Dirty Laundry (keithxlance) REUPLOAD

chapter 3

Day 5

Tuesday, December 20th

1:15 P.M.

Two days went by.

Two days came and went since Keith and Lance's bloody nose incident, and of those three days, Keith had learned a lot from the Sanchez household. He'd learned a few spanish words, ones that Benji taught him while laying their backs flat against the grassy field. Lance and Benji giggled when Keith pronounced the words wrong, and they chuckled even more when they told him forbidden profanities that were never (never) permitted in front of Mamá .

Keith had also learned what a 'chore chart' was.

First of all, he didn't even know that such a thing existed until he'd come to Arizona. It was, in his opinion, entirely lame, but also effective. It was a laminated chart posted to their fridge, each of the kid's names highlighted in different colors. It looked like something off pinterest, which made Keith cringe horrifically and refuse to partake. But, after a few days of being a guest in the Sanchez household, and quietly whining to Lance, he was officially added to the chart using a half dead whiteboard marker.

Keith also discovered that Lance wasn't the only good dancer in the family. Dancing must've been a family gene, because he'd already witnessed Rosa and Lance dance together in the kitchen three times. Rosa liked to listen to music while she cooked, hence the radio, and often she would sway her hips while stirring soup, cutting carrots, or washing dishes. Keith had caught her singing the spanish lyrics right along with the music, often Lance or Danny joining in. Danny also liked to dance, sometimes grabbing Josie and swinging her up into his arms, making her scream into a fit of giggles. And Mateo? Even Mateo danced, even if it was awkward hip shaking and offkey power ranger punches to the air when the bass hit.

And then there were the animals.

Keith wouldn't dare go near the goat, mainly out of fear that Cinderella would bite him or tear at his skinny jeans. The iguana was alright, though he'd found it in his bed two more times and had almost screamed when finding the reptile lounging in a bathtub. The dog, a large boxer named Terminator, was fun to play catch with, even if the ball always came back covered in slobber. The chickens were annoying, but Keith was willing to actually enter the coop now to help feed them. They also had a cat, though it was a stray and the family had no knowledge where he'd come from. The cat came and went as he pleased, pouncing on mice in the field and drinking the dog's water when he wasn't looking. His name was Lord Voldemort, named for his scrunched nose and dark fur. Lance called him ' Morty' for short, and strangely enough the name had caught on.

There were also children. So many children.

In reality there wasn't that many. Only three, but it often felt like three hundred. Josie and Mateo only ever had two modes; getting along, and getting the motherfucking fight on. If they weren't totally engulfed in playing together, then they were engulfed in fighting against each other. And if there was a moment of peace, then Isabella was screaming.

Keith wasn't sure what to think about Isabella. Lance loved her dearly, he called her "Baby Bella" and liked to dance with her resting at his hip. She also liked to pat his cheeks lightly, as if she were saying hello, and Lance would often tap her cheeks back with his pointer finger. The two year old could only say a few words, most of them mumbled into a mixture of sounds. She called both Lance and Benji 'Tio', as it was an easy word to pronounce, though it got confusing when differentiating the two boys.

And if Keith thought three children was too many? Lance had chuckled, reminding Keith that Christmas Eve would bring around twelve more. Lance had many cousins, three in California, two in Phoenix, four in Tucson, a couple near the Utah/Arizona border, and the rest all the way in Mexico. Not all would be able to attend the family christmas gathering, but enough that it would be a wild event. Lance informed Keith that the family always met at Rosa and Jaime's home for convenience of the large fields and spacious home.