Heir to Jotunheim | ✔

Chapter Three

Maya pounced on me the moment I stepped through the door. I managed to catch her, and used the momentum to swing her around before I lowered her back onto her feet. "What's up squirt?"

"You didn't pick me up from school." She pouted, sticking her bottom lip out. "You said you would pick me up."

"No I didn't Maya. I drop you off in the morning and Mum or Dad picks you up in the afternoon." I walked past her into the kitchen, hoping to find some snacks. I hadn't eaten since lunch time, and my stomach had been grumbling all the way home.

Five hours seemed to be a lot to go without some form of food.

"But Mum is pregnant! She walks so slowly!" Maya groaned as she followed me like a shadow, pulling herself onto a chair next to Charlie who didn't look up from his phone.

"Charlie where's Mum?" I asked as I opened the fridge in search of a yoghurt. "And Maya, Mum is carrying a literal child; you would walk slowly too."

Maya pushed her head into her hands dramatically, letting her blonde ponytail swing around her shoulders. Charlie still didn't look up from his phone.

"Charles," I tapped him on the back of the head, then searched through the drawers for a spoon. "I said where's Mum?"

"With Dad." He replied, eyes fixed on his screen.

"And where's Dad?"

"I don't know, do I?" He huffed as he grabbed his bag and skulked off up the stairs.

"What's his problem?" Maya muttered, leaning her head sideways so she could watch him walk away.

"He's a teenage boy." I closed my eyes, savouring the last spoonful of the strawberry yoghurt before I added the pot to the pile of recycling that needed to be washed before it could be binned. "Come on Maya, we need to find Mum."

I crouched in front of her chair, and she clambered onto my back with ease. Her legs hooked around my front as she clung onto my shoulders, her voice quiet by my ear. "Why are we finding Mum?"

"Because I'm in trouble and I'd rather she shout at me with you in the room than when I'm alone." I answered truthfully. We followed Charlie's path upstairs, walking around piles of his abandoned homework, to reach the landing with our rooms.

"I don't want Mum to yell at me." She groaned, burying her head in the side of my neck.

"She won't, that's why I'm bringing you with me."

Our parents weren't anywhere on this floor, so we climbed the second set of, much cleaner, stairs. I pushed the first door open, and found Mum and Dad lying back on the bed, talking quietly. Brooke was fast asleep between them, her small arms wrapped tightly around one of Dads.

"Found them." I twisted around so Maya could hop onto the floor, leaving her to run around the bed and sit on Mums other side.

"Apparently you're in huge trouble." Dad started, raising his eyes to meet mine. I saw the slight smile in them, and held back a grin of my own.

"Apparently I was lying to a teacher-"

"Yes and you really shouldn't be doing that! Especially on your first day Ty, you said you would stay out of trouble." Mum sighed, exasperated as she pulled herself further up the bed. Her arm reached out so she could tuck Maya into her side.

"I told you Mum, I did nothing! He started shouting at me and all I said was I missed the bus and didn't have a late note." I grumbled, sinking down into a chair they kept in the corner of the room, next to Mums small bookcase.