4 days to Christmas
**Noah's POV**
It's just a matter of minutes until Lils gets us caught!
Aid, Lily and I have been on a prank war path against our unsuspecting brothers since Thursday night and it has been an absolute riot so far. They had no idea what we are up to and their reactions are so funny!
The coolest thing is that we have been preparing some of the pranks since Thursday night and they are only slowly starting to come to light now. For example, there was the "drama" with Sam's jacket that he so desperately wanted to wear for his lovey-dovey date with a girl called Elena. That is what Luke says, because we have not been there when Sam flipped out. But he has told us all about it and I can imagine how Sam got stressed when he couldn't find the one thing he wanted to wear. Luke says that it was super annoying but also really funny.
Sam has a huge "thing" for clothes and is super protective of them so we decided to take some of his favorites items and hide them in various other brother's wardrobes. We also messed with all of his shoes and stuffed the fronts of them with toilet paper to make them too small to wear.
We obviously didn't know about his Elena-date, so that worked out even better than we expected!
I wish we had it on video, but obviously, since Luke didn't know that we have started a prank war, he also didn't know to secretly film Sam's meltdown. Maybe we should have told him, but since we try to prank each and every one of them, it was too risky to get him involved. Today, we got lucky, because we got to witness Sam freak out in real. Even if we had to get up a bit early for it, it was sure worth it.
It so happens that he and Jack have the same pair of shorts and the exact same t-shirt and Sam sometimes wears this when he goes for a morning run. Jack's clothes are two sizes smaller than Sam's and so we exchanged them and hid all his other training gear so that he was forced to choose these clothes.
It was hilarious when he came out of his bedroom, completely in a panic because the two pieces of clothing had mysteriously "shrunk in the wash". It was so hard for me not to laugh at Sam because he looked hilarious in an almost skin-tight top and shorts that only came down to the middle of his thighs.
I tried to make him believe that he had either become really fat or that he had grown over night, but he obviously didn't buy that. After taking a few photos (we had previously "borrowed" Luke's phone from his bedside table when Sam was in the bathroom since we don't have our own phones yet), he finally figured out that he had been pranked because he suddenly noticed that it is very weird that Aidan, Lily and I were already awake at 6:30am. Since the rest of the house was still asleep, he couldn't do much to us because he knew that we would shout and scream like maniacs and he didn't want to be blamed for waking everybody up on a Saturday morning. But he swore that we better watch our backs from now on.
A few brothers have since joined him with those threats, promising to get us back and that we would wish we never started this prank war.
To be honest, Sam is not a threat at all. He is so harmless when it comes to prank wars, he doesn't even matter at all.
There are only two people in my family that I am truly worried about when it comes to retaliation (other than Aid, but since I cleverly involved him in our war, he won't go against us – I hope!), and that is Luke and Sean. Sean is the King of Pranks in our family and we have heard a lot of impressive stories about pranks he did when he was younger.
But Sean is not here yet and we still need to decide whether we are brave enough to go after him or not.
And Luke is our current "project".
He has fallen asleep on the couch in front of the TV – which is really stupid of him, considering that he must have figured out by now that everyone is on our target list – and we have been busy "decorating" him with various items by carefully stacking them on top of his chest, stomach and forehead.
Good thing he's such a heavy sleeper!
Right now, Aidan is finishing up the third stack, which is on his stomach and this one is the largest so far. He has piled slices of bread, rice waffles and crackers and he even managed to put a table tennis ball on top by cutting out a shallow hole into the top slice of bread. The "tower" wobbles precariously whenever Luke takes a deep breath, but so far, it stays upright.
Lily lets out another giggle at the sight of our sleeping brother and I shoot her the thousandth threatening look. She's quite impossible to have on our prank team because she has almost given us away a few times already because she just can't control her giggles.
I quickly finish my stack on Luke's forehead by putting a small container of glitter on top and then rush over to my sister to do some damage control. I put my hand over her mouth and pull her to the other side of the living room to get her away from the couch and hopefully out of hearing distance.
I won't allow her to wake him before our masterpiece is done!
Lily has done a pretty good job fulfilling her task, which was to cover Luke almost completely in post-it notes, I admit that. He didn't even move once and I think she used up a whole package of those colorful sticky notes. His new look is absolutely genius.
With baited breath and still keeping my hand firmly pressed over my sister's mouth, I watch as Aidan gives his stack the finishing touch and then looks at me for confirmation that we can get the show on the road. I am just about to nod when I realize that we urgently need to film this, so I quickly shake my head to signal that he has to wait.
We need someone with a phone!
