Sometimes, it's Better to Forget Responsibility

Chapter 3

"Giovanni! I'm not going to say it again! Wake up, or I'll come in there and wake you myself!" His mother's voice cut the serene quiet for the millionth time. Finally, Giovanni pushed himself up with a yawn. She couldn't walk in now or else he'd get caught, and he'd rather not have to send his friends home and get an earful from his mom first thing in the morning.
"I'm awake! Sheesh!" He yelled back to her. With a shiver, he pulled his hoodie on over his pajamas. Winter was quickly approaching the Taiga, and the first few days of bone-chilling cold were upon them. He was really hoping to take his friends out somewhere fun, but maybe it was too cold. He hoped it would get warmer as the day went on. He glanced at Sylvie, whose sleep was miraculously undisturbed through all the shouting.
He walked out of his room cautiously. His mother was nowhere to be seen, which meant she was in the kitchen, so that's where he went. "Good morning, Gigi!" She greeted him.
"Moooooom!" Giovanni whined, "I told you to stop calling me that!"
"Oh, lighten up, Gigi," She nagged with a dismissive wave of her hand, "I have to head to work, now. Remember to do your chores. Now, if I come home and this house is a wreck, I'm going to take your car keys again."
"Mom, not my car!" He yelled.
"Sass back again and they're gone now," she warned.
"Aw, okay," he sighed, defeated.
"Goodbye, Gigi. I love you," she said, trotting out of the kitchen, into the front room, and out the door.
"What in the world should I do now?" He wondered to himself, "Usually, I just go back to sleep after she leaves, but maybe I should say up and do something nice for the others. But what?"
He eyed the stove. Yes, that was perfect! He'd make breakfast. He wasn't the best cook in the world, but he certainly knew how to make eggs and toast. He opened the refrigerator, and reached for the egg carton. As he pulled it out, another carton caught his eye. It was orange juice! Aw, those kids are going to love this!
He pulled a skillet from a drawer, and put it on the stove, turning on the heat. Carefully, he cracked three eggs onto it, which seemed to be the most the skillet could hold at once without them all running together. While he let them cook, he turned to the toaster, popping in two slices of bread. They hopped back up at him after a minute, nice and crisp. He put the two slices on a plate and cut each into triangles. Then, he put one more slice into the toaster, and did the same to it.
By the time he was done with the toast, the first batch of eyes was done cooking. He pulled out two more plates, dividing the triangles of toast amongst them, and then giving each plate an egg. Then, he started three more eggs. Two eggs and two toast triangles seemed to be a good amount of food. He was so excited to share this!
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The soft light streaming against her face first began to wake Molly up, but the smell of food is what really got her up. It had been so long since she had a home cooked meal, she thought she imagined it at first. She sat up, still a little sleep-addled. With a start, she remembered that she was not in her own room. She smiled as she remembered that she was at Giovanni's house.
She crawled out of the bed, still in her full outfit from the day before. She wandered out of her room, following the scent to the kitchen.
"Good morning!" Giovanni greeted her when she entered, "You're just in time!"
Molly grinned at him. She looked at the plates of food on the table. "Did you make that?"
"I sure did!" Giovanni confirmed with pride.
"Wow! Thank you!" Molly joyously exclaimed.
"Do you want anything to drink? We have orange juice!" He told her in excitement.
"Oh, yes, orange juice please," she requested quickly, "I love orange juice!"
He placed a glass of orange juice next to her plate as she dug into her eggs. "How'd you sleep, kiddo?"
"Really well," Molly answered, "I probably slept better last night than I ever did at home. At least, recently."
Giovanni gently tousled her hair. "Good!" Seeing that Molly was all settled down with her food, he sat down to his own ate, and began to eat as well.
Molly looked around. "Did Sylvie leave or something?"
Giovanni laughed. "No, he's still asleep. He needs it, so I'm going to let him sleep as long as he wants."
"Oh, that's good," Molly commented, "He seemed a little over-worked lately."
