I had to do a bit of family fluff! I hope you all enjoy!
Rusty kept his little sister in view as they walked through the pumpkin patch. All four kids were supposed to choose a pumpkin and bring it home to carve. Neither of the twins had held a pumpkin before much less carved one. Andy and Sharon were sitting on a hay bale, shoulder to shoulder chatting as they watched them.
Finally Riley started to move closer to her brother. "What the hell does a good pumpkin look like?" she whispered to him. "They all look the same." She thought for a moment before she hit her brother in the arm. "Give me your phone."
He gaped at her. "Why? Don't you have a phone?" he grumbled poking of the pumpkins with his shoe. Seriously, what the hell made a good pumpkin? Ricky and Emily had been looking for ten minutes and they were stuck in the same spot simply confused.
"Mom has it in her purse. I don't have pockets," Riley replied motioning to her skirt and leggings. Even the pockets in her leather jacket were fake. Rusty would never understand women's clothing. Grudgingly he handed his sister his phone and frowned even more when she didn't even hesitate at the passcode. Seriously, sometimes his sister's knowledge of him and his stuff made him wish they weren't as close as they were.
He looked over his shoulder and nearly laughed. "You're seriously Googling how to pick a good pumpkin?"
She glared at him. "Got any better ideas?"
"Yeah, just pick a pumpkin!" He reached around her to grab the phone out of her hands but she held it out of his range.
"It will only take me two minutes to read this article!" she argued using one hand to push her brother back by the chest and the other to hold the phone away. They were earning attention from their family, but neither one of them noticed.
"Riley! Give me my phone!" Rusty growled, this time pushing his sister's hand away and wrapping his arm around her middle so she couldn't get away. Now it was just becoming a game of keep away. Riley poked her brother's sides and he squirmed away from her.
She held the phone close to her chest as she took a few steps back. "What? Am I going to find pictures of a boyfriend on here?" she teased enjoying how red her brother's face got.
"Give it, Riley or I'll tell Andy that you were the one who put mayo in his pudding cup!"
Suddenly both of them were in giggles as they realized this was going to become a blackmail party. "I'll tell Sharon you backed into the dumpster, and that's how the dent on the bumper got there!"
"I'll tell her about the time you set the stove on fire!"
"Old news. I'll tell Andy what really happened to his tennis shoes!"
"Oh, yeah? I'll tell Sharon about the Christmas tree angel."
Silence hung between them. They were fairly aware that their family was watching them now, but their argument wasn't loud enough for anyone to actually hear. Riley's smile slowly faded as she gripped the phone in her hand just a bit tighter. "You wouldn't."
Ah ha. He had one. The boy raised a brow at his sister. "Wanna bet?" He turned around and took a few lazy steps in Sharon and Andy's direction. "Oh Sharon!"
Suddenly Riley was running past him attempting to beat him to their mother.
"He's lying!" she shouted immediately with a big smirk across her face. She could hear Rusty closing in behind her.
"Am not! Riley-"
Rusty fast and in far more comfortable shoes than she was. He was going to catch up to her in no time.
She only had one option and she knew it was going to hurt. Stopping on a dime, Rusty collided into her back, sending them both toppling over each other onto the ground. Riley pretty well landed face first and she already tasted a lot of dirt and the faintest taste of blood. Her hand was still wrapped around her brother's phone
"Riley! Rusty!" she could hear Sharon and Andy both running to them as she looked up to see her brother sitting in the middle of a squashed pumpkin.
The twins exchanged looks. Rusty's hair was completely covered in dirt. His button up was missing a button now, his pants were grass stained as well as dirt stained, not to mention the pumpkin he was literally sitting in and there were a couple of scrapes on his forehead and hands. Riley looked no better, except her lip was bleeding too and her once tan cardigan was now spotted with brown.
Giggles turned into roars of laughter as Riley and Rusty collapsed fully back onto the ground. The worried calls of their name stopped along with the hurried footsteps. Ricky and Emily were already standing there unsure of what to do.
Sharon shook her head at the sight her youngest children were in. Filthy and acting like blissful five year olds as they laid on their back in the dirt holding their gut with all the laughter they were bellowing. "You two could have been hurt," she attempted to scold them as a smile tugged at her lips.
Emily reached to help her little sister up while Ricky did the same to Rusty.
"We're fine," the twins replied together with a matching eye roll.
Emily pointed between them. "That's weird. I don't know how I feel about having siblings that are twins."
Brushing some dirt off of Riley's shoulder and Rusty's face, Andy shook his head. "What the hell got in to both of you?"
The mischief in the air returned as the two exchanged glances. Riley's hand tightened around Rusty's phone and suddenly they were off again. Rusty chasing Riley, both kids jumping over pumpkins and circling hay bales. Riley was fast, but Rusty was faster. Then again, Riley was scrappy.
Rusty lunged for his sister again, but the little devil was able to worm her way out of his grip and be off again.