Luckily, Ben comes downstairs right this moment. He is on the way to the kitchen but must have noticed me and Lily standing there awkwardly, so he stops, probably thinking I am harassing her because I'm restraining her. Ben is just about to say something when I shoot him a pleading look and – very surprisingly – he catches on and wordlessly steps into the living room. His eyes grow wide when he sees what we have done to Luke and I can tell that he is trying really hard not to laugh.
Catching his eye again when he turns to look back at us, I manage to make him understand what we want from him – he is quite the mind reader today! – and Ben quietly fishes his phone out from the back pocket. Lily starts to shake in my arms and I can feel her giggles wanting to get out again. She is almost bursting and it gets more difficult for me to keep her still because I really want to laugh, too, and that makes the strength leave my body.
Ben is now giving Aidan a sign with his fingers, counting down from three. My twin has taken a few steps back and is standing there with a water gun aimed straight at Luke's face. The idea is to wake him with the splash of water and for the glitter that will then fall down onto him to stick to his face because it will be damp. Aid has the best aim, so he gets to do the honors.
Three seconds later, all hell breaks loose when the water hits a sleeping Luke right in the eye, waking him. Since he is a very lazy person, he doesn't jump very high and he also doesn't fall off the couch – that's what would have happened to Lily, no doubt, if she were in his position, because she's very clumsy – so everything kind of happens in slow motion. The stack on his forehead collapses first and within seconds, Luke's whole face is covered in pink glitter.
I am laughing so hard that I almost miss how the two stacks on his chest and stomach fall down, burying him underneath the food. But the funniest thing of it all is the girly shrieks he lets out with every new thing that happens to him.
This is gonna be one hilarious video!
Aidan and Lily are both lying on the floor laughing like two crazy hyenas. My twin is almost choking as he rolls around while Lily is crying with laughter. The sight of those two makes me fall down on my ass, too, and now all three of us are losing it.
"Oh come on, you guys. Was that really necessary?" Luke complains loudly. "Can't a man take a simple nap in peace in this crazy house?"
I struggle into a sitting position, wipe my eyes and then turn towards him to see what he's up to and find him throwing his hands in the air in despair. He must have seen the sticky notes covering his whole body. I don't think he has noticed the glitter yet, which is hilarious.
"You're honestly referring to yourself as a man, Lukey-boy?" Jordan remarks sarcastically.
It is only then that I notice how the room has filled up with additional people. Jack, Alex and Jordan have joined us and all of them look really amused. They have not seen Luke from the front yet, since they're crowding near the doorway, but when he turns around to face Jordan, all three of them dissolve into laughter at the sight of his glittery pink face.
"What? What is it? Yes, it's a good prank, but surely post-it notes are not that funny!" Luke whines.
"Y-your f-face! Hilarious! Ha-ha-ha...," Jack chokes out, pointing at him.
Luke's hands fly to his face and his expression turns into one of utter disgust when he pulls them back and his fingers are covered in glitter. But then he does the most stupid thing ever and pushes his hands into his tousled hair, which results in the pink stuff sticking to his beloved hair now, too. When he realizes what he just did, Luke groans loudly.
"What the fuck? Was that really necessary, you little monsters?"
His eyes zero in on us and he is trying to look menacing, I think, but due to all the pink, it doesn't work at all.
This is the funniest thing ever!
We have pulled many pranks over the years and I learned a lot from some of my brothers, who are really brilliant when it comes to plotting new pranks. But this one must be one of the most successful ever. And made even better because Ben caught it all on camera. At least I hope so.
"That was pretty awesome, kids," Jordan congratulates us.
He walks past Luke and pats his shoulder before coming over to where we are all still sitting on the floor, shaking with laughter or, in Lily's case, giggling like the silly little girl she is. Jordan crouches down and high-fives all of us before he gets up and helps us back onto our feet.
"Pink suits you really well," my little sister claims, her face almost splitting in two from grinning so widely.
"Oh, I'm sure it does. I'm totally rocking the color," Luke replies sarcastically.
But there is a sparkle in his eyes that tells me that he's not really upset. He is just trying to look mad and intimidating because he can't just admit that our prank was epic, of course.
Laughter from Jack, Ben and Alex interrupts the little stare-down between our prank victim and the three of us. We find them huddled around Ben's phone where he must be showing them the video.
"You've got movie star potential, Luke," Alex teases him, pointing to the phone screen.
"Yeah, have a look at this. It's a piece of art, even you won't be able to deny that," Ben says, holding his phone out towards Luke.
They replay the video again and another laugh escapes me when we can hear Luke's girly shrieks in it.
I can't wait to see our masterpiece on there!
