Before the Twins Came (Book Two)

Chapter Nine

Grace bumped into me and she looked pretty mad. When I asked if she was okay she said she was, and she looked like she didn't want to talk and Jaydon was coming around the corner so I took off again and forgot about it. I sprinted down the hall, skidding around a corner to the left and taking off down another set of stairs.

"Sera!" Jaydon complained from behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to smirk at him before leaping over the banister and sliding through the kitchen. Steve glanced up from where he was flipping through a newspaper but then just shook his head seeing that it was us. I took a hard turn, almost colliding with the wall. As it was I clipped it hard with my shoulder, almost dropping the game controller.

I juggled it back and forth as I kept running, trying to get a good grip on it. By the time I succeeded two hands grabbed either side of my waist and then lifted me into the air.

"Jay!!!" I shrieked, flailing uselessly.

"Give me the controller," he demanded, still holding me in the air, although he was now struggling to keep me aloft.

"Never!" I replied, grinning as I held it up as high as I could, which meant it was against the ceiling. He got an evil glint in his eye as he dropped me to my feet. "Oh no," I said, turning to start making my run for it.

Sadly, I was too slow. He reached out and caught my arm with one hand as he started to tickle just below my ribs with the other. I squirmed and kicked as I clutched the controller to my chest with both hands, but that didn't help me.

"Hand over the controller and I'll stop," he told me, trying to sound nice.

"Never!" I repeated, managing to kick him in the gut.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "That one kind of hurt, you little brat!" I smiled triumphantly and rolled away before leaping to my feet and taking back off for the basement. I wouldn't be surprised if they had started a race without me, but I sure wasn't going to let them play without me for too long.

After about ten more races Lanie came down. "Hey, have any of you guys seen Grace?" she asked as she plopped down on the couch next to her sister. We all shook our heads in response. "Well she's not in her room, and she's not in the kitchen, and she's not outside anywhere close."

"Give her a little while longer," Peter said. "She probably just went out for a run or something."

"Okay," Lanie agreed. "Anybody want to make some popcorn and watch Tangled with me?"

"Who said you could take over the TV?" Jaydon asked his little sister.

"Do you want to race me for it?"

"No siree."

"Well are you going to watch the movie with us or not then?" she asked.

"I am not watching Tangled with you, sis." With that all of the boys left, leaving me, Jenni, and Lanie to watch our movie in peace, after we ran upstairs to make some popcorn and get some pop of course.

When we finally emerged from the basement all three of us were singing and laughing. The boys, who were raiding the kitchen, looked at us like we were crazy. Mark was back, I noticed. We just sang and danced through, only pausing long enough for me to snatch a bag of goldfish off the top of the refridgerator.

"Dinner is in two hours," Patricia reminded us as she came around the corner to find us all in the kitchen.

"Okay, okay," the boys said while we just danced off with our goldfish.