Was I really like that? – Alyssa Long Sindacco
Her sons were everything that she ever wanted. They were smart, handsome, brave and tough. What surprised her most though was their work ethic. Alyssa didn't like to admit it, but it was almost completely the same as their maternal and paternal grandparents. She saw her mother and father in all of her children. She saw their express loyalty to one another, their toughness and their bravery, not to mention her mother's aptitude for learning. Alyssa even saw Johnny's parents in them, yes even Johnny's father, which scared her slightly. They were all beautiful kids. They had various traits of the Long-Sindacco-Hutchinson families between them and it did them well. Her sons, even the ones that weren't even twelve, always had little girlfriends around them.
Her eldest sons had received a mix of dirty blond hair and green eyes, while the other four had been one way or the other, Hutchinson or Long. Their heritage in the magical world was split down the middle, three for three. Two of her sons and her daughter were dragons while three of her sons had received the mark. Johnny handled the enrichment of Huntsclan-ish knowledge, while she trained her children, with assistance from her father. Their home really ran like a well oiled machine. Both Johnny and she had wanted that, they wanted to give their kids a stable family and they wanted to make sure that they never lacked one parent like they both had. But sometimes, something got stuck in the cogs of the machine, and tonight was one of those times, courtesy of nine year old Liza Sindacco, her only daughter, "So, you're telling me that you had to have three hundred muffins for school tomorrow and you had two weeks to tell me this?"
"Yeah," Liza brought a strand of her dark hair back behind her ear and looked up to her mother sheepishly, "But I'll help you, I even got Alex and Andrew to help, they seemed excited to do it!"
Alyssa sighed, "Of course they do little girl, they're nine and ten, they love to make messes and just generally create havoc, of course they'd love to play around in baking powder!"
"Right," The girl laughed lightly, "I forgot about that."
"What's going on in here?" A voice sounded from the entrance of the kitchen.
Both Liza and Alyssa looked up into the handsome, smirking face of Johnny Sindacco, "You're daughter just decided to tell me that she has to have three hundred muffins for school tomorrow and she found out about this two weeks ago. Now I either have to go out to a store and buy muffins in bulk, or I have to spend all night in the kitchen baking them. So what are we going to do?"
"Well, first of all I'm going to suggest that you get your bakers hat on," Johnny snickered in unison with his daughter, "Or I'll go to the store and buy a crap load of muffins and be done with it."
Sighing again, Alyssa leaned against the countertop and ran her hand through her hair, "No, you don't have to do that. I'll bake them, but I do want you to do something for me?"
"And what is that dearly beloved?" Johnny grinned cheekily.
Alyssa matched his grin with a sarcastic one and put her hands on her hips, "I did the math, I need you to go out and buy me about five pounds of Muffin Mix and Flour and two very big pans, eggs too. Don't worry. I drafted Jack into going with you. Get my credit card out of my wallet and feel free to use it. Oh and Johnny, I need this within the hour if I'm going to get sleep tonight."
The former Huntsboy narrowed his eyes into slits, but then he put on an all too fake smile and shook his head, "Alright baby, I'll go get Jack and we'll go. But I've got something special for you later."
"Looking forward to it," Alyssa groaned, she knew what that meant and by the gagging face that Liza proceeded to make, she did too, "Now, I want you to go do your homework."
"But Mom I was going to help bake," Liza whined.
Alyssa smiled, it was a devious smile, "I know that, and you are. But it'll take time for your dad and your brother to get back and you'll do your homework in the meantime."
"Aww man," Liza whined again and stomped off in the opposite direction.
