"It's not a big deal, mom." Lucas responded to her.
"He's a sweet little boy, you guys are supposed to not let him do that." Mom continued her yelling.
"Honey, Lucas is growing amongst four boys, what do you expect? Look at Kathy, she was so shy and reserved when you guys came in here, but look at her now. She is beginning to behave exactly like them." Dad stared at me pointedly.
Well, he was not wrong about me being shy when I had come in here newly, and I could also see the difference. I was now roped into their drama, but who would blame me.
"I know. Lucas." She called him.
"Yes mom." The boy was tired at this point.
Mom liked to believe since he was the baby of the house, there should be some restrictions to his exposure to what mom termed 'violence and explicit drama'. If I was asked what those words meant, I really did not have any clue. And no matter how many times she had tried to explain, my brain was just not getting it.
The boys too did not get it, so whenever she came up to speak about Lucas and how it was our duty to protect him from 'violence and explicit drama', we would just pretend we did and nod our head until I thought mine would drop from my shoulders and roll away.
"Do not engage in violence and explicit drama, do you get me?"
"I don't get…" The rest of us groaned. He quickly understood. "Yes mom. I do get it now."
"Are you sure? I can come over there to explain, if you want me too. Your brothers and sister are just doing a wacky job at raising you." She intoned quite dryly.
"I'll be fine mom." Lucas insisted.
"Okay. Go on, darling." She directed to dad.
The man had laughter bubbling but he was wise enough to know he was not supposed to laugh out loud, else, that would be the end of breakfast for the morning. And I would not want it so, I was already beginning to anticipate morning food.
If I was not going to be allowed to sleep, then I should be allowed to eat.
"What was that?" Dad mouthed to us.
Lucas mouthed a 'I don't know' to him. Zach went with 'you do not want to know'. I mouthed 'Do not ask'. The rest of the boys shrugged their replies.
"Alright, back to what we were discussing. Lucas, you said you had a go at them, right?"
"Yes, I did."
"After that, what happened?" His gaze roamed our faces again.
"We all went to our various rooms to sleep…"
"But your mom said…"
"Yes, I know dad. You did not let me finish." Zach's explanation had almost ended, dad had to come in to talk about that, not wanting to look like we had lied, he was trying to complete the story.
I understood what Zach did there. He did not want to tell dad about us trooping into my room to talk about the real reason why Greg and Bryan had come. We had been on our way downstairs to probe them for more questions when the fight started. We did not want to start explaining what we were doing in my room by that time.
"We all went to sleep in our various rooms when Katherina called to let us know she was too scared to sleep after what had happened." He quickly improvised.
"That's true, dad. I called Lucas after what I had seen. So he came into my room minutes later after the call." I aided the lie. This was no longer simple as I had hoped it would be. The lies were begetting one another, rapidly producing themselves and replicating themselves in a complicated twist.
"And why were you all going downstairs and why were Aaron and Baron fighting?" He studied their faces. "You've both injured yourselves, crazy boys."
"Because we wanted something to drink, we were coming down to the family living room." Zach explained.
Why were Aaron and Baron not saying anything? This was about them too. Not just I, Lucas, Zach and Trenton. Trenton had even said something. He started it and these stupid twins were not doing anything to help matters.
"Alright, I have listened to your stories." He ended it there.
Did he believe us? Was he seeing through us? But the lies had been coordinated, nothing we had said that would bring any suspicions. I paid attention to him, but not too much so he would not suspect a thing.
"Did those bastards tell you something different?" Zach asked casually, as though he did not really take their words for nothing, that was the best way to act to me. To pretend we did not care about whatever the boys might have told dad, but secretly, we wanted to find out. To know if we had messed up.
"They could not talk at all. You guys have pummeled that guy so bad. The five of you dealt with the two of them?" He was asking the boys, he did not even bother with me, as though he already knew I was not going to be a part of the torturing process.
"Yes, we did." Zach answered for all of them.
"Impressive." He nodded.
"Don't encourage them!" Yes, that was mom. "Don't let those boys keep believing fighting wins every case. See Aaron and Baron fight over every little thing."
"I'm not fighting." Aaron frowned.
"I don't fight." Baron deadpanned.
"Shut up, you boys!" Mom yelled. The boys instantly went quiet and said nothing else. "I will make sure you guys settle whatever differences you think you both have. I'll lock you in for two days with each other."
"Lock me in for as long as you want, step mom. Just make sure Katherina is in there with me, I don't mind." Baron smirked.
He knew that was going to irk Aaron and he still said it. That brought a growl from Aaron.
Stupid, troublemaking boys!
"I love Katherina."