Chapter 10: I present to you My Brother Part 1
-If life is art, our decisions are the brush and the paint, and the new day The canvas that always comes back to being empty is open to possibilities-
-unknown-
Lori and Leni were getting the house ready for their friends' annual reunion from high school; Luna and Luan were in charge of the show; and Lynn was packing her things to endure Noise Night. Despite being an active girl like her family, that night she couldn't stay awake because she had a practice session scheduled in the morning with her friends. She pulled out a pair of earplugs and a mask from her drawer. Like the one Leni wears to sleep, in red trim and basketball appliqué.
While in the kitchen, Lincoln cooked with the help of Lucy, Lola, Lana, and Lily. Lisa did not participate because she preferred to be locked in her room.
Lincoln cooked with the help of his sisters, wearing a white apron that covered him from his chest to his thighs. The boy was beating a brown mixture into a bowl that smelled deliciously chocolatey. "Give me the milk, please, Lola." Lincoln asked his sister, the Princess.
"Sure Lincoln." She said Lola delivers milk to her brother.
"Well, that smells good." Lana said, after pointing, to put her finger in the mixture, but Lola stopped her and hit her hand. "Ouch. Hey, that hurts." Lana said, rubbing her hand.
"I don't even want to think where that finger was. There's no way you could get it into Lincoln's cake mix. Guests will be arriving any minute, and the last thing we want is for them to see your dirty finger prints on their food." Lola scolded her twin and put her hands on her waist.
"This finger was in my nose and ear in exactly that order. But I washed my hands." Lana responded by poking her finger into Lola's forehead.
"Yeah. You're so disgusting. Grow up already. You're ten years old now." Lola answered, separating Lana's hand from her face.
The girls started chuckling among themselves as they felt shivers run down their backs. The atmosphere turned gloomy, and out of the darkness that arose between them emerged two hands holding them by the shoulders and a face as pale as a dead entity. The mysterious entity whispered to them in a cold voice from beyond the grave. "Stop fighting, or I will kick you out of the kitchen." The twins screamed in fear and felt their hearts jump in their throats until they realized that this spectral being was Lucy.
"Damn Lucy, you almost gave me a heart attack." Lola said, placing her hand on her chest.
"I was about to change my pants," Lana said, leaning back in a chair.
"Now girls, don't fight, Lucy. Don't scare your little sisters." Lincoln placed the order in the kitchen as he poured the contents of the container into a deep tray. "Lily, would you pass me the chocolate balls?"
"Sure Lincoln." Lily was sitting next to Lincoln on the dishwasher counter. She opened the cupboard and took out a jar full of chocolate bean balls.
Lincoln sprinkled the cereal over the mixture, then almost put it in the preheated oven, which was hard for him. Well, the twins chocolate addiction and desire to act got better, spurred on by the chocolate candy, whose flavor and aroma were enhanced by the addition of crunchy cereal balls. Even Lola jumped to reach the baking tray.
"Wow, calm down, girls; wait till it's cooked." Lincoln moved the tray in all directions to keep it away from his sisters, who jumped and climbed onto him to get to the tray. "Girls, girls, calm down; you're going to make me pour the batter." Lincoln could not finish the sentence because, when he tried to get the tray away from his sisters, some of the batter spilled all over his shirt.
"Oh shit." Lincoln put the tray on the table and pulled up his shirt to remove the sticky brown stain that smelled sweet like cocoa.
"Oh no." Lola said this when she saw what she and her sister had done. "Go wash it off quickly. It's impossible to remove the chocolate if it's dried."
"But I no longer have clean shirts." Lincoln said, trying to clean the stain with a damp cloth.
"Don't do that. You'll only make it worse." Lola stopped him. "Wait. Why don't you have clean clothes?"
"The day Pop Pop and I came here was laundry day. But when we booked the plane tickets, the flight attendant made a mistake and gave us tickets for a flight that was due to leave earlier than we asked for. So we had to get everything ready for the trip, and we couldn't wash the clothes. We planned to wash them here. But with everything that's happened these days, we forgot to wash them."
Lola pressed the bridge of her nose, not believing what her brother was telling her: "Okay, go wash it."
"But I have to finish cooking for Lori and Lenny's party."
"Okay, give me your shirt," said Lola, stretching out her hands.
Lincoln obeyed and took off his shirt. Suddenly, Lola and Lucy's cheeks flushed when they saw their brother's body.
"Bro, look at you," said Lana, playfully stroking Lincoln's arm. "No wonder you kicked the asses of those who wanted to trespass on Leni."
Lincoln was surprised to hear his sister say such a vulgar word in front of Lily. "Lana, please. Don't talk like that."
Lana's gaze fell on Lincoln's tattoo and necklace. "Wow. What a great tattoo, and this necklace?"
"Are they real fangs and claws?" Lily asked.