Strange Family Bonding

Chapter 1: Typical Saturday

  I woke up to the sound of loud snoring, coming from my older sister, Lorelei on the other side of the room, and I was rather startled to see her in there; I guess my siblings had come back while I was asleep. Of course, they didn't wake me up, which I figured was typical, because they couldn't be bothered to tell me anything. I sighed, and looked at the time on my alarm clock on my nightstand, which read 7:00 a.m. I got up, sighing.

I was not an early bird by any means, but I didn't think I'd be able to go back to sleep, so I begrudgingly sat up, and looked over to Lorelei, who's dark hair cascaded over her pillow gracefully, but her mouth was making non-graceful sounds. I smiled and giggled at my older sister, thinking about the hard night she must've had. Then I frowned, because that meant my other siblings would probably be grumpy as can be.

  I walked out of my bedroom and into the large mansion-sized house that was owned by my father but was now in my brother, Ethan's name. My family was rather rich, which was great when you had someone to share it with, which unlike my siblings, I had nobody. I walked out of my shared room, and heard the sound of an untuned piano playing in the family room. I sighed, because I knew that meant Ethan was awake, because he was the only one to play the piano.

  I followed the sound of the piano, and saw my zombie-looking brother slowly playing a tune by Beethoven on his piano. I tried walking in without disturbing him, but failed as I tripped over the coffee table and knocked over a glass filled with grape juice, and Ethan stopped playing and snapped his head around. His light blue eyes narrowed, and from what I saw, Ethan wasn't angry, but frustrated.

"Be careful, Marina." He scolded, more harshly than he probably meant to. "Now the grape juice is staining the carpet! Now clean it up!"

I nodded, going into the other room to get supplies, when I came back, I heard whispering between Ethan and what sounded like Aaron. I walked past them and continued to pick up the pieces to the glass, as I listened to my brother's conversation, which they thought I couldn't hear.

"His brain activity is increasing, Ethan, I think he's waking up." I heard Aaron say, as he rubbed his hand through his dark hair.

Ethan sighed, "I'm not saying he isn't, I'm saying we've got our hopes up high before, and I don't want that to be the case again."

I sighed as I picked up the glass. Of course I knew they were talking about Dad, and it frustrated me how they would probably not tell me if this were the case. They would probably tell my other siblings, but not me. They could care less about me, and honestly, I don't blame them. I finished cleaning up my mess when I smelt the sensation of eggs and the sizzle of bacon on the stove, and I went into the kitchen to throw away the used paper towels.

  Ethan looked at me, and asked, "Are you okay, Marina?"

  I stared at him for a moment, before realizing what he was talking about; the glass I broke. I nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

  Ethan gave me a backhanded smile, before continuing to cook, and soon, in walked my  youngest sister, Lucia, whom we call Luci, and she was bouncing around. Luci was very hyperactive, and full of joy, and some may even refer to her as childish. Even after spending the night out, she appeared to be energetic, unlike the rest of my siblings.

Ethan smiled at her, genuine, unlike the smiles he gave me, "Good morning Luci! How'd you sleep?"

"Okay, it would've been better if I hadn't gone to bed so late." Luci confessed.

"I'm sorry, sweetie." Ethan kissed her on the forehead.

  Luci then walked over to me and hugged me, as she did with everyone every morning, and then walked over to the table and talked to Aaron. I watched them, longingly, wishing I had the bond with my siblings as they had with each other. I sighed, and I saw Ethan snap his look at me through the corner of his eyes.

  "You good, Marina?" He asked.

  I nodded, knowing full well, that even if I told him I wasn't, he'd get mad at me. He only asked because he felt obligated to. Of course he took this with a grain of salt, "Can you go wake up Caleb and Lorelei?"

I nodded, and got up, heading to Caleb's room, where he slept on top of him messy bed, and I reached over to shake him awake, "Caleb?"

  He rolled over, and I tried again, and he rolled back to where he was, "What do you want, Marina?"

  "Ethan says it's time to get up." I informed him softly.

  "Tell Ethan he can suck my balls." Caleb snapped, causing me to sigh frustratedly.

I rolled my eyes at my younger brother's stubbornness, and his usual unwillingness to do as he was told. Caleb was the exact opposite of his twin, who was outgoing but patient- he just hated everyone, which was understandable. I sighed, walking to the bathroom right next to his room, and grabbed the bucket. I smirked a little to myself, knowing full well what his response is going to be, and enjoying the priceless look on his face.

I wrenched my hand onto the handle that started the bathtub and twisted it to the side, causing the water to run. I stuck the pale blue bucket underneath the water, and watched it fill up until it reached the half way point. I grabbed the bucket, and carried it next door, into my younger brother's room. I counted down in my head...3....2...1...

SPLASH!

That certainly woke Caleb up, as he was drenched in the water that had been in my bucket only moments ago. His hair was flattened by the water, and his bed was darker of wetness, and it looked like his pajamas were stuck to his skin. He looked pissed, but I thought it was hilarious.

"What the hell, Marina?" He screamed.

"Get out of bed next time." I responded back, smartly.

Caleb's eyes narrowed, "I fucking hate you."

  Ouch. Even though that was probably a joke, that hurt alot. It may have been the fact that I already felt my family hated me, or the fact he looked so angry. I simply said, "Breakfast is at the table."

  Then I walked into my sister and I's shared bedroom- the only shared bedroom in the house. I had no clue why my sister and I shared a bedroom, only that we both hated it, and Ethan refuses to separate us. Most of my siblings tolerated me, but if there was one that disliked me the most, it was Lorelei, which was fine by me- she was my least favorite sibling anyways. She was rude, snotty, bossy....and so many other mean words. None of my siblings really liked me, with the exception of Luci, but out of all my siblings, she liked me the least.

So of course, I was not looking forward to walking in the room and waking her grumpy-ass up, even more, I was not looking forward to her already being up, and pulling her pants down to get dressed. I had opened the door, expecting to see a sleeping Lorelei, but what I was not expecting was Lorelei already in the process of getting dressed, and I had apparently interrupted her. She, of course saw me, and her pale face became red with anger, as if I had just crashed her Pomiac.

"Marina get. Out." She growled.

Of course, my response to that was "Breakfast is ready."

Then I quickly dodged out the door before she could kill me- which was well within her power. I ran out of the room, and crashed into someone bony, but tall, almost 6'0. I looked up, and saw my brother, Ethan glaring down at me, as usual.

"Marina, what have I told you about running?" he asked, bluntly.

"To not." I responded, sadly.

"Then stop." Ethan hissed.

He walked away, and I shook my head in disappointment. It wasn't like he didn't tell me a hundred times not to do this, but he seemed to have no issue with his other siblings running as much as they do. I walked into the bedroom to see Aaron with his shoes on, and dressed in full gear for our local baseball team, when he saw me, he gave me a small smile, as if just pretending to be nice.

"Where are you going?" I asked him, already knowing the answer.

"Um, Ethan invited us all to go see the game, he got five tickets...did he not tell you?" Aaron responded, calmly.

I shook my head and realized he said five tickets...not six. Once again, Ethan had forgotten he had another sister. So there I stood, disappointed, but certainly not surprised.

Once again, my family left me out, and once again, I pretended not to care.