Doomed

chapter 5

"Sophia," Jessica sighed, glaring down at the little girl standing before her. In that simple exhalation of Sophia's name, it became quite apparent that Jessica was beginning to lose her patience and I couldn't exactly blame her. I leaned up against the counter, curiously watching the exchange with Thorne standing beside me, attempting to hide his smile. "You need to eat before going to school. Why won't you have my toast?"

Sophia crossed her arms, her dark eyes glaring up at Jessica, as if she could silently convince Jessica to let her be. That wasn't a possibility as this point, though. Considering this had been going on since I had walked into the kitchen, I figured that either one of them was going to have to cave and that wasn't very likely, or that someone was going to have break this argument up. As much as I would have liked to end the little quarrel and get food, I also found that I was particularly amused by how stubborn Sophia was.

"You don't make it like Isaiah does," Sophia retorted, chin raised high with steely determination I wasn't even aware little girl's could possess. I had to raise my hand to hide the fact that I was bubbling with laughter from her response. Jessica's eyebrows shot up and her mouth pressed into a thin line.

"Darling," Jessica cooed, obviously trying to go down a new route seeing as the one where they had fought failed miserably. "Isaiah has to get ready for school, he can't make you toast. Tell me how to do it and I'll make it for you."

"No." Sophia shot back, narrowing her eyes into slits. As much as I wanted to call her a brat, I knew it wasn't exactly true. She wasn't screaming, she wasn't stopping her feet; she just knew what she wanted and she wasn't going to back down until she got it.

I leaned down to whisper conspiratorially in Thorne's ear. "How much more of this until one of them backs down?"

Thorne looked up at me, beaming his toothless smile and shook his head, blond locks falling into his face. I pushed them away since Sophia was too occupied to do it for him like she usually did. "Don't worry," Thorne chirped, seemingly unphased by the fact that his best friend was still arguing with their foster mother. "Isaiah will be out here soon to fix it."

I was so startled that I barked out a loud laugh before I could stop myself. Sophia and Jessica's eyes flitted over to me for merely a moment before returning to their battle. I crouched down so I was eye level with Thorne, biting my lip to contain my smile.

"Thorne, sweetheart," I said in the sweetest voice that I could manage. I couldn't ever recall being good with kids, but the few amount of times that I had been around Thorne and Sophia they had seemed to like me, which pleased me in some weird way. "What do you mean? Isaiah is getting ready. He doesn't have time to fix this."

As soon as the words had left my mouth, footsteps lead into the kitchen and stopped before where the kids, Jessica, and I were standing. I glanced up and gaped at the fact that Isaiah and Landon were standing before us, both looking particularly amused by what they were observing. I gave Thorne the side eye, and he shrugged and grinned, apparently pleased that he had been correct in his prediction.

"Soph," Isaiah muttered, leaning down to scoop her up in his arms. Her previously hard expression softened into one of adoration and love, and she curled up against him, her thin arms winding around his neck. I wanted to scoff at this, wondering what kind of secret power Isaiah had over this little girl. "Stop giving Jess a hard time. You know that some mornings I'm going to be too busy to make you food. Why can't you just eat what she makes you?"

"Because it's not from you," Sophia replied plainly, as if this should have been obvious to him. I had to give the girl credit: she was tough for a six year old and apparently loyal too.