Mini Anderson's
Hey guys! Thanks for the reviews and favourites/follows for both this and the last chapter of 'Meet The Anderson's', it's awesome to know that you're still interested in these stories! The next 'Meet The Anderson's' should be up later in the week, but for now here's the latest instalment of the minis. I actually had a lot of fun with this one (and yes I have been watching far too much 'Malcolm in the Middle' to get ideas for the troublemaking little Anderson's), I hope that you enjoy it and let me know what you think. I was also wondering if you guys would want the age of each brother put at the beginning or end of each of these snapshots or not? I think that they're all covered in the chapter anyway but I know that the jumping around can get a bit confusing. Anyway sorry for rambling and I hope that you enjoy the chapter.
Outnumbered And Outgunned
"Cooper I'm going out!" Cooper's head snapped up from where he was bent over his coffee, smiling softly at his younger brother as Noah glared steadily back snapping a beanie over his head and kicking up his skateboard from the floor. "That alright?" He questioned suddenly looking unsure of himself.
"Sure kid, go have fun with your friends, you haven't got long left now."
Noah frowned deeply, "Do I have to go to Montana Coop? I'll be extra good, and take on extra chores, but I don't want to go."
Sighing the eldest brother sipped his coffee, eyeing the pleading blue eyed boy closely. "Sorry Noah, I haven't got any control over that. If I did I wouldn't be heading back to Michigan at the end of the summer."
"It's not fair though! Elijah gets to stay near here and go to stupid Dalton. Why can't I just go there?" Noah pouted, folding his arms awkwardly where he was still holding his skateboard. "He still gets to come home all the time."
"I know kid but this is Father's plan, you're off to Montana and in two years Luc will be heading to California."
The young teenager visibly deflated his eyes lowering to the floor, "We're all going to be split up all over aren't we?"
"Of course. That's Sperm Donor's idea of a good time, but hey I've been coming back every holiday for the last three years and it's like nothing's different when I'm back right?" Seeing the younger boy's lips quirk into a small smile and a small shrug roll off of his body Cooper grinned, "Go have fun with your friends for the rest of the summer Noah, they'll still be here when you get back every holiday."
Rolling his eyes, the messy haired fourteen year old bumped his fist against his older brother's with a laugh before disappearing out of the back door.
Cooper shook his head softly glancing at the red toaster as it popped and sighing to himself. Adding the toast to his growing pile he popped two more pieces into the toaster before heading back to his coffee with a yawn, leaning over the Sudoku puzzle he was figuring out. "I'm getting old," The seventeen year old muttered quietly, beaming when he figured out one of the squares he was missing.
Glancing to the table to make sure that the elder twins were actually behaving and eating their breakfast rather than throwing it at Reed or attempting to feed it to the plant in the corner of the room, Cooper wearily turned back to the stove to finish up the chocolate chip pancakes Jude had asked for. Hearing a crash and yell from upstairs he shook his head, determined to let Elijah handle the youngest twins whilst he tried to tame the elder children sat behind him, all of whom had blatantly ignored any instruction to get dressed before they raced to the table for breakfast. Steadfastly ignoring the noises from upstairs he simply filled plate after plate of food, knowing that he would never believe that his younger brothers could eat more food than he would've thought humanly possible, if he had not been around to witness them shovelling it all in at warp speed.
"Coopy! Coopy!" The eldest Anderson turned around with a raised eyebrow when he heard the four year old shouting his name, just as a naked Blaine with soap suds still dripping from his curls crashed into the kitchen, Elijah hot on his heels with a towel clasped firmly in hand.
"Blaine get your little butt back here," Elijah growled his own t-shirt dripping with water while Blaine laughed and crashed into Cooper's legs, instantly soaking his oldest brother too.
Blaine shook his head vehemently, a cheeky grin adorning his face. "Nuuh," He giggled sliding round behind Cooper and only just peeking to the side. Throwing his hands in the air in defeat Elijah threw the towel at Cooper before turning on his heel and storming out of the kitchen, muttering about annoying toddlers as he headed back up to see what devastation Bentley could possibly still be instigating on his own in the bathroom.
