Chapter 7
"Jean! Do you want breakfast or not?" Dad yelled from right below me in the kitchen.
I groaned and rolled over. I was having literally one of the best dreams ever even though I couldn't remember what it was now. God dammit, Dad. Thanks a lot.
"Well? Even if you don't, it's already ten. You need to get up."
"What are we having?" I finally yelled back.
"Eggs and bacon."
I sat up. Bacon? I swung my legs around and stood up, stretching afterwards for a good 30 seconds. As I was descending the stairs, my foot missed most of one, and I lost my balance. Fortunately, I was holding on to the metal post that the stairs wrapped around. "Holy shit," I murmured to myself.
"Didn't know that shit was holy," Dad commented.
I was sure that my look portrayed that I was not amused.
"Lighten up a little."
I just looked at him. "Lighten up? You are telling me to lighten up?"
A ghost of a smile passed over his face. "Everybody is outside."
"Um, okay."
As promised, everybody was outside. What he had failed to mention was that we also had guests over. There were four people. The first was a kid that looked like he had... a yellow coconut as hair. I shit you not. I almost felt bad for him, but the more I looked at him, it started looking more normal. He was running around with Eren and Mikasa. They looked like they were having a great time.
The next person was a really tall guy with dark hair leaning against the side of the cabin. He smiled when he saw me. I waved back awkwardly.
After that, I noticed a kind looking woman with light hair. Her and Mom were sitting at the green picnic table on the porch. Mom was, of course, talking animatedly while the lady watched with an amused smile on her face.
Finally, I noticed Marco sitting on the porch step with his back to me, talking to Connie. When Connie saw me, he ran past Marco and straight to me. Well, not me, but rather my legs.
Marco turned around and flashed me one of his smiles. "Morning, Jean."
I was suddenly very glad that I'd put a shirt on before I came down the stairs.
"Hey, Horseface!" Eren yelled from the grass. "It was about time that you got up and started mooooving like your barnyard friends."
I made sure Mom wasn't looking before I flipped him off. Blond Coconut looked really confused. The tall guy seemed perplexed as well. Eren loudly started explaining to Blond Coconut why he was comparing me to a horse. My face burned.
"Are you alright, Jean?" Marco asked, concern in his voice and on his face.
"Yeah, fine." I ignored the freeloader on my leg and sat down on the step beside Marco. The breeze blew, and I could smell the lake. I noticed that his hand was mere inches from mine. If I wanted to, I could--
"Did you sleep well?"
I shook myself and asked myself for the upteenth time what was wrong with me. "Mm hm. You?"
"Well, I did after I got home," he said, referring to our conversation last night.
I smiled at him while winking, and I thought I saw the tops of his ears turn pink.
The door behind me opened, and I craned around to see Dad carrying out platefuls of food balanced on his arms. Mom and her friend jumped up to help him set them on the table.
"Connie!" He looked up at the sound of my voice. "Food!"
His eyes lit up, and he was gone. I sighed, and Marco started laughing. "I take it he really likes to eat."
I nodded. "You have no idea."
Just then, a little girl about Connie's age with mousy brown hair pulled up into a messy ponytail came around the corner of the cabin with a crazed look in her eyes. Was she drooling? "Food?"
"Sasha!" Another person came around the corner, but this time it was a man with blond hair cropped close to his face. He picked the little girl up and held onto her tightly despite her attempts to be let down. He noticed all of us staring at us and said, "I'm really sorry."
Sasha's eyes grew wide as she spotted the table. "Fooooood!"
The guy cringed. "She has a bit of obsession with eating yet somehow gains no weight."
"Oh, that's fine," Mom said with a smile. She loved little kids.
Connie stared at Sasha. She stared at him. "Do you like to eat too?" he asked seriously.
She nodded solemnly.
They both broke out into the biggest grins ever.
"I think we just found Connie's soul mate," Eren commented.
* * *
All Connie wanted to do after Sasha left was go after her. He didn't want to eat, and he didn't even want to go inside and sleep, his second favorite thing. It was quite tragic, actually. I could tell my parents were worried about him.
Eren and Mikasa were the exact opposite of Connie. It turns out that Blond Coconut was Marco's younger brother Armin. At first, he seemed kind of shy, but he got out of his little bubble as the morning went on.
Mom and Dad--mostly mom--chatted with Petra and Bertholdt, Marco's mother and uncle. I was about to ask why his father wasn't here too, but I'd already pried enough as it was. What if his parents were divorce, or, worse, what if he was dead?
Yeah, I wasn't going to mention it.
For all that Dad lacked in the emotion department, he made up for in his cooking skills. Like you wouldn't expect an impassive midget with four kids to be able to cook like that, but I guess the world was full of surprises.
He had made eggs--scrambled and over-easy--bacon, sausage, and toast. He even spent the time to pick all the grapes off of the stems and put them in a huge bowl with strawberries and bananas. All of the food made me wonder how early he had to wake up to do all of this. And when the hell we got all of this--I sure as hell didn't think that we'd picked up that many eggs, and I didn't even know that we had grapes in the fridge.
"Thank you, Mr. Ackerman," Armin piped up from where he sitting on the grass. His statement was followed by variations of, "Thanks/Thank you, Levi/Dad/Mr.Ackerman."
I swear to God I saw his face turn the lightest shade of pink.
When we were finished--all the food was completely gone--everybody helped to bring in the dishes. Mom washed and Dad dried them while Petra watched Connie--though he was just lying on the grass; could people get depressed at that age?--Eren, and Mikasa.
I went upstairs and changed into swimming trunks and a tee shirt. Marco and I were headed for the lake when Eren yelled, "See ya, Seahorse!"
I was about to reply when I heard the door slam open. Dad stalked purposefully towards Eren with his spray bottle. Eren had turned around, so he didn't see him coming. Mikasa's eyes seemed to be laughing. Armin looked confused. Again. Though I didn't blame him. Dad grabbed Eren's shoulder and turned him around. He was grinning, but not for long.
Tchika.
It was totally silent as Dad turned around and went back inside. I had to bite the inside of my lip to keep from laughing, but despite my efforts, I did, in fact, start laughing. I put my fist up to my mouth to try to stifle them.
Marco and I crossed the street as quickly as we could without running to the sound of Mikasa saying, "You deserved it."
"Is that normal?" Marco asked. God, he looked so adorable when he made that confused face.
"It is for our family," I replied.
He thought about it for a moment.
"Dude, just don't even think about it--it's way too hard to process in one morning."
He smiled at me. "Whatever you say."
* * *
Holy crap! I opened up Wattpad to update this chapter and saw that I have over 85 reads. Oh my God! Thank you guys so much. For me, this is huge.
I hope you all have a wonder 4th of July--if you're American; if not, then just ignore that. My favorite part about the holiday is the fireworks. Like I told my mom the other day: If I'm going to be arrested for any crime at all, ever, in my whole entire life, it would probably be arson. Please, don't call the cops on me.
On that note, I have to go kill a "huge ass wasp the size of my fingers" according to my sister.
Thanks again!
--Shelby