Aubrey Garcia's Journey home.

Chapter Nineteen.

"Three days!!" Screamed Eliana through the phone. Aubrey winced and pulled the phone away from her ear to avoid going deaf.

"Yes, you might have told me at least fifty times in the past hour." Aubrey heard a huff of frustration on the other side of the phone. Ever since they had gotten their schedules Eliana had been ranting on about how lucky they were to have a class together and how excited she was for it all.

"I wish I was in the same grade as you," Eliana said sadly, "I can't believe they wouldn't let me move up to Junior year!" Aubrey muttered an agreement. She really was kinda down that Eliana would be a sophomore. Well, at least she had James in most of her classes.

"But aren't you excited!" She shouted again. Aubrey laughed and shook her head. Eliana might as well be singing 'First day of school! First day of school!'

"I'm good, school just seems like too much work."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, this will be AWESOME!"

There was a pause. "Hey could you um..." Eliana trailed off, her indecisiveness shining through.

"Whats up?" Aubrey asked, tilting her head ever so slightly to the right. Another pause. "Could you...? Could you help me with something?" Eliana asked, sounding really nervous.

"Of course whatever you need."

"Okay um..."

Aubrey frowned, Eliana wasn't usually so quiet or nervous.

"James usually helps me with this but he's busy right now so, uh, could you help me watch some of my siblings?"

Aubrey nearly tripped on her way down the stairs, shock coloring her tone as she responded.

"You have siblings?" Aubrey asked, astounded.

She heard a small mumble "yeah" on the other side of the phone.

"Of course I will help, but why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Aubrey could almost hear the shrug through her phone.

"Okay, just come over and..." She paused looking at the clock on her phone. "We could get some lunch and have a picnic in the fields." Aubrey said before asking, "How many siblings? And how old? And what do they like to eat?"

Eliana sighed with relief. "Five, two girls and three boys. The girls are 4 and 5, the boys are 6, 5, and 7." Aubrey nodded.

"Okay, what do they like to eat?"

"Eh, they will eat anything."

"Okay, see you in twenty?"

"Okay, see you then."

----

When they showed up, Aubrey had two large blankets set up in one of the fields and a large assortment of picnic food set out. She had everything from sandwiches, to cupcakes, to pizza laid out. Aubrey smiled and swelled with pride when she saw the kids faces light up at the large assortment of food. Eliana stared at her in shock, before a huge smile crept up her face.

"Wow, you really didn't need to do this." Eliana said, practically grinning ear to ear.

"Nah, it was no big deal. It was honestly pretty fun to set up."

All of the kids had similar features to Eliana, but still managed to look different in their own way. The youngest one, Aiysha, had dark black hair, smooth brown skin, and huge hazel eyes. She looked so cute! Aubrey thought to herself.

The second youngest girl Kya, had the same golden brown hair as her sister, with coffee brown eyes and a delicate smile. Aubrey waved at the little girls who hesitantly waved back. The boys on the other hand all looked like they were ready to race through the fields, no questions asked.

They all had a thin frame, with ever so slightly hollow cheeks. Aubrey smiled at them, but something felt a little off about them. She realized they were eyeing the food, so she offered that they should all dig in. The whole time Aubrey noticed that Eliana was watching her anxiously, as if wondering Aubrey's reaction to them.

"Your siblings are so cute!" She said enthusiastically.

Eliana nodded, and smiled, a huge protective smile as she focused her attention on the kids. All of whom were shoveling food into their mouths, laughing and shouting with each other. Aubrey watched in panic as one of the boys, Jaiden, smacked Aiysha with a pepperoni who immediately burst into tears.

Within seconds Eliana was chidding the boy, as Aubrey comforted Aiysha. They ran around in the field and snacked a little.

After a while, Eliana stopped the game of tag they had been playing to say that they had to go home. After the symphony of "Awww's", and "Can't we stay a little longer's", they left with one last wave goodbye. Aubrey smiled as she cleaned up, but one more thing seemed to be haunting her mind. 

Why was Eliana so nervous?