"I've been picking them up from school since I was little," I muttered as I scrambled around the house, preparing to go get Carmen and Andy. "You'd think I would know what time to get them and not have to rush." My self-rant was interrupted by the clear sound of the doorbell in the otherwise silent house. I scowled, this was only going to make me late for pick up and the school would try to place the twins in a foster home. Again.
As I rushed to the front door I was grumbling under my breath about the unfairness of it all. That stupid principal was determined that I was unfit as a caregiver simply because I was still a student, even after the courts told him to back off. I glanced through the peephole and almost smiled when I saw that it was Stiles, but I was in a hurry. I opened the door with only slight hesitation.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked as he walked in and I shut the door quickly behind him. I practically shoved him to the kitchen so that I could finish preparing the cookies while we talked.
"Just wanted to hang out and see you," he said, sitting casually at the island. "You haven't been to school since last week." He waited for me to finish putting the dough on the tray and into the over before he picked up talking. "That, and my dad is working a major case right now, so I was wondering if I could stay here for a while?"
I nodded absentmindedly, until what he said actually clicked. "Yeah, sorry for not telling you, but the principal said that I only have to show up for exams and if I'm ever called in. And yeah, you can stay here." Not like he hasn't before.
"Oh. We miss you at lunch. It gets pretty quiet without you there," he looked down as he spoke and I was worried until he lifted his face and grinned at me. He seemed okay, so I went back to messing with the dials on the oven. "So, what's up? Thanks, by the way, for letting me stay."
"No problem." I looked up from the oven to smile at him. "I was about to clean up the cookie making stuff before I go get the twins. I like having a snack ready for when they do their homework. Wanna help?"
He nodded. "Sure. Just tell me what to do." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "When do you have to go pick them up, anyway?"
"Shit." I muttered, glaring at my watch. "Right now. Could you pick them up for me? It would be a huge help and I still have some stuff to do before they get home."
He shrugged, but then shook his head. At my crestfallen look, he coughed before saying, "How about you get them and I do whatever it is that needs to be done?"
"Are you sure?" I asked. When he nodded, I told him that the table needed to be cleared and the cookies needed to be taken out of the oven to cool. "Is that okay?"
"Yeah," he assured. "Just leave it to me and go get them."
I grinned and exclaimed, "My hero!" Then I lunged across the kitchen island to get my purse and cell before walking up to Stiles, kissing his cheek, and rushing to the part of the garage that housed my baby.
Well, not my baby, but my darling 2013 GMC Acadia. It wasn't my favorite vehicle, but rather the most useful. It was safe, big enough for us to pack up and leave at a moment's notice, relatively good gas mileage, and it wasn't a car that would need replaced for quite some time.
Tapping my thumbs against the wheel, I pulled out of the garage and drove in relative peace to the kids' elementary school for pick up. Most parents got there earlier, so I had to wait in the long line of cars for about fifteen minutes before Andy saw me and dragged Carmen over to hop in so we could go.
"Hey guys. How was school today?" I asked glancing at them through the rear view mirror. Neither looked upset, but it was hard to tell with these two, especially since the fire.
"We were called down to the office again today," Andy said, staring out the window as we maneuvered through the crowded parking lot.
"They think we're insane," Carmen muttered from beside Andy in the back seat. "They think we'll flip out in the middle of class." She scoffed like the idea was completely impossible and I smothered a laugh.
"Seriously?" I questioned, mildly irked. I had told the school to leave them alone unless they deliberately acted out and, in that case, the school was to call me first. "What did they talk to you about?"
Andy hesitantly turned from the window and opened his mouth to speak. He couldn't say anything though as Carmen cut across and started talking.
"They kept asking if we were happy living with you and if you were taking good care of us," she frowned, obviously annoyed. This was the third time this month that they had been pulled out of class for the same reason. She had every right to be annoyed.
Andy scowled. "They wanted to know how you planned to provide for us." Carmen nodded and tucked herself into Andy's side, despite the pull of the seat belt. He lifted his arm to accommodate her and scooched more into the middle of the back seat to lessen the strain on her shoulder.