"Well Squirt, you've damn well pissed Elijah off," Cooper chuckled wrapping the towel around his baby brother, rubbing at his dripping curls and pressing a kiss to his forehead before hoisting him onto his hip. Carefully, he carried him towards the table to pour out more orange juice for each of the older boys. Sensing a scrutinising pair of eyes following his every move, Cooper quirked an eyebrow at Reed's irritated expression, "What's up Reedy?"
"You said a bad word," The six year old boy accused.
"Actually he said two bad ones," Jude chimed in eyes flickering up from his piece of nutella smothered toast, tearing off a small piece carefully and handing it to Blaine's grabbing fingers.
Rolling his eyes at his younger brothers, the teenager balanced Blaine in one arm and pulled out his wallet. "How much do I owe?" He sighed glaring at the sniggering twins holding out the glass jar.
"Two bucks," They grinned shaking the large jar that had caught out both Noah and Elijah already that morning.
Eyeing up the money Cooper dropped in to the jar Austin beamed with pride, "If you guys keep swearing like troopers all summer we'll have enough money for Disney World by Christmas." Smirking he hi-fived Pippin before pulling the jar back from the table, "And this beauty doesn't leave our sides. Ever." Pippin shaking his head violently, the duo turned back to shoot Cooper sickly sweet smiles, even as the older brother kept glaring at them.
"Yay 'isney!" Blaine giggled clapping his hands with a squeal and making each of his older brothers laugh.
"Is it really such a great idea to leave them to amuse themselves?" Elijah questioned, one hand stuck in a bag of chips as his eyes flickered over his book.
Cooper shrugged leaning further over the table to concentrate on his Game Boy Color growling in frustration and pressing random buttons, finally shaking his head in defeat and throwing the game into the middle of the table, glaring steadily at it. "They'll be fine, they're growing up." Eyeing his brother's book, Cooper tilted his head to the side, "Whatcha reading?" Laughing at Elijah's sigh of discontent and eye roll, the older brother offered his own eye roll when Elijah flashed him the front cover of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.' "Lij, you've read that so many times already you know that?"
The brown eyed teenager shrugged, "I love them and the next one comes out in September so I need to make sure I remember everything."
"You're such a nerd."
"A nerd that could out game you on that thing any day," He nodded towards Cooper's game and turned the page, slotting his bookmark back in place before turning fully to his older brother, folding his legs underneath him on the chair.
"I'd like to see you try. Now do you want to tell me what's been bugging you for the last week or is that stick still stuck firmly up your ass?"
"I hate you sometimes, you know that? Also you owe the twins a dollar for that swear." Elijah hissed glaring at the smirking soon to be high school senior, "Wait, that's why you've left them all to their own devices isn't it?"
"Of course it is," Cooper snorted, "God alone knows what devastation they're creating upstairs. Mom and Dad have the money to fix it though so I'm beyond caring, they should have sorted out childcare for their children before they screwed off to Russia."
"They're in Australia, and you love looking after the youngers. To be fair if Austin hadn't scared off the latest nanny three weeks ago she'd still be here."
"Too true," The older brother sighed, eyes finding the large clock adorning the bright red wall behind Elijah, "Are you going to stop deflecting and tell me what's going on?"
Elijah sighed spiking his hair up and running a hand down his face. "Dad wants me to start escorting debutantes in the next season, apparently it'll make a man out of me."
Cooper stared at Elijah silently for a few moments, before his shoulders started to shake and his head thumped onto the table laughter peeling from him as he gasped for breath. "Sorry Lij but: You're a spineless, pale pathetic lot, and you haven't got a clue. Somehow I'll make a man out of you."
Elijah laughed softly, "I'm never gonna catch my breath. Say goodbye to those who knew me."
"BE A MAN."
"We must be swift as a coursing river."
"BE A MAN."
"With all the force of a great typhoon."
"BE A MAN."
"With all the strength of a raging fire. Mysterious as the dark side of the moon."
The brothers looked at each other cracking up laughing, both burying their faces in their arms and gasping for breaths, tears rolling down their cheeks.
"Blaine's been making you watch 'Mulan' then?" Elijah grinned, Cooper nodding gravely.
