The Spawns

The Spawns | Chapter XXIV -- Like a Hawk

"Well, if it gets to be too much, feel free to tell me," Nikki told me. "I know I can get annoying. I won't hold it against you. If you want to lock me up in a bathroom for an hour, I'll totally deal with it. As I said, I'm sure I can found something fun to do in the bathroom for an hour."

I laughed. "I'm sure you can."

"Alright, let's go kids," Aunty Vanessa announced, and started to walk towards where her minivan was parked.

"Come on my little poodles!" Nikki said, motioning for her brothers to follow.

"We're not damn poodles!" Jackson, the only browned hair kid on the Grayson side, grumbled.

"Course you are," Nikki snuffed, "we're the three poodles, because we curl like them. You can't hide your poodlesness from me" she teased the eldest of her younger brothers ruffling his hair to which he quickly swatted her hand away.

I smiled at their antic, as Gavin, the youngest of the three Grayson's just smiled contently, eating his caramel apple.

So we all got into the minivan and drove towards their house. I quickly found their enthusiasm contagious, the way Jayden and Maika and Cole's joy often made me happy too. But it was a little different though. For some reason, it felt even easier to be swept up by these Graysons, like they had some kind of fairy power that just made you as happy and excited as they were. I had never noticed it before.

But it was there. It was there as we rode to their house, and it was there when we got to their place, and as we set the dinner table and all ate together.

All of the five Graysons, they had an enthusiasm that was almost, magical. Maybe I had never noticed it before because I had never been alone with them. I had never experienced these five Graysons undiluted.

As I looked at my family, I realized I had never really seen them for what they truly were. And as I looked at Nikki I wondered why it was I had brush off her company so often. Had my petty jealousy really blinded me that much? Maybe Jayden wasn't the only unobservant one in the family. There was an innocence about Nikki that I had never noticed, that I had pegged as her being silly, but that wasn't it. She wasn't stupid, she was just... innocent, happy, carefree. She didn't see the bad. She saw the good.

For a second I wished I could be more like her. It would definitely do me some good.

When we got ready to go to bed—we finally decided after much negotiation that I would sleep in Nikki's bedroom and not alone in the guest bedroom, I was almost smiling and giggling along with Nikki.

"If you ever need anything don't be shy, tell your cousin, or tell us, alright?" Aunty Vanessa said, leaning against the door frame of Nikki's bedroom, Uncle Tyler beside her.

"And remember girls, I'm watching you... like a hawk," Uncle Tyler said and walked away with his wife, after she swatted him on the stomach.

"What's with your father and that always saying 'I'm watching you like a hawk' thing?" I asked Nikki when he was out of ear range. He had said it a couple of times at the dinner table but everybody just rolled their eyes at him when he said that.

She sighed, shaking her head slightly. "Our grandpa apparently always says, 'I'm watching you like a shark' but when dad tried it on me, I pointed out that sharks are definitely not known for their sight, since most of them are color blind and have very poor eyesight. So he changed it for hawk," my cousin explained.

"Our family is very weird."

"Tell me about it!" Nikki exclaimed, and then headed for her small bathroom.