Smiley and Sunshine

43.

SORRY
SORRY
SORRY
Welcome back :p
School is time-consuming right now
don't hate me
Now let's get down to business - to defeat the Huns
Ps. Basketball is my fav

~~

"Mondays can suck hairy balls."

"Seriously, Francis? Our little sister is in the car."

"Sorry," Francis cleared his throat. "Mondays are the devil incarnate."

"Maybe you should try reframing your mentality into, I don't know, positivity." Colton suggested, his eyes flickering over to the grumpy, sleep-deprived Francis occupying the passenger seat. He took his right hand off the wheel and smacked Francis in the arm a couple times with the back of his hand. "Come on, man. At least act alive."

"Stop," Francis moaned, curling away from Colton's hits and into a ball as much as he could with his long legs. "Child abuse. Gonna report you to Austin."

"I don't think Austin is going to save you, bro," Glen threw in his two cents. He lifted his forehead off the glass window and faced forward as he decided to acknowledge his older brothers with this riveting conversation starter. "But seriously, I agree with Stupid. Why can't school start on Tuesdays?"

Mr. Teacher Colton caught his gaze in the rearview mirror. "Because then you all would just complain about how Tuesdays are the worst days of the week."

Glen scoffed, offended, "No, I wouldn't. Everybody knows Tuesday is the best day of the week."

Francis pulled on his seatbelt, loosening it up a bit so it didn't choke him as he shifted around in his seat to look at his little brother, the disbelief blatant on his face. "In what world is Tuesday the best day, baby bro? What about hump day?"

"I prefer Fridays," Colton half shrugged as he gave his opinion, free of charge.

"He was born on a Tuesday," Hayes' quiet voice was heard, speaking for the first time since they got in the car. Not that she was much of a chatty cathy during breakfast either. She wasn't feeling all that sparky this morning, the night's sleep doing nothing to alleviate the anxiety she continued to feel.

The little family gathering to watch Dakota's home video was just a temporary relief for her. She had gone to bed afterwards but woke up only hours later and did nothing but toss and turn for the rest of the night until busted when Austin made his morning sibling rounds before he left for a run.

He, of course, kindly asked if she wanted to come with him, even though he was not expecting her to say yes since she usually didn't run on gamedays.

He'd been wrong before.

Though this time, as he figured, Hayes turned down his offer. Instead, she moved her restless being into the family room where the couch was totally free for once and put on a random old recording of Family Feud.

Austin followed her into the family room, pressed a hard kiss on the top of her head, before playfully tossing a couple blankets over her face. Hayes eagerly wrapped herself up like a burrito, giving her the sensation of a lasting hug that somewhat alleviated her anxiety.

That gave her a solid 40 minute additional snooze, but even then...

The angst returned and was just getting worse and worse and worse and she didn't know who to tell or what to say.

Because let's face it. At the end of the day, Hayes didn't know even know why she was feeling like this. It would look like she was a crybaby if it turned out all this trepidation was just the product of her imagination.