"Three times this week. I'm going to find 'The Lion King' just so hopefully we can have a new obsession," Cooper sighed, shaking his head.
"Every time I came home from Dalton this year the first thing that happened when I got through the door was Blaine shoving that thing into my hands. You'd think that it would be worn out by now I'm tempted to burn it. Seriously though Coop, what should I do? I hate dancing and I hate being the centre of attention."
Cooper shrugged slightly, "Technically the girl you're escorting will be the centre of attention."
"Cooper!" Elijah whined pouting at his snickering older brother.
Smiling slightly, Cooper stepped around Elijah to refill his coffee mug. "Alright, alright. My suggestion? Just don't do it. I hate to say it but Sperm Donor's not going to notice anyway and you're like the teacher's pet, just get one of them to sign something saying that you've signed up for it."
"That's actually genius," Elijah gaped, "That might just work."
"See, not just a pretty face," Cooper teased, downing half of his mug in one go.
The sound of crashing and shattering echoing through the house had both brothers jumping. Their eyes widened and Elijah paled drastically. "What in the hell was that?" he whispered, already following Cooper out of the kitchen.
Cooper shook his head, hands clenched into fists and heart pounding as he took the stairs two or three at a time, racing to Austin and Pippin's room.
Bursting into the room the two oldest Anderson's felt their mouths dropping in shock. Cooper felt the rage building inside of him as he looked around the destroyed room, the curtains ripped from the window, coloured pen adorning the walls, toys littering the floor. Most obvious though, was the ceiling fan dangling far lower than it should have been, Jude and Lucas clinging desperately to it as it rotated slowly creaking loudly as it did so. The other boys stood in a plaster dust cloud, pillows duct taped to their fronts and backs and buckets resting on their heads, mouths hung low in shock. A low whine from the ceiling had Lucas losing his grip, Jude's fingers slipping moments later as he fell on top of his older brother.
The sight of his younger brothers falling spurred Cooper into action as his anger at their stupidity bubbled over. Seething, he reached out to grab hold of Lucas, Jude, Bentley and Reed's arms, pulling them from the room with Elijah holding Austin, Pippin and Blaine and following grimly behind his older brother.
"This is hands down the most stupid, irresponsible, dangerous thing that you have ever done!" He roared, the kids now assembled sheepishly in the living room, Elijah stood silently behind Cooper. "One of you could have been seriously hurt. How did you not realise just how god damn reckless you were being?"
"Chill out dude, it was just a game," Austin sighed, rolling his eyes even as Lucas and Pippin groaned and sent him 'are you stupid' looks.
"Chill out? Chill out?" Cooper seethed, whirling round to look at the nine year old, the other brothers wincing and finding sudden interest in their feet. "Whose stupid idea was this?"
The younger brothers looked at each other for just a moment, the look of uncertainty flashing through each of their features.
"Reed."
"It wasn't me! It was Blaine."
"Nuuh, not me… Austin"
"Liar! It was Lucas."
"No way, it was totally Bentley's idea."
"Not me. It was Jude."
"Nope. Pippin's fault."
Cooper gritted his teeth, counting slowly to ten as the urge to murder them himself filled his body. Watching them start to fight, each pointing the finger at one of the others, he glanced to Elijah who simply shrugged in confusion. "Alright! If no one can give me a straight answer you're all going to be punished until I get one."
"The brothers who stick together win together," Pippin said, raising his chin in defiance even as Cooper pointed to the corner, the brothers each sighing and stalking over to cram into it, shoving at each other until Cooper yelled at them to stay still.
"Coop, can we please get out of here? It's hot and it smells really bad," Austin whined, turning his head to look at Cooper and Elijah sat watching the younger brothers from the couch with bleak expressions.
"Sorry," Bentley muttered shuffling when Reed glared at him.
Cooper looked to Elijah who simply raised an eyebrow. "Fine, younger twins room ASAP."
The boys rushed up the stairs, sitting on the twins' beds and eyeing each other warily. "What could he possibly want with us in here?" Jude questioned, scrunching his nose up and pulling Blaine onto his lap to spread out further on the bed.
