Afternoons

strangers but together

"Who wants to come with me first and where to?" I ask all the kids.

They are all sitting in front of me in the livingroom. Some on the couch others on the floor.

Almost everyone's hand shot up immediately.

"Me first!"

"No me!"

"I'll go!"

"Pick me!"

They were all fighting over who I'll choose. I don't think anyone has fought over being with me like this. Makes me feel special...

I suddenly feel a hand on the back of my leg. I turn around and look down to see Caricia looking up at me with her big brown eyes.

"What?" I ask softly.

"Who are you picking?"

I look back at all the kids who were staring at me, waiting for my answer. I look through all of their faces. Should I go in order? Oldest to youngest? In order as they came in? I have no idea why I signed up for this.

"Uh...I'll do youngest to oldest, just so I can get the younger ones tired faster," I think aloud.

"Darian, Jack, come on," I extend my hands out.

They hop off the couch and run towards me, each one taking ahold of my hand, or should I say finger. I walk with them outside and take one of Dad's cars instead of mine. Just because.
I buckle each one into a car seat before jogging to the driver's seat.

Today will be exhausting, I know that for sure.
I'm taking each kid somewhere, anywhere they'd like to go. Including Zoe, but that's till later on at night.
I want to get to know each kid more. I feel like they are strangers to me in some way. Even though I live with them, know their habits, I feel like I don't know them, fully.

So today, we will all get to know each other some more.

It also turns out that the twins think very alike. I actually noticed that when I decided to experiment with them once, when I was 16, meaning the boys were 1.
I put them in separate rooms and observed them with the cameras that are put inside their room. They did very similar stuff and it actually seemed very cool to me. And weird.

I took them to the park to tire them out. They weren't much trouble if I have to be honest. Only when they began to get grumpy because they were sleepy. So I took them back home.

Next, Caricia. I know Caricia more than the rest of the kids. That's pretty obvious. I'm closer to her than the rest. Again, obvious. But I just haven't kept up with her in a while.

After Caricia was Macy. I wanted to bang my head against the wall by just thinking of the girl. Macy is a mommy's girl. She wants to impress. She wants attention and a lot of it. So today is her time to shine within the next 30 minutes. She's like that tooth that won't fall out as much as you want it to.
You pick at it but it won't budge.
As I buckled her up inside the car seat she kept on talking and talking, nonstop.
She's like a talking bird. She just won't shut up about anything. She can talk for hours about one little thing. And then I had an idea.

I took her to see some animals.

She certainly did put those dogs and cats to sleep.

Going up on the list, the newcomer. Andrea.
I allowed him to sit up front with me. He was quiet throughout the whole ride. He wanted to visit the museum. So I took him.

"You're from Italy, right?" I ask as I stand beside him. He was staring at a piece.

He glances at me and then back at the art in front of him. "Correct." His accent is so thick. Thicker than glue.