Maybe it was because it looked like the kids were having a lot of fun, or maybe because Ricky was not one to be out done, out of nowhere he gave his older sister a big shove, knocking her backwards into the mushed pumpkin from earlier. The look on Emily's face was sheer horror as she sat in the gooey mess. Her hands, butt and thighs were already drenched and sticky.
She looked to her mother for help found her back turned to her and shoulders shaking.
Was her mother laughing?
Pushing herself off the ground, she reached out to her mother and ran her muddy slimy hands down the back of her red jacket. The moment she made contact Sharon's laughter stopped and her shoulders tensed. "Emily Raydor…"
Before Sharon could even think of the appropriate revenge on her oldest children, the twins were racing back.
Riley dove behind her holding onto her arms as Rusty stood in front of her. "Smart move running to Mom," Rusty teased as they both panted from their sprint around the pumpkin patch. Riley's giggling was contagious enough for Sharon to struggle to hide her own smirk as she focused on how she plotted to get revenge on her children.
"Mom, he threatened to blackmail me!" Riley giggled and squealed as Rusty reached for her again. "Don't we have a rule against that or something?"
Rusty scoffed. "We have a rule against-"
"Say it and I'll drop your phone!" Riley warned, holding the phone hostage over the gooed up pumpkin. It was an empty threat but it had Rusty snapping his mouth shut. She had seriously thought she had won until Andy snatched the phone away. "Hey!"
Like the mature adult he is, Andy stuck his tongue out at the girl and passed the device back to Rusty who held it up in victory. "We men have to stick together," Andy stated and Rusty nodded as they high fived each other.
Riley pouted and wiggled under Sharon's arm. "Do we have to keep them?" she asked as Sharon through a playful glare over her shoulder at her older children. There would be payback later. "I like just having a mom and a sister."
Ricky held up his hands in confusion. "Um, excuse me, what did I do?"
Emily rolled her eyes. "I never have quite forgiven you for being born." She too moved closer to her mother, her eyes big and pleading. Perhaps if she offered her mother cuddles and affection she would be out of trouble. When Sharon placed her arm around her older daughter's waist she knew she was safe.
"Look at that," Andy muttered bitterly. "It's an us and them situation now."
"You started it," Riley pointed out. "You should have just let me win." The one thing everyone knew in the Raydor family was that Mom always wins. The best road to victory was sticking close to Sharon and let her be in charge.
"Why did you have your brother phone in the first place?" Andy asked. "You have your own."
"Mom has mine in her purse and I needed to look up how to pick a pumpkin."
All eyes were on Riley and she quickly realized that it may have been one of those times where she said something she wasn't supposed it. "We just had never done it before," she tried to explain, moving away from Sharon and crossing her arms around her body. "So we needed to figure out how to pick out a good one. Like, what we are supposed to look for. Kinda like the Christmas stuff and when we did Thanksgiving last year. It's still new to us."
She didn't understand why everyone was looking so sad at her and Rusty. They weren't sad. They were happy. They were really happy and she couldn't stand the faces that her family was wearing. "Stop," she said seriously glaring at all of them except Rusty, who she stepped back to be closer to. Riley protected her brother the same way Rusty did for her. The difference was Riley protected Rusty from family while Rusty protected Riley from everyone else. "Don't look at us like that!"
Sharon was the first to react. She slung an arm around Riley's shoulders as her other hand tilted her daughter's chin up to look in her eyes. "I was just wondering why you didn't ask one of us instead of googling it, silly girl."
The smile in her eyes and voice was almost enough to make the twins believe her. Obviously Sharon didn't mean to offend them, but she couldn't hide her own hurt at the fact she didn't realize that Riley and Rusty were having such a hard time. Typically she was rather competent at picking up on their discomfort but somehow she had missed it. She was too busy enjoying her day with Andy and not looking.
Of course Sharon knew she wasn't being fair to herself, but the moment Riley's arm slid around her waist Sharon knew that she was getting somewhere. The fact they were all a bit filthy was the least of their worries. Emily however struggled to tear the broken look out of her eyes. Rusty's patted his new sister on the back of the arm.
"Riley likes to pretend she's normal," Rusty whispered as they watched Ricky rest his elbow on the Riley's head. Emily gave him a slightly surprised look. "She thinks that if Sharon or you all feel sorry for us you think there is something wrong with us. Normal is Riley's safe place."
Emily watched as Riley tried to play back with Ricky, but she noticed now the hint of hesitation before every move and carefully reading every feature on his face. It was almost artistic the way she did it, definitely a skill the world forced upon her and most certainly a survival instinct. No one ever managed to surprise Riley and now Emily saw why.
"And what's your safe?"
The question surprised Emily as she found herself studying this new brother who she realized she knew so little about. She knew his personality, talked with him on the phone, but she felt like there was always something keeping him at a distance.
"Other than Riley?" There was a smirk to his words and Emily found herself wondering how much these twins must have gone through alone. Then Rusty shrugged. "I guess secrets."
There will be a lot of family conversations coming up. Please review.