"Don't let your Grandpa catch you saying that!" Alyssa called after her daughter with an amused smile. This would be an interesting
"Ah man," The hardy laugh of Rose Long filled her daughter's ear for the umpteenth time that call, "Oh Jake you have got to hear what your Granddaughter did today …"
Alyssa scowled as she could hear her mother telling her father what her daughter did between snickers. How dare she? Ok, well her mother wasn't Betty Crocker, hell Rose could almost be considered a tomboy if she wasn't such a looker. She probably thought that baking in itself was hell and baking three hundred muffins for a bunch of ungrateful brats and their bitchy mothers was something of a punishment. Let them, yeah, she didn't care. She was just happy that she didn't have to live with all of that teasing anymore. When her mother returned to the phone, she was snickering uncontrollably. Alyssa could almost see her mother in her head, she as probably biting her lip and convulsing in amusement, "I'm ok -… I can talk …oh god that was just too much!"
"ANYWAY! I just called to ask you or Daddy a question, I don't care which one of you answers in," Alyssa said, visibly gripping the counter to restrain her anger, "Was I like that when I was young?"
"Well I wasn't around you when you were that age," Rose answered with a slight hitch in her voice, they had long gotten over that but it was still a sore subject, "But I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that you're father was a slacker, I remember that very well. When we were in High School I used to help him with everything, even remember everything, so if you were like that when you were a kid, I suspect that's where you got it from. I know if I could reproduce without a man you'd be in control of everything and not be a slacker, but sadly genetics suck."
She blew a breath of exasperation but she soon looked up at the noise of the front door opening, "Tell me about, look Mom I gotta split, I've got to put my baking gloves on."
"Alrighty," Rose chuckled over the clanging that was now on the receiver, "I have to run too, you're brothers are all helping me cook and they're not doing it right …not too much of that Daemon!"
Alyssa chuckled slightly, "Okay, I love you guys, bye…"
"Bye babe," Rose said and then the tone when dead.
Closing her cell phone, Alyssa walked forward slightly and set it on the kitchen table before her daughter, second eldest child and husband appeared. They carried bags of baking crap, and she could tell that they were irritated beyond all belief. The first inclination that they were beyond steaming was the fact that her son Jack had light flakes of white in his hair and his clothes seemed to be seethed the remnants of white powder. Alyssa had to hold back a snicker when she put two and two together in her head, "So, honey, do you need me to go buy some dandruff shampoo?"
"Shut it," Jack narrowed his eyes and rubbed his hands through his hair, "I dropped a huge bag of flour in the car and I was covered with it, a girl passing by the car laughed at me."
"And the snooty little counter girl was looking at us like we were stoned or something," Johnny said with gritted teeth.
Alyssa threw her head back in laughter and walked forward to dust the remains of the flour out of her son's blonde hair, "That flour really cramped your game didn't it? Well blame your sister."
Jack narrowed his green eyes on his sister and growled, "You little squirt! I'm gonna kill you!"
Looking down to Liza who was looking sheepishly at him, she stuck out her tongue and darted for the exit. After Jack had begun to chase her, Alyssa laughed and looked at her husband, "I love them."
"Yeah," Johnny smiled and wrapped his arms around his wife's waist until he could lean his forehead against hers, "And I hope to make a few more with you while we still can."
Alyssa smiled, it was a sarcastic smile but with good intentions, "Way to talk sweet to a lady baby."
Six grueling hours later, the kitchen was covered in flour and Liza had her damn muffins.
Liza was grounded for a week.
Jack still had his vendetta against his little sister.
Alex and Andrew were also grounded until they cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom for making the mess in the first place.
Johnny was smiling at his children.
And Alyssa realized that she was indeed like Liza when she was younger, she had only been too arrogant to see it.
She made a note to let Liza off of grounding early in a few days.
Authors Note: Ok, well I didn't actually show any baking, but I think you get the point. And I'm sorry I haven't updated, my laptop fell off of my lap yesterday at work and the monitor literally snapped off the rest of the computer, so I had to get a new one. There goes my vacation for the moment, but I'm not crying, I have a laptop and all is well with the force Young Jedi. ANYWAY! Please leave me a review and tell me what you think!
And I almost forgot to tell you the subject of the next entry: Johnny, Jackie, Erin and Marissa terrorize central park with lots of guns and ammunition…
You almost bought that didn't you? LOL!
No, Johnny and Erin will be attending a PTA meeting for Liza