Splinters: Part One

Part One | 37

Chapter 37

Still a Kid

"Happy Easter!" Melissa exclaimed when I entered the kitchen.

"Happy Easter," I smiled.

The noises coming from the kitchen were hard to just tune out and continue to sleep so I decided to get up. And I was kind of starving and I knew there was breakfast being served. Not all the kids were up just yet so I was really glad to take some of the first choices.

"What do you wanna eat, Brayden?" Melissa asked, getting my plate for me.

"It's okay, Melissa. I can get it myself."

She shook her head, smiling. "I'll get it for you, sweetheart."

I shrugged, knowing she won't let up. "A muffin and those pancakes would be fine."

She nodded, glancing at me. "Is that all you want?"

"For now," I admitted, taking the plate from her. "Thank you."

I went outside and took a seat next to Greg who was having a conversation with Robin. 

"Oh, look who's up!" Robin grinned.

I took a bite from my muffin. "Morning."

"Good morning, son. Have the girls woken up?" Greg asked.

I shrugged, taking a bite from my pancake. "I don't think so."

Just then, someone else walked out into the patio. To my surprise it was my second aunt, Georgia. 

"Georgia!" Robin exclaimed, getting up from his chair with his arms wide open for his daughter.

"Hi, Dad," she smiled, hugging him.

Squeezing through behind her were her two twins, Sterling and Steven. 

"Hi, Grandpa! Hi, Uncle Greg! Hi, Brayden," they both said, almost in unison, but really it was just a whole bunch of names being thrown at the three of us.

"Hey, boys," Greg smiled, kneeling down to hug his nephews.

"When are we egg hunting?" one of the boys asked.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how to tell the difference between the two of them yet. It made me feel like an awful cousin, but it was the truth. They really are identical!

"Not for a while, boys," Robin said. "The girls haven't even gotten up yet."

"I'm gonna go wake up Dera!" one told the other.

"I'm gonna go wake Ursa then!"

"No way! You always ruin it!"

"Do not! You always ruin it!"

"Boys," Georgia intruded. "How 'bout none of you wake them up," she suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"But Mom," they both whined in simultaneously.

It got me to crack a smirk. Twins would totally do that.

"Go get some breakfast and come back outside. Spend time with Grandpa and Uncle Greg."

They pouted before re-entering the house and getting food. It was maybe thirty minutes later when all the girls woke up, Josh and Jackie following behind them. The family all sat around the table before dressing into their actual clothes for the day.

I thought about the egg-hunt. I was sixteen, but to Melissa, I'm ten. She could possibly force me to do the egg-hunt, which deep inside me, I kind of want to do, but I'm sixteen. Sixteen-year-old boys don't participate in Easter egg hunts.