"I admit, this is fuckin' brilliant, even if I think you could have chosen a more deserving victim. Why me, you twerps? What have I ever done to you? It'll take me fuckin' years to get that stuff out of my hair and you know that I have a gig tonight!" he pouts, probably trying to make us feel bad for him, which won't work.
"When you're asleep, an earth quake couldn't wake you. No more needs to be said," my twin explains wisely.
"He's right about that, Luke," Jack agrees. "And it's not like we weren't targeted by the little rats. They made a shampoo bottle explode right into my face."
Jack glares at us as he says that, but we just shrug it off. That happened this morning and compared to this latest prank, it was super lame. All the others got off pretty lightly, too, in comparison.
We added vinegar to Alex's water bottle that Lily very innocently handed to him when he came back from his morning run. He didn't question why we were already up at that time because he had obviously seen us when we got up to watch Sam fall victim to his prank.
Jordan was almost poisoned with heavily salted cookies that Lily baked with the help of Ben the night before and when he went to the fridge to get a drink to wash it down, he found all the food items and bottles in there staring at him with stick-on goggly eyes.
Ben, Josh and Will's pranks have not yet played out, but they will as soon as they use their respective electronics next. We prepared some awesome stuff to get under their skin.
"I'm going to take a shower and you better hope I get this shit out of my hair," Luke growls as he makes to walk out of the living room.
Stopping in the doorway, he turns back around towards us and makes that sign with his two fingers pointing at his eyes first and then at us, telling us that he is watching us.
"I suggest you guys sleep with one eye open going forward," he threatens.
*******
"Noah... Noah..."
I go a bit faster to get away from my little sister. She's so annoying. I thought she would leave me in peace – that's what she had to promise Alex when we left home earlier – but obviously she can't even stick to one simple rule.
Aid and I wanted to go explore the Christmas fair by ourselves, meet up with a few of our school friends and just have fun. But Alex, the poop-head, had to ruin it for us. He told us very firmly that we are to stay within his sight at all times.
He is such a spoilsport!
We had agreed with our friends to meet up at the fair, go on a few rides and just hang out, but when we asked Alex, he said we were not allowed to. He didn't even think about it but just said no straight away. My friends' parents are way less strict than Alex and the rest of them.
It's not fair!
He always treats us like we're little kids and it's so annoying. Like, I get that Lily is still a baby, but that doesn't mean he has to lump us in with her and treat us the same. We are two years and a month older and therefore almost ten and that means we should be allowed to do stuff by ourselves. Like hang out with our friends for a few hours at a completely safe Christmas fair.
What does he think could happen to us?
That we eat too many sweets?
Fat chance that that would happen. We don't even get that much pocket money. It would take a lot of money for me to actually get sick from eating sweets. And after I had to get Christmas presents for our soccer team sized family, there is literally like three cents left in my piggybank (which is the shape of a Batmobile, by the way – really cool!).
"No-No!" Lily begs.
If I walk any quicker, the others might think I'm trying to get away. Which I am, obviously, but only from my annoying little sister, not from them. I don't want to get in trouble, even if I hate that Alex makes us stay with them like toddlers. I may be angry, but I won't defy him.
Aid has tried to get away once we got here and he got a right earful for his troubles. I don't fancy getting on the bad side of my biggest brother so close to Christmas. He might not get me that awesome remote control monster truck that I really, really want if I don't listen to him and that's a risk I'm not willing to take.
"No-No, wait, please."
A small, cold hand grabs mine and tries to hold me back, making me stumble a bit. I quickly pull my hand away and send her an icy glare. Hopefully that'll make her back off. I don't know what is wrong with my sister, but she's getting on my nerves.
I told her to stay away from me and Alex and Josh also told her to leave me alone. They said I was grumpy, which obviously is not true. I am just grumpy with them because they never let me do what I want. That doesn't mean I am in a bad mood, or anything. That's my twin's thing. Aidan is definitely pissed off because Alex forbid us from going with the other kids.
Anyway, we made him promise that he would keep Lily away from us because it's really not cool to be seen with your baby sister when the whole school is there – and when my friends might see me. I don't mind so much if it is just Nick, my best friend in the whole world, because he comes to our house often and he knows Lily and how irritating she can get.
Although, sometimes it is even fun to play with her, we both agree on that. Because she makes a great prisoner when we're playing alien invasion or something. She always lets us imprison her and she's not afraid of being put in small boxes or in cupboards and stuff. I guess Lily's kinda cool like that. But not when we're at a fair where anybody could see us. I don't need my other friends from school thinking that I hang out with a little girl. Aid and I totally think that that's very uncool.
