What happens in the between times when the Brotherhood are off at school. Humor!
My story, their characters, 'Nuff said!
Thankless Job
It wasn't the easiest job in the world and everyone would agree that it was probably the most thankless. Doing the things that everyone took for granted all day every day was a hard thing to do. In the hour before everyone else woke up breakfast was being made and the coffee ready.
In the Brotherhood House this was a very important job.
No one wanted to go without their morning coffee and making it yourself took too long.
Besides, those mornings usually ended up in fights.
That had happened one morning when Pyro had to make the coffee and couldn't wait for the pot to brew so he put his cup under the percolator only to have Gambit steal it.
No one wanted a repeat of that.
They were still scraping oatmeal from the ceiling.
Breakfast was a job in itself.
Feeding six teenage boys in a regular household was a chore in itself let alone for six mutant teenage boys one of which could eat double and thirds of the others.
Each week they went through seven gallons of milk, three boxes of pancake mix, four dozen eggs and enough bacon to make raising their own pigs a serious contemplation.
And somehow it was all done before they woke up.
Just maintaining the Brotherhood House took most of the morning. After breakfast and the kids off to Bayville High it was time to clean up.
As much as the kitchen was used it was in serious need of an upgrade preferably with industrial grade appliances. The one good thing was that they did have a dishwasher. Depending on the week cleanup didn't take that long.
And with everyone gone and out of the way it made the job easier.
In the kids point of view it was out of sight, out of mind.
If it wasn't done directly in front of them then it didn't matter.
Unless of course those things weren't done.
Then everyone noticed.
As much complaining as the kids did you would think they could spend a little more of that energy on cleaning their rooms which was the next job.
The Brotherhood House was built on two to four stories depending on how you looked at it. Technically it was two stories but adding in the attic and the basement added another two. Because it was built on a split level most of the dust settled downstairs. Trying to clean from the downstairs up just tracked all the dirt and dust to the upstairs.
It was easier to clean from the top down.
What didn't help was the 1964 Avocado Green Kirby vacuum cleaner.
Besides weighing a ton it didn't use bags (outdated and no longer manufactured) but the fabric itself was duct taped to the housing. That meant that in order to clean it out they had to empty the whole bag instead of just replacing it.
It was the dirtiest job they had and no one wanted to do it. No one was sure what they would find when they emptied it.
But it still worked so they kept it around even though they had even tried to throw it out in the garbage and buy a new one. After the new one broke (Gambit's deck of cards or something picked up in the master bedroom, no one was sure), they had brought it in from the rain and it had worked just like it always did.
Usually dinner would be cooking or in the process of being cooked while the cleaning went on so that wasn't as much as a project as it sounded. Since breakfast had to be made fresh that was more of a job than dinner. Dinners were casseroles or something made in large pots with plenty of pasta or rice or potatoes in it to fill the kids up.
That is if they didn't order pizza instead.
They had enough pizza coupons stuffed in the utility drawer to qualify for a dozen freebies which was exactly what Freddy 'the Blob' Dukes had tried to do. After arguing with the pizza delivery boy for twenty minutes and trying to pay with coupons they were no longer eligible for delivery.
They were all just waiting for Taco Bell to start using delivery.
Seriously.
After vacuuming the dusting had to be done.
If the vacuuming was done right then dusting wasn't that hard. The old green Kirby could probably suck up most of the more obvious dust bunnies but it didn't work on banisters.
Bless whoever invented the swiffer it made the job a lot easier.
Most days the kid's rooms were shut.
No one wanted anyone sneaking around in their rooms and so long as no weird smells were emitted everyone was happy to oblige. Even on the days they did forget to close the doors no one bothered to go in, often closing the doors for them.
What was seen was enough.
Unmade beds, skewed curtains, and a multitude of video games and cd's were all it took.
In Gambit's case it was layers and layers of half tossed decks of cards lying around that kept everyone out. They didn't know which ones would still be charged.
Besides being teenage boys there was bound to be something that would either be embarrassing or awkward laying around so everyone just let well enough alone.
They didn't want to live in some weird mom-and-pop-talk-to-their-son-about-sex after school special.
The master bedroom was a breeze and probably the cleanest and most organized room in the house.
Everything was certain to be in its place with the King Size bed made and the pillows tossed 'just so'. It was, after all, the perk of having the master bedroom.
The closets were arranged by color and texture of latex or spandex and any occasion in between. Even the plasma rarely showed any dust that large electronics usually attracted.
Although bookshelves took up one wall opposite the foot of the bed these were mostly used for files. Ranging anywhere from foreign to domestic state secrets to possible reasons for blackmail both present and future, every politician known and unknown had a file. It was updated and straightened out periodically based upon level of necessity.
It was sometimes good to keep a hard copy of these things.
Laundry was another thing that was done all day like making dinner.
