Short on Time

Chapter 138

Ginger

"So this is Hope?" Esther asked as she sat down next to us. "Nice to meet you, Hope. I'm Esther."

"Like her?" Hope asked as she pointed to the red-headed toddler.

"Exactly like her," Henry said as he sat down next to us. "I'm Joseph." We agreed that when Henry decided to stay that he should go by his middle name, just so people didn't get suspicious. 

"I'm Maria Hope," Hope said brightly. "But I like Hope better."

"Hope is a very pretty name," Henry complimented. "So what are you working on there?"

Hope proudly displayed her math homework that I was helping her with, "Mrs. Allen said that I needed to get all of my homework done before I could have a cupcake." 

"Looks like you're almost there," Esther said as she looked at it. "This is some pretty advanced stuff."

"My foster mom said that I was getting bored, and that I needed a challenge," Hope said. 

"You should've seen her science homework," I said smiling. "This little girl is very smart." 

"I'm not little, Henry's little," Hope said.

"You're absolutely right! Henry is very little, in every way," Esther said as she smirked at her twin. "Isn't that right, Joey?"

"I told you not to call me that," Henry muttered as I rolled my eyes at my adult children.

"How about that cupcake?" I asked Hope, and she beamed. I walked up to the counter and got the cupcake quickly. Jitters was beyond crowded with this grand opening. 

Again.

The amount of times this place has been trashed, or completely destroyed, not to mention people getting murdered in here. It's a miracle it keeps re-opening. 

"You sure you can eat all of that on your own?" Henry asked Hope, and she just giggled in response as she took some of the frosting and put it on his face. 

"It doesn't taste as good as the ones we made," Hope said. 

"It never tastes as good as Mum's cooking," Henry agreed.

"I think she needs your help with the icing," Esther teased as Henry laughed. The toddlers joined in, and soon we were all giggling. Hope dug into her cupcake as I rocked Georgie back and forth, I was about to get him out a bottle to feed him when men came in totting guns.

"You have to be kidding me," I muttered as Henry pushed Hope down. Esther moved the toddlers and crouched over them protectively as the men waved their guns around. 

"Hands in the air, you foam-loving fascists!" A guy shouted. 

"Are you kidding me? We're already being robbed?" The girl demanded.

"What should we do?" Esther asked as Hope looked around fearfully. "Blind them?"

"Just wait," I told her. 

"You," he said to the barista. "Open the register. Give me everything inside."

"Dude, we just reopened," she told him. "There's barely anything in there."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh," the guy said in disappointment. "Well, I'm gonna start blowing stuff up then."

"Just wait you said," Esther said angrily as she blocked things raining down on people without being seen except by us, and a very wide-eyed Hope.