Family Breakfast

A New Story, New Characters, except for one

Andrew slowly began to wake up. What he was sleeping on felt unfamiliar to him, 
almost alien. It wasn't where he normally slept, no. And the smell of the room 
wasn't where the normal smell either. 

Andrew woke with a start and looked around. He was in a large room. It was 
simplistic, a large window and a large closet. Bu what caught his attention were 
the beds, five of them to be exact, each empty and unmade, as if someone had 
just left them.
"Oh man, where am I? What time is it?" Andrew said to himself in his morning 
daze. As he sat in the bed he started to remember.

He was in a foster home. He was there cause he and his dad had a fight which 
resulted in Andrew getting knocked unconcious. He had just arrived at the foster 
home the previous night along with all the other kids. How many were there? 
Five, six others? He knew there were more boys than girls, but couldn't remember 
how many of each there were. The previous night had been so akward for him, like 
sleeping at someones house who you never met, almost like a kidnapping.

As Andrews thoughts ran like this he started to smell something coming from the 
kitchen. Something was cooking, somethig good. And it was almost ready.
"Might as well get some food." Andrew thought to himself.

Andrew walked out of the bedroom. He entered a long hallway with a staircase on 
either side and doors all along it. Unsure of where to go, Andrew just followed 
the scent.

When he entered the kitchen he noticed a couple things. Compared tothe rest of 
the rater large and decorative house he had just waloed through, the kitchen was 
rather simplistic. It was small with only a stove, counters, and booth like 
table. It had a screen door that led onto a porch overlooking a huge backyard 
and a pool.

In the kitchen, Andrew at first saw no one. He started cracking his knuckles in 
a nervous way.
"It's okay, you don't have to be nervous. We are safe now."
Andrew looked over at the table and saw a boy, about four feet tall, curly 
blonde hair, fair skin, and brown eyes.
"I'm not nervous."
"You are."
"What are you, a psychic?"
"No, I'm hyper-observant. You've been biting your nails and you just cracked 
your knuckles. Classic signs of nervousness."
Andrew said nothing and instead walked over to the stove where he saw pancakes 
frying.
"There not ready yet." The boy said.
"When will they be ready?" Andrew asked.
"She said she'd finish them when she got back."
"Who's she?"
"Mrs. Smith, our foster mom."
Andrew was silent for a moment, then asked "Who are you?"
The boy held out his hand for a shake, "Tim, just call me Tim. We met last 
night, Andrew."
"I'm kind of blanking on everything I did last night."
"Stress can do that."
"I'm not stressed."
"Please don't make me have to explain to you why I know you are, okay?"
"Alright." 
The two sat fot another moment in silence.
"So whats hyper-observancy?"
Tim huffed as if answering this question was like a chore.
"I notice incredibly small details such as your nail-biting."
"Okay then. Where are the other kids? Its more than just me and you right?"
"Oh yeah theres like seven of us."
"Seven?"
"5 boys plus two girls normally equals seven."
"I know how to do math."
"Whatever, you should probably go intorduce yourself to your new Foster 
Siblings, so you don't look like an a*s."
"Well like I said before, where are they."
"I don't know spread around the house I guess."
Andrew go up from the table and walked out the kitchen door towards what he 
thought was the living room.

On his short walk over there, something bothered him. Tim had called them foster 
siblings. Andrew didn't want to think of anything that way. He didn't want to 
get close to the kids, and then get ripped away like he was from his real 
family. And in a foster home, the chances of that were much greater.

Andrew walked into the Living Room and saw two kids. A girl about his age 
sotting on the couch, and a much younger boy, probably 5 or six years old, 
leaning on her arm. As e entered the girl looked over.
"Hey." She said.
"Hey." Andrew said sitting down in a chair near the couch. Cartoons were on and 
Andrew thought that was the perfect distraction.
"So you feel lost don't you?" The girl said looking over at Andrew. She was 
white skinned with a nice head of blonde hair.
"Yeah, yeah kind of." Andrew answered.
"And you don't want to get close to anyone do you?"
"Yeah... How did you know?"
The girl giggled and grinned, as if Andrew had just made a funny joke, "Me and 
Andy here have been in the system for a long time together. Andy for the past 
year, and I for the past three."
"So you've been moving from home to home together."
"Yeah, and I can tell thats what your worried about so here," The girl pulled a 
piece of paper out of her pocket, while Andy's eyes stayed transfixed on the 
T.V. "It's essentially a statement on the living arrangements for us. You know, 
how long we will be here, which is a long time, How many kids there are gonna 
be, that stuff."
"So you stole this from the Social Workers office?"
"That and some money." The girl stood up, gently lowerimg Andy onto the couch.
"My name is Kyle, I can tell you don't remebr anytbing from last night."
"Kyle? That's an interesting name for a girl."
"Kyle is actually a name for both, just saying. And its not my real name, its 
short for Kylie."
"Kylie already a pretty short name."
"So what?"
"Forget it. Where are the other kids, I need to go talk to them."
"Beats me." Kyle said "Do me a favor, before you go on your quest to find these 
kids, bring Andy to the Kitchen. He hasn't eaten yet this morning."
"Fine. Come on Andy."
Andy rose slowly and stood next to Andrew.

