Lovely

3. It was a sort of morning

The sun streaming through the crack in my curtains was so lovely that I hated the thought of having to move. I could hear an army of cicadas outside, sounding more like a song than anything else. It was nice. Actually, it was great. But not as great as waking up in our beach house. It may be just as great, truthfully. I shook my head as I drew back the curtains to let the sun light fill my room to it's full potential. I would not let myself fully accept that this place was just as great as the beach house. My eyes took a while to adjust but they eventually did and below my window, in the back garden, I could see children threading through the trees. Barefoot, loud, hair that wasn't brushed yet. They must have been playing outside to kill some time before breakfast was served.

It was a sort of morning that would bother no one if it were to last all day. But I knew it wasn't going to so I threw a T-shirt over my singlet and shorts, and headed down stairs. I loved the echo of my footsteps. Cold tiles met my feet when I got to the ground floor and the echoes of voices replaced the echoes my feet had once made. I found my way to the kitchen, and there I was instantly surrounded by people. My mother and Mark were tinkering away at the bench with food, Delilah was occupied with making faces at Theo who stared up at her with smiling eyes and Kahlo, oh Kahlo, was hanging around the food and stealing pieces of cut up fruit when he thought no one was looking. My gaze caught his unruly behaviour and upon being caught, whilst admitting he was being a nuisance but that he wasn't planning on stopping, Kahlo winked. He chewed a grape and swallowed, his mouth opening instantly to take in another piece of innocent peach. In response my nose momentarily scrunched up, he went about his business, I went about mine. But not before my attention glossed over how much the green of his button down shirt complemented his skin tone. A skin tone I was sure would darken slightly over the course of this summer.

"And she finally awakes," my mother said to no one in particular, but said about me. "Now we can finally have breakfast."

"You were waiting on me?"

Delilah came quickly to reassure me. "It's absolutely fine, dear. No one was particularly hungry anyway."

On her way to the table with two bowls in her hands, my mother kissed my cheek. Then I kissed Theo's head. Then Kahlo kissed Delilah's cheek. Then Mark called in the kids from outside.

Everyone had a seat. The table was a mess, but no soul seemed to mind. This was a time of bonding, of discussions, of making plans. Not a mouth stayed shut. I sat beside Callista who didn't give away any hint of acknowledgement until she suddenly pierced a slice of pear on my plate with her fork. She stuffed it into her mouth, whole, and stared back at me. Her eyes were full of humour but she knew her actions confused me and left me flustered. What she didn't know was that I too could be mischievous, and resulted in doing the same. My fork picked up a lump of scrambled egg from her plate and deposited it into my mouth. Her smile was small at first but grew into a large one when I jokingly grabbed her plate to replace it with mine. I raced my eyebrows, pretending to be serious about our plate swap, and this produced a giggle. "Hey!" Callista yelled playfully, in which I replied with "what? You seem to enjoy my food, and yours tastes better than mine. So we shall swap!" I started to shovel more egg into my mouth, and she started to finish off the remaining fruit, the whole time her eyes never leaving my own.

"First day here," my mother started, "do you children have anything you would like to do?" We were all listening but nobody replied. "Well, why don't you take Aurora to the beach? It's closer to May's house than our house," Delilah offered to Kahlo. "That's a great idea!" My mother said. "This is the first time you've been here, correct?" I shifted my eyes to Delilah and nodded. "May! Why have you waited so long to have her visit?" My mother's hands shot up in defence. "I don't get to see her often anymore, now that I live in a different country Aurora can't just stay for the weekend. Unfortunately, the only time she can really stay is during summer." Delilah rubbed my mother's shoulder supportively. "I'm so sorry. I suppose we'll just have to make summer count then!"

The saddened expression soon left my mother's face as everyone began to babble to each other again. I went back to my food, but then Kahlo, who was sitting opposite me, leaned over the table. "Would you like us to take you to the beach?" He stared straight into my eyes with a stable determination. Kahlo wanted me to go, and so did all the other kids I learned after multiple begs and pleas to join them. "It should be fun," I shrugged. It won't top the beach I am used to, though I thought to myself.

Breakfast was finished reasonably quickly, and the ones heading off to the beach ran to their allocated rooms to prepare. A bikini took the place of my pjs, then on top of that a sundress. The sundress I put on, in all it's floral beauty, was the one I wore every first day of my summer stay with my mother. Without fail, I put on the yellow fabric the morning of every first day, and the difference in locations wasn't going to change that. I only had time to grab a towel and slip my feet into a pair of sandals before Isiah and Isaac were yelling at everyone to hurry. My curls stayed as they were from the moment I woke up, as they did everyday, but it was nothing a little water couldn't tame. Kahlo and I ran out of our rooms at the same time and because our rooms were exactly opposite each other, we only avoided a head on collision by mere centimetres. We laughed it off. The hand he grasped my upper arm with made it hard to laugh, it made me want to kiss him.