"Noah, you gots to help me!" Lily whines, grabbing my hand again and pulling me back pretty forcefully for the little kid she is.
"What is it, Lily?" I groan, trying to not trip over my feet when I stop and turn to glare at her at the same time.
"Shhh," she whisper-shouts, putting her finger on her lips as she looks around to see if anyone is watching us.
I follow her gaze to see where our brothers are and find Alex talking to a dark-haired, older woman. It looks like he's introducing Jordan to her. A bit further ahead, I find Sam and Ben queuing for some drinks at a mulled wine stall.
Ewww.
I hope they get us a hot chocolate, too. I'd deserve it for being forced to stick with them all evening. Aid is with them and I trust him to make sure we get a treat.
I don't see Josh anywhere, but he probably met someone, too. There are a lot of people here that our brothers know and they stop every ten feet or so to talk to them. It's even more annoying than Lily, because it takes us forever to get anywhere.
Jack is a few stalls ahead with his friends, Zach and Rome. They decided to tag along because Alex wouldn't allow him to go off alone with them, either. That's the only thing that makes this a bit less horrible. At least they are treating all of us like little kids.
Jack wasn't even that annoyed. He just announced that his two best friends would join us, which was fine with our oldest brother. Alex even lets them walk ahead a bit but told them to make sure not to stray too far and check in with them regularly.
I have no idea where Will is. He left at lunch already, to hang out with some of his friends, and according to Ben, he said he would go to the fair with them and join us when we go see Luke play later. He is 14 and in his first year of high school, so Alex couldn't really force him to hang out with us. Well, he could of course force him, since he's our guardian, but that would have caused a drama, for sure, and Alex always claims that we should try to keep it peaceful, at the very least in the days leading up to Christmas.
"No-No, listen!" Lily pulls me out of my thoughts with a kick to my shin.
"Hey!" I complain, pushing her a bit.
She's such a pest sometimes!
"You weren't listening," she points out, glaring accusingly me.
I step a bit closer and use my height advantage to glare right back at her. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like she's intimidated at all by my reaction. If I were Aid, I'm sure she'd have shrunk back a bit. But he has a really menacing stare, one that I will never ever master, no matter how hard I try.
"What do you want?" I sigh, taking a step back, only to be pulled closer again.
"I have a big, big, urgent problem," she says very dramatically.
Lily then goes on her tip-toes to whisper in my ear. I automatically lean my head down a bit. One, because I am curious what kind of problem a 7-year-old baby could possibly have – and two, because there was an odd shine in her eyes when I looked at her just now. Like she was about to burst into tears.
She better not start crying!
"I lost Oscar," she reveals really quietly.
"What?" I exclaim and when she makes a shhh-sound again, I add more quietly: "How?"
"I took him out of my pocket to show him the beautiful stands and then I let him smell the nice strawberry candles and then we went on to try the sugar almonds and after that, there was this stand with..."
"Why did you even bring him?" I interrupt her endless babbling.
I believe I remember Josh telling her very clearly that she is not to bring that stupid stuffed orca with her. She argued with him but he stayed firm, reminding her that it would most likely get lost again, and that none of us would want to deal with that kind of drama tonight.
How can she be so stupid and bring him anyway?
"I didn't want him to have to stay home alone," she sniffles.
"Hey, don't cry. It's okay," I try to comfort her.
I hate it when she cries. It always makes me kind of sad, too, even if I don't want to. Feeling a bit awkward, I pat her shoulder and then her head and offer her a smile to make her believe that we have this under control.
"Let's got tell Sam or Ben and they'll help you find him," I suggest, taking her hand to pull her towards where I last saw our brothers.
"No! They'll get angry that this happened!" Lily protests, pulling me back.
She is not wrong.
"Well, what else should we do then? Do you know where you lost him?"
"Yes!" She nods her head up and down like one of these dogs you can put in the back of a car. "I put him down on that stand with the fluffy scarves and hats. I think I forgot him there. – Poor Oscar."
Her eyes get all shiny again and the first tear is now falling, too.
No, no, no, don't you dare!
"Oscar's fine. I'm sure he loves it there with the... fluffy stuff," I assure her, feeling kinda silly for talking about that toy like he's real or something.
"Will you g-go with me t-to find him?" my little sister begs me.
I am so torn right now. On the one hand, I know that it is the worst possible idea for us to go off on our own after Alex told us so many times that we have to stick with them. But on the other hand, it sounds simple enough. Lily seems to know where she left the toy.
I check where our brothers are and find them still doing the same things they did when I last looked. Ben and Sam have moved up in the queue but they're still not all the way in the front yet. Josh has now joined Alex and Jordan talking to that older lady.
