Lily woke up, yawning as she stretched, she got out of bed, woke her roommate, Lisa, up by giving her a gentle shake. The genius had fallen asleep at her computer again.
"You might want to change your outfit, you can't go to school in the clothes you slept in," she told her. Lisa nodded groggily.
"So, who do you want to wake up this morning, the artists, or the wee little ones?" Lily asked.
"I'll take Luna and Luan," offered Lisa.
"Great, Lori and Leni seem to prefer that I help them get dressed anyway," replied Lily as she walked towards the youngest two children's bedroom. Lisa got out so she could wake Luna and Luan. She actually laughed when she heard Lily's voice exclaim: "Leni! How many times do we have to tell you not to sleep in Lori's crib!"
"Lori was having a nightmare, she needed comfort," sweet little Leni replied.
"Yes, but when that happens, you bring her to your bed if it's in the middle of the night, this crib isn't designed for four-year-old!" Lily exclaimed. Lisa chuckled and then opened the door to Luna and Luan's room, saw the two of them in their proper bunks and woke them up.
"You two get dresshed and head downstairs, Father ish cooking up a storm with our favorites," she said before leaving to get a new shirt and pants. Luan and Luna lethargically got out of bed and started to get dressed but their hearts weren't really in it. That's when Lynn, an eight-year-old athlete of the family walked by to check on them and smiled.
"Hey, first one to get dressed gets a piggyback downstairs!" she told them. That caused her younger two siblings to rush to get their clothes on. Luna finished first and practically jumped right at Lynn who lifted the five-year-old rocker onto her back and rushed downstairs with a human backpack. Luan watched the two of them go downstairs and was actually saddened that she didn't get a piggyback. After tying her hair up in pigtails, she slowly walked out of her room where she was met by her eleven-year-old brother, Lincoln.
"I heard Lynn, y'want me to give you a piggyback?" he asked. The six-year-old nodded excitedly and was lifted onto her big brother's shoulders who carried her downstairs. The fifteen-year-old twins, Lana and Lola, and Lucy, a thirteen-year-old goth were already downstairs.
"How is it that the two of you, who always insist on so much make-up get down here early?" asked Luna.
"I prefer to get up while it's still dark, and that's when I apply my mascara, and then read my Edgar Allan Poe before everyone else is ready," replied Lucy.
"The number of pageants I've been involved in, I know how to apply quickly and perfectly," replied Lola, as she dived into her eggs.
"Lana, thanks for helping me feed the pets this morning," Rita told her tomboy daughter.
"Hey, happy to do it," replied Lana. That's when Lily came down carrying a squirming Lori and Lisa came down carrying Leni who was holding onto her sister's shirt as if her life depended on it.
"Thank you both so much for handling the younger ones," Rita told her eldest daughters as she took Lori and placed the baby in her high chair.
"Lily needsh the mosht credit, she dresshed them, I jusht volunteered to carry thish one down becaushe she is afraid of shtairs," Lisa responded as she placed the little one down on a chair. Suddenly, there was an unusual odor in the room.
"Lily, you did change Lori's diaper upstairs, right?" asked Rita.
"I checked her, she was clean," replied Lily. Lana got up to check on the baby's diaper.
"Heh, she's just gassy," Lana told everyone. Everyone was still waving their hands in front of their faces.
"At least she didn't fill her diaper at the table, yuck!" said Lola.
"She's just a baby, remember that," Lynn Sr. told his daughter.
"Lily almost made us invest stock in a diaper company with the packages she used up per week," added Rita. Everyone laughed while poor Lily blushed. Lucy, who was sitting closest to her, patted the eldest sibling on the back.
"Remember how Lincoln used to be afraid of the dark? I used to have to chant poems and spells telling the monsters to go away before he could fall asleep," she mentioned. Lincoln grinned nervously while eating his breakfast burrito.
"Aww, widdle Wincon was afwaid of the dark?" teased Lynn.
"How does that make me feel better?" asked Lily. "Sometimes I sang him a lullaby," she then added.
"Mom told an embarrassing story about you, I tell one about another sibling," said Lucy.
"I think that's a cute story. Oh, and Lynn, don't tease Lincoln about being afraid of the dark, when you were a baby, the only way you would take a nap was if one of us would cuddle with you. Or I had to let you cuddle with one of my pets," said Lana. Now it was Lynn's turn to blush.
"Well, enough stories, you kids eat up, gotta get to school!" exclaimed Lynn Sr. So, the kids did and piled into Vanzilla. Leni, Luan, Luna, Lynn and Lincoln all got dropped off at grade school, Lucy was the sole member of the family left at middle school, everyone else except Lori and Lisa was left at high school. Lisa was going to the local college (her GPA insisted) and Lori would be dropped off at daycare.
"I'm going to be late coming home from lecture, parental units, but someone else is giving me a lift," Lisa told her parents when she got out of the car.
"That's fine sweetie!" called Rita before she and Lynn drove off with the baby. Lisa sighed, expecting a grueling day at the college. But she knew her family would always be there to welcome her home.