Chapter One
"But Jake! It's not fair!" Tallulah exclaimed, sitting at the kitchen table with a disgruntled expression on her face, glaring at Jake as he made pancakes.
"Lu it's only for a couple days, don't overreact. I'll leave early tomorrow morning and be back in three days, five max. No biggie right?" Jake said, absentmindedly flipping the pancakes as he spoke to her.
"Jake I don't care that you're leaving," Tallulah said as Jake made an expression feigning hurt, causing her to roll her eyes in response, "I just don't want to stay with Sam. I'm twelve years old Jake I don't need a babysitter" she said defiantly, slamming her fist down on to the oak table.
At this, Jake narrowed his eyes at her. "Tallulah Rose do not give me that attitude or you will not enjoy the consequences." Striding over to the table with two heaping plates of pancakes he placed one in front of her before he continued. "Despite what you may think, you are a child and do need supervision. It's only for a couple of days and then I'll be back and you won't have to stay there anymore. You love Sam, why don't you want to stay with him anyway?" Jake questioned, popping a big bite of pancake into his mouth.
Tallulah looked up from her plate where she had been swirling a piece of pancake in a puddle of syrup for the duration of the conversation. "I just don't" she responded shortly, not giving any further explanation.
And honestly she didn't really have one. Normally, she probably would have been excited to stay with Sam, she really loved hanging out with him and it would break up the monotony of her usual routine. But lately she had been feeling difficult and particularly rebellious, resisting almost very suggestion or direction from her brother. She would only do as she was told when Jake would get frustrated or angry enough to start threatening her with real consequences, and even then she was slow to please.
"Well get excited," Jake said, "because you're headed there tonight. I have to leave pretty early tomorrow morning and it'll just be easier if you stay there tonight, I don't want to have to wake you up super early just to have to drag you to a different bed."
"Fine!" Tallulah said angrily, bolting up from her chair and heading for her room. She was so mad and she didn't even know why. Jake was a stupid idiot for making her go.
"Not so fast young lady, you come back here right now."
Tallulah spun back around, defiantly looking at her brother who was pointing as the chair she had just vacated.
Keeping his eyes on her, Jake spoke firmly saying, "You know you're not allowed to leave the table until you finish your food, get back over here."
"Jake I'm not hungry" Tallulah lied, not caring that her stomach was growling because all she wanted to do was to get as far away from her brother as possible.
"Tallulah you need to eat." Walking over to her, Jake placed his hands on her shoulders and guided her back over to the table. "Now sit and eat, no arguments."
Begrudgingly, Tallulah took a seat at the table once again and began nibbling on the pancakes in front of her.
Jake nodded his head in approval. "Good. Now I'm going to go get ready for school. Eat that quickly so you can do the same." Jake turned to leave the room, kissing Lu on the head before exiting. Tallulah continued to mope and eat, not excited for what the day was going to bring.