My Little Angel (#WattPride)

The Next Morning

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

"Someone shut that off before I break it with my bare hands..." Maria mumbled out.

"Touch it and I will kill you, Cyclops," Aliyah muttered back, defending her phone alarm.

"Get up, everybody!!! Now!!! Let's go, we got school today! Well... you got school today. Up, up, up!" A loud voice called. We all groaned and hissed as the lights flashed on.

"Nuuuu, I just wanna sleep foreeeveeer!!!" Sophia whined, pulling the blanket back over her head.

"That's called death, luv, and you don't get rewarded with that until the end of life, not at the beginning," Mom chirped out, opening the blinds to the living-room. She had on her This Is My Morning Face apron and was holding a spatula in her hand.

"That depends on how determined you are to die," Aliyah said.

"Aliyah, darling, I'm going to have to ask you to never joke about suicide in my house again, please." I could hear the shame and embarrassment in Aliyah's voice as she responded.

"I'm sorry, Auntie Sweets. That wasn't funny."

"I know it wasn't. Now, let's just say it was early morning drowsiness and move onto something more important, like breakfast!" she sang out, the joke already forgotten. That's how Mom worked. If you apologized and she could see you actually meant it, she let bygones be bygones.

Everyone looked up at the mention of possible food.

"Okay, okay, I'm getting up," Maria droned. She stood up and stretched while the rest of us followed suite. Everyone was groggy and clumsy. We were still dressed in our clothes from yesterday, the wrinkles very prominent.

"Wait! Did we all fall asleep?!? Grandma's gonna kill me!" Aliyah exclaimed. She scrambled for the door, but Mom grabbed her by the shoulders and guided her path to the kitchen in one swift movement. "Auntie Swee-"

"I already called your grandparents, and everyone else's parents last night, explaining what happened. They said it was alright with them if you guys had a sleepover and so I drove by everyone's house and got your clothes and toothbrushes. It was all taken care of. Now, who wants pancakes?"

I had remained quiet until now, still getting my bearings. It finally occurred to me when I was stretching.

"Hey, where's Kai?" I asked, looking at Mom.

"I'm in here, Asher! Sorry, I am an early riser and decided to help Auntie Sweets out in the kitchen," Kai called from the kitchen. I was surprised to find he could cook, but couldn't guess why.

"Are we done yacking? I really wanna eat!" Maria grumbled.

"By all means, dig in," Mom said, motioning her forward. We all shuffled into the kitchen. The scent of light fluffy pancakes and slightly greasy sausage hit us like a wall. The smell was mouthwatering and that's exactly what happened. Kai waved us towards the table when he saw us enter. He was wearing what was usually my apron. The words scrawled across the front of it fit him more than they fit me, Good Lookin' Is Cookin'. In one hand he held a spatula, in the other a bottle of syrup.

"Good morning, sleepy heads," he laughed out as he set the bottle of syrup on the table next to a heaping plate of warm pancakes.

"Don't patronize me, boy," Aliyah grumbled as she piled three pancakes onto her plate before slathering them in syrup.

"Mm," Maria agreed in a grunt. Instead of going to the table like the rest of us she walked to the coffee pot. She got down a large coffee mug and poured some coffee in it, drinking it black. "Ah, now that's good!" she sighed. Kai laughed and brought a plate of stick sausages from the stove over to the table. Everyone stocked up on food and ate. I took a lesser portion than everyone else and Sophia watched me very carefully.