PART 13
2 months later
"Mommy, mommy! Can you help me? I don't remember how we do this?" Collin wanted to know from his mother.
Sydney and her sons were sitting around the kitchen table catching up on some school work to get them back into it before school would start again in two weeks.
"Let me have a look" she requested as she leaned over one of the twins to have a look at this exercise. "This number you put it here in this cirle and the other one in here, then you do the addition and when you have done it, right the result at the bottom into the squared figure, right here" she guided him through the page.
"Oh! Now I remember mommy"
"Alex, have you finished yours?"
"Uh huh!" he glanced up from his sheet still munching on the head of his pencil to look at his mother.
"You put this aside and we'll start with the dictation right away"
"Yes!" he exclaimed all happy. Sydney grabbed a book out of his backpack and sought for a good chapter to read out loud for him. Everybody was busy with their heads above their books and papers. Outside it was raining and Sydney had decided it would be a good way to keep them busy. Also today she wasn't feeling that good and the weight she had gained the last couple of weeks were working hard on her. And with Vaughn gone onto the mission, four children were far too much for her right now. This was a good way to keep them busy and to calm them for at least a couple of hours.
Alex tore another paper from the pad and waited impatiently for his mother to start the dictation. English class was his favorite subject just like it had been for his mother when she was young. He was always eager to learn new words and also remembered them quite easily. Alex was in sum a good pupil who had skipped one grade and would start 6th grade in September. His parents had both been very pleased to see their child finally jump a class because he had been bored the whole year through 3rd grade. The teachers found he had no problems following the older pupils of fifth grade so they had kept him where he was. Problems between him and the other pupils had never happened and so everybody was pleased with Alex success.
"Oliver, sit down and do your work, will you?" Oliver on the other hand was more giddy. He wasn't a bad pupil but the problem was that his parents had to be constantly watching him, following his homework. He wouldn't do them by himself and sometimes Sydney had to leave the others on their own to make sure Oliver was doing his work the way it was meant to be done.
"But I'm fed up! I don't want to do this stupid exercise! We're still on holiday, that's not fair" he protested once again. Sydney let out a loud sigh, thinking there we go again.... All she wanted to do was give Alex his dictation so that later on she could do another with the twins. After all they would be attending 3rd grade and she knew about the teacher they were going to have and it was going to be no fun with that one.
"Oliver please, just those few exercises" she peeked at his paper "See you've almost done it... just a couple more and then we go to your reading session"
"I don't wanna read!" he pouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Mom! Can we start the dictation now?" Alex was bored at his brother.
"Ok whatever" Sydney said to Oliver "You won't leave this table until you have finished it, and you know that! So the longer you take, the longer you'll be sitting here. I don't care." she advised him in a stern way "Alright Alex, ready?"
She had to smile at her son seeing his shining eyes, excited about the dictation that was about to come "Home and Away, is the title"
"Oh no! That one's easy mom, I know it all by heart. Take another one ok?"
Sydney thus flipped through the book once again until she had found another one "What about "Hunting River?"
"God mom, I'm not a baby! Let me see..." she knew she could trust her son and handed him the book. "That one mom, that's a pretty difficult one!"
"The Art of Passion?" she wondered "Are you sure that's what they are supposed to teach you?"
"It's just a text mom! Just read it" she shrugged and glanced once more over to where Oliver was still sitting opposite of her with his lip down. She turned her attention back to the book and started reading as Alex furiously scribbled down the long words. The twins were busy doing their mathematics exercise all along the dictation while Oliver hadn't touched his book once.
"Ok let me see"
"Wait! I gotta read it over first"
"Mom I've finished mine" Collin announced proudly, waving his sheet of paper in the air. Sydney took the paper and read it thoroughly through. "Nice job, just two errors. Have one more look at them" she told him and gave the paper back. Collin's wrinkles appeared on his forehead, just like his father would do in deep concentration. All of the boys had taken up on this from Vaughn and she tried to withhold some tears that had welled up in her eyes, thinking of her husband who was still far away from them. Unconsciously a hand went over her swollen belly, feeling the child deep within her. Somehow she had always enjoyed to be pregnant and didn't like it once the pregnancy was over but this time it was different. She couldn't wait for this one last child to be born.
Her memory briefly drifted off to the bedroom upstairs that still needed to be finished. The doctor had told her that due to her age it might be possible that the child would be there earlier than expected which meant for her it wouldn't be a Christmas child as they had hoped it to be. Alex had recently been moved up onto the attic together with Oliver so that the new baby was going to have their room. Weiss, Will and Vaughn had spent almost the whole summer getting the attic set up so it looked like a nice bedroom for the boys and indeed it was a nice job they had done.
Right now there old bedroom was completely empty and so Sydney couldn't wait for it to be arranged so that it looked like a welcoming bedroom for their new baby. They had decided to paint the room into a soft yellow color as they wanted to wait for the sex of the baby until he/she was born.
"Mommy? Mommy?"
"Mom? Are you alright?" Four pairs of eyes were staring at her and she realised she had been day dreaming and the boys were worried about her
"Yes, I'm sorry... I was just thinking about something" she flashed them a grin "Ok where were we?"
"I have done my errors!" Collin shouted.
"No, me first!" Timmy said giving his brother a soft shove.
"No, mom has to read my dictation first Collin, she has already checked on your maths"
"Hey hey no fighting! I'll take Collin first so he can start reading, ok Alex?"
Reluctantly he accepted his mother's proposal. After she had also checked up on Timmy's exercise she told him that he would have to check most parts over again. Due to his heart problem last year he had been missing many classes so he has had some hard times following the rest of the class. But thanks to Sydney's father's help he had made it through second grade and had been admitted into third but only if his skills would remain on the same level.
It took another half an hour until everybody was finished but Oliver. The other three cleaned their stationery from the table and carried their bags upstairs into their room. Sydney had allowed them to play some video games for half an hour but not more. She was looking at her second born "Oliver, come here" she told him in a soft voice which sweetned his expression right away. He got off his chair and walked around the round table and sat next to his mother, pulling her arms around his neck.
"I'm sorry mom" he pushed his head deep into her chest as she kissed the top of his head "I know baby. Let's check this together ok?"
"Uh-huh" Sydney helped her son with his exercises and also his reading and dictation. But soon enough he was too tired so they had to stop the work even if they hadn't finished yet. Oliver compared to other three was a slow learner just like Timmy, but Timmy didn't have problems concentrating on his work. That was Oliver's biggest trouble. The psychologist once told Sydney that it might be due to him being in the middle. One older brother who was smarter than him and two younger brothers fighting on their own, left him alone on one side. Although Sydney never felt like he was a left alone. She knew that sometimes Timmy had those feelings of being left aside because of his heart disease but otherwise than that she hadn't noticed anything at all with Oliver.
"Mom!" came a yelling from the top floor as feet stomped down the stairs "I'm hungry"
"Me too!"
"Can I have some chips?"
"What chips? No way... I'm going to cook now and then we'll have lunch"
"But I'm hungry now!" Collin complained.
"Yeah" Timmy had to pull his lip too, hoping this would get their mother's cooperation.
She got up to walk over the other side of the room towards the kitchen as she felt a pain go through her body. Her hand flew to her belly holding it as the other hand sought for the edge of the table to keep balance.