At home with the Boys

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Nina's POV

Today is the Twins birthday, the first of June, they are turning 10. For their birthdays I wrote on two sticky notes “I will make you a small carving of your new Weres” not much but at least it’s sorta personal.

I was woken up at 5:17 this morning by two small bodies jumping on my bed, well it was more me than the bed, although it’s nice to know I wasn’t first because I can already hear many groaning and grumbling boys out in the corridor.

I flick my quilt up to try and throw them off balance but the quilt just slips out of my hands , they haven’t woken up enough to work properly yet. So instead I growl at them, they giggle really loudly and run out of my room to the next.

I pull myself out of bed, slowly I might add, shiver from the cool June morning and stagger over to my wardrobe, I grab my jeans and a shirt with white and blue horizontal lines, plus a pair of socks.

I wander into the hall to see Max, Tyler, Vince, Hazz and Eddie groaning, half dressed and rubbing their eyes.

“Is it safe to assume this happens every year?” I ask the boys “Yup, every year. You better get used to it, although the wake up will probably get later in the next three years then they will stop the wakeup call and just bug you at breakfast, or at least that what the Blondes did” Max replies sleepily.

 Great, every year, hey did he mean he expects me to be here for the rest of the year and then the next few? Wow didn’t think he liked any of us, or expected us to stay.

Nice.

The Two small boys came racing around the corner and sprint down the stairs into the kitchen. Slowly the rest of us in the hallway follow them, half way down the stairs I see a large pile envelopes on the table, that’s odd don’t kids usually get presents?

Liam and Aiden are sorting the envelopes into piles of which ones are theirs, and in no time at all they are staring longingly at their piles as if they were dragons protecting their hoard of jewels, guess they can’t open them until everyone is here, probably another reason for the wakeup call.

Within the next 15 minutes everyone has filtered down the stairs and are sitting on assorted surfaces in the kitchen and living room.

Alice is holding the only box, she hands it to them and they unwrap it very quickly but it only turns out to be a pile of baggy shorts, I guess that is for when the don’t have clothes after a shift.

Then they get to the envelopes, I wonder what’s in them? Well I am about to find out I guess.

Liam opens the first one, he pulls out a note and reads it out to everyone “Happy Birthday Squirt, you will get a toy for your Were so the furniture can stay alive! Jake” so that’s what’s in them, interesting.

Slowly they open one at a time and read them out loud, some have money but most of them are promises, like the first one. When they are done we start on Breakfast, finally.

While they twins aren’t looking I stick my sticky notes to their cups and go back to my own breakfast.

Then I hear a ‘Thankyou Nina’ from the other side of the table, I smile at them and give them a thumbs up then go back to eating.

After breakfast Alice delivers the good news, no school!! Actually school is pretty cool here.

There is a cheer from all the boys, and then a rush to the TV, the twins get is first they open a recorded folder full of episodes of “Mork and Mindy” they start from the first one and then we spend the next 6 hours of the day watching “Mork and Mindy” with Robin Williams (RIP Robin, hope you had fun)

“Alright, that’s it I can’t handle any more “Mork and Mindy” change the channel or let us play ‘Speed Racer’” bursts out Tyler, during that 6 hours Max had left, Jake and Hazz had fallen back to sleep, Scott had gotten heaps of food and I fell off the couch, so the twins hand over the remote and run to the kitchen to empty the fridge.

Tyler, Vince and Scott play ‘Speed Racer’, I go outside to find some nice carving wood for the twins, Gemma goes to have a shower, Lisa goes up to her room to read, Hazz starts snoring because Aiden stuck some cereal up his nose, Jake leaves to go for a run in the back yard and Eddie is doing something on his computer.

So for today we have all been so very useful haven’t we?

That’s when the day turns around, there is a piercing scream from the kitchen. Everyone rushes in, but when I get there both of the twins are being carried into the living room only to be laid on the couches.

They are squirming and whimpering in pain, with a few silent tears falling from Aiden’s eyes.

Alice rushes around the room giving out orders like “Pick up all those clothes” and “get me some icepacks”, the boys all comply with every order and in no time the twins have icepacks on their heads, the room is tidy and all the kids have grabbed their chair from the kitchen.

This is their first shift, it’s relatively painful.

Well imagine almost every bone in your body snapping in many places, your skull changing shape, your organs moving to a different spot in your body, new hair or feathers or scales protruding from your skin, shrinking or growing in size, developing wings or a tail or both, limbs disappearing or new ones appearing, joints changing, new senses and a completely new conscious awakening in your mind with access to every thought and feeling you ever have.

Yep, that’s what shifting for the first time is like, except I never got wings or scales which is ok because I am a little afraid of heights.

Their squirming went for another hour and a half, their faces streaked with tears of pain, the outer effects start to happen, they grow more fur, they both get tails, their bodies start to change shape, the cracking gets louder, then their human whimpers of pain turn into canine whimpers.

Soon there were two large Great Danes lying on the couches, Liam being a blonde Great Dane and Aiden being a brunette one.  Both are breathing heavily, their ragged breathing slowly becomes more even showing that they were now asleep. We all leave the room so they can sleep in peace.