"That's an understatement," He whisper under his breath. Louder, so Molly could hear, he said, "Sylvie is... A strange kid. But he'll be alright, I think."
"Woah, what, are you guys friends now or something?" Molly chuckled.
Giovanni shrugged, "Eh. Sort of."
Molly laughed louder. "I went to sleep for half a night, and you guys are friends now?"
"It is kind of ridiculous sounding," Giovanni agreed with a smile, "But, I don't know, I find him a nice guy when he isn't being a total stick in the mud, y'know?"
Molly nodded. "I think I know what you mean." She looked back down at her plate, her eggs now gone. She regarded her bare toast for a second. "Do you have any jelly?"
"I don't know; let me check." Giovanni started rummaging through the pantry. Finally, he spotted a jar with a purple lid and label. It was grape jelly. "Here you go!" He called, presenting the jelly very dramatically, as he did most things.
"Thank you," she giggled adorably. She carefully spread the jelly over her toast. When she was done, she picked up the first triangle, and took a big bite out of it. "Mmmm!" She hummed with a contented smile.
Giovanni sat back down and decided to jelly his toast all well. "You like it, then?"
"It's delicious. You did amazing!"
Giovanni laughed, "Thank you, Bear Trap."
"So, what did you guys do last night?" Molly asked with a curious grin.
"We just talked," Giovanni answered nonchalantly.
"Oh," Molly peeped, "About what?"
"Oh, um..." Giovanni wasn't certain on how to answer. He was pretty sure Sylvie wouldn't want him to tell Molly about what they discussed that night, and he didn't especially want to tell her either. "Y'know... Things."
"Aw, c'mon," Molly pushed, "It must have been pretty awesome, since you two are friends now."
"Ah, well, we talked about you," Giovanni laughed nervously, "Yes! You! You are such a great friend, just talking about you made us friends!"
"Wow, really?"
"Yeah!"
"I feel so powerful!" Molly giggled.
Giovanni laughed as well, "Yee-up!" He agreed, "You have power unmatched." He looked for something to change the subject with, before she could see he was lying through his teeth. "Hey, do you want seconds?" He asked, noticing she had cleaned her plate.
"No, thank you. I'm stuffed!" She answered.
He took his last bite of toast. "Looks like we eat about the same, then," he noted. He picked up his plate, and hers, and carried them over to the sink. He turned to her. "What do you want to do now?" He asked.
"Oh, um... I don't know!" Molly replied, "What is there to do?"
Giovanni thought for a while. "Well, I knit. There are some board games in my room too. I think we've got Apples to Apples, Connect Four, I think maybe a checkers board... Oh, and Battleship!"
"Ah, I love Battleship!" Molly cheered.
"Battleship it is then!" He whisked off to his room. Now, he had to sneak in and get the game without waking Sylvie up. He opened the door slowly, thankful that it did not creek even slightly. He moved as quietly as possible, nearly holding his breath. Scanning the room, he found the shelf with the games. He moved over to it silently. The games were stacked on the bottom shelf neatly. Battleship was on the bottom of the pile. Giovanni wanted to shout in anger, but he clenched his teeth and did not make a sound.
Carefully, he wedged his thumb between Battleship and the other games, and slowly pulled it out. He gently lowered the other games at an angle. Just as he pulled Battleship free, the other games slipped from his grip and hit the ground with a thud. Giovanni sucked in a sharp breath, and turned to where Sylvie slept. Relief filled him as he saw that Sylvie was still asleep. Sylvie shifted had a little so he could cuddle up against his sheeps soft wool. Giovanni thought it was super cute.
He snuck back out the room, successfully leaving Sylvie sleeping soundly. He walked into the living room, where he found Molly sitting on the couch. Her hands were folded politely over her lap, and she was humming quietly to herself. Noticing Giovanni, she asked, "Did you get the game?"
Giovanni held up the game in triumph. "I sure did!"
"Yay!"
