Winter Tales

Chapter 3 - Chores

++Jordan's POV++

"All right, troops, everybody gather in the living room!" I shout through the house.

Amazingly, not even five minutes later, all the boys are spread out on the three big sofas in the main living area of our log cabin.

"Where's Lily?" I ask.

"I just saw her coming down the stairs," Luke replies while the rest of them shrug.

"I'm here, I'm here," the kid in question announces and runs into the room.

"Why are you wearing a jacket and a hat?" Josh asks her, raising an eyebrow at her appearance.

"Because as soon as you've figured out who has to do what, we're going the mall and I just want to be ready so we don't waste any more time," she explains as if that is the most logical thing in the world.

"Since when are you so keen to do chores? Are you sick?" Jack asks her.

"No, silly, Jordan promised to pick up a snowboard with me," she replies.

"Why would you need a snowboard?" Noah wants to know.

"I'm going to learn how to snowboard tomorrow!"

"No, you're not. Little kids cannot snowboard," Aidan promptly teases her.

"I'm not a little kid! And I can very well because Alex said I'm allowed to. So there!"

I chuckle as she pokes her tongue out at the older of the twins. So much for her not being a little kid anymore.

"You're just going to embarrass yourself. That should be hilarious to watch," Aidan continues to pick on her. "And your ass is gonna be black and blue before the day is over."

"Language, Aidan," Alex reprimands him.

I don't know why he still keeps trying to stop the younger kids from cussing. He has obviously failed and they are way too corrupted already. I would have given up a long time ago.

"You just say that because you sucked at it last year," Lily shoots back quickly.

"Lily! That goes for you, too," Alex scolds her.

"Sorry," she replies automatically, clearly not sorry at all.

I love this kid.

"I have you know that I mastered it just fine," Aidan defends himself. "I just don't think it's as cool as skiing."

I remember Sam telling me that the twins gave snowboarding a try last year. But neither of the then nine-year-olds was too successful at it. I hadn't been there, since I was deployed at the time, but I believed my brother when he said that it wasn't necessarily lack of talent but rather lack of interest. The twins love to ski and they are very good at it, too. If not a bit reckless. They love going over jumps and racing each other like the devil is on their tails.

"Well, I don't care what you think. I will love it and I will be great at it, too," Lily says confidently and then turns towards me, since I have ordered everybody in the living room. "Are we going now?"

She is apparently done arguing with Aidan and ready to set her plan in motion.

"Hold your horses, peanut. The chores need to be assigned first," Alex replies in my place.

"I'll take charge of the shopping," Ben said. "Who's gonna help? I need two people."

Ben is our resident cook and he is usually responsible for making sure that we are all fed and well. At home, he writes the shopping lists to keep our pantry stocked, but usually one of the other guys does the actual shopping, since it would be pretty unfair if he had to do both the cooking and the shopping all by himself.