Two months later…

The rustic log cabin sat on the far edge of the woods, near enough to the road to use it to get into the city, but far enough away that the occupants couldn't see it from their house. All seemed nice and quiet, but then the silence was abruptly shattered by an enraged shout.

"Cain Allen Carter! Get in here right now!"

Conrad Carter, eldest of Ulysses Carter's four sons, looked around. He hadn't really expected his prank-pulling younger brother to come running into his room, especially when Conrad had sounded that mad. In fact, Cain would probably make it a point to avoid him now. That is, if Conrad let him.

Tucking the offending item into his pajama pocket, Conrad walked out of his room. The first place he was going to check was the twins' room, though he doubted that Cain was in there. Ness might be able to tell him where Cain was.

Closing his door behind him, Conrad walked down the hall to the room where the twins slept. Pushing the door open, Conrad walked over to the beds. He would never understand his brothers' fascination with bunk beds, but he had to admit that they'd come up with an ingenious method for sharing it: every night they switched beds, so if Ness had been sleeping on the top bunk on Thursday, Cain would be there on Friday.

Conrad now stood next to the bed. Looking at the pillow Conrad saw a head of long black hair, which meant precisely squat since both twins had long hair. Conrad pulled the blankets off of the sleeping figure.

"Cain?"

"Wrong guy," Ness mumbled, his voice still thick from being awakened too suddenly. One green eye opened, aiming up at his older brother. "Why don't you yell a little louder next time? I don't think the fossilized spores on Mars heard you yet."

Conrad rolled his eyes. No matter how tired either of them was, Ness and Cain could be counted on to be sarcastic. Climbing the ladder that led to the top bunk, Conrad saw that this one was also occupied. But occupied by what? Well, if something seems too good to be true… Conrad thought as he pulled the covers off the 'sleeping figure' it probably is. Under the covers was nothing but more covers, rolled up so someone who didn't look too closely might think the bed was still full.

Not bothering to climb back down the ladder, Conrad jumped back to the ground. Once he was out of the twins' room, Conrad headed to the living room, since that was the most likely place that Cain would be. Making sure to be as quiet as was humanly possible, Conrad tiptoed down the stairs. Once he was in the living room, Conrad slunk over to the old, overstuffed couch that had been set up in front of the TV.

Looking over the back, Conrad saw Cain was indeed sleeping on the couch. He'd brought out one of his coats, probably so he could leave all his bedding in his room. He looked kind of cute when he was sleeping, but Conrad wasn't going to let something like that stop him. He walked around to the front of the couch.

"Awww," Conrad whispered, though he really didn't have to.

Cain had the uncanny ability to sleep through anything, rock concerts and natural disasters included. Conrad tossed the jacket off of Cain's sleeping form, then grabbed his younger brother by his pajamas and pulled him off the couch.

"Gah!" Cain shouted when he hit the ground.

Cain looked around, whipping his long black hair back and forth as he searched for his assailant. When he looked up, Conrad grinned and waved at him.

"Aw great," Cain muttered. "I'm doomed, aren't I?"

"Pretty much," Conrad said with a cheerful smile.

"Should I start running now?"

"Only if you don't want to get creamed," Conrad answered, still smiling.

Cain took off, bolting like a cheetah across the Savannah. Conrad gave him enough of a head start to be sporting, then ran after him. Conrad caught up in the den, since there was no other exits from that particular room. Cain tried to defend himself with a cushion from the couch, but Conrad knocked it out of his hands.

Pinning Cain to the same couch that he'd stolen the cushion off of, Conrad started to tickle his younger brother mercilessly. Years of getting pranked by Cain had given the eldest Carter sibling an extensive knowledge of his brother's sensitive spots.

"No! No, not there!" Cain managed to gasp, before bursting out laughing again as Conrad tickled him under the ribs.

At last, out of breath, Conrad let Cain slide down to the ground.

"What (gasp) was that for?" Cain asked.

"You stapled all my underwear shut! And I still hadn't paid you back for three weeks ago, when you put those rubber snakes in my bed."

Cain blew a raspberry at Conrad. "You deserved it, you know."

"Oh? And why's that?"

"You put seaweed in whatever you cook! I hate seaweed!" Cain crossed his arms, as if that was a valid reason for whatever he did.

"It's healthy."

"It's gross is what it is," Cain grumped.

"You're crazy," Conrad said, rolling his eyes.

***

Since Conrad's earlier shout had woken the entire house, most of them were already up and dressed. It was the last day of school, so Conrad and Cain quickly joined the others at the breakfast table.

"Cain, Cookie Crunch is not a breakfast food," Ulysses Carter admonished.

Cain, his mouth full of the aforementioned cereal, could only roll his eyes in exasperation. My dad, the health nut. Must be where Conrad gets it from.

"Shara, pass the milk," Ness asked.

"Here you go," she said, handing him the carton.

The sounds of spoons clinking against bowls, the crunch of cereal and toast being eaten, and the soft slurp of people drinking was all that could be heard in the kitchen for the next five minutes.

"Raven, don't forget your sunglasses," Conrad told his youngest brother.

Raven Carter; second last child of Ulysses and last boy, nodded. Raven had been born an albino, and therefore he had very sensitive eyes and skin. Raven tended to get sunburn easily, and he didn't like to spend as much time outdoors as his hardier brothers did. Shara was only a partial albino, so she didn't have as much trouble with those kinds of things as Raven did.

The five Carter siblings piled into Ulysses' Dodge Caravan, he had loaned it to Conrad when the latter had gotten his driver's license. Conrad had been saving up to get his own car, and the loan of course had been accompanied by more than a few 'soccer mom' jokes from Cain.

In the end, Conrad ended up taking his dad's offer, since the only other car the family had was Ulysses' old Toyota Corolla. Everyone else wondered why he still kept the old clunker, since most of them thought it was god-awful ugly.

Once they were all buckled up inside the mini-van, Conrad started the engine and backed out of the garage. After he'd gotten onto the narrow dirt road that led to or away from the house, depending on which way you were coming from, he turned onto the road and drove away.

***

They arrived at school after about an hour and a half, piling out, eager to get the last day of school over with so they could leave.

"I'll see you guys after school, okay?"

"Yeah, we'll see you, Conrad," Ness said, waving to him, as Conrad climbed back into the mini-van.

"Bye, big brother!" Shara waved as Conrad closed the door.

The others waved to him as he drove off. Conrad liked the fact that the cooking school he was attending allowed him enough time to drop the rest of his siblings off at school before he had to get to class himself.