CHAPTER ONE
It was a nice, warm fall day. The wind was blowing, faintly, and the leaves were scattering about as children ran up and down the street. On one street corner stood an odd trio, there was a man, handsome and tall, a pretty dark skinned five year old, and a sheepish looking eight year old boy. The man was placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, listing off things as the boy shifted awkwardly.
“Do you have your lunchbox?”
The boy glanced down to his left, lifting up the tin pale, if only to make sure, before nodding. “Yes.”
“And your money?”
“Mhm.”
“And you know the 'stranger' rule, right?”
“Yes!”
The curly haired man beamed, leaning down to ruffle the eight year old's silky hair. “Good! Then have a great day, alright?” The boy frowned, shifting from foot to foot. “I'll try to,
Papa.” The little girl, who had been holding the taller man's free hand, suddenly wriggled free and rushed forward to wrap the eight year old up in a tiny hug.
“Noo! I wanna go, too!” The little boy smiled sadly down at the younger girl, patting her head. The tall man laughed, leaning forward to scoop the girl up in his arms.
“Ah, but my
cheri, you have to go to a sitter's today!” Sniffling, the little girl merely shook her head, wailing once more.
“Noo, Papa! I want to go with you and Matthew!”
Sighing, the man shook his head, before turning to shoo the violet eyed boy with a free hand. “Go on Matthew, I have to drop Cecilia off but, I'll be there to help chaperone your field trip later on, alright?”
Giving a slight nod, the boy turned around and started to walk towards the bus stop across the street. Once there, he smiled and waved good bye once more to his Papa and his baby sister and then waited until they finally left to frown. Truthfully, little Matthew didn't really want to go to the museum. His teacher had said there were going to be dinosaur bones and, well, Matthew was scared of dinosaurs. Add bones to that and- well.
You get the picture.
Finally, the bus arrived and, with a heavy sigh, Matthew heaved himself onto the bus along with another girl in his class.
Soon enough he'd be at school and then, then the museum.
He hoped it wasn't
too scary.
- - -
Now, on the other side of town, there was a similar but very different situation going on.
“Alfred Fredrick-Jonathan Kirkland, if you don't get down those stairs
right this minute, I swear to all that is good and holy-”
A blond blur shot down the stairs, laughing like a maniac as the figure at the bottom of the stairs cursed and hissed at the short blur. The Kirkland home was always chaotic on Saturday mornings. Usually the chaos waited until around noon to start but, today was different. It was about Eight AM and, today Mister Arthur Kirkland (single father of
four, how he wound up with so many kids
he didn't know.) was determined to get his brood into his car and to the museum. He was going to have at least one good day out this month even if it killed him.
His oldest was proving this
very hard, however.
“I'm here!” Giggling, the boy shot into the kitchen/dining room, sliding into a free seat at the table in one very fluid motion. The youngest at the table squealed from his seat (a highchair) and a made a frantic, grabbing motion at his oldest brother. “Alfred!”
The blond smiled, grabbing a piece of toast as he waved at his brother. “Hey Peter!” Glancing the table over, the boy groaned and turned around in his chair, staring at his father. (Arthur had made his way back into the kitchen by now and was putting up some dishes.) “No eggs?! Daaad!”
The British man rolled his eyes and pursed his lips, placing a cup up in an open cabinet. “If you would of come down stairs when I called, Alfred, there would have been some eggs left.”
“Aww man!” Glaring squarely at his three younger brothers (one who was still playing around with his eggs,
Peter.), the blue eyed blond huffed.
“Thanks you guys!”
The second oldest frowned at poked at his empty plate. “Sorry Alfreeed...”
The second youngest, however, merely glared back.
Arthur resisted the urge to roll his eyes once more, as Peter ended up shrieking as Alfred tried to steal his eggs.
And he wanted to take them out in public.
Yeah, right.
It was nearly half an hour later before Arthur had managed to shoo all his boys into his car, buckled them up, and started the car up.
It was a thirty minute drive to the museum, too.
It was going to be a
long day.
- - -
True to his word, Matthew's Papa had returned right before Matthew and his class had left for the museum. Matthew had been rather ecstatic to see his Papa and had clambered into the french man's lap as soon as he could. The ride up to the museum had been quiet enough (Matthew had only asked
why they had to have their field trip on a Saturday once, as opposed to his ten questions the day before) and, soon enough, the class, teacher, and three chaperones had all arrived at the museum.
It was somewhat crowded, but, Papa had ensured him it wasn't as crowded as it could be.
But, of course, Papa would say something like that just to calm him... To Matthew is really did look crowded.
And, like he expected, he ended up getting lost in a crowd.
In front of the dinosaurs.
Poor Matthew just wanted to cry.
- - -
“Woaaah! Look at all these people!”
