Never Been Ready

Awkward encounters and shiny things, oh my!

A/N: Might be the last one for now. You'll probably see another update sometime this week but this is it for the time being. Enjoy! And don't forget to comment! Oh yeah, as this story is mature, I've upped the ages of both the GB and SB teams. Hope you all don't mind.

I wake to the echo of tiny feet pounding against the floor and a sharp jab to my abdomen. I can hear Bryan and Connor above me, making little shooting noises with their mouths before I felt them move away.

Opening an eye, I catch sight of the twins up and running around the new apartment, wide awake with matching grins on their faces. Glancing up to the bare window, I noticed the sky outside was dark still which meant that I'd woken up far earlier than I wanted too. I stuffed my face into the boy's pillows, muffling my groan before I rolled over and proceeded to check the time on my phone. It was a crappy flip phone I bought driving through a few towns over just to keep in contact with Lake and Marie. Now that me and the boys were in Charleston and we were staying here for good (hopefully), I know I'd need to push purchasing a new cell phone to the top of my list.

Gosh, my wallet was going to pay dearly today, I just knew it. The apartment needed quite a lot of things still and the boys, when they were enrolled in school, would need new school supplies and necessities. Heck, they needed new everything.

"Mommy! Wake up! C'mon, lazy butt!" Bryan shouted in my ear as he nudged me. I winced at the proximity of his voice and was thankful when he ambled away to chase after Connor.

To be honest, they'd woken me up half an hour ago because they kept falling on top of me, trying to get me to wake up to play with them. They'd been doing this so often that I finally got to the point where I could stay awake, but still get those last minutes of sleep. Part of me was annoyed at being disturbed because I'd been driving non-stop for the past day and a half but they were only kids, so I relented.

"No Connor, you're the Blue Ranger, I'm the Red Ranger!" I heard Bryan shout.

"But I don't want to be the blue one, " Connor argued. "I want to be the red one!" he yelled back.

Yep, that's my cue to get up. Once the boys began arguing, that was often the sign that I needed to step in before it got ugly. They often argued about the silliest things but once things were over and done with, they went right back to playing together. Boys.

Oh, god. I hope my neighbors don't complain. The last thing I needed first thing in the morning were angry neighbors banging on my door, complaining about the noise. I had that happen to me a lot back in Illinois. Most of the complaints though had been from an elderly woman in her eighties who always smelt like she rolled around in a litter box. Really didn't like her at all, to be honest. I knew she only complained because she probably didn't approve of me being a single mom with no husband. Ha! Like that'll ever happen. Like, ever.

Rubbing a hand down my face, I sat up and slipped on the dog tags I kept under my pillow before I made my way over to where the boys were playing in the hallway. Well, more like shoving and pushing each other.

"Boys," I started, hands on my hips as I stared them down. Their fighting ceased and they scrambled to get up from the floor before standing in front of me with their heads down. "What did I say about playing together?"

"To do it nicely or not at all, Mommy..." They replied simultaneously. I tried to ingrain in their minds that they shouldn't fight and if they couldn't play together nicely, don't do it at all. I wasn't perfect, I made mistakes. But I liked to think I was doing a good job with my boys.