Sandor-
Nine squeals and runs away from me as I grab for him. "Can't catch me!" he exclaims as he darts beneath me. I sigh as Nine runs out the door of our so-called room, laughing as I follow. This is a little game of ours. We would each try to catch each other off guard and tackle them to the floor. It's easier said than done; Nine's winning 11 to 4! Something wraps around my knees tightly and I fall to the floor with a loud thud. Never mind. He's winning 12 to 4. The reason he always wins is that I tire faster than he does. I swear, that kid's on a never-ending sugar rush. I don't usually mind Nine's hyperactivity, but now he's supposed to be sleeping and I'm exhausted.
"C'mon Nine, time for bed," I call to him softly.
"Nuh-uh."
"Yeah-uh." Nine crosses his arms when I say this.
"Nuh-uh!" he replies, louder than before.
"Time for bed, Nine," I say as I pick him up.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screams. I hear rustling in another room.
"Sandor, put your goddamn Garde to sleep already! He's keeping us all awake!" Henna, Three's Cêpan yells. Nine is staring quietly at me. He looks like he's about to cry.
"He doesn't like me?" Nine asks in a small voice. Oh no, he's taking Henna's outburst the wrong way.
"No, no, no, buddy, he didn't mean it like that," I say. "He's just grumpy because we were playing too loud, okay? We just have to make sure we go to bed with everyone else to avoid conflict."
"Okay, if it will avoid confi… confic… conflit…"
"Conflict," I say with a smile. He returns it.
"Conflict," he repeats happily. I can see he's still a bit nervous about Henna. I'll have to talk that Cêpan later. We hold hands as I walk Nine back to his sleeping quarters.
"Sandor! Wake up! Up, up, up, UP!" I groan and turn over, looking my charge. His hair is messy and his eyes are as bright and as playful as ever. I turn my head back over and he frowns. "GET UP!" Nine yells in my ear.
"I'm up! I'm up!" I say back to him as I try to get dressed. After I pull on my shirt and brush my hair, I go to Nine.
"NOOOOOO!" he squeals as I attempt to brush his hair. I sigh.
"C'mon, I have to brush it," I say. Nine's already starting to annoy me. But then again, everything is annoying me. I blame it on lack of sleep. I wrap an arm around his tiny waist and use the other to brush my Garde's hair.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!" he yelps as I try to brush through a tough knot of hair. He tries to swat me away as I pull the comb over his head. A good ten minutes later, I'm done.
"Now was that so bad?" I ask him. He nods his head.
"Yes." I roll my eyes and lead him to breakfast.
"Yucky!" One complains and she pokes at her breakfast. I admit it, the food isn't nearly as good as food on Lorien, but it'll have to do for now. Nine pushes his plate away too.
"I want Grandpa's stew," he says.
"Thith ith dithguthting!" whines Five. He's slightly younger than the majority of the Garde and mostly just imitates them. Nine hates it though and often complains. Not all the Garde hate the food. Four is just eating quietly and listening to Brandon. Sometimes, I wish Nine could be more like him.
"Well if you don't eat breakfast, you don't get dessert," I say. Some of the other Cêpans look at me like I'm a genius. Nine's eyes widen.
"I want dessert!" he cries as he stuffs a fork full of food in his mouth. The other Garde start eating too.
"You also have to eat lunch and dinner," I say and they all nod.
"You better behave too or else Mr. Sandor won't give you dessert, even if you eat all of you meals," Adel says while trying to stifle a laugh.
"Yeah," Reynolds, who is also trying hard not to laugh out loud, snickers. All of the other Cêpans nod while smiling.
I sit on my bed after lunch, reading, when I hear someone crying softly. I get up and move towards the sound and come across Seven siting on the floor with a broken doll in her hands. She sniffles and looks up at me.
"Can you fix it?" her voice is shy and small. "I was giving it a makeover so that Eight will like it, b-but then it broke." I smile down at her.
"I think I can fix it," I say and I hold out my hand. She takes it and follows me to the supply closet. After taking out the things I need, I sit down and inspect the doll. Its hair is ragged and cut short and its skin is painted.
"Were you trying to make it look like Eight?" I ask her. She turns red and nods. I smile. Seven and Eight are extremely cute together. I glue the doll's head back on and take out the paints. Seven helps me choose a color and we work as a team to re-paint the doll's skin and fix its hair. When we finish, we sit back and admire our work. It's not the prettiest doll in the world, but together Seven and I had successfully created a hand-painted boy doll that I'm sure Eight will love.
"Thank you!" she says happily as she takes the doll. I watch her as she skips over to Eight and gives it to him. He gasps.
"Did you make this for me?" he asks. Seven nods
"Mr. Sandor helped me, but it was my idea," she replies. Eight grins and takes the doll.
"I love it! Let's play!" The two of them rush off to get Seven's doll and the doll house. While they play, Adel walks over to me.
"Did you do that?" she asks, looking at my paint-covered hands and then at Seven and Eight. I nod and she smiles. "That's so sweet." I blush when she says this.
"I just couldn't stand to hear her cry," I say to her and she smiles.
"Adel! Sandor!" Seven runs over and holds out two dolls for us. "Come play!" Adel and I smile at each other and walk over to where Eight is sitting.
All of the children sit excitedly at the table as dinner is given to them.
"After this, we get dessert. Right?" Six says when Kater hands her dinner. Kater nods and gives dinner to Seven, Eight and Nine. After thanking the elders for our food, we all dig in. The food is bland (like always) but the kids still eat it, hoping for dessert. About ten minutes later, everyone is finished eating and I go to help Albert and Hessu get the pudding. After grabbing what I can, I enter the room and start to hand out pudding cups. Nine squeals with delight when I hand him his dessert.
"Yay! I love pudding!" he cheers. All of the other Garde are smiling and eating while us Cêpans sit down and eat. It's delicious.
"Mmmmmmmmmm," Two coos while grinning in delight. The others nod in agreement. A couple of minutes after everyone is finished, Brandon stands up to make the dreaded announcement.
"Time for bed," he says wearily. All nine of the Garde groan. This is going to be a long night.