kindred

Chapter 9 - New starts

Addie was nudged awake by Harrison at the ungodly hour of six am, ready to leave by seven thirty. Addie was confused why they needed a whole hour and a half to get dressed and eat breakfast, but she dutifully got out of bed anyways. 

She stumbled into her bathroom, eyes squinted shut and washed her pale face and teeth before dragging a brush through her hair. She decided on a simple style of hall up-half down, just to keep it off her face. It was also the only thing she could be bothered to do in her current exhausted state. She had little energy anyway, never mind now on a Monday morning on her first day of school.

Trudging back into her bedroom she pulled her shirt, pinafore and jumper on. The window in her room gave sight to the November weather, which was blustery and cold with a thin layer of frost on the ground. 

A familiar grumble in her stomach alerted Addie of breakfast, her favourite meal of the day. With her bag in one hand and her blazer in the other, Addie set off to find her troublesome brother's. 

None of them were in the large spotless kitchen when she entered it, in fact no-one was in there and she was aware how quiet the kitchen felt compared to the usual bustle of the house when her brothers were cleary around. 

Her questions were answered when Elijah clapped a large hand onto her shoulder, startling Addie out of his thoughts. He was dressed in his school uniform like Addie, except the white colour of his blue striped shirt was undone and his sleeves were lazily rolled at the sleeves to his elbows. 

"What ya doing?" he queried as if she didn't look completely lost.

"Where is everyone for breakfast" She asked peering up at the towering figure. 

"We eat in the back kitchen on school day's. Come little girl." Addie grabbed her pillbox that said 'Monday' from the drawer nearest to her before she followed her brother in confusion as he walked towards the wall. 

Her eyes widened as he opened a door she wouldn't even know existed if he hadn't led her directly to it. Elijah just laughed at how adorable his little sister looked with a shocked expression.

Inside there was a huge kitchen, with large stainless steal tops that looked like they were from a restaurant. Addie noticed less than a quarter of the kitchen was being used although it looked like it could cook food for two hundred people plus. There were probably twelve chefs around the room, chopping and preparing things. 

"Why'd you have such a big kitchen?"

"We don't normally use all of it. Only enough for forty people daily"

"Who do you have to feed?"

"Guards, cleaners, us."

"Why do you need 200 then?" Either Elijah was bored of her questions or he didn't want to answer them, as he ignored her and instead led her over to a table big enough for eight people in the alcove under the stairs. It had a homely feel with a worn wooden table and scuffed chair's from years of use. The older twin's were already at the table along with James. They were eating a mixture of things from cereal to a full English Breakfast. Who eats a full English Breakfast on a Monday morning? 

The boy's were all in their uniform's in various states of undress. James had his shirt tucked in but his tie loosely done, Riley didn't have a tie and his shirt was all over the place whereas Thomas had no shirt or tie insight. 

Immediately a large plateful of food was put in front of her from a young chef, he offered her a smile before returning to the oven. She delved into the cereal, pastries and yoghurt before her, never having had such a wonderful breakfast. Addie would have been perfectly happy to pour her own cereal and put yoghurt in a bowl, she was still weirded out by the people waiting on her at all hours of the day. It was like living in a hotel.