"I don't know and I don't like it," Lucas sighed, glancing around the twins baby blue room, books and toys covering shelves along the walls along with Disney posters.
"We stick together though, right?" Reed questioned leaning his head on Bentley's shoulder.
"Right," They all echoed their grins fading as Cooper and Elijah entered the room holding black bin liners and buckets filled with some of their most prized possessions.
"Whose idea was it?" Cooper questioned eyebrow raised as he held Pippin's precious Star Wars R2D2 model above the black bag that a grim faced Elijah had open.
"You wouldn't dare…" Austin muttered eyes narrowing to slits as he glared at Cooper with the fiercest look a nine year old could muster.
"Just try me Austin. I repeat whose idea was it?" The younger brothers glanced to each other resolutely, sighing and folding their arms across their chests as they came to stand in front of Cooper and Elijah.
Cooper rolled his eyes, dropping the R2D2 model to Pippin's whine and picking up one of Lucas' vinyls. Catching sight of his 'Bohemian Rhapsody' vinyl Lucas squeaked, his arms dropping and brown eyes trebling in size, taking a step towards his older brother. "Not that one Coop! Please not that one."
Cooper simply raised his eyebrows again in question, Lucas sighing and stepping back, closing his eyes as the record hit the bottom of the bag and Cooper moved on to Jude's box. The eight year old stepped forward, whimpering as Cooper pulled out his box set of 'Goosebumps' books. The teenager pulled 'Let's Get Invisible' from the box set and looked back to Jude.
"Well Jude…"
The eight year old shook his head resolutely, throwing Cooper a dirty look for good measure when the book hit the black bag. "I didn't like that one in anyways," He sniffed, crossing his arms and closing his eyes until Blaine jabbed him in the side, eyes flying open to see Cooper now holding his battered copy of 'Night of the Living Dummy', "…wait no, no anything but that one!"
Cringing when it too hit the bag, Blaine took Jude's hand. The green eyed boy smiled softly at his younger brother as Blaine's teddy bear was pulled from the box, the four year old leaning into his older brother and glaring at Cooper.
Staring mournfully at the three full black bags sat beside himself and Elijah twenty minutes later, Cooper sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. "Seriously guys are you kidding me, just tell me whose idea it was then you wouldn't all be going through this." Cooper growled in frustration when the younger troop simply refolded their arms and shook their heads in unison. "Argh!" He stomped from the room, a new plan forming in his head as Elijah followed behind, giving the younger brothers a warning look against getting into any more trouble.
"What are you doing Coop? This is getting ridiculous," Elijah sighed, watching his older brother unplug his silver CD player and flick through some of the brothers joint CDs, crying out in triumph when he found the one he was looking for, holding the 'Disney' CD up for Elijah to see. "Coop, I'm pretty sure that is an actual form of torture," Elijah said following Cooper back up the stairs, "This is like the extremes of extremes just to find out whose stupid idea they were carrying out."
Cooper laughed softly, turning back to Elijah halfway up the stairs. "Elijah I've known whose idea it was since we first walked into that room, I'm just not about to let out four to twelve year old brothers beat me."
"What the hell Cooper?"
Cooper shrugged with a grin, beginning his ascent again. "Pillow fights with a twist is always Jude's idea, he has a rules list pinned on his wall and everything. Including the fan in the game is new as far as I'm aware though but he's ridiculously overprotective of that game so no one else can contribute rules."
"So what the hell is all this for?"
"I am not about to be outsmarted by my baby brothers, I'll never live that down," Cooper shook his head, plugging in the CD player and quickly finding the track he was looking for, pressing the repeat button and sinking down the wall, patting the space beside him for Elijah to drop into.
"You're insane," He muttered, sitting beside his older brother and angling the CD player closer to the little twins' bedroom door.
"Welcome to the family," Cooper laughed, picking up an errant baseball and starting to throw it up and down.
'It's a Small World' started to float through the door into the bedroom, the group of young brothers all stood in front of the door eyeing it up in disgust. "Cooper's kidding right? That's lame even for him," Pippin sighed, shaking his head.
