Being Shot

P h o t o #8 - Food Always Finds The Floors

It was Kayla's turn to go silent. Jonas's famous snort rang again. "You kinda are dude...no offen-" Jonas was interrupted by what looked to be cream corn (?) smashed into his face, thrown by the now more than infuriated Elliot who had quickly reached down for the teal bowl it sat in next to him on the table as soon as he heard Jonas begin speaking.

"Oh, now I'm really pissed off." Elliot hissed.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Cooper screamed as he hurled a bowl of unidentifiable food at Jonas, who dodged it, only to hit Parker on the side of the head. This change of events made Cooper burst into fits of laughter and point and Parker's soiled face.

I put a hand over my mouth, immediately surprised at how calm Parker acted about this. It was only a second later when my judgment would quickly change, though, at Parker's delayed reaction.

"DAMMIT COOPER!" Parker screamed, whipping his binder and pen onto the ground, scraping the food off his face and glasses, and jerking the food back into Cooper's direction. The remaining bits of edibles landed with an echoing sound onto his astonished face.

Now it was war. I stood still by the sidelines as I watched food being chucked and thrashed from one side of the room to the other. I could only gape at how unbelievable the sight around me was, like I was scoping through filters that somehow welded the power to indefinitely slow down the events unfolding before me. Once again I was rendered speechless, unknowing of what to do or say in this type of situation and feeling almost surreal as I realized just who exactly were the participants in this childish fight.

Nostalgia swept through me as this setting reminded me of a similar time this had happened during my childhood. A simple birthday party had turned into a mess that ended in a hearty cleaning and had earned us an even heartier lecture. We had fun. Lot's of it. I remember her smile, a smile we shared even though we had been punished. We were both only ten, still holding onto our childish innocence. The calm before the storm. Her light brown mess of a ponytail caked in blue icing, while my smiling face buttery with cake batter. My mother yelled, my father laughed.

Seemingly lost in recalling my past, I hadn't even taken notice when I had unconsciously backed out of the kitchen, now standing in the hallway as the food fight trudged on. Only until now did I realize how much these four boys brought back little memories here and there, memories I had tried so hard to push back into the deep, deep crevices of my mind. I raised my fingers to my temples, trying to keep myself under control. I was finally doing better than I had ever done before, I didn't want to have a relapse. I didn't want to scare grandmother or anyone again.

I was pulled out of my revelation when I heard the faint cry of a baby coming from upstairs, surprised that I could even hear such a faint whimper at all through such a large house. Kae. She had to have woken up from her nap after hearing all of the noise from the kitchen area. I decided to run up the stairs and go check on her, not wanting to be caked in food from the fight that was going on in the kitchen.

Once I made my way up the stairs, I slowed down a bit, not wanting to make anymore noise to upset Kae. I got to the nursery in the nick of time.

Kae was whimpering, not yet falling into a full out cry. I looked around the nursery. It was a cute light pink and green room with lots of toys, baby necessities, and pictures books. Kae's crib was located right next to a curtain covered window. I gingerly walked over to see what was wrong.

I slowly picked her up and held her securely in my arms. I began to think of all the reasons she could be crying for. I checked if she needed to be changed. No, that wasn't the problem. I looked around the room, remembering just an hour ago we had fed her, so she didn't need to be fed for another hour. I looked down at her smooth, plump face as I held her in my arms. During all of my thinking, Kae had stopped whimpering and quietly fell back into her slumber.