Together We Made It

The day after Ethan came over and hung out, Lyric decided she wanted to see if she could find out anything interesting about this Dimitri character online. She didn't know his last name, so when she typed it into google, she didn't have much to go with. She didn't get many hits, but even fewer of them were for people.

Sighing, she sat back in her chair, frustrated. She could hear the rest of her family moving around in the house behind her, but didn't go out to join them. She chanced the search to see if maybe there were any abandoned buildings in the area or near town. She knew that the dream was nothing but what it seemed like, a dream, but she wanted to double check all the same.

When she saw that the area was clear, she gave up her search and left the room to go have fun with her brother and younger siblings. Her mother had gotten a job and worked most of the day now, so it was up to Kyle and Lyric to watch over Keiryn and Brianne, especially on the weekends. She was looking forward to school starting come monday because it could distract her from everything that had been going on.

When she walked into the living room, she saw Kyle, Keiryn, and Brianne all sitting in front of the television watching the Wizard of Oz. She looked quizically at Kyle, but he ignored her and continued to watch the movie. Keiryn seemed to be the only one to notice her appearence, and he jumped up immediately to pull her into the room to join them.

"Look! It's the movie with the flying monkeys!" He exclaimed once he had gotten her to sit down and he had sat in her lap.

"Yeah, and look, there's even a lion in it." Lyric told him, pointing to the cowardly lion who had just come on screen.

He laughed and clapped his hands. Lyric knew that he hadn't seen the movie that many times, but smiled at how he immitated the lion. She turned to Kyle and saw him laughing at both the screen and her.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"Nothing. It's just been forever since I've seen anyone react to this movie that way." Kyle replied.

"Well, he is five. Whose idea was it to watch this movie anyways?" She asked.

"Brianne's. She was flipping through channels and just happened to land on this one. I swear she planned it ahead of time." Kyle grumbled.

Lyric laughed and remebered that Kyle actually had a love hate relationship with the movie. He had loved it the first couple times he had watched it, but after realizing that his crush on Dorothy wasn't gonna happen, he had become lest fond of it. She shook her head and watched the rest of the movie, sometimes interacting with Keiryn when he tried to act out some of the scenes, catching him when he jumped off the couch to be a flying monkey.

After the movie was over, Lyric went into the kitchen to make dinner while Kyle put Keiryn in his room. He had fallen alseep soon after his flying monkey attempt and Brianne was now running around the house trying to immitate him. Kyle walked into the kitchen, carefully avoiding Brianne as she came running towards him. He walked over to Lyric and ruffled her hair before digging around in the fridge.

"If you want anything to eat at all, you'll get out of there." Lyric warned.

"Well, that's no way to talk to your older brother." Kyle pouted.

"Then you cook dinner. I'm not gonna bother if no one's gonna eat it. And you know that as soon as Brianne sees you eating something other than whats on the stove, she's gonna do the same thing." Lyric stated as she stirred the pot she had cooking.

"What are you making anyways?" Kyle asked, trying to look over he shoulder.

"Chili. Mom's recipe." She said, shoving him away from her gently.

"Mmm...you better give me some. If you make it as well as she does, you won't be able to keep me away."Kyle said, walking around to the other side of the counter and sitting at the stool that was there.

"Yeah, well, I make it better." Lyric joked, sticking her tongue out.

"What do you make better?" Brianne asked from the doorway.

"Mom's chili." Kyle told her.

"I don't know if it's better than mom's but Lyric makes really good chili." Brianne stated, joining her brother at the counter.

"How do you not know what it's like compared to mom's?" Kyle asked.

"Because...I don't think Mom's ever made us chili. Lyric's always been the one who cooked for us." Brianne pointed out.

Kyle looked at Lyric shocked. She hid hear face from him and turned to grab something out of the fridge. She knew that Brianne would tell him eventually. This job was the first thing their mom had done in a long time to help the family. While her stepfather was around, she was too busy hiding and avoiding him. Lyric loved her mother, but sometimes she wondered why she didn't have more courage.

She continued to cook as Kyle watched her frowning. He hadn't said anything after Brianne's little proclamation, but Lyric knew that he was waiting till after dinner. Finally she told them that it was done and walked out of the room to go see if she could Keiryn up. She was glad Kyle stayed in the kitchen but knew that he would catch up to her later. She hadn't told him becuase she didn't want to him to see just how much his family had fallen into disrepair and then feel obligated to stay.

She managed to wake Keiryn up long enough to eat before he was once again asleep in his room. She made sure that Briann was at least in her room, if not alseep, by nine thirty before walking into the living room and into the waiting conversation with Kyle that she knew was there.

"What was Briann talking about in the kitchen?" Kyle asked bluntly.

"Every since she got remarried, Mom hasn't done much. I think she's been too afraid of Jack...this job is the first she's had in a really long time." Lyric sighed, sitting on the couch.

"So you mean to tell me she placed everything on your shoulders?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I had meant to tell you, but I didn't want you to feel obligated to stay here and help." Lyric said quietly.

"I was going to stay and help anyways! You know, you can't always keep everything to yourself, and you can't save eveyone. Sometimes you just need to think about you." Kyle exclaimed, sitting beside her.

"You were? Why?" Lyric asked.

"Yeah, I was. I knew that you and mom were going to have trouble and since I wasn't much help while that bastard was here, I wanted to make up for it and stay as long as you guys needed me." Kyle told her, hugging her with one arm.

"Well in that case..." Lyric trailed off, smiling as her brother engulfed her in a hug.

He laughed and let her go before saying goodnight and walking upstairs to his room. Lyric knew her mom would be home soon, but didn't bother cleaning anything up before going up to her own room and falling on the bed, wanting nothing but sleep.