Andrew began to walk Andy back to the kitchen.
"So what do you like for breakfast Andy?" 
"Cereal." Andy said, in an almost moaning way and wothout looking at Andrew.
"Alright, you can have some cereal." Andrew said as they arrived in the kitchen. 
Tim was gone, and had left no trace. Andrew took a box of cereal out of the 
cupboard and bored it, alomg woth milk into a bowl for Andy. Seeing as how no 
one had come back for the pancakes yet, Andrew decided to just take one for 
himself. He put it on a plate and sat at the table across from Andy.

The two ate in near complete silence, making little noise until Andrew said, 
"Your a pretty quiet kid aren't you."
"No."
"Then why not talk."
"I have nothing to talk about."
Andrew sighed, knowing he wasn't getting anywhere. When Andy and him had 
finished their breakfast, he picked up their dishes and placed them in the 
dishwasher. When he had finished, Andy had run off to some other part of the 
house.

"Great, just great." Andrew said to himself.
"What's so great." He heard behimd him, from the glass patio door. He turned 
around and saw a young boy, older than Tim but younger than Andrew.
"And who are you?" Andrew asked.
"My names Luke." The boy said.
"Nice to meet you." Andrew said, extending his hand for a shake.
"I don't shake." Luke said, arms folded.
"Okay then."
Luke just stared at Andrew, and Andrew began tofeel uncomfortable.
"Okay i'm just gonna go downstairs now. K, bye." 
Luke moved out of his way. As Andrew walked by, Luke checked him out from the 
back and smiled before heading to breakfast.

Down in the basememt Andrew found what was probably a playroom. A large HD tv 
sat in the front of it and hooked up to it was an xbox 360. A large black ckuch 
sat in front of it and sitting on the couch was another kid. But this kid seemed 
about Andrew's age. He had brown hair and a slight beard forming on his tanned 
skin face.
"Hey." Andrew said, sitting dowm on the couch. The boy looked at him. His 
expression didn't change and he didn't say a word. He just gave Andrew a cold, 
hard, stare.
"Are you gonna say anything or what?" Andrew asked. The boy just continued to 
stare.
"Great conversation." Andrew said, he got uo and headed upstairs.

Up in the kitchen he found that not only were Andy and Luke sitting at the 
table, but Tim, Kyle, and a second younger girl also sat at the table. An older 
woman, in he late thirties to early forties, worked at the stove.
"Oh Andrew its good that your here! I'm just about to finish the pancakes, 
please have a seat. Oh and call JJ up from downstairs would you. Thats where 
Luke tells me he is."
"Sure thing, thank you... Ms. Smith."
"I'm impressed you remebered my name after all the stories Kyle just told me 
about you losing your memory."
"Yeah well i'm impressed too."

After Andrew called JJ up he sat across from Tim at the table, "You only 
remembered cause I told you."
"Shush." Andrew told him.
"So you lost your memory?" The younger girl asked him.
"Yeah, side-effect o getting hit in the head."
Before the situation could get any worse, Kyle intervened, "Andrew this is 
Hallie. Hallie, Andrew."
"Nice to meet you." Hallie said.
"We met yesterday." Andrew replied.
"I thought you didnt remember."
"I don't, but based on what everyones told me, we did."
After she said that, JJ came up the stairs and sat at the table.
"Oh look at you." Mrs. Smith said, turning around to deliver the pancakes. "My 
seven foster children."
"Ya, great." Luke said.
"Oh now don't be a sore-sport Luke. Be happy you have this second chance."
"I can't have a second chance." Luke said.
"Even if that were true, you can most certainly try to create one."
The seven kids finished their food with little chatter. Andrew was the last to 
finish and as he was exiting the kitchen, he heard Tim talking to Mrs. Smith.
"Mrs. Smith, I think i'm going to like it here."
"Oh. Why is that."
"My new foster siblings all seem nice, I hope they are."
"Don't worry Tim. Everyone of them is. You lived in a world where nit everyone 
is nice. The streets aren't a place for anyone. Especially a 8 year old boy. 
Your lucky."

Andrew left after that. But "Foster Sibling" continued to ring throuh his mind.

Reviews

[Calypso]

Great chapter.