Once we got home, Austin told Aiden to take Holly and I inside and give us something to eat while he made an 'important' call. It's probably Ben.
The three of us walked into the kitchen and sat down in our seats while Aiden took my lunch out from my bag and gave it to me to eat, while he gave Holly a smoothie.
"Hey, Ev, what were you guys doing at my school in the first place." Aiden asked curiously as he put his phone away and turned his attention towards me.
"Your principal called Austin while we were going for lunch, he didn't want me to be by myself so he brought me with him. The principal guy said you're a smarty pants and can graduate this year." I said as I shrugged my shoulders and finished my sandwich.
"Oh really, and what did Austin say about it?" He asked curiously.
"What did I say about what?" Austin asked as he walked into the kitchen and picked up an apple.
"The meeting with the principal, what did you say to his offer?" He said as he crossed his arms.
"I said I would talk to you and Ben about it, but we know you don't want to graduate early." Austin said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"And what if I want to graduate this year." Aiden challenged as he crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well, do you want to graduate this year?" Austin asked as he leaned on the counter.
"No." Aiden responded with a smirk as he winked at Holly and I and left the room.
"Oh god, that boy." Austin said as he shook his head and filled up a glass of water.
"Austin, can Holly and I go play now? We finished our lunch." I asked, getting bored as I kicked my legs back and forth underneath the table.
"Of course you can sweetheart." He said as he let out a sigh as Holly and I immediately jumped off of our chairs and ran out of the kitchen and up to my room.
Holly and I spent the next 3 hours playing with my toys and watching Dora the explorer and Ben and Hollys little kingdom.
Just as we were in the middle of watching Dora and Boots crossing the grumpy old trolls bridge, Austin walked into my room with a small smile on his face.
"Ev, would you like to go over to Holly's house for a little while. Jenny made cookies and the twins wanted to play with the two of you." Austin explained as he took a seat next to me.
"I'd love too. Let's go." I squealed excitedly. I haven't seen the twins in so long.
Holly and I jumped off of my bed and raced downstairs waiting for Austin to come so he could drop us off. Austin purposefully walked down the stairs like a tortoise while we impatiently told him to hurry up.
Once we put our shoes on, Austin had Holly's school bag slung over his shoulder and held both our hands as we walked over to their house.
"Okay Ev, don't cause too much trouble, one of us will pick you up before dinner." He said as he kissed my head and walked us through the front door.
"EVERYLYYYYY, HOLLYYYYYYY!" We hear 2 voices shout along with two pairs of footsteps running towards us.
Letting out an excited squeal, Holly and I ran towards the twins completely forgetting about Austin who was laughing at us.
"I missed you guys so much." I said as Holly and I both hugged the twins.
"We missed you too." They said at the same time.
Just as we were released from the hug, we heard four pairs of footsteps approaching us.
"Hey kiddos, how was your visit to your grandparents house?" Austin asked as he picked up the both of them from the ground and held the two of them in an arm each.
"We had lots of fun. Grandma gave me a special bracelet and gave Evan a special watch. Momma says he can't wear it now because it's too big but I can wear mine." Elena bragged with a huge smile as she showed off her bracelet.
"Well my watch is way cooler than your smelly bracelet." Even huffed as he crossed his arms.
"Wow, that's so pretty doll, why don't you two go play with Holly and Everly. They both missed you a lot." Austin said as he kissed both the twins on their heads and let them down to the floor.
"I'm sure your watch is way cooler Evan." Austin whispered not so quietly to him.
"Let's go to our play room, we can play with all the new toys we got from grandma and grandpa." Elena squealed as she grabbed both our arms and dragged us towards the play room with Evan following closely behind.
Austin's POV:
"Thanks for watching Everly for a couple hours. We meed to discuss what happened today and I don't want her hearing anything. That girl is too smart and curious for her own good." I said gratefully once I made sure Everly was out of hearing distance.
"You don't need to thank us hun, Everly is like our own daughter and you boys are like our sons. We're your family. I heard Aiden got into a fight today, what happened?" Jenny asked with a slight frown.
