✔ ALUEDAA

¢нαρтєя єιgнтєєη - тιηкєявєℓℓ

"Okay, okay! I was only asking!" I laughed, tickling the scowl off Ivy's face.

"But I don't have a boyfriend!" She grumbled, a small smile appearing on her lips as laughter left her throat.

"Well, Cam said you did... He said you liked some boy called Tom?"

"Don't put me into this!" Cameron said, paling slightly.

"No! He's super annoying!" She huffed, not taking any notice of her brother.

The way she said it, she reminded me of Apcahi, a very quirky girl that seemed to have a trouble magnet on her. Ungeld and Elsu must have seen the similarities, because next thing I knew, we were all laughing, Cameron and Ivy looking at us in confusion.

"Why are you laughing?" Ivy questioned.

She is so cute!

"Not you, not you," Ungeld said, calming her down before she jumped on us in anger.

Looking at her in adoration, I realised she was wearing the pink shirt I had gotten her last weekend, when I had stopped a robber in Singapore, and as payment, had been given a shirt.

"Hey, gems! Mind coming into the kitchen and helping out with dinner?" Nobody moved, all of us acting as if we hadn't heard Elisabeth, "There won't be any film for any of you if you don't get in here, right now!"

That caught our attention.

As we all sprung into action, rushing down the stairs like mad men, laughing as we tripped over and fell to the floor.

"You know, I never imagined I'd end up having three more kids... But I guess it keeps the house alive, right?" Elisabeth asked Claudia absent minded, her hands kneading into the croissant mixture.

"I know..." Claudia answered, both of them acting as if we weren't here.

"Okay kids! We need to get the spaghetti out of the boiling water in five minutes, get a film ready, drag all the blankets from upstairs to the sofa, and grag all the pillows we can find. Then we need to get seven bowls, fill them up with the cooled pasta, put some tomato sauce on top, and while we wait for the croissants to finish, start the film," the seven year old girl said, taking charge of our work at hand.

"Yes, miss!" We all saluted, using two fingers and putting them towards our head.

As I ran up the stairs, my mind wandered off, my movements so robotic, so used to this routine, that I no longer needed to think about what I was doing.

I had been at this house for around two months, and film night was a very sacred thing in this household.

"Hey, Cam! Come and help me get the blankets from your sisters room!" I shouted, the footsteps running up the stairs a good enough answer.

"Hey," he whispered, slightly out of breath, "what do you want me to carry?"

Pointing towards the pink wardrobe, "There are around ten blankets in there, but probably only grab like three, since I'm already carrying five," I pointed out, showing him the pink and purple blankets in my arms.

"Gotcha," he muttered, "I'll try and get some that are not either pink, or purple,"

As I walked down the stairs, I suddenly realised that tomorrow, first Saturday of the month, was going to be Ungeld's first football match, one that I had promised to go and watch.

"Hey, Ungeld! Who are you playing against again?" I asked, dropping all the blankets on the sofa in a mess, and plopping myself next to the pile as I waited for everyone else to finish doing their part.

"I have no fuck-"

"Language!" Elisabeth shouted from the kitchen.

"I have no fudging idea!" Ungeld rephrased, probably not wanting to be on Cameron's mom's bad side.

She could be extremely scary sometimes.

"Alueda god-knows-what-else! Get your pretty ass down here, right now!" She screamed, waking me up with a jolt.

Rushing out of bed, I quickly climbed into the house through the window, not even bothering to lock it as I ran down the stairs.

"What! What happened?" I cried, sleep laced to each word.

"Not what happened, what you did! Mind explaining why the kitchen is in a giant mess, and there is hardly any food left?" She said in a calm, yet threatening voice, her eyes a shade darker than usual.

Fuck.

"It wasn't me! I swear, Ungeld and Elsu came over last night, and I probably fell asleep and they decided to eat... You know how they are! They're worse than pigs!" I panicked, not used to being told off for things I hadn't done, especially at such hour in the morning.

"So, not only is there no food left, but you invited two boys into the house without telling me?"

"I... Well, technically, it isn't in the house. If they hadn't been the idiots they are, they would have stayed in my room," I tried reasoning, pushing any sort of evidence against me as far away as possible.

"You're doing the shopping,"

"What! Wait, are you serious? I don't even know how to distinguish between a ham pizza and a tuna pizza!" I cried, spilling a couple of lies to get out of shopping.

"You're doing the shopping, and that's final,"

I shivered at the memory.

I didn't hate shopping, but I would much prefer be training, sweat dripping down my face, my body in agony, than walk around a store looking for certain food.

"Okay, let's get this film started!" Ungeld shouted, jumping onto the sofa next to me, a bowl of spaghetti in either hand.

"What are we watching again?" Cameron asked, pushing the blankets away, and plopping down, already munching on the food.

"Tinkerbell and the secret of the wings!" Ivy shouted, running down the stairs carrying a blue film case, the back of a fairy evident on the cover.

"Yes!" Elsu shouted, high fiving the little girl when she reached him, handing the movie to Elisabeth so she could put it into the DVD player.

Snuggling into Cameron, I placed my feet up, Ungeld using my legs as a table for his plate while I held my own.

This should be interesting.