Surprise

654 20 75
                                    

Biana was a sensible woman.

Coming home from work after a long day, she expected the house to be chaos. With a pair of twins and a teenager just as unruly and rebellious as their father, you would have to be delusional to expect anything else, especially when said father had a habit of taking them into the woods outside and "accidentally" setting things on fire. 

Yes, he claimed it was accidental. And if the twins weren't so incredibly loyal, they'd rat him out faster than actual rats. But fortunately for him, Lucia and Elian were smart enough to know that if they got Dad in trouble, their pyrokinetic fun was over. 

Biana expected chaos. She did not, however, expect to find more than four living things inside their house. 

A small ball of fluff lay curled up on their living room carpet, a wet black nose sticking out of the mass of brown hair. As she stared at it, she noticed that ever-so-often, one of its ears would perk up an inch, then flop back down.

It was cute, no doubt. But it wasn't hers.

She slowly set her purse on the small table beside the door, and not taking her eyes off the animal, called, "Tam, love, it had better surprise you that we have a dog in our living room!"

"Are you sure it's not Lucia?" he had the nerve to ask from the kitchen. "I think I saw Elian covering her in dirt earlier."

"Tam Vacker-Song, you had better get in here and explain yourself right now, unless you want to be sleeping on the couch with your dog tonight."

 Her husband sighed and walked out of the kitchen, dusting the flour off his hands. White powder was streaked across his face and clothes, making him look like a zebra. Zebras were cute.

No. She was interrogating him. It wasn't super sweet that he was making cookies for Melody's club party, and even if it was, she wasn't about to admit it.

Leave it to Tam to get flour everywhere just trying to make a simple batch of cookies.

"Bia, I'm sorry," he said, tugging on his bangs and getting leftover flour in his hair. "But I was just walking down the street and I saw him scrounging around for food—I know what that's like—and he had no collar or any identification, so I just thought...maybe we could keep him, until we find his real owners, or...we don't."

Biana sighed. Curse the sweet, sensitive side of him. "Okay. We'll keep him. But we have to try and find his real owners first, okay? Deal?"

Tam nodded, walking over and giving her hands a squeeze. "Deal. Just wait till I tell Mel. She's gonna love him."

"You are such a five year old," she laughed, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before kneeling down beside the dog. He perked up, his dark eyes wide and happy as he panted up at her. 

"What are we going to name him?" Biana asked, rubbing the top of his curly head. The dog licked her hand in exchange.

Tam shrugged. "I don't know. I was going to ask Linh. She's good with these things."

"But until then..." She stood. "How about—"

"HEY LUCIA, MOM'S HOME!"

"DID DAD GET IN TROUBLE YET?"

"SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO LISTEN!"

"YOU TALKED TO ME IN THE FIRST PLACE!"

"Luce, Ellie, come here!" Tam knelt down as the twins ran in from the hallway. "What do you think we should name our new puppy?"

"Choco!" Elian shouted as the dog bounded over, jumping up and licking his face. Elian giggles and Lucia rubbed the dog's floppy ears. 

"I wanna name him Lucie," she said, trying and failing to pick the dog up. 

"You can't name him after yourself," Elian told her firmly, his voice holding a strong undertone of "duuuuuhhhh". 

"I can too!"

"Cannot!"

"Okay, stopping that now." Biana bent to pick Elian up and Lucia climbed on Tam's back. "What if we named him Choco, and Lucie was his middle name?"

The twins stared at her, occasionally giving passive-aggressive looks to each other before shouting, "OKAY!"

As soon as the word left their mouths, the front door opened and a shocked Melody stepped through, staring openmouthed at the scene in the living room. "Dad....why is there a dog in our house?"

————

Bad

TamWhere stories live. Discover now