He laid the game on the table, and opened it up, prompting stray pegs to off the board. Molly and Giovanni gathered them up quickly and poured them back into the bins haphazardly so that some of the white pegs went into the red, and some reds, with the whites. They were already jumbled anyways. Then, they began to assemble their battleship positions. "Ready!" Molly chimed. Giovanni placed his last two ships indifferently, foregoing strategy in order to start playing more quickly.
"Ready."
"Who's going first?"
"You should go first."
"Oh. Ok! Um... I6?"
Giovanni place a white pegs into the plastic ocean. "Missed. E8."
Molly did likewise. "Missed. F2."
Giovanni shook his head. "B10."
"Nope. H7."
"So I was wondering- E4- How long do you want to stay?"
"I can stay more than one day?" Molly asked, "Also, you missed. A5?"
"Ahg, you got one of my ships! Also, yeah. You just don't seem that happy at home."
"A6?"
"Missed. K2?" He paused. "You can stay as long as you want. In fact, anytime home gets overwhelming, just call. Or show up. I don't care. I just want you to be safe and happy."
Molly looked up at him with wide, admiring eyes. "Thank you," She murmured, "Also, you hit one of my ships. A4?"
"Aw, you sunk my battleship!" Giovanni whined, discarding the tiny, two-peg ship. "K3?"
Molly shook her head sorrowfully. "Hit me again. K7?"
"Missed. K4?"
"You missed. So close, yet so far," Molly giggled, "H3?"
"Missed, but just barely."
"Ooh!"
"K1."
Molly removed a three-peg long ship from her board. "You sunk my battleship." She stopped to think. "Hey Giovanni? Can I stay the night again tonight? Also, H5."
Giovanni placed a red peg on his five-peg long ship. "Of course! Like I said, stay as long as you want."
Molly smiled up at him thankfully.
"J7."
"Aw, you hit one of my ships again!" She complained.
"Yes!"
The two continued to play, sometimes shouting when they sunk a ship, or one of their ships was sunk. Luckily, the shouting was not loud enough to wake up Sylvie. In the end, Molly was victorious. She barely beat Giovanni, however, and it was a very close game. At Molly's request, they played a second game, and once again, she won. The second time, the game was a lot less close, despite Giovanni swearing there would be "No my mr. nice bad guy."
When they had cleaned up the game and put it away, Giovanni switched on the tv. It was on the news, which his mom watched every morning before he woke up. "Booooriiiing!" He jeered, switched the channel to cartoons. A newer show called Magical Madness was playing.
Molly looked at the screen with a grin. "I love this episode!"
"You watch this show too?" Giovanni asked gleefully, "Dude, that's awesome!"
"Yeah," Molly answered, "Only a few other kids at my school have started watching it, but everyone who has, loves it!"
"I can't imagine someone watching this show and hating it," Giovanni remarked.
"Me neither," Molly agreed, "Are you going to watch the new episode Monday night?"
"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied.
Molly asked, "Then can I come over and watch it with you? My sister always hogs the tv. I have to wait for her to go to bed before I can watch anything, and she deletes things I record so she can record all her favorite episodes."
"Aw, that sucks," Giovanni groaned, "Of course you can come over to watch it. I can even pick you up and drop you back off."
"That'd be great! Thank you!"
Just then, the two of them heard a door opening from the hallway. They both turned towards the noise, quiet and alert. A still very sleepy looking Sylvie entered the room, rubbing his tired eyes and dragging a fluffy, pastel blanket with him.
"Good morning," he mumbled, "What time is it?"
Giovanni glanced at his phone. "It's around 11:45."
"11:45? You guys let me sleep until 11:45? Why didn't anyone wake me?" Sylvie yelled.
"Because you were tired," Molly answered calmly, "You really needed to sleep."
"Bear Trap's right, you know," Giovanni reinerated, "You don't sleep that long for no reason."
Sylvie made a small anxious noise.
"Relax, Sylvie. Sit down and watch Magical Madness with us," Giovanni told him.
Sylvie sighed, and sat down on the couch with them. After a few minutes of watching, he commented, "Hey, this show is pretty good."