Not Alone

Chapter Three

The Stein kitchen was actually quite nice, DJ noticed. Especially since he could actually see it without there being 20 kids crowding around the dozens of bottles of boos on the counters. The cabinets were made of grey wood, and had white trim and marble counters. Nice, clean and fancy, just like the Stein family.

The kitchen had a counter with stools facing the sink and dishwasher, with nice comfy stools where Ree, Joey and DJ sat. Ryder was strolling around the kitchen, getting together the things needed for the breakfast he promised his guests. It was a bit of an awkward silence, in DJ's opinion. No one here really knew each other except Ree and Joey, and from observing them, DJ guessed they didn't really know each other too well either. He sat stiffly, playing with his fingers and glancing a few times at Ryder, who had put on a shirt a mere few minutes ago.

"So, you guys like chocolate ships or blueberries in your pancakes?" Ryder asked, leaning against the sink awkwardly. "Chocolate please!" Ree said, a big smile plastered on her face at the mention of the sweet treat. "I'm good with just plain," Joey answered, and DJ nodded. "Same."

Ryder nodded, and started mixing up the pancake batter. "So, DJ," Joey started. DJ noticed how his voice was smooth and deep, making him sound older than he appeared. "What's 'DJ' stand for?"

"Drake Jr."

"Wait. Is your dad Drake de Ville?" Ree interrupted. DJ shifted uncomfortably, not liking to ever talk about his family, but answered honestly. "Yeah."

"So you're, like, rich?" she inquired, leaning more towards him in interest. DJ studied her face carefully. She seemed genuinely interested, and maybe a bit envious. "Yeah, I guess so. It's old family money though. I barely touch it," DJ played it off, not showing any care about his family's wealth. He didn't want to appear to be one of the douche bags at school who flaunted their wealth like it defines who they were. Ree nodded, leaning back in her chair. "That's really cool dude. I heard you had a sister too?" she pressed on.

DJ raised a brow at her, but nodded. 'What is this, an interrogation?' he thought incredulously. "Yea, her name is Mackenzie. She's two years older than me," DJ explained, eyeing her warily. "That's cool. I have six siblings," she said, turning away from him as Ryder poured the first of the pancake batter onto the skillet. But DJ stared at her in shock. "S-six?" he stuttered out. Ree nodded in confirmation as she started to explain.

"I'm one out of a quadruplet set. I have the two brothers who are older than me by sixteen and eight minutes, Nathan and Jordan. Then, I'm four minutes older than Bryan. Then, my mom gave birth to the twins, Kelly and Lucas, who are fourteen years old as of a month ago. Then there's Blake, he's five and adopted," Ree said, counting each of her siblings on her fingers as pride shown on her face. DJ stared at her in astonishment. "You're mother must be Wonder Woman or something," he remarked with a shake of his head in disbelief. "You could say that. She works, like, three jobs right now. We hardly see her," she said, with a shrug like she didn't care.

But DJ could hear a hint of sadness in her voice, and noticed the smallest deflation of her smile. 'The situation with her mom probably hurts her more than she lets on' he thought. He didn't even want to think about bringing up her father, considering she hasn't mentioned him. It just wasn't DJ's place to stick his nose, and he didn't want to upset her. It's weird to him to see her without a giant smile.

At that moment, Ryder set a few chocolate pancakes in front of Ree. She smiled in delight, completely turning 180 in emotions. She let out a giggle when she saw the chocolate chips in the shape of a smiley face on each pancake. "Thank you, Ry!" she exclaimed, and dug in. "Plain pancakes, coming right up," Ryder announced with a smile. That left silence once again, before a thought struck DJ. "Hey, what's 'Joey' short for?" DJ asked the blond. "Joseph. It's actually what I normally go by, but I let Ree call me Joey," he said with a shrug. DJ nodded, noticing Ree's fondness for nicknames, and turned as Ryder put down pancakes in front of him.