Half an hour later, the younger twins were huddled in the far corner of the room with Jude, Reed pacing around them with his hands crammed over his ears and the older twins and Lucas sat behind the door glaring steadfastly at it. Jude sighed, shaking his head as Blaine burrowed further into his sweatshirt and Bentley whined about making it stop. Carefully, he unclipped Blaine's twisted overalls and reclipped them properly, straightening his purple bow tie and murmuring soothingly to each of the twins, occasionally stopping himself when he found that he was automatically humming 'It's a Small World.'
"Will this never stop?" Austin yelled, flinging an arm out. His arm caught on a basketball ornament that had been given to the twins when they were born by one of their father's co-workers, sending it spiralling to the floor and shattering into hundreds of different pieces. "Oops."
"We're going to die!" Reed screeched, staring at the broken ornament on the floor.
"It was ugly," Blaine muttered, scrunching up his nose as Bentley nodded in agreement.
Lucas squeezed each of the twins' shoulders gently before shaking his head at Reed, the young boy evidently panicking. "No we're not, just do what I do." The twelve year old grinned, starting to dance in circles around the room, pointedly avoiding the spot where the ornament had broken, and singing the lyrics in time with the song at the top of his lungs.
Looking at each other and giggling slightly, the younger brothers started to follow Lucas on his prance around the room, bouncing over the bed and spinning in circles as they all began to sing.
Sat outside the room, Elijah was banging his head off of the wall, "Cooper this is damn well painful. I'm losing my mind let alone them." Cooper nodded, grimacing when the song started up again. Hearing the singing starting to filter through the door Elijah's mouth dropped in shock, "Are they? They're actually singing along? Are they for real?"
The blue eyes teenager stood up, swinging the door open to reveal the horde of young brothers dancing in circles and singing as loud and off key as they could. "This isn't working Lij," Ignoring Elijah's 'no kidding' look, Cooper scrubbed his hands over his face again. "It's divide and conquer time," He sighed, moving into the room
"Divide and conquer Coop, really?" Elijah sighed, shaking his head as Cooper set up the kitchen table, muttering under his breath.
"This has to work Lij. I'm not going to lose, go and get Pippin first would you?"
"You've officially lost the plot," Elijah called over his shoulder, ducking the empty coke can Cooper sent flying towards him with a laugh.
Cooper smiled gently at Pippin, ignoring Elijah sat at the breakfast bar snickering silently. Carefully opening a Diet Coke can, he slid it across the table to Pippin, grinning when the boy took a drink. "Look Pip, I know that this wasn't your idea. You're a good kid." In the background Elijah's head thumped onto the breakfast bar, shoulders shaking with the effort to stay silent at Cooper's sickly sweet voice. "But I need you to help me find out who it was. Someone could have been hurt Pippin."
"Cooper, I'm being honest. I have no idea who it was," Pippin shrugged, features schooled into that of pure innocence.
"Come on Pip, you have to have some idea, just a little inkling."
"Nope sorry," Pippin smiled, sliding from his seat and grabbing the can, "Do you want me to send down someone else now?"
Cooper rolled his eyes irritably, "Send down Reed Pippin, but you know it would be better if you just let me know who it was."
The nine year old waved over his shoulder, Elijah finally losing it the second that he left the room, only quietening again when Reed entered taking the seat that Pippin had just left.
"Hey Reedy," Cooper smiled, sliding a fresh can across to the younger brother, and trying to overlook Reed's wary eyes. "You know Reed, you've always been one of the best brothers."
"Uh-huh," He answered, tilting his head slightly to scrutinise Cooper.
"I just need a name Reed, just one itty bitty name."
Reed just grinned at his brother, pushing the can back towards him, "I don't know who did it Coop, I can't help you sorry." Swinging out of the seat the mop haired boy turned back to his brother, "Who do you want now?"
"Send Blaine."
Cooper sighed as the boy flounced from the room, thundering up the stairs moments later. "This sucks, they're way too good at this. Also remind me that I really need to take Reed for a haircut this week he's looking ridiculous." Standing up, he moved to tip his glass of water on the hysterical Elijah, laughing at the sputtering he left in his wake and heading to the sink to refill the glass.
"If you're not careful Coop I'll join their side," Elijah threatened, rubbing the dishtowel over his face and hair.
