CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Lance woke up to loud bangs on the door of the small cupboard under the stairs of which he currently resided in whilst loud footsteps echoed around from somewhere above him. “Up, get up!” His brother’s wife’s voice came through the small door slightly muffled but he could still tell who it was. “Now!” was the last thing she shouted as she unlocked the cupboard and banged on its door once more.
Sighing lightly he sat up and pulled the string above his head to turn his small cupboard light on and grabbed around in search of his glasses whilst his eyes adjusted to the light. Once he had finally gotten them in hand there was some rather loud stomping coming from the steps directly above him. Luckily for Lance though there wasn't any saw dust coming from the wooden stairs this time as they didn't seem to be jumping hard enough. Of course, once that thought had processed in the young boy's mind, that’s when whoever was on the stairs doubled back around and jumped harder and Lance ended up with saw dust covering his bed and some even caught on the inside of his glasses. “Wake up, brother! We’re going to the zoo!!” His sister's voice exclaimed. Once the dust had finished falling the stomping down the stairs was then paired with laughs from his sister. Rolling his eyes slightly, he got up and opened the door to the hallway before quickly being slammed shut, forcing him back into the tiny room.
“Good Morning to you too..” Lance mumbled under his breath as he walked into the hallway and closed the door behind him as two small children ran down the stairs screaming happily. Lance quickly plastered himself to the wall and the two children ignored his being entirely and ran into the kitchen quickly. As soon as they entered you could hear immediate shouts of excitement.
Slightly muffled by the walls and door lance could make out “oh, here they come! The birthday twins!” from his sister-in-law's voice.
“Happy birthday kids.” His brother Luis' voice came next and then his sisters.
“Happy birthday you two! Gah you’re so big now!”
Lance quickly and quietly opened the kitchen door while slipping in just as silently, shutting the door behind him as his sister-in-law Lisa who was currently babying the now eight year old twins turned to look at him with a rather annoyed look on her face. “Why don’t you just cook the breakfast and try not to burn anything? Hm?” she said through slightly gritted teeth.
“Yes Lisa.” He replied in a slightly fed up tone ,although no one else seemed to notice, as he moved into the kitchen and took up finishing the bacon Lisa had started.Everyone else in the room had been busy paying attention to the younger set of twins.
Lisa was moving behind Sylvio and covering his eyes while Rachel went behind Nadia and covered hers as Lisa spoke they walked the two eight year olds both forwards and into their connected living room slash dining room area. “I want everything to be perfect for my perfect angel's special day!” the woman squealed and finished her sentence just before Luis spoke to Lance, although it was really more in his direction than actually to him.
“Hurry up! Bring me my coffee, boy!” He snapped in an annoyed tone of voice watching Lance with slightly squinted eyes as the ten year old moved the bacon onto plates for the others.
“Yes, Luis.” He replied quickly and moved from the plates quickly to grab the coffee that Lisa had already seemingly made. She must have been in a good mood this morning to have started all of this already.
“Oh! Aren't they all wonderful, darlings?” Lisa spoke excitedly while removing her hands from Sylvio's face and tapping Rachel on the elbow to signal to her to do that for Nadia as well. The other ten year old quickly caught on and moved away too to let the two birthday children explore the gift-filled room freely together. Rachel quickly nodded to Lisa’s previous statement as Sylvio turned to his father and spoke.
“How many are there?” He spat at the man in the chair by the kitchen counter while Nadia moved around looking for the gifts with her name on them.
“Thirty-six! Counted them myself!” Luis grinned and nodded towards the living room full of gifts.
“Thirty-six?! But last year-!” Nadia started in a whiney and rather loud voice but her brother quickly cut her off.
“Last year we had thirty-seven!” He screamed in his fathers face while spit flew from his mouth.
“Yes, well, some of them are quite a bit bigger than last year’s Sylvio!” Luis spoke back, stuttering slightly while trying to explain to his son. “And more expensive too..” he muttered at the end just loud enough for Lance to hear as he set the table.
“I don’t care how damn big they are!” He screamed right back as Nadia came up behind her brother and nodded along, crossing her arms.
“Now, now, now, this is what we are going to do, ok? When we go out we, me and your father, are going to buy you two new presents! Each! How’s that, pumpkins?” Lisa panicked and crouched down before her two children while speaking and looking them both in the eye while Rachel moved around and sat at the dining table as Lance stared slightly distraught at the scene before him.
Rachel gave a slight nod to Lance as he continued setting the table but he caught it just barely out of the corner of his eye and smiled towards himself lightly. Rachel always acted mean in front of their family sure but in reality she was probably the kindest of them all. The boy sat a plate down in front of Marco’s usual spot as well just in case he came back early for once and then sat down with the other three quickly joining him. The rest of the McClain family's breakfast was really rather quiet. Soon enough however, they were all leaving for their day at the zoo. “This will be an amazing day at the zoo! I’m really looking forward to it, are you three as well?” Rachel asked as she, Lisa, Sylvio and Nadia got into the car with all three reacting with affirmations.
Luis quickly shut the door before Lance could get into the car and the boy turned to look at his brother curiously. His brother quickly entered his personal space and pointed the car keys at him, slightly poking at his chest with them. “I am warning you now, boy. Any funny business? Any at all? And you won’t eat a single thing for a week. Now get in the car.” Luis spat and turned to also get in their car. Lance looked up at their gloomy British weather before sighing and getting in the car finally, he missed Cuba. Lance had a bad feeling about today.