"It was a pretty good idea, all of us come back here for Easter. Especially since this may be Ashlyn's last Easter with all of us." said Angelina, as she lounged on the large couch of her ex-husband's house.
"You know what isn't a good idea though, Mom?" the eighteen-year-old in question asked, sarcastically. "Letting the twins make Easter eggs in the kitchen, by themselves."
"True, but at least we get to enjoy the chaos..." Ashton replied, with a mischievous smirk on his tired face. He ran his hand through his brown hair, which had definitely seen better, fuller days. "Judging by the noise of arguing, it's probably a competition. I wonder, who did they get that from?"
He glanced at Angelina, who rolled her eyes in response. "As if you didn't fight with me either." she replied.
"In that case..." he said, and proceeded to stand up. "Shall I go fetch the list?"
"Please, no... not today. Easter is supposed to be a reminder of God's love for us, not of hate." Ashlyn said. "But while you're still up, dad, you might want to go check up on them."
"Good point... I'm surprised the smoke alarms haven't gone off." he replied, and went toward the kitchen.
"Maybe they broke those..." Ashlyn shrugged. "Speaking of younger siblings, where's Oliver?"
"He's probably calculating the optimal place for a whoopee cushion on your dad's chair, to allow for the largest, loudest fart noise. This year Easter falls on April Fools..."
"Right..." Ashlyn winced, then added sarcastically, "He probably switched out the sugar and salt, and we'll all be eating some very salty Easter eggs... courtesy of Younger Siblings Incorporated."
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, the twins were working with chocolate, though the chocolate was more on their faces than in the molds.
"I can do it first!" the younger (by only two minutes, as she tells everyone) of the twins, Amira yelled.
"Yeah, first from the bottom!" her brother, Draco replied, as he took a spoonful of the liquid chocolate and poured it into the mold in his hand. Surprisingly, nothing was broken or on fire yet.
Being fifteen years old was merely a physical state for the twins. Mentally, they were both five years old and would presumably stay that way for a while.
Ashton returned to the kitchen, bracing himself for the sight of disaster, but instead found Amira and Draco in a rare moment of cooperation, each carefully filling a chocolate mold. The kitchen was a mess, but the twins' focus was unshakeable.
"Wow, I'm impressed," Ashton admitted, leaning against the doorframe. "I expected to find a chocolate apocalypse."
Draco looked up with a grin. "We decided to work together. It's faster, and we can make more eggs for everyone. But we are still racing to finish the molds."
Amira nodded, her face smeared with chocolate. "Plus, we made a bet with Oliver. If we can make these without starting a food fight, he'll have to do our chores for a week."
Draco sighed. "It's moments like this I wish we all lived together. Instead of chores, I get 20 bucks from him."
Ashton chuckled. "That's clever. But where is Oliver, anyway?"
Just then, a loud pop echoed from the living room, followed by a burst of laughter. They rushed out to see Oliver standing triumphantly in the dining room, where a deflated whoopee cushion lay.
Angelina shook her head, trying to maintain a stern look, but the corners of her mouth betrayed her amusement. "Oliver, you're cleaning this up," she said, though her laughter-filled eyes betrayed her tone of voice.
Ashlyn, who had been the victim of the prank, couldn't help but laugh. "Well played, little bro. But it's kind of predictable."
"Yet, you fell for it... You should have known..." he replied, smiling wickedly. "Don't worry, I have more in stock."
Angelina looked at the two with a knowing glance and thought to herself, with a hint of regret, that she shouldn't have decided to separate their family.
But she had learned to let bygones be bygones, and live in the moment. She didn't care about their fights, whether academic or personal. She didn't care about each lots she faced to him, or every win of hers. And she definitely didn't give an iota about the fact that they separated twice.
All she knew was that after each separation, they reunited, or in this case they re-reunited, and enjoyed their moment together.
Life didn't get better than this.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
