Awakening (Book 2 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twelve

It had taken Lily hours, days to memorize the entirety of the safe house.

From the moment she'd wake up, she had run her fingers over the walls, the table tops, the doors the stairs; every surface in the house she had made sure to pay attention to. The stairs were probably most difficult because each staircase leading up to a floor had a different number of steps and she'd lose count.

As if that wasn't annoying enough, Sam and Chambers who would lie lazily on the couch as they watched Lily in her memorizing process. Sam caught on to her counting method, randomly throwing out numbers, "forty-two... eighteen... ninety-seven... six... zero..." to make her have to halt, grunt in frustration and begin again.

She didn't get any support from her younger brother either.

Now that there was someone around his age, Chambers was being a normal teenage boy and jumping along with Sam, taking turns throwing off her counts.

"Twelve..."

"One-hundred..."

"Thirty..."

"Eleventy-two..."

As the boys would bark with laughter over their stupidity, Lily would glance a glare in their direction and march to a different part of the house to count there. But Nathan and Adam, Jr. would follow her around to satisfy their amusement.

Lily swung her arms in their direction all the time, meeting nothing but air because they'd move out of the way; laughing hysterically and teasing how slow her reflexes were.

The only reason that Lily was finally able to get through her counting was because Adam had stepped in. During one of the afternoons that the boys were teasing Lily, Adam snuck up behind them and grabbed the back of their shirts and threw them into the hallway. He warned them that they needed to find something else to do or he'd be burying them in the backyard... alive.

Chambers gulped loudly, cowering under the glare that Adam would throw at him to silently tell Chambers that he should know better. But Sam frowned, crossing his arms and shrugged, "We weren't doing anything bad. Just having a little fun."

Adam raised a brow his face blank.

Not aware of Chambers shaking his head frantically with wide eyes in warning at Sam, Adam grinned at the blonde who glanced at Chambers and was now shifting uncomfortably.

"Aaaaaah... so you want... a little... FUN?" Sam didn't like how Adam said that. He didn't like the way the man was looking at him with a mischievous grin and closing in on him. Sam dropped his arms, raising a hand and pointing at Adam, "Hey... Hey! Back off, man! That's not funny!" Sam didn't even get to fully turn around to run out of the room.

Adam threw him over his shoulder and strutted out to the backyard. "Hey you lousy shit! Let me down!" Sam struggled to no use in Adam's grip and landed hard on his backside when Adam was in the middle of the yard.

Sam groaned, scrunching his face from the pain. "Awwww, you fartard..." Sam leaned on his side and hissed, "I think you broke my coccyx!" Adam grinned, looking over his shoulder at Chambers standing not too far from him, but with a terrified look on his face.

Adam looked around the yard and pointed out the large and high mountains of dirt along the wooden fence. Sam turned his head to see what Adam was explaining, "You AND CHAMBERS are going to move THAT pile of dirt--," he pointed at the right corner of the backyard and pulled his arm to the left corner, "—to that side. And then vice versa once you're done."

Confused, Sam looked up at Adam. He shrugged, "It's the same dirt. What's the point of moving it if it's in the same spot in the end, just a different pile?" Sam narrowed his eyes when Adam bent with his arms crossed and had that stupid smirk on his face, "Because I'm having a little bit of fun." He then straightened, turned on his heel and walked back to the house.