."

"Well thank you, it is very much appreciated." He responded, bringing back his smile. I chuckled on the inside because even in a normal conversation like this, his speech and tone sounded very official, like the commander that he is.

I finished making breakfast and by this time, Hanji and Mike had woken up and everybody was gathered in the kitchen. They got their food and we all went into the living room to eat.

"Emma this is so good!" Hanji exclaimed.

"Hehe, thank you." I said.

"Seriously, how did you learn to cook like this?" She asked.

"Well I've always liked cooking and baking, so I'd help my mom whenever I could. And being home alone a lot, I had to do it so I ended up getting a lot of practice and experience." I told to her.

"Hm." She nodded, taking another bite of her breakfast.

Just then my cellphone rang. I looked down to see that it was Jake. "Excuse me." I said to the four before answering the call. "Hello?"

"Hey, Emma, what's on the schedule for today?" Jake asked on the other end of the line.

"Hmm, I don't know. What do you want to do?" I asked while taking another bite of my pancakes.

"Maybe after lunch we could take everybody out somewhere. Maybe downtown, the movies and then somewhere to eat for dinner. I'll pay this time." He said.

"Okay, that sounds good. Is 1pm fine for you?" I asked.

"Yep, that sounds perfect. See you then." He said before hanging up.

"See you." I then placed my phone back down to the side of me.

"Was that Jake?" Mike asked.

"Yep. After lunch we're going to take you guys downtown, maybe go to some shops, go see a movie and then go out to dinner." I told them. They all nodded in agreement, seeming content. Except for Levi, who just sat there eating his breakfast. I didn't really pay much mind or attention to it because I knew that if he had a problem with something, you can bet that he would say something about it. But I had a feeling that today would be fun.