Helen screwed her eyes shut, covering her ears to muffle the screeching sounds coming from Naoko, Joni, and Kelly's room. Whatever it was, it wasn't a kid, or even a combination of kids. Another blast wafted out from behind the closed door, and only then was she able to identify the noise. It sounded like something was wrong with Joni's saxophone again.

Helen cracked open the bedroom door and opened her mouth, prepared to ask her daughter if there was anything that could be done to help the sax. Seeing what the scene before her was, though, Helen clamped her mouth shut and just watched for a second.

Joni and Kelly were both sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room, and it was Kelly who held the sax rather than Joni. The North of the two girls appeared to be trying to teach her new step-sister how to play the instrument. Regardless of the fact that the efforts that both were putting forth appeared to be failing, they both appeared to be enjoying themselves.

Helen hated to put a stop to it, but thankfully Kelly did that on her own after only another couple seconds.

The soccer player set the saxophone aside turned to the musician, asking, "Are you ready to try my part of the deal?" Kelly smiled, acknowledging her own inaptitude at the instrument as she added, "Maybe you'll have better luck with it then I am with this."

"Aw, don't give up on yourself already!" Joni implored. "The sax can be fun; it just takes time and practice to get used to… and to get good at."

"Kind of like soccer," Kelly said, jumping off of the floor and grabbing her ball. As Helen hurried away down the hall before she was noticed by the girls, she heard Kelly add, "Come on; let's go grab a couple more people to play with us."

Twenty minutes later, Helen was standing in the kitchen washing some dishes in the sink with Frank at her side drying them when they heard the giddy laughter coming through the open window from the yard.

"What is that?" Frank asked with a small smile.

"Come look," Helen encouraged, gesturing for him to join her at the window. "It's some of the kids."

Stepping up beside her to look out the window, Frank did a quick headcount of the kids that he saw as he wrapped an arm around his wife's waist. "Jimi, Kelly, Joni, Lau, Ely, Otter, Bina, Marisa. Hm," his smile widened as he said, "I think that's neat."

The older four of the group were kicking a soccer ball around the yard while the younger four stood around the designated circle in which they were playing, each shouting encouragements to one of their siblings.

Upon seeing that Marisa was rooting for Kelly, Frank murmured, "That's a very smart six year old. She knows where the gold is at."

"Hey, my kids aren't doing very badly at all!"

"They're our kids," Frank reminded pulling her close. "And you're right; they're doing very well."

Bina had started up a chant for Jimi, Ely was cheering for Joni, and Otter seemed to be feeding encouragement to Lau.

"Wait a second," Frank paused. "Lau is playing sports."

"He likes sports, Frank," Helen informed her husband. "He just knows that the others are better at them and that he's better than them at helping me with my designs, so that's what he does more often."

"Ah, I see," Frank nodded, still transfixed on watching their kids in the yard. "It's really nice to see them getting along so well, you know it?"

Helen agreed, "It is. And you know what? I think that we're going to be seeing a lot more of it in the future."

This is my first stab at this category, so as always I would really appreciate some feedback on how you think I'm doing. Thanks!:)