“Alfred, don't let go of Cody's hand!”
Somewhere in the museum was the chaotic family known as the
Kirklands. Arthur Kirkland, the father of this family, was somewhere in the crowd, trying to push his way through while manning a two-seater stroller. Up ahead of Arthur stood his two oldest children who were holding hand, or, at least,
they were suppose to be holding hands. The oldest boy, Alfred, however, most likely forgot this, because the poor middle boy, Cody, was left standing in front of the plan exhibit, looking absolutely terrified in the crowd.
“Daddy?”
Glancing around, the little brown haired, tanned child sucked in a breath, preparing to let out an ear shattering screech.
“Cody!”
Luckily, the appearance of his father kept the youngster from doing this, however.
“Daddy!”
Looking around, the older man sighed and pulled a hand away from the stroller, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Where's Alfred?”
“Uhm...”
“Right.”
- - -
Matthew wanted to cry, he
really really wanted to cry. Here he was, lost from his Papa and stuck in front of the dinosaur exhibit. And, contrary to what Matthew believed, no, they didn't just have skeletons, no, they had actual life sized
statues. Matthew really wanted to cry.
Stumbling about in front of the T-Rex statue, the boy made a little whimpering noise and glanced around timidly. His Papa would find him soon, right? Right, he had to find-
THUD.
Falling back onto his bottom as something (or
someone) ran into him, the little blond let out a strangled cry, looking up to see who he had ran into.
It was... him.
....Except... it wasn't.
“HEY!” The not-him in front of him screeched, jumping up onto his feet. “You look like me!”
The wavy haired boy on the floor opened his mouth to say something but, was caught off as the sound of two more voices echoed around them.
“Alfred!” “Matthew!”
- - -
“And that's how we met!” Grinning, the blond boy leaned forward, staring at the blond haired girl (
boy?) across from him.
The... child, gave the two twins an incredulous stare. “Like, I don't believe it.”
The blue eyed boy made a strangled noise and stood up, pointing at the other child. “It's true! Really! The adoption agency mixed us up and gave us to two different people!”
The brown haired boy that sat next to the blond girl (
boy?) glanced warily to his side before starting. “So his,” He motioned to the violet eyed child sitting next to the blue eyed boy. “Dad just decided to move in with your Dad?”
The wavy haired child nodded. “Papa thought it would be better if we were raised together... He didn't like that part of town, anyway...”
The blond...
thing huffed and rolled its eyes, leaning back in its chair. “Like, I still don't believe it. You're just, like, making stuff up so like, you have an excuse why you have, like, two dads.”
“WHAT!?”
“It's like, ya know, like a
TV SHOW!”
“SHUT UUUPP!”
But, you know, it was true.
Odd but, true.
And that how the Kirkland-Bonnefoy family came to be.
Though, there were a lot more stories to be told, rather then just how the two separated twins met.
CHAPTER TWO
Since the arrival of the Bonnefoys (who Arthur liked to call “The Gits”), things within The Kirkland house had become even more chaotic, if that was possible, anyway. There were only three bedrooms (plus the master bedroom) in the house so, there had to be quite a lot of re-arranging to fit the three new inhabits of the house. The chaos of moving beds and choosing who would have to sleep with who only grew when, Francis (the biggest git of them all) began to insist that his “
little flower Cecilia” could not sleep in a room with any, as he put it, “
horrid little British boys”. So, Cecilia, the only girl in the house, ended up getting Cody's old room downstairs. Then they had to go out a buy a bunk bed for Alfred and Matthew (at Al's insistence) and place it in the two's room they now shared. Then Cody, seeing that his older brothers (Matt was Al's twin so that made him his older brother too, right?) got to have a bunk bed, began to scream and shout that he and Horace needed a bunk bed too, especially if they had to sleep in
Peter's old room alongside the tot. Arthur had denied this request, at first, but then even
Horace (who was usually very quiet and well mannered) began to demand a bunk bed, too.
At the end of the day the two children won and Arthur found himself with three extra beds.
(Peter, luckily, liked his blue “boat” bed too much to insist for a bunk bed.)
Arthur went to bed before dinner and, before Francis could insist on stealing his bed.
(Now, while none of Arthur's children would say anything, except maybe Alfred, they were all beyond delighted to be fed by someone other then their father. His food was
rank!)
Before he settled in bed the blonde man prayed that the next morning would be less chaotic.
Unfortunately, he forgot that tomorrow was
Monday.
- - -
“You'll love my school, Matt! It's got a big playground, like, HUGE, and and they serve HAMBURGES for lunch sometimes! Actual hamburgers! And they don't taste like tar, like Dad's burgers-”
Matthew Bonnefoy had awoken about an hour ago, at first he had wondered where he was but, then, it all came back. He was at his brother's house (twin brother), the brother he had only found about three months ago. Yesterday he, his
Papa, and Cecilia had all moved in and today-
Oh no.
