Twice As Shy

Chapter 3

Pulling up to Reese's house, I try to take as much time as possible getting my stuff together and walking up to the front door. Before I can get to the front door, the door is opened to reveal a little Mikey in basketball shorts and socks with chocolate smeared on his face. He runs out and hugs me around the waist, wiping his face on my shirt. A brutal introduction to the mess I'm about to walk into.

Taking a slow step inside, I immediately forgot about the new brown, sticky stain on my shirt. It appears a flour bomb went off in the house. The once gorgeous cherrywood staircase is all covered in a white powdery substance, with little footsteps placed here and there. There also seems to be suspicious dark handprints on the walls going up the stairs. The side table in the foyer is also layered with the flour-like substance; its picture frames are knocked over and have a strange goop on them.

Being careful not to track flour around the house, I call out for Reese and Ryan trying to figure out what happened. I'm about to go looking in the laundry room, when I hear water running and my baby sister's giggle coming from the kitchen. As I make my way to kitchen, a pretty good idea of what's happened begins to take root in my head. The chocolate faces, flour, dark handprints, and weird goop are painting a pretty clear picture in my head. Not to mention the smell of something burning the begins to overwhelm me.

Almost as soon as I reach the kitchen, I hear:

"Come on Princess. Our sisters will kill me if they come home to find the house in this state. Oh....... that's not cool."

I hear smacking and see Kyle wiping his face when I enter the kitchen.

"But doesn't it taste good?" Jess says, smearirng more cake batter on his face.

Knowing I need to get this situation under control, I clear my voice loudly.

When they both turn to me with scared looks on their faces, I give them both "The Look".

"Jessica Diane Taylor, just what do you think you're doing?"

She hides behind Kyle, and responds, " Nothing. I'm not doing anything, Megan."

Sometimes it's really hard to stay mad at my little sissy. However, now is not one of those times. Somebody is going to have to clean up this mess.

"Go get Mikey and get washed up. Then, come back down her to help clean this disaster up," I practically yell at her.

She sticks her tongue out at me and runs off. I finally have a chance to look around, and I don't like what I'm seeing. Lots of dirty dishes, unidentified sunstances on the floor and counters, and a smoking oven...Wait!!!

"Move Kyle!" I yell, pushing him out the way to open the oven. Not only is the cake burned to a crisp, the center has also exploded and splattered all over the inside of the oven.

I quickly don two oven mitts and take the torture device from the oven. Dropping it onto the stove top, I cut off the oven, and walk to turn on the ceiling fan. After taking care of that, I allow myself to turn and face Kyle, who has decided that personal space isn't meant to be personal.

Taking a few steps away from him and his intense eyes, I try to find my earlier anger. But I'm just too exhausted. I've had a really long day.

"What were you thinking Kyle?" I ask him, knowing my weariness and wariness is howing in my face and tone.

"I was thinking CHARICE said making a cake would be simple. 'Just follow the directions and everything will be gucci.' She lied. I was thinking my sister said she'd be back in an hour. She lied, and Ryan wasn't exactly helpful. I was thinking our little siblings are fucking demon children, and I didn't know that. But really I was just thinking about how I didn't like the way our conversation ended earlier."