a Queen of Butterflies

chapter 05: we're just too lazy for it

I wake up and am confused about how much like home the new room already feels.

I look at the clock on the nightstand and see that it's six in the evening.

I should probably get ready for dinner.

I push open the door to the bathroom and splash my face with some water to try and rub the sleep off of it. I look into the reflection of my face in the mirror. Though a bit tired looking it's still the same face staring back at her, the same freckles, the same nose that's slightly to big for the face it sits on and also still the same eyes, one meadow green, the other sky blue

I look at my shoes that I took of when entering my bedroom and decide I'm not even going to bother putting them back on. I don't think the others will mind. 

I put my curly dark brown hair in a  bun and leave the room.

I walk through the corridor and opening the door leading to the salon I immediately notice that there are more people here than there were last time.

Matt is still sitting in the sofa, talking to a muscular guy who looks like he has some african roots and I can hear Ada's I-am-a-dying-squirrel-laugh coming from downstairs.

"EEEEEEY", Matt whoops from the sofa, "Cal, Cal, come here, this is Nola."

"Pleasure to meet you", I say whilst shaking Cal's hand. 

"Pleasure to meet you too", he replies, "I'm Cal, Matt and I used to go to the same primary school back in Ireland, we hadn't seen eachother in years and here we are, both... halfgods apparently", his brows furrow ever so slightly with that last statement.

I'm glad someone else also appears to have some trouble accepting all of this.

I hear the sound of pots and pans banging into one another and ask, "So, is it safe to go downstairs or should I wait for a little while?"

Cal's face is lit up by a smile, "I'm pretty sure it's safe downstairs, Ada is just an enthusiastic cook."

I smile back, "I'm going to go downstairs then."

"See you for dinner", Matt calls.

I walk down the stairs and a delicious smell flies over to me.

"That smells delicious Ada. What are you making?"

Ada grins, "Giulia and I", she says pointing to the brownhaired girl besides her, "Are making risotto."

"Good evening", Giulia adds.

"Good evening. Can I help with something?"

Giulia stirs in the pot in front of her, "No, not really, we just need to regularly stir the rice now. It's pretty much done."

"Good, I'd probably just mess it up. I'm no princess in the kitchen", I truthfully add.

Ada starts laughing again, "You can help me though. I accidentally tripped and knocked over some pots and stuff so if you could help me put them back I would appreciate that."

"Sure", I walk behind the counter and start to pick up some of the pans that are scattered across the floor, "Aren't these supposed to be in a drawer or something?"

"yeah", Ada picks up a baking tray, "They are supposed to be stored away properly but were mostly just to lazy to do so."

"What do you need all of these pans for anyway?"

Giulia responds, "Who knows?" She smiles kindly, picks up a pan and stirs the pot of risotto again.

After storing away all of the pans I ask, "So do you guys always make the food or...?"

"No", Ada replies, "We rotate all of the chores. That's making breakfast and making dinner so not that much."

"If you want to you can do your chores with us", Giulia says, "Every group makes breakfast and dinner once every four days."

"Sure, you look like you could be great teachers."

At that moment the door of the room opens and two people walk in, a girl and a boy. The girl is muscular with silver hair and blue eyes whilst the boy has light sand-coloured hair and slate grey eyes.

Alex and Peter

The boy immediately runs upstairs, ignoring us completely.

"Is dinner almost ready?" The girl asks.

"Yep", Giulia says,  "just ten more minutes Alex."

"Thanks", the girl concludes.

Then her gaze falls on me and her eyes intensify, "So you're the new girl huh?"

"Yes, Iam. My name is Nola."

I look at her more closely and notice her left arm is gone, replaced by a very intricate looking prosthetic.

"A small accident", the girl says pointing at her arm.

My face immediately starts to blush because Alex realised I was staring at her arm.

"Anyways, I'm going to head out", and with that she also leaves us and goes upstairs.

After five minutes the doors open again and Thanatos emerges out of them, "Can I eat with you guys?"

Matt comes scurrying down the staircase, "If you make food for us tomorrow."

He sighs, "Fine I'll make you dinner tomorrow."

"And breakfast", Cal shouts from upstairs.

Thanatos rubs the bridge of his nose, "And breakfast. Is that all you pesky little children?" I can see he didn't really mean that last thing he said by the way he is already grinning.

"OOOH", Matt adds, "You also have to bake us cookies or biscuits or something."

Thanatos lifts one of his eyebrows, "What are you guys having for dinner anyways?"

"Risotto with shrimp, chorizo, carrots and green peas", Giulia says with a big smile on her face, "your favorite."

"Oh you know I can't say no to that."

Matt and Cal come downstairs, "That's why we made so many demands."

Thanatos smirks, "Smart kid, I have trained you well."

"Dinner's ready", Giulia chimes.

I hear some stumbling upstairs and after barely waiting half a minute everybody is gathered around the table.

"Are there like assigned seats or something?" I ask. I think I'm going to be stuck here with them for a long time so the stupidest thing I could do right now is accidentally pissing of someone by taking their seat.

Lucas responds, "No, just take any seat you like."

I get shoved to the side by Peter and Alex and whilst they sit down they both look at me with a clear warning in their eyes.

I guess even though there are no assigned seats that those seats still do belong to them.

People start sitting down, leaving the seat closest to the kitchen island open and I also slouch down into one of the chairs, realizing my nap didn't give as much energy as I'd hoped it would.

Well, at least I really like risotto.