It was only when Pyro and Gambit fought over whose jeans were whose that it became a pain with each marking theirs with either a "P" or a "G" after that.
Except for Freddy.
He never seemed to have that problem. Everyone knew whose clothes were his and often it took three or four loads just to get his done.
Since they had found out that the kids, especially Toad, would wear the same clothes over and over again instead of bringing their clothes to the laundry room a chute was installed from the second floor hallway down to the basement where the washer and dryer were.
It didn't matter if it was sorted by color or not since most of their clothes were hand-me-downs and no one doubted that the kids would care anyway. Jeans went in one load and t-shirts went in the other. Since this constituted 90 percent of 90 percent of the household population it didn't take that long.
No one had anything delicate or hand washable and if they did than they didn't belong in the general wash or they really did do them by hand.
Just like no one went into the kids rooms then nothing embarrassing or awkward was ever placed in the laundry by accident.
Ever.
While the third or fourth load of laundry was drying or washing it was time to strain the pasta or rice or peel the potatoes for dinner. The kids didn't care so long as it was food but some members were picky about what they ate. Sometimes this meant more meat or less depending on the mood so whatever frozen block of aluminum was left in the sink to thaw.
Like mystery meat it would be added as the last ingredient to make them think that the dinner was fresh.
In between that it was time for the afternoon soaps.
Divorce Court or Judge Judy wasn't a favorite but All My Children and As the World Turns were neck and neck for favorite show.
The Chandler's were always interesting to watch but so were the Hughes and Munson's. Of course some of them still remembered them as the Lowell's or even as far back as when they were only on the radio. It didn't matter what decade or even what characters there were you could always pick up almost exactly where you left off.
Of course it wasn't anything like their household or even anybody else's but that was beside the point. It was a short escape from all the cleaning and vacuuming and laundry and all the other unappreciated jobs.
That was the joy of soap operas.
By then it was almost time for the kids to be home from school and that meant finding whatever snacks and drinks they could find to hold them over until dinner.
As picky as some people were about what kind of meat they were going to eat that night the kids were even pickier about their snacks. Sometimes it would be chips and the next day it would be cereal. Regardless, whatever was presented they usually wanted the opposite.
And that meant guarding dinner.
No matter what, that was what they usually wanted.
If it was spaghetti the pot had to be watched so that Toad wouldn't eat all of the crumbled up hamburger bit by bit with his tongue. Or the time Freddy ate the bottom layer of the hamburger rice pie in one sitting and all they were left with was the 'rice pie' part.
Piotr and Pietro liked to take handfuls of whatever noodle was being served and eat them with their fingers with the long ends high in the air as they munched them from the bottom up.
That was how they wound up eating tuna 'rice' casserole instead of tuna-noodle casserole.
After dinner it was time to put some beer in the box because by the end of the day it would be needed.
They never allowed it to go completely empty for fear of mutiny or revolution and whatever kept the peace was fine with them. The kids didn't drink it so it was pretty much safe until after dinner when they played games or watched TV.
No one got drunk much except for that one time and they all heard the promises afterward so it didn't matter now.
Besides, at the end of the day it was nice to unwind.
After listening to the kids fight over which Guitar Hero song to play for the fiftieth time it was time to chase them all upstairs and take a bath.
That was harder than it looked.
In fact, beside breakfast it was the hardest time of the day.
Gambit and Piotr didn't mind and Pietro was so fast that no one even noticed when he was done.
Freddy and Toad were the biggest complainers. Freddy whined because Gambit took too long or used up all the hot water or left his towels on the floor or didn't clean up after shaving or any number of things that Freddy liked to whine about. Toad whined because, well, he honestly didn't like water.
For a Toad that was endlessly amusing.
For them it was endlessly annoying.
Since they didn't have to worry about homework the kids did what they wanted to do so long as it was quiet and didn't bother anyone.
That was the rules and they knew it. No one wanted to do otherwise or dreaded doing homework so they were pretty good about it.
Normally this meant more video games or telephone calls like teenagers do but it was at least a small consolation knowing that by ten or eleven they would all be up in their rooms and either sleeping or getting ready to sleep.
Then, it would be worth it.
It had been a long day but now there would be some peace and quiet.
..................................................................................................................................................................
Except….
Tickle
Tickle Tickle
Tickle Tickle Tickle
Slap
"Stop that."
"Come on. The kids are in bed."
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't feel like it."
"Oh come on, you had all day."
"No."
Tickle Tickle Tickle
Slap again.
"I'm serious. Stop it."
"Oh, you can't be that tired. What have you been doing all day?"
"…….."
"Come on. For me?"
"……….sigh."
"What if I do this?"
"Geez…That's, um, that's not f-fair. I really am tired."
"Mmmmm……..Crwooud've froowed me." Raven winked up at him.
"Grrrrrrr…….." Sabretooth purred.
It would be a long night but he was guessing there wasn't going to be any peace and quiet.
At least not for him.
The End