Our Big Brother

Chapter 9

Hunters POV:

Nick practically yells at me to not pour the eggs into the pan. "Did you even season this? You were gonna make him plain scrambled eggs? God do you even have tastebuds!" He says grabbing the bowl of whisked eggs from me and turning off the stove. "You were going to poison me!" Alex screeches so loudly I swear my eardrums burst. "I mean, if you were trying to poison us, your cooking would be the best way since it tastes like shit anyways." Atlas says  joining us. "We're being poisoned? Am I going to get sick?" Reid asks following behind him. "Are we gonna get all itchy and red like when I played in poison ivy?!" Spencer asks next. "Chocolate is like poison for dogs!" Sebastian adds in following them. "Okay stop! No ones being poisoned, we're just having scrambled eggs, and thanks to Nicky they're gonna taste really good!" I say getting cheers from the younger boys who are apparently starving.

Once everyone's had some food, I hurry Alex up to get to his appointment because right after his therapy, he has a soccer game at the community centre and then he's gotta be home in time to shower before everyone's friends arrive. Nick is meeting us after Alex's therapy appointment, and taking him to soccer, while I go home to blow up air mattresses and get sleeping bags and tents in the living room. Everyone has to be in specific spots of the living room or else they'd get into arguments, and if I left it to Nick, he'd just throw pillows and blankets anywhere and hope they'd figure it out themselves.

I'm so thankful for Alex's therapist. She set up balloon darts for him today, she said it was to help him "pop through his emotions". Since I couldn't join him for the session, we settled with having her screen open so he could still see me through the window of her office if he turned around. I could tell the exact second she brought up mom and dad because his hand froze, and tighten around the dart, and threw it with more force than previous ones. She's really patient with him and to keep his anger from boiling over, I think she had him focus on the balloons, popping specific colours, since he pops all the yellow ones. It seemed like it helped, and so at the end, she told me it was a good session, although Alex still wasn't too happy. "I want to make a balloon dart board at home." He says and I nod. "We can do that, did you like it? Do you feel like it helped?" I ask him while we wait for Nick. "The pop scared me at first, it was loud and echoed in the room, so then I was scared and not angry." He mumbles. "I don't think being scared is a better alternative.." I say slowly but he shakes his head. "Just the first one. Then I knew it was gonna happen and how loud it would be, and I could focus on that. She always tells me to focus on something, sometimes it's annoying because I can't focus on anything but being so mad." He explains and I nod, that makes more sense, I'm glad he understands it enough to explain it too. "I know it's hard to focus sometimes, but I'm proud of you for trying. I'll see what I can do about making a balloon dart board at home, as long as you only use it when an adult is around, darts are sharp." I say as Nick pulls up. "I promise! I won't use the darts without you or Nicky, not Atlas though cause he's too clumsy." Alex says running to the car.

"Finally! If you took any longer I was gonna be late, and have to sit out!" Alex says jumping into the car. "Sorry there was traffic." He says. "That's a lame excuse! There's always traffic so you should've known to leave earlier!" Alex huffs. "He's right, there is always traffic." I say with a smile, earning the finger from Nick. "Have fun at soccer, call me if you need me." I say, heading to my own car, and calling Atlas. "Yes I already got the air mattresses out, I'm getting the blankets for blanket forts, and the boys are carrying pillows down." He says before I can even say hi. "Thanks, and don't make them carry too much on the stairs. And don't forget the—" "flashlights I know. You left me a checklist." He says sarcastically, making me roll my eyes. "Right well I'll be home in 5 minutes." I say before we hang up. Mentally going over everything in my head, we have snacks, check. Dinner, check. Sleeping arrangements, check. Movies and games, check. It's not the first time we've hosted all their friends at once for a sleepover, but being responsible for just my siblings is more than enough on a good day, and adding in everyone's friends, just adds a bit more stress and worry to the table. Plus, there are rules to this, you can't just let one person invite their friends over, it's not fair that way, so that's how I end up with full house and more.