"You wouldn't," Cooper sing-songed beaming when Blaine poked his head around the kitchen door. "Blainers! Take a seat Squirt." Blaine shot him a look before looking uncertainly at Elijah. The middle brother present smiled softly at the baby of the family and pushed Blaine towards the chair.
Cooper placed the packet of cookie dough in front of Blaine the moment that Elijah ushered him into the seat, the four year old's eyes lighting up instantly. "To get this Blaine, all you have to do is tell me whose idea that game was."
"No thank you."
"Come on Blaine, I know that you love cookie dough and this could be all yours. Just for you."
"No thank you," The four year old repeated, voice wavering and eyes glued to the cookie dough on Cooper's side of the table.
"It's just one name Blainey boo, that's all I need."
"Brothers stick together Coopy. You say that," Blaine smiled, pushing the cookie dough further towards Cooper and bouncing away from the table back upstairs.
Banging his head on the table, Cooper glared at the snickering Elijah. "Right, last resort time. And stop laughing Lij."
"I can't help it. You're getting your ass kicked by a bunch of pre-teens," Elijah snickered.
Growling, Cooper pushed his brother towards the door. "Just get them into the living room."
Elijah's eyes widened as he shepherded the boys into the family room, Bentley up on his hip after refusing to walk back down the stairs. Cooper was sat with god knows how many of the boys VHS tapes littered around him, scissors and a mallet sat close by and a sheet under the TV.
"Cooper what are you doing?" Lucas questioned eyes wide and eyeing up Cooper's pile from where the boys had come to an abrupt stop.
Cooper calmly picked up the first tape, one of the two copies the family owned of 'Aladdin'. "This is the absolute last resort and not one I like the thought of myself." Popping open the case, he pulled the video out, lifting the top plastic and sliding a finger under the tape with a raised eyebrow. "Who?"
"Are you crazy?" Reed screeched, pulling at his hair as all of the brothers watched Cooper pick up the spare scissors in horror.
"Who?"
The younger brothers glanced around each other once more, Bentley wriggling from a stunned Elijah's arms to stand beside his brothers once more. Folding their arms across their chest, the brothers all moulded their faces into defiant looks once more, shaking their heads at Cooper.
Cooper kept a close watch on each of them before eventually sighing and winding the video back up, placing it back into it's case and back with the rest of the pile. "I give up I officially give up. I've tried everything that every nanny tried on us and I officially just give up," Cooper moaned, flopping onto the sofa with a groan and flinging one arm across his eyes.
"That means we win right?" Austin smirked, smirk only growing when Cooper nodded. "Excellent." One look from the younger twin and instantly the younger brothers erupted, seeming to be everywhere all at once, Elijah failing to keep up with all of them, sure that they were multiplying.
"Are they asleep?" Elijah whimpered, paint streaked down one cheek and his hair in complete disarray.
"Shhh," Cooper muttered. He silently pointed to the floor where all of the younger brothers were curled up, Bentley mumbling in his sleep and rolling on top of Blaine who groaned quietly.
The front door slamming suddenly had them both gasping in horror and shock, Noah appearing in the room moments later, skateboard in hand, "What's up?"
Clutching Cooper's hand tightly, Elijah turned to look at the younger brothers, heart clenching with dread when he saw that they were all now wide awake once more, mischievous grins fluttering across Austin and Pippin's faces.
"Here we go again," Cooper murmured, closing his eyes and squeezing Elijah's hand reassuringly.
"Lets play cowboys and Indians!" Pippin yelled, eyes lighting up as he darted from the room.
"Yeah! We even have sling shots and bows!"
The oldest brother hastily sprung to his feet, chasing the twins past Noah, "No! No sling shots, no bow and arrows! Or this time the TV and the videos will be in for it. We are settling down to watch a film and that is the end of it."
"What did I miss?" Noah laughed, throwing himself onto the nearest couch and dropping his skateboard at his feet, absentmindedly rolling it back and forth gently.
Elijah shot him a dirty look, groaning and falling onto his back again. Finding the wind knocked out of him moments later he laughed as the younger twins situated themselves on his chest, Blaine leaning forwards to press a kiss to his nose.