I nodded with a frown, figuring that the school would go behind my back to try and take my siblings away with dirty tricks. "And what did you two tell them?" I opted to ignore the possible hazard of how they were sitting. He couldn't be injured and her dormant witch blood would keep her safe where he couldn't.
"We said that we liked living with you," Andy volunteered as he pulled Carmen closer and rested his head on hers..
"And that our lives really hadn't changed from before the fire," Carmen added, curling into her twin's hold. "We told them how you had always been the only person taking care of us."
"We told them that you made money by writing and publishing stuff," Andy supplied.
"And that nothing they said would make us leave you," they said together looking up at me. It's no wonder that they're twins at times like this. They've always been tactile with each other and when they speak at the same time, it's like one person is talking. It almost makes me wish I had a twin, but then when Alexa's face crosses my mind, I'm glad that another child wasn't dragged into this mess.
"Well, I'm glad that you feel that way and that you were honest," I said, stressing the word honest. They hadn't lied, but I didn't want them to think they had to if ever they felt the need to. "By the way, Stiles is going to be staying at the house for the next week or so since his dad is busy on a case, so try to be nice."
"Is he there now?" Carmen asked, sharing a look with Andy. Their twin telepathy thing was almost frustrating, but since there was nothing I could do about it, I tended to ignore it.
"Yes. Why?" I didn't even try to hide my suspicion as I asked.
They shrugged in unison. "No reason," they chimed simultaneously.
"Right," I muttered. By then, we had arrived back at the house and they had jumped out of the car and were dashing to the front door before I could say more on the subject. I sighed and got out of the car calmly, leaving it in the driveway for the time being. I had to go to the publishing house at some point, so there was no sense in pulling into the garage.
"Hey guys, welcome home," I heard Stiles say from inside as I got closer to the door. I stopped on the front steps as I heard Carmen start to say 'hi daddy', but stopped when Andy dragged her inside. I must have spaced out because the next I knew, Stiles was waving his hand in front of my face. "Hey Ava, you okay? You're blanking out on us."
"Huh," I shook my head and looked up to see him smiling with a twinge of concern on his brow. "Yeah, I'm good." We began walking and as we walked through the still open front door, I grinned. "Thanks for holding down the fort till I got back. And you two," I started, turning my gaze to my siblings who were taking off their shoes by the hall closet. "Homework at the dining room table now or you can't have any of the cookies Stiles made." With that, Carmen and Andy almost sprinted to the dining room and dug out their homework. Soon the long table was covered in papers, pencils, and workbooks.
"We'll be in the kitchen or living room," I said as we walked through the hall and toward the main parts of the house. "Holler if you need help and you can each have a cookie after I see a completed assignment from each of you." After hearing them groan from the weight of their new task, I smirked and grabbed Stiles' arm and dragged him with me towards the kitchen and the now beeping oven.
"Thanks for helping out today," I offered, breaking the unsettling quiet, as I pulled the just short of burning cookies out of the oven.
Stiles stared pointedly at my hands as I held onto the still hot tray. "Shouldn't you be wearing gloves?"
"What?" I looked at my hands and realized that I had forgotten to grab the mitts. "It's fine. The nerves in my hands were pretty much destroyed in the fire. I can't feel-" He reached around me and grabbed the tray with a single mit covered hand. "-the heat. Thanks, I guess."
"Just because you can't feel it doesn't mean that it can't hurt you," he chided as he placed the tray on the stove and moved to sit at the island like he had earlier. "Besides, I thought you said the damage was limited."
I scoffed. "I did and it is. The nerves in my hands just don't recognize heat or pain," I argued sitting at the island across from him. "I can still use them." I wiggled my fingers at him with a grin to prove my point.
"That's not really limited," he admonished as he leaned over and inspected my hands. "That's pretty severe nerve damage. Have you seen a doctor about it?"
