The Sixth Child

Chapter 4

Kailey grinned at Matthew mischievously. She loved baking. Unfortunately for poor Matthew's sanity, her version of 'baking' involved making a huge mess and not really baking at all. Except the occasional assistance with the decoration of the cute little cupcakes they had made, which she was actually rather good at doing.

Matthew chuckled slightly, enjoying the moments if only because it was nice to see Kailey looking so happy.

"Kails come on you can't make this much of a mess! The more mess you make the more work you'll have to do after cos you can be sure I'm not helping you clean up after yourself!" He said, half-heartedly scolding her.

"But Mattheeeewww," She whined, pouting a little, "Baking's no fun unless you make a meeeess..."

Matthew rolled his eyes, trying to hide the smile on his face.

"Just be sure to clean it up, we can't bake properly in a messy kitchen,"

"Hm... That's true I guess..." Kailey said, still pouting and using her best puppy eyes. No matter how old she got she was 100% certain that her puppy eyes would always be effective on all of her brothers, they were just huge suckers that couldn't resist the adorableness of their 'sweet baby sister' even  if she was an absolute nightmare at times.

Matthew ruffled her hair, still feeling a little bad despite knowing exactly what she was doing.

"Come on, let's finish up with this last batch of food and then we can clean up, it shouldn't take too long with us both working together." He said, moving back to besides the oven where he was working on finishing up a batch of fancy looking mini-foods that Kailey couldn't even begin to describe.

Kailey groaned slightly and mumbled a 'Fine' before moving to help him out. 

They finished up the food pretty quickly and began to clean up. Halfway through the process, Erik popped in, having finished cleaning up the dining room, and stood in mild shock at the mess, unsure of what to say.

Kailey grinned and said: "You should've seen it earlier."

Erik sighed slightly before joining his two siblings, helping them clean up the mess that they- mainly Kailey- created. They finished quickly and also just in time; they needed to start getting ready for the party.

Now Kailey was seated before her dressing table mirror, brushing out her hair after it had been in a messy bun the whole day.

She frowned slightly at her reflection, there was something different about her appearance that she couldn't quite place and it was very frustrating. It wasn't a bad change, or at least she didn't think so. It definitely wasn't to do with the outfit she now wore- a simple yet elegant knee length, emerald dress that matched almost perfectly with her eyes. Rather, it was something in her face... It seemed... Brighter almost. Like there was a light shining through, in her eyes especially.

Her thoughts were cut off by a gentle knock on her door followed by a: "Hey, El? Can we talk?"

Luka.

"Sure... Come on in," Kailey called back warily. What did he mean: 'Can we talk?'?? Was he not aware that that was one of the singular most stressful phrases to exist???

He poked his head in through her door before walking in and awkwardly leaning beside the door, crinkling his suit slightly.

Kailey cringed inwardly at his discomfort.

"So... What's up?" She asked, trying to keep the wariness from her voice.

"Are you... Are you Okay? It's just that earlier you seemed a little distant and if that was my fault cos I overstepped a boundary or something then I am so so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you..." He said, stumbling over his words slightly in his haste to speak.