"Hey, Jake, did you eat breakfast yet?"
Jake turned around in the hallway of the Cahill mansion to see Dan and Atticus grinning at him.
"Hey, Dan. Nope, not yet. I'm going now. Why?"
"No reason," Atticus said, grinning just as hard as Dan. He elbowed Dan, who snorted loudly in an attempt to swallow his laughter. Jake looked at him oddly.
"What's so funny?"
"Nnnnnnothing," Atticus giggled. He elbowed Dan again and the two raced off, howling like hyenas.
"What was that all about?" Jake frowned. He turned around once more at a tap in the small of his back to find Ian standing behind him.
"Would you be so kind as to move, Jack?" he asked, his voice a paragon of stiff British politeness.
"It's Jake," Jake sighed. He couldn't understand why Ian never seemed to get him name right. "Where are you headed?"
"Amy and Dan invited me," Ian said, a smirk curling one corner of his mouth. "I assume you're heading down to the kitchen?"
"Yep," Jake replied. "Coming?"
The smirk widened. "I wasn't planning on it, Blake, but I suppose I could. Amy's invited a few other relatives, too."
He laid a little extra stress on the word 'relatives'. Jake chose not to comment on this.
"My name's Jake, Ian."
"I'm sure it is," Ian said carelessly. "Anyway, you'd best get on to breakfast before Daniel, Hamilton, Jonah, and your little brother eat all of the pancakes."
Jake nodded and continued toward the kitchen, Ian right behind him.
"Hey, Jake," Nellie smiled from her place at the stove, where she was flipping pancakes. "Saladin, stop eating the butter! Hey, Ian. Sit down. How many pancakes do you guys want?"
A deafening burp interrupted Jake's reply, followed immediately by an explosion of laughter from the boys seated at the table.
"Yo, I cannot believe you got all those pancakes into your mouth at once!" Jonah crowed. Hamilton looked very pleased with himself. Dan gave him a high-five. Atticus laughed uproariously. Amy's lips twitched, but she managed to hold in her smile in.
"Dudes," Nellie called. "Try not to choke on the pancakes, please. CPR tends to ruin the mood. Saladin, get your paws out of the batter!"
"I am not touching those," Jake heard Ian mumble. Unfortunately, Dan heard him. Jake seated himself at the table as Dan jumped up, grabbed the cat off of the counter, and thrust the Egyptian Mau's batter-covered paws into Ian's face. Saladin gave an outraged mrrrp as Ian let out a shriek of terror and scrambled backward into the table, knocking himself over. Nellie slid a plate of pancakes in front of Jake.
"Welcome to the Cahill family, breakfast edition," she said dryly. Jake laughed.
"Never gets old."
He forked some pancake into his mouth as Ian raced by, still screaming, Dan and Saladin in hot pursuit. "Att, could you pass the syrup?"