Time, Truth, Tragedy

Another Year

Chapter 5

Another Year

"Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised. "

-Denis Waitley

Katie opened her eyes with a smile. She glanced over to the window as the sun filtered through. It was yet another night without any nightmares. She can't explain it, but she really thinks it has something to do with Oliver no longer dawning the hood. Ever since he told her, she's just felt at peace. Even though there were so many other things for them to worry about, him not wearing that hood and risking his life every night just made it all bearable.

Katie sat up from the bed and glanced around the room. Oliver wasn't there, but she smelled something cooking. A smile pulled at her lips, because she expects a waffle waiting for her with a pile of whipped cream an sprinkles. An unintentional Queen family tradition for those celebrating a birthday. Katie stood from the bed, and stepped into the hall. She stopped by Robyn's room first, but the child wasn't there. She then stopped over to Ari's room and she wasn't there either. Katie appeared at Will's door, and the room was empty too. She sighed because she imagined some annoying surprise that she would secretly love, waiting for her.

Katie walked downstairs, hearing conversations. She wonders if she was supposed to wait until someone came to get her. She hopes she isn't messing up the surprise by showing up too early. She just shook her head before pushing open the door and stepping into the kitchen, stopping at the sight of Oliver putting some scrambled eggs on Will's plate as the boy reads a book. Oliver looks over to her with a smile.

"You're up, I was hoping you would sleep a little longer?"

"Oh, really, and why is that?" she asked inching closer and glancing around for her waffle.

"Twinkie-" she turned back to him with a furrowed brow. "I told you that I would be helping out more, so you could sleep in." he turned putting some eggs on Ari's plate before looking over to Katie who was staring. "Did you want breakfast, I'm making eggs."

"Eggs?" Katie repeated with a furrowed brow. "Today, you cooked eggs."

"Yes," confused at her odd behavior, he sat the pan down. "Are you ok?"

Katie lets out a sigh, but nods. "Yep, I'm good," she nudged her head. "I'm not hungry." she moved around Oliver to stand above William's shoulder to see he was looking over his math book. "How did studying with Ari go last night?" she glanced over to the Ari who let out a snort, but kept her eyes on her cell phone.

"Alright I guess." Will replied not tearing his eyes from the book. "When she wasn't texting with Jamie, I learned plenty."

"Seriously?" Katie glanced over to Ari before reaching over to grab a piece of Robyn's cereal and chucking it at the girl, who jumped back and finally looked up. "I thought we had a a deal, you want to go to the movies with Jamie, you help Will study for his test."

"Which I did, but c'mon, I already spend two days a week tutoring, I didn't think I had to do it here. Plus he's fine, he knows that stuff, he's just being obsessive."

"I'm not being obsessive," Will said angrily standing to his feet with his book and stalking back upstairs to his room.

Katie and Oliver turned to Ari who looked back over to them.

"You know Ari, we really don't ask you to do much, so I didn't think helping Will with his math would be too difficult for you." Oliver walked over to stand in front of her. "You know starting a new school is stressful and he's just trying to do his best, and he asked you to help him."