Today was
Monday.
Matthew had always liked school but, today he was going to a
new school. A new school with new people and-
“Alfred, get Matthew and your butts down here right now! You're not going to make Matthew miss the bus on his first day!”
“WE'RE COMING! JUST WAIT A MINUTE!”
Well... at least he would have Alfred, right?
Shifting a bit uncomfortably, the blond grabbed his backpack from beside the door and stumbled after his older twin (or, at least that's what Alfred insisted he was) as he rushed down the stairs. Alfred seemed happy enough but, then again, Alfred kinda always seemed happy. Actually, other then Mister Arthur and Horace, the whole Kirkland family seemed rather energetic.
“What? Poptarts! Daaad!”
“Hush up, Alfred! I over slept, alright? Just take the poptart and go.”
“This suuucks!”
Matthew's Papa just seemed amused by the whole thing.
Shifting over to where the tall man stood, the little blond gave him a quick hug, secretly wishing he could come with. Poor Matthew just didn't do too well at new schools... He always ended up being forgotten by his teachers, or classmates, or.. everyone, really.
“Don't worry, Matthew. You'll do fine~ You have your Papa's dashing good looks, after all!”
“You adopted him, you idiot.”
Flashing a glare at Mr. Arthur,
Papa patted the wavy haired boy on the head. “You better hurry, the others may leave you!”
Eyes widening, the blond quickly withdrew from his father's grip and glanced around frantic. Finally he spotted Alfred, Cody, and Cecilia at the door. Alfred and Cody already had their jackets on and, poor Cecilia was fumbling with her pink coat. “Mattheww! Come help mee!”
Giving a sheepish smile, the boy fumbled over. “Ceci, it's a zip up coat...” “Oh!” The little five year old fumbled with the zipper for a moment, before finally zipping the pink coat up. She beamed. “Yay!” Already sporting his own white hoodie, the blond smiled and patted his younger sister on the head.
Alfred was leaning out the door and motioned for the others to follow. “Aight, we only gotta walk to the corner, kay?”
- - -
The first thing Matthew noticed about the bus stop, was, unlike his old one, this one had a bench on the sidewalk. The second thing he noticed, however, was that there were two children already at the bus stop. There was a little girl who looked about Cecilia's age and then there was a
really tall boy that looked about ten. He was
huge and he had this really freaky air, too. ...He and the little girl also looked a bit scruffy, as if their clothes hadn't been washed just yet. Their hair was a little disheveled too, though the little girl's was pulled back into a loose braid. Unconsciously gripping Cecilia's hand a little bit tighter, Matthew turned towards Alfred, about to ask who those two were.
Alfred though, looked
really displeased.
“Aw man, they're here already?” Snorting, the blued eyed blonde stomped forward, glaring squarely at the large boy. “Yo! Ivan! Where's your lunchbox?” The older boy inclined his head slightly, staring with interest as Alfred marched forward. “Or are ya just gonna steal Toris's lunch again,? Huh?” The taller, violet eyed boy stared at Alfred for a moment before smiling.
“Silly, Alfred. Toris likes to give me his lunch!” The boy had a somewhat thick accent, one Matthew couldn't recognize. “Who is this, Alfred? New friends?” Still smiling, the boy turned to gesture at Matthew, himself, and little Cecilia.
Alfred seemed to seethe. “Heey! You better not mess with Matthew or Cecilia, you got it?!” The older boy, Ivan, apparently, frowned and turned to say something to Alfred but, was cut off as a
definitely older girl showed up. This older girl looked a lot like Ivan, though her eyes were blue, and she was waving three paper sack lunches. “Ahh! Ivan, I got our lunches!”
Beaming, the older girl held out two of the lunches to Ivan and the little girl, before realizing there were others at the bus stop, too. “Oh!” Eyes widening, the older girl gave a wary wave. “Ah, hello Alfred, Cody, who are they?”
“I'm Cecelia! That's Matthew, he's my brother!”
The older girl beamed down at the little dark haired girl, patting her on the head. “Well you're both cute! I'm
Katya and that's Ivan,” she motioned to the big boy. “and that's Natalia, they're my siblings.”
Before Matthew could speak back, four more children joined them at the bus stop. Katya seemed happy enough, talking to the oldest of the group, and the oldest girl of the four had joined Ivan right away.
Alfred had starting chatting with Matthew rather adamantly as soon as the four black haired siblings had joined them, and, started pointing out people and naming names. Eventually the bus arrived and most of Alfred's conversation with Ivan was forgotten by Matthew.
However, he couldn't help but feel that the tall boy, Ivan, had been glaring at him after his sister arrived and, even on the way to school.
...
It was
really unsettling.