"Thank you guys. Some douche was saying disgusting things about Everly thinking she's way older than she actually is, I'm sure you know exactly what he was saying. Aiden got pissed and started a fight. Believe it or not, but Everly broke the fight up and embarrassed the guy. I'm glad she didn't know exactly what they were fighting over." I said as I ran a hand through my hair.
"What's his name and where does he live?" Alex and Adam asked.
"Don't worry about it guys, we've got it sorted. Thank you guys for being there. I'll pick Everly up before dinner, bye." I said as I hugged the three of them and made my way to the front door.
"Why don't you guys come over for dinner today? We haven't had a family dinner in so long." Jennifer proposed excitedly.
"That's a great idea actually, I'll let the boys know. Thank you guys once again." I said with a grateful smile.
"Oh shut up. Now you get back home and talk to the boys about today and then come over for dinner." Alex said with a kind smile as I walked out the front door and headed over towards our house.
Once I entered the house, I saw Aiden, Ben, Elijah and Maddison sat at the dinning table.
"Erm, hello Maddison, I didn't know you'd be joining us." I asked tiredly while giving a confused look to Elijah.
"She wanted to spent quality time with Everly." Elijah mumbled.
"Quality time my ass." Aiden grumbled not so quietly.
Elijah, Ben and I gave him a warning look to which he just rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry Maddison, but Everly is at a friends house. You can spend some time with her on the weekend. Right now we have some family matters to discuss, will it be okay if you leave?" Ben asked rhetorically, clearly not enjoying her presence.
"Of course. I'll see you later baby." She said squeakily as she kissed Elijah and walked out of the door.
"Finally, the wicked witch of the west is gone. Thanks Ben." Aiden said relieved.
"Don't say that about my girlfriend you douche." Elijah retorted angrily.
"Elijah, you can't force us to like her. If you want to stay with that rude excuse of a human then stay with her. But don't you dare bring her home or leave her alone with Everly, because if you do then I'll make sure she's gone for good." Aiden said as he abruptly stood up almost knocking his chair over.
"I think you're forgetting that I'm way older than you Aiden, and if I want to bring Maddie over to hang out with Everly I fucking will. I don't know who the fuck you think you are talking to me like that Aiden, but I suggest you quit it." Elijah said as he narrowed his eyes at Aiden and took a step closer to him.
"I don't give a shit if you're my mother fucking dad Elijah, but that girlfriend of yours better stay away from Everly. You didn't hear a single word she said to her yesterday, I did. So take is a warning or she won't be able to stick around for long. And for someone who has a girlfriend like that, you should keep your suggestions to yourself." Aiden argued angrily as he took another step closer to Elijah.
"You little..." Elijah started but soon got cut off by Ben.
"That's enough, both of you shut the fuck up. We didn't call this meeting for Aiden to bitch about Elijahs witchy girlfriend and for the both of you to start yelling at each other." Ben said as he rubbed his temples with his fingers.
"What happened at school today Aiden?" Ben asked calmly.
"Some son of a bitch came up to me and started running his mouth. I will not repeat what he said or I will have to kill someone. I didn't like what he was saying so I beat the shit out of him." Aiden grumbled as he took a sip from his water bottle and clenched his fist.
I knew exactly what the guy said and I also know how hard it is for Aiden to not lash out or break anything. He might pick on Everly the most but I'd say he's the most protective of her.
"Well then it sounds like he deserves it. I'll speak to your principle about it don't worry. Now, about school, do you want to graduate this year or not. It's up to you." Ben said as he took a sip of his coffee.
"There is no way I'm graduating this year. Of course I want to get out of there as soon as possible but I'm not even 18 and I'm looking forward to my senior year." Aiden shrugged.
"That's perfectly fine with me, but please stop getting into fights. It doesn't look very pleasing on your record." I told him as I took a seat at the table.
"No promises." He said with a smirk.
"Can we stop talking about shitty school now and discuss a more important matter." Aiden voiced out seriously.
"Like?" Questioned Elijah.
"Everly mentioned Annabelle today." Aiden grumbled.