I rolled my eyes, pulling my hands back. "No, and I don't plan to either," I shrugged when he glared. "It's not a big deal, so move on already. Thanks for helping today."
He smiled at me, my hands seemingly forgotten. "Anytime, especially since I get to stay here." He grinned and ran off to Andy's call from the dining room, leaving me to load the dishwasher.
"Ava!" Carmen shrieked from somewhere in the age old house. "I need your help!"
I jolted at her tone and glanced at the mess of dishes around me in what had been a spotless kitchen. With a wave of my hand, the dishes were all in their places and the ones from the sink loaded into the machine. Nodding at my handiwork, I wiped my hands on my jeans and headed to the basement.
"What's wro-" I started to ask until I saw her standing in the middle of the den surrounded by piles of laundry. Even the TV had towels draped over the screen, forget the furniture. My concern shifted to annoyance at the mess. "What did you do?"
"I think the house got tired of our laziness," she joked, grinning until she saw that I was not amused. Sobering up she elaborated. "I walked in and the clothes fell from the ceiling. Is the laundry room even on this floor?"
"No, it's on the main floor," I reminded her. "Why did you come down here anyway? You have homework that's not done yet."
She looked sheepish, but replied anyway. "I thought I heard something."
I rolled my eyes. "So you came down here by yourself to check?" She nodded. "You do understand that you can't do anything until you're thirteen, right?" She huffed and sauntered over to the stairs, something she definitely picked up from Lydia, before glancing over her shoulder at me, grinning impishly.
"You're just worried that Stiles is gonna figure out the family secret before you tell him,"she joked.
"Yes I am," I confessed. "But he's going to at some point, just not by having laundry magickally dropped on his head."
She stared at me for a second before dashing up the stairs. I followed more slowly, but stopped a few steps up. Turning back to the mess, I scanned the once pristine room before snapping my fingers and watching the clothes fly through the air before vanishing back to their rightful places. Satisfied, I continued up the stairs and into the dining room.
Stiles was still helping Andy when I walked in, but looked up and smiled before quickly looking back to the worksheet that looked a lot like long division. He didn't notice that his student wasn't paying attention. Andy was looking back and forth from me to Stiles. He must have seen something because he shook his head before turning back in to whatever Stiles was saying with a small grin. I shrugged and fell into one of the chairs at the table and watched what they were doing, pleasantly surprised at how normal is felt. Normal and oddly domestic.
Carmen had taken her seat at the table and soon came over to me with a notebook. I looked over it, checking her science homework, before handing it back to her with a nod. She dropped it on the table and bounced over to Andy to help with the math. Their rule was, since they have to share everything, they only get rewards after both of them do the work. They insist that it's a twin thing, I think it's more like they just copy the other's work after they get the reward.
Andy soon jumped up and ran over to me with his worksheet that I didn't even bother checking. If Stiles was helping him, I'm sure he corrected as they went along. I nodded and watched as Carmen dragged Andy into the kitchen where I had left the cookies to cool on the rack. With a laugh, I moved to the seat previously occupied by Andy next to Stiles.
"You sure you want to stay here? Scott's place is less busy," I said with a grin, nodding towards the kitchen where we could hear Andy telling Carmen that he wanted Stiles to help him with his homework from now on.
He laughed good humoredly, but nodded. "Yeah, this way I get to make up for not seeing you at school." He smirked and jumped up, running to the kitchen. With a hopefully dismissive blush, I got up and followed after only to freeze in the doorway.
What I saw should have shocked me more than it did to be honest. Stiles was holding a cookie up in the air with Carmen wrapped around his leg and Andy on his back with his arms around Stiles' neck. I smothered a laugh and pulled out my phone to take a quick picture. Hearing the fake shutter sound of the camera, they all froze and whipped their heads around to stare at me. There was moment of intense staring before I was tackled by two small children and a not so small teenager.
"Give. Us. The. Camera. Ava." The twins snarled through clenched teeth. I laughed, but Stiles looked freaked out, accidentally loosening his grip on my feet.
I shot him a quick glance before I said, "It's not a camera."
