! IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END!
I should have mentioned this a few chapters ago but hooray on 200 reviews!
I highly doubt that any of you are fathers but Happy Father's Day!
Photo #66: Mini Maxons
"Ahren, look at you, growing up to be a man like your father."
"Kaden, you're like a mini copy of your father."
"Osten, you really are a daddy's boy."
Not one gala goes by where Eadlyn doesn't hear that statement, especially when it would be repeated constantly. There were times where Eadlyn could predict when those statements would arise based on people's facial expressions. A look of adoration and a smile on the face were usual indicators.
After years of all those comments (that still go one to this day ever so often), the boys finally decided to take advantage of their similarities to their father to make a joke out of it. Their father didn't catch on until he had a camera pointed in his face.
Eadlyn laughs a little to herself as she looks at the next photo which she would call as a mini stack of dominos or a deconstructed Russian nesting doll. Each of them perfectly placed on the staircase, equidistant from one another. From a distance, they could possibly look like clones.
-o-
Maxon yawns as he rubs his eyes awake. He looks over to America's side of the bed and sees that it's empty. He sighs, disappointed in his early-bird of a wife for catching the worm without him. Maxon just decides to get up and start the day on his own by freshening up and getting dressed in his usual work clothes that consist of a solid white button-up shirt and simple khakis. His hair was lightly tousled with a brush. Nothing too fancy, nothing too casual.
He walks out of his room to head downstairs to join his family for breakfast.
Maxon passes by Ahren's room just in time to see his son step out of the door. Dressed for the morning, Ahren is wearing a solid white button-up top and simple khakis.
"Morning, Dad," Ahren greets.
"Morning," Ahren replies.
Maxon stares at Ahren who still hasn't moved from the doorframe he seems to be clinging onto. The two of them don't exchange words until the silence just start to become weird.
"Are you just going to stand there all day?" Maxon asks his eldest son.
Ahren swings back and forth on the door, keeping his toes on the ground. Maxon still waits for an answer that he doesn't seem to be getting.
"I'll be there in a moment," Ahren says before closing the door.
Maxon blinks, not completely sure on what just happened.
Whatever.
He just continues making his way downstairs since he just figured that Ahren is being a teenage boy with his teenage secrets. Maxon doesn't find anything major about that since he was once a teenage boy with his own teenage secrets.
Next, Maxon sees Kaden pop out of his room. Kaden was also dressed for the day in a solid white top and simple khakis. Like Ahren, Kaden just stands at the doorway except instead of teetering back and forth on the spot, his eyes scan Maxon from head to toe. Maxon stands on the spot, oddly waiting for something to come out of all this.
"Coming down for breakfast?" Maxon questions, not sure why he's asking a question that should be a given.
Kaden opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out. He takes a second to formulate a response.
"I hear Ahren calling me," Kaden says.
Before Maxon could comment, Kaden runs past him towards Ahren's room. Maxon turns around a bit confused as to why two out of his three sons are acting downright bizarre, and he didn't even hear Ahren call Kaden. Maxon figures that he could think about this and what could be going on, but to him, it doesn't seem too alarming so he just carries on with his day.
Then, what is possibly the strangest part of this already-seeming sttrange day, happens: Maxon passes Osten's room and sees his youngest son wearing a solid white top and simple khakis all topped off with a ridiculous blond wig.
Maxon says nothing since he's still trying to process what he's seeing. Osten says nothing because he's waiting for his dad to say something first. Osten smiles a little as Maxon does the same but warily.
"Should I even ask?" Maxon questions.
"Do you want to?" Osten asks back.
Maxon thinks about that for a little. "Carry on."
Osten was just something else which is what made him completely lovable.
Maxon approaches the staircase to head downstairs and hears footsteps following him. He stops to turn around and see Ahren two steps behind him, Kaden two steps behind Ahren, and Osten two steps behind Kaden. Maxon pauses to examine what he sees and then turns around to continue walking but doesn't move. Instead, he looks back at his boys to try and pick out the obvious odd feature in all of them that he can't seem to notice. It doesn't help that his sons are all giving him the same weird smile.
"Look at my boys," America says from the bottom of the staircase, holding Maxon's camera in her hands.
"Happy Father's Day, dad!" Eadlyn exclaims from beside her mother.
"Happy Father's Day, dad!" The boys add.
It suddenly hits Maxon that it's Father's Day. How could he possibly have forgotten?
Maxon continues looking at his boys. As America takes the picture of the Schreave boys on the staircase, Maxon smiles as he nods, finally understanding what was going on. He begins laughing whole-heartedly. All of the Schreave boys are wearing a solid white top and simple khakis with their hair (or blond wig in Osten's case) tousled in the same way.
For Father's Day, the Schreave boys dressed up as their father.
What a perfect gift.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that duplicates of Maxon Schreave will be a dream come true.
Okay, just to let you know that I came up with this idea back when I thought that Osten was a blond like Maxon. Then I realized that Osten was a redhead but I didn't want to scrap this idea since I loved it so I tweaked it a bit. I kinda like that I put Osten in a stupid wig.
Call this a coincidence, but I was working on this while studying cloning for a test I had.
! Anyways, about that important note: I have two Selection one-shots ready for publication but I can't decide which to publish first so I'm letting you all pick. There is a poll on my profile that shows the titles but I will not be revealing any plots. Both of them will go up eventually. Just vote! If you don't have an account on here then just leave me a review on which one should go up first. You could vote multiple times that way.
Stay Tuned - "We're going to die!" "Quit being melodramatic, we're not going to die!" "Lady Brice, take the wheel!"