I glanced around the table and saw both Ben and Elijah frozen in their seats and looked at the two of us with wide eyes. I don't blame them, that was my exact reaction too. Everly hasn't mentioned our sorry excuse of a mother in a very long time. The last time she mentioned it before today was Mother's Day last year, both Aiden and I were with her at the time.
I remember the incident like it was yesterday.
———Flashback ———
Everyone's been more glum than usual today, I don't blame them though, it's Mother's Day. The day many children and even adults around the world get gifts for their mother showing their appreciation towards her. However it's different for us, we have no mother to celebrate and neither do we want her. If that mother can abandon her new born baby girl and leave her 13 year old son, 19 year old son, 20 year old son, and 23 year old son, to fend for themselves then she doesn't deserve a gift or celebration.
I buckled up Everly and Holly in the car and drove towards the high school parking lot where Aiden was waiting with his friends.
"Come on Aid, we don't have all day." Everly shouted from her window catching the attention of many students waiting for their rides.
"Hello bambina, long time no see." Alessandro said as he kissed Everly forehead.
I know she loves the Italian nicknames Alessandro gives her.
"Hi Aless, I missed you." She giggled.
"Sorry to cut this reunion short, but we have to get home." Aiden said as he opened the car door and sat down in the passenger seat.
"No problem, I'll see you later tesoro." He grinned as he ruffled her hair and walked off.
"Austin, Austin, Austin, Austin, Austin."Everly called out repeatedly.
"Yes munchkin." I said with a small chuckle.
"Miss Adams, told me to make a mommy's day card today. But I don't have a mommy Austin. Where's our mommy? Everyone else has a mommy." She said as she teared up a little.
"Well sweetheart, erm...." I was immediately cut off from this heartbreaking conversation by Aiden.
"Who wants chocolate?" Aiden asked with a fake grin plastered over his face.
"ME ME ME ME ME!" The girls yelled as the two of us chuckled.
Aiden passed the two of them a chocolate bar. I looked back at Everly and saw her deep in a conversation with Holly while eating her chocolate totally forgetting the questions she asked not too long ago.
"Thanks. I didn't want to explain that Annabelle was a sorry excuse of a mother to us right now. Neither one of us are ready for it." I whispered to Aiden.
"We'll never be ready for it Austin, there won't ever be a right time. One day she'll just get too curious and voice out those thoughts. We won't have any other option other than to tell her at that time. We can't just distract her with chocolate each time a mother is mentioned." Aiden grumbled as he got out of the car and walked into the house.
He's not wrong.
———End of flashback———
"I don't think she realised that she said it." I sighed and started explaining what happened and what she said.
"We need to tell her sooner rather than later. The longer we take, the more curious she'll get. Let's not forget the fact that this is Everly we're talking about, not a random dumbass 4 year old. Everly is a clever girl." Aiden said as he got up from his chair and walked upstairs to his room.
"We'll tell her this weekend." Ben decided as he got up and walked into the living room leaving Elijah and I lost in our own thoughts.
"We're having dinner at Jenny's and Alex's by the way." I shouted so everyone heard.
This is going to be very difficult indeed.
Everly's POV:
"Let's prank Adam." Elena randomly said, catching all our attention.
"That was random. But what are we doing?" Evan, Holly and I said together.
"I don't know, Everly's supposed to be the one with all the plans. I just came up with the idea to do something." She shrugged.
"We could do the classic toothpaste and Oreos." Holly suggested.
"Perfect. We can also put tape across the door so when he walks in he gets stuck." I said with a grin.
"Awesome. Let's get started. Us twins are in charge of the Oreo prank and you two are in charge or the door prank." Evan said as we all agreed.
The 4 of us split and started preparing our pranks.
Holly and I started looking for the tape while the twins started looking for the Oreos.
"Holly, I found it." I whisper yelled as I jumped off of the chair and ran towards her, grabbing her arms and pulling her into her room.
"Let's do it here. We can pretend to cry and then he'll come running in. Once he comes running and gets trapped, we offer him a pranked Oreo as a peace offering. But make sure there are four normal Oreos so we can eat them with him. That way he won't be suspicious." I said to the three of them proudly.
