It was a Saturday in April when Rita and Lynn Sr. received the fate-changing phone call from their eldest daughter. Lori had just turned twenty-one, going into her senior year of undergraduate school that August. She'd been living with her boyfriend of going on five years, a certain Roberto Santiago, who, while still working multiple odd jobs, had found himself a managerial position at an above-par pizza restaurant. Lincoln had spotted his parents taking the call into their bedroom as he nonchalantly descended the stairs to get a glass of water, and then forgot about the water altogether. Even though it was about five AM, he knocked on his sisters' doors and herded the remaining seven girls who lived at home into the bathroom. And it was needless to say that Luan, along with all of her younger siblings, flocked around the air vent in the bathroom to hear what was happening that might change their lives.
"Can you hear anything?"
"Someone's on my foot."
"You're wearing slippers, stupid."
"What's going on?"
"This had better be good. You interrupted my beauty sleep for thi-"
"Shut. Up." Lynn hissed, leaning up against the vent again. "I can't hear anything if you're all talking, so how about you zip it before I make you a special breakfast of-"
"Woooooah, Lynn. Calm down." Lincoln whispered, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder, and quickly retracting it when she shot him a look of disdain. "Just tell us what you hear." Lynn rubbed at her eyes, blinking and yawning a couple of times before pressing her ear to the vent again.
"Lori, honey, this is a big deal." Rita said quietly, and her husband's voice mumbled something in a quiet murmur. It wasn't quite loud enough to hear.
Rita spoke again. "Yes, sweetheart, I know that Bobby is going to be a wonderful father, but that doesn't mean..."
Lynn's eyes went wide, the color completely drained from her face, and she scooted away from the vent, promptly hugging her knees into her chest. Luan moved over beside her, looking at her little sister's terrified expression and gently rubbing her back in consolation. The conversation had clearly been meant to be private, and was definitely...important. Lynn's head fell against her older sister's shoulder, and she closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.
"What did you hear?" Luan asked quietly, and her sister's eyes opened, looking around the room. After another long, deep breath, the words were spoken.
"Lori's pregnant."
A few of the younger girls exchanged an awkward glance, but they knew what the word meant, (Well, maybe except for a five-year-old Lily). It meant Lori was going to have a baby, and judging by the chilled looks on the older siblings' faces, it was scary. Lynn's face still hadn't regained color, and thus her freckles stood out against her pale complexion, giving off an almost...haunting look to the expression on her face. Luan was gently running her fingers through her younger sister's tangled shoulder-length hair, mumbling nothings under her breath that were a mix of puns and reassuring words. Lincoln just looked genuinely petrified, and at the same time was trying to calm down anyone younger than Lucy because the oldest available sisters were a little preoccupied.
"You know, Mom and Dad are probably going to pull the bun out of the oven and tell us later today, or at least this week." Luan joked, earning herself a death glare from an obviously annoyed Lynn. "What? I thought it was a good pun. Even though I'm not at my best before seven in the morning."
Lincoln took over, leading the conversation where it had initially been headed. "Should we tell them that we already know?" he asked, waiting for any sister's response.
"Yeah, because that's gonna go SO well." Lynn rolled her eyes. "Hey Mom, hey Dad, guess what we heard because we were spying on you at whatever the hell time it is in the morning?"
"Censor." Luan warned, gesturing towards the younger kids, and getting a groan out of Lynn. The color was slowly coming back to the athlete's face, which made Luan sigh in relief.
"The correct term would be eavethdropping." Lisa contributed, scribbling something down on her little notepad. "And Lynn may be correct. The poschibility for parental freak-out is high, asch to be exschpected." The eight-year-old proudly displayed a poorly-drawn pie chart, divided into a grand total of three sections. The sections had respectively been labeled 'freak-out', 'calm reaction', and 'margin of error'. Despite the 'margin of error' taking up five percent of the graph, 'freak out' was nearing eighty percent, which didn't necessarily seem consoling.
"Yes!" Lynn proclaimed, earning herself a couple of odd looks. "I heard 'Lynn is right' and that's all I care about." she explained, and Lisa let out an exasperated puff of breath.
"You schould probably care more about the faschual evidence schupporthing your claim." the little girl retorted, noticing the blank look on her sister's face. "And where, may I aschk, did you locate a taquito in the lavatorial faschility at five twenty-schix ante meridum?"
Lynn shrugged. "Beats me. Sometimes the world just gives you a taquito, and it's best not to question it. Yo Lan, you want to split this?" Lana eagerly nodded, and Lynn began pulling the cylindrical item in half.
Luan pulled the taquito out of her sister's grasp, making a face. "Lynnie, there's a wad of hair inside it. Please don't eat taquitos you find in the bathroom." Sometimes Luan couldn't believe the things she had to explain to this specific sister. Lynn had just turned seventeen that February. She should know not to trust random taquitos she found in the bathroom by now, shouldn't she?
"Hey, anyone younger than twelve, go back to bed. The big kids need to have a talk." Luan instructed, and watched as the twins walked off in one direction mumbling things to each other, and Lily grabbed Lisa's hand and walked towards another door. Luan waited until both doors had clicked shut before folding her hands in her lap and turning to her sister and brother.
"And then there were three." Lynn mumbled, nearly having a heart attack when she realized Lucy was standing next to her.
"You forgot about me." the gothic girl commented, and as Lincoln and Luan stammered apologies Lynn raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you still a kid? Go back to bed, Luce." the athlete commented, trying to pull her hair back into a ponytail and grumbling when it slipped from her grasp and brushed up against the tops of her almost-bare shoulders. She still wasn't quite used to the length, or lack thereof.
"Luan said anyone under twelve. I've been twelve since December." Lucy monotonously replied, and Luan shrugged, exchanging a glance with Lincoln. Lynn crossed her arms, looking at her sister's and brother inquisitively.
"Welcome to the Older Siblings' Club, then." Luan smiled, the fluorescent bathroom light reflecting off of her braces and accidentally shining into Lincoln's eyes.
"Luan, mouth metal." Lincoln shielded his eyes, and Luan quickly shifted to an angle where her braces hopefully wouldn't blind anyone. Two more months, Dr. Feinstein had said. Granted, he'd said that three years ago too, but she wasn't losing hope just yet.
"Are we sure Lucy's old enough?" Lynn protested. "I mean, there's definitely some PG-13 content in these meetings. And she's only 12. Maybe thi-"
Luan ruffled her sister's hair. "Awwww. You don't want your baby sister to grow up." she commented, and Lynn shoved her hand off.
"Yeah, right! I don't care. Whatever." Lynn muttered, rolling her chocolate eyes as if to prove a point. It wasn't that she didn't want Lucy to...grow up or anything. That was ridiculous. It was just that...there was some inappropriate content. That was it. That was everything. Obviously. Like she cared.
"So, Lori's...wow." Lincoln commented to break the tension. "We're gonna be...aunts and an uncle in a few months."
Nobody said anything in reply. It resonated in the back of their minds like a chilling secret, which, in a way, it sort of was. And even without speaking, they came to a conclusion that they weren't even going to think about telling their parents they knew.
But that didn't mean Rita and Lynn Sr. weren't going to find out.