"Whatever it is. Give it!" Carmen shouted from her place on my stomach as Andy held down my left arm.
"Stiles!" I shouted when I saw him sitting calmly, leaning against the cabinets. "Catch!" I pretended to toss him the phone. The twins were fool enough to lunge toward him while I scrambled up off the floor. "Hah! Suckers!'
The twins turned back to me and scowled. They made brief eye contact, before shrugging and turning back to Stiles. "So Stiles, did you know that Ava here has a-" Their words were muffled by my arms as I grabbed them from behind.
"Fine! You can take my phone to delete the picture. Just stop talking," I had already sent the picture to Stiles and to my email, so it's wasn't much of a loss, but I couldn't let them reveal the truth. Not now, not like this.
They looked at each other with smug grins as I handed them my cell phone. "We win!"
"Yeah yeah." Hearing the chirp that meant they had deleted the picture, I snatched my phone back and told them to go finish their homework. "I'll bring the cookies in in a minute, so scoot." And scoot they did.
After they were gone, I looked at Stiles only to see how startlingly clear his amber eyes were up close. I yelped and jumped away.
"What were they about to say, Ava?" He sounded more than curious, but less than concerned. "Why didn't you want them to tell me?" Now he just sounded hurt.
With a grumbled "I'm going to kill them", I stood up, pulling him up as well, and led him to the library on the second floor. Shutting the heavy oak doors, I took a deep breath before plunging into what I've been putting off for at least five months. "I know that you're a member of a werewolf pack." I didn't give him a chance to respond before I said, "And I know that Scott's a werewolf." I watched as he fell into one of the room's reading chairs.
He opened his mouth, then shut it again. "Wha-? How did you-?" He opened his mouth to say something else, but closed it soon after.
"It gets better, or worse, depends on how you take it, I guess." At his dubious look, I revealed my family's secret. "I'm a witch."
That's when the constantly moving, always in motion teenage boy that was one of my best friends, went completely still. He didn't faint, which meant that Carmen owed Andy fifteen bucks, but he might as well have for all the good it did.
"Stiles?" I hesitated to get closer, unsure of his reaction, but decided 'screw it' and took the steps needed to reach him, but not necessarily touch him, and kneeled by the chair. "C'mon, Stiles. Give me something. Scream, faint, yell, do something." When he still didn't move, I begged. "Please."
His eyes were open, so he was conscious. I sighed and moved to my next plan of action, time to call the cavalry. I pulled out my phone without looking away from Stiles' face and dialed Scott's number.
He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Hey Scott, you should come over. I think I broke Stiles. Bring the whole pack, too. It's time that I told you all a story." And I hung up. Standing from my kneeling position next to the chair Stiles currently inhabited, I sighed and went to tell the twins to take their homework to their rooms and stay there until I called for them.
"Why?" Carmen asked, swallowing half of a cookie. "What's wrong?"
"The house is about to be occupied by wolves, Hun. Oh, before I forget, he didn't faint. You owe Andy fifteen bucks." Turning to Andy, I said, "And you owe me five." That was the deal. When the twins made bets, whoever won gave me a third of the profit, which would go to the 'oh shit' jar, money used for pizzas or carry out or whatever. They do a lot of bets, so the jar is almost always full of bills.
Andy cheered, but then realized what I had said. He paled, recalling our last interaction with wolves. "Werewolves are coming here?"
I nodded, placing my hand on his head. "And they think I hurt Stiles in some way. Hence you two are going to make yourselves scarce, kapeesh?" They nodded, but looked worried. "Don't worry. I'm more than capable of handling seven werewolves and one hunter." I grinned. "Remember last time?" They broke out in giggle and I quickly ushered them to their rooms as the protection shields around the house sprung into place. I reinforced the spells and let down the shields that kept everyone unwelcome or threatening out. I felt more than heard the front door crash into the adjoining wall and grimaced. Just because I was strong enough doesn't mean that this would be pleasant, these were my friends after all. "It's show time."