I take a deep breath.
"You know where that stand was, right? I mean, you know exactly where?" I make sure.
Lily nods eagerly.
"I know ezactly where it is," she confirms.
"Alright. Let's go then," I make a quick decision before I change my mind again. "We have to be real quick, hear me? If they find out that we took off, we'll be grounded for the rest of our lives."
"Okay. – Thank you, No-No."
"Yeah. C'mon."
I grab her hand and pull her behind me and back the way we came. After we have cleared a big crowd of people who are kind of clogging up all the space between a few popular stalls, I push Lily in front of me so that she can lead the way.
This stupid orca better still be there!
It turns out that it is way further away than I thought. Or maybe it is because Lily's sense of direction is just awful. She pulls me here and there and all over the place forever. It isn't made any easier by the amount of people that are at this fair. It feels like we have to retrace all the way to the entry of the fair and when we finally spot the "fluffy" stall, my feet are aching and I am feeling really worried because we have been gone for so long.
Of course, Oscar is nowhere to be found when we get there. Immediately, I doubt that this is where she actually left him, but Lily insists that she has last seen him here. Then she starts to full on crying and claims that somebody must have kidnapped him.
Like anyone would want to kidnap a ratty stuffed animal like Oscar!
I try to comfort her as best as I can but nothing works. Then I remember that I am supposed to be the older sibling here and I try to think of what Sam would do in such a situation. Luckily, I figure it out real quick so I go up to the owner of the stall and ask her if she has found a stuffed orca.
And she has!
As soon as I finish my sentence, she turns around and pulls something off a shelf in the back and it's Lily's plushie. My little sister shrieks happily at the sight of it and then hugs the living daylights out of the orca once it is back in her arms. I feel really happy, too, because at least we got him back and I won't have to deal with her being sad any longer.
We quickly thank the stall owner and then I urge Lily that we have to go back. It feels like we have been gone for hours and my stomach turns into a bit of a knot thinking of what might have happened if our brothers realized that we have disappeared.
I once again grab my sister's hand but this time I lead the way. Now that we have gone through this fair more than once, I think I know what the quickest way back to our family is. Other than Lily, I actually have a sense of direction.
My heart jumps with joy when I spot the stall where they sell the mulled wine in the distance. I hurry up and we weave our way through the masses of people until we are right next to it.
I look around, trying to spot any of our brothers, which really shouldn't be that much of a problem, seeing as Sam, Jordan and Alex are, like, super tall.
Only, they are nowhere to be seen.
"Where are they?" Lily asks.
"They're around here. Maybe they took a seat somewhere," I tell her.
Inside, I feel very worried now. I don't think they took a seat at all, I just said that to not make her panic because we can't see them yet.
If they are not here, it can mean two things: they moved on to see the rest of the fair, or they noticed that we were gone and are now trying to find us. I don't think it's option number one, because Alex and Josh are mother hens (that's what Will calls them) and would never move on without making sure that all of us are there.
I drag Lily around the space a few more times and we even check behind the stalls where there's more space for people to stand and eat and drink. But nobody is there that looks familiar. All of our brothers have disappeared.
I wonder for a moment if it is the wrong mulled wine stall, but then I recognize a few other stalls nearby that we looked at earlier. Also, I know for certain that I didn't get lost on the way back.
My heart is now beating really fast and my hands are getting a bit shaky, too. Lily must have picked up on my worry because she's sniffling again.
"Are we... lost?" she asks and I can tell that she's going to cry any second.
A lump grows in my throat.
This is not good.
"No-No?" Lily asks again. "Did they leave without us?"
"No, Lils, no they didn't. We'll be with them in a minute, okay?"
I look at my little sister and see that her cheeks are wet with tears. When she notices me looking at her, she hides her face in Oscar's tattered fabric. I feel tears well up in my eyes now, too. To comfort her – and also to comfort me – I grab her shoulders and pull her in a hug. She immediately wraps her arms round my torso and buries her face in my shoulder.
"I'm scared, No-No," she sobs.
"You don't have to be scared, Lils," I choke out, hoping to assure her. "It'll be fine. They'll find us real soon, okay?"
I hug her tighter and she does the same. I am a bit scared now, too, but I can't let my little sister see that. I have to be the big brother now and make sure she's okay and I really need to get her to stop crying. I just hope that they find us soon, even if it is also a bit of a scary thought.
We are going to be in so much trouble!
A/N - These kids, Alex and Co. should have known better than to let them out of their sight. Let's hope they show up in time for Luke's little Christmas gig.