The three of them agreed on my plan and started preparing.
5 minutes later, Holly and I were done taping the door diagonally from the bottom while the twins were done swapping the Oreo filling with toothpaste making sure to leave two good ones.
"Ready, set, go." I said and the four of immediately started crying for Adam.
Not a second later, we heard pounding feet rapidly running in our direction.
They came closer. And closer. And closer.
This is it.
A second later the sound of pounding footsteps was replaced with a girly shriek and a loud thump.
The four of us immediately burst out laughing falling to the floor clutching our stomachs. The hilarious sight of Adam sprawled across the floor with tape around his legs was definitely a sight to see.
"A.....are yo......you o...okay?" The four of us asked in between laughs.
Once we had finally stopped laughing we looked at Adam and were met with dumbstruck face.
"My whole entire life just flashed before my eyes. You kids are evil." He said as he stood up and started pulling the tape off.
"We're sorry, how about a peace offering." Elena said as she gave the three of us Oreos and took one herself before handing the plate to Adam.
"You're not really sorry we all know it. Now, how do I know these aren't pranked?" He asked suspiciously.
"We'll all eat it at the same time." I said as I raised my Oreo followed by the rest of them.
He looked at the four of us suspiciously and put the Oreo in his mouth at the same time as us.
1
2
3
That's all it took, three seconds. It took three seconds for him to spit the Oreo out and run out of the room.
"You four are little devils!" He shouted as we all laughed at him.
"That was the funniest thing I've seen all day." Holly said as she carried on laughing.
"Agreed." The three of us replied as we carried on laughing.
"Kids, can you please clean up this mess and apologise to Adam once your done. Poor kid is acting like he's 2." Jenny said as she laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Jenny, can I talk you for a second please?" I asked.
I really need to get this off my chest and there's no other girl I trust. Holly's too young to give me advice or help me feel better, Elijah's girlfriend behaved like a half brained frog and Jenny is like a mother to me.
"Of course you can hun. Come here." She said seriously and concerned with a reassuring smile.
She knows it's important, I hardly ever ask to talk to her one on one when I'm serious.
I took a hold of her hand as she led me through to the living room where Adam was sat pouting.
"Adam, can you leave for a second. Everly and I need to talk." Jenny said politely yet urgently.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't shout at her or get her into trouble. It was a harmless joke." He said as he shot up from his seat.
"It's not about that you fool. Of course it was a harmless joke. A hilarious one too. There's no way I'm punishing her or even shouting at her for that." Jenny said with a laugh.
"Oh okay, you alright pumpkin?" He asked me worriedly.
"Fine." I mumbled as I stared at the floor and shuffled my feet.
I looked back up for a second and saw him stare at me with worried eyes. Without wasting another second, he scooped me up in his arms and hugged me tight.
"If I need to beat someone up then you tell me. Even though I know you can do that very well by yourself." He said with a smile as he kissed my forehead and sat me down on a couch and left the room.
Once Jenny closed the doors, she sat on the table in front of me and held my hands.
"What's wrong munchkin? You seem very upset." She asked worriedly.
"Jenny.....why don't I have a momma like everyone else?Does she hate me? Was I not good enough? Am I too ugly? Am I too mean? Am I too naughty?" I rambled with big fat tears falling from my eyes and trailing down my cheeks.
The second I finished my little ramble, Jenny's eyes immediately softened and her own eyes filled with tears. She immediately lifted me up and cradled my in her arms, hugging me as close as possible.
"Listen here and listen good sweetheart. You are the most incredible, smart, amazing, beautiful and unique child I have ever met in my whole entire life. I can't tell you about your momma, that's a story your brothers need to tell you. But I'll tell you one thing, whatever's happened, was not your fault. Not one bit. So don't you ever question yourself like that again." She said through her own tears as I felt my own soak her shirt.
"Thanks Jenny. I love you." I sniffled.
"I love you too sweetie. More than you can ever imagine." she said as she kissed my forehead.