Double Trouble

I woke up with the sound of Alina breathing softly from next to me. I slid out of bed and went to the bathroom. I finished freshening out and quietly walked out to the kitchen and began making a pot of coffee. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was still seven in the morning.
“Alright. We have about 12 hours to get everything ready for tonight’s dinner.” I muttered to quietly.

“Talking to yourself?” I jumped up in surprise, and turned around to see Kaner.

“Holy shit. Don’t do that! You scared me.” Kaner just chuckled.

“Sorry.”

“No you’re not you asshat.” I said giving him a scowl.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m not.” He said with a lopsided smile. I shoved him lightly.

“Why are you up early?”

“I just couldn’t get anymore sleep... and it was very awkward waking up next to Tazer.” I let out a light laugh before taking a sip of my coffee.

“That would be weird... but you’re bromance makes it all ok.” I said to him. He bumped my hip lightly.

“Why are you up?” He asked me. I shrugged.

“I woke up. And I need to get ready for tonight. I need to get started on the Thanksgiving dinner tonight.”

“A homemade Thanksgiving dinner sounds amazing.” He said with a soft smile. “Way better than what I had in mind for tonight.”

“Hey, Patrick, why don’t you and Jonathan join us tonight?” I asked him. He looked at me wide eyed.

“What? No, we can’t impose on your family’s Thanksgiving.” He said. I shook my head.

“Nonsense. You guys won’t be imposing. And the more the merrier.” I said walking over to the living room and turning on the TV. I was just about done with my Coffee when Alina walked in.

“Morning. Just give me time to drink some coffee, and we’ll get started on everything.” I nodded and turned my attention back to the TV and smiled as the highlights from Last night’s game came on.

“I still wish the Caps were on their winning streak,” Alina sighed.

“I swear, even on Thanksgiving morning you girls have hockey on,” Daddy said as he walked in.

“It’s an unspoken tradition.” We said at the same time.

“Yeah, yeah. Is there any coffee?” He asked us.

“In the pot.” We both said, returning our eyes to the TV.

“So, what are they talking about?” Daddy said as he sat down next to us, giving Patrick a nod.

“The game last night.” Kaner answered,

“I’m waiting to see if they mention me.” I said.

And last night, Avery Addison, number 93 of the Chicago Blackhawks, scored the only goal that won the Hawks the game against the Sharks. This player is one to keep an eye on. She is quickly racking up points this season so far, and she is quickly become the most outstanding rookie.

“ I wonder what all those assholes back home must think,” Mike said.

“They’re probably wishing they hadn’t treated her like shit.” Mattie replied.

“You’re right, I mean when I was injured there was no one to take care of her and she learned a shit load on how to defend herself...”

“When did you guys wake up,”’ I exclaimed, finally noticing that my brothers had joined us in the living room.

“About the time they started talking about you.” Mikey answered. I stuck my tongue at him and he returned it.

“Wow Mikey, real mature” Daddy said jokingly.

“She stuck her tongue out first.” Mikey said.

“And you’re how much older than her?” Daddy asked him.

“Nine years.” Mikey mumbled.

“Exactly.” I just laughed and got up.

“Well, I shall go and get started on everything for tonight. Every single one of you may be sent out on grocery runs. Be prepared.” I said as Alina and I left to the kitchen.

“Oh and someone wake Tazer up.” Lina said to everyone.

No one responded, she sighed and went into our storage room to wake sleeping beauty up.

“I don’t like it,” Mike said his eyes narrowing.

“Well then you should have said something,” I responded starting to get the ingredients.

“Well, what was I supposed to say?” He asked

“Oh, I don’t know, something along the lines of ‘Alright, I’ll go wake him up.’” I responded, pulling out some sugar. He mumbled something under his breath.

“Alright. I got sleeping beauty up.” Alina said joining me her face flushed. “Now, what do we start with, the pies, or the salad. I know we’re going to be cooking the turkey so it gets done a few minutes before dinner’s ready.”

“I don’t know. I think we should start with the salad, corn bread, mashed potatoes, pies, and steamed vegetables. Then we work on the turkey.” I said to her. She nodded in agreement.

“Sounds good. And we should probably double on everything. You did buy the biggest turkey, right?”

“Of course I did. I always do.” With that we started on the long list of foods we needed to make.

“We almost forgot we also have Cookies n’ Cream ice cream,” she realized. I stopped chopping up vegetables for the salad.

“Are we going to make the cake?” I asked her. She shrugged.

“If we have enough time to make it and have enough time to make the turkey we totally should.” I nodded.

“That works.” We made our salad and covered it up and placed it in the fridge. “One thing done, now a good amount of food more.” I said before turning to see what we have.

“Ok, we need potatoes. And apples, and cinnamon.” I said looking for potatoes.

“We also need flour.” Alina said. We shared a look.

“BOYS!” we both yelled. We heard thundering footsteps as four boys appeared in the kitchen.
“What’s wrong?” Mattie asked us.

“We need apples, cinnamon, potatoes, strawberries, and flour... oh and some corn, and grab a bag of baby carrots.”

“Here’s a list.” Lina said handing the nearest one of them the bright pink sticky note.

“Really? Bright pink?” Jonathan asked us. We nodded.

“Yup. It’s so easy to see.” I replied. The boys rolled their eyes and left. We could hear them slipping on their shoes and then the door close.

“You sent them all to get groceries?” Daddy asked us.

“Wait, they all went?” Alina asked him. He nodded.

“Oh my god. They are idiots.” I said shaking my head.

“Oh my god.” Alina said with a laugh. “They’re going to either kill each other, or share stories about us.”

“That’s terrifying.” I said. Daddy just laughed.

“You two would worry about what they would talk about more than them possibly harming each other.” Daddy said to us before going back to the living room.

“Alrighty then... What should we start on.... hmm... Cornbread.” Lina said taking out everything we need. “Daddy is there anything in particular that you would like?”

“I love whatever you girls make,” he said smiling.

We just nodded and went back to making what we could, the minutes passed by and the boys finally came around noon. Did it really take them two hours to get something simple, men.

“Did you all honestly just take two hours to get the things we asked for?” I asked them as I put the other cornbread pan into the oven.

“Well, we got lost while looking for the stuff...” Kaner said bashfully.

“How do you get lost in a grocery store?” Lina asked them.

“Well, there were isles, and lots of people, and we had no idea where anything was.” Mattie said. Lina and I rolled our eyes.
“Alright. Give us the stuff. Go to the living room and sit with Daddy.” Lina told them, and she grabbed the bags.

I got the turkey from the fridge and cut it out of the packaging. I smiled at lina as she handed me the spices and I began putting cinnamon, pepper, and salt onto the turkey.

“Ok, do you have the orange juiced?” I asked her. She nodded and handed me the cup. I grabbed a large needled syringe from the drawer and filled it up. I began giving the turkey shots of orange juice in random places.

“That should be good.” I nodded and grabbed the bread from the basket. I began breaking it into small pieces into a bowl. I saw Alina put the turkey into the oven and set the timer.

“I’ll start making the gravy for the stuffing.” I nodded and started cutting up some vegetables for the stuffing. I placed them into the bowl with the bread crumbs and set them to the side.

“Ok, so now should I start on the pies or mashed potatoes?” I asked her. She stopped stirring for a while before giving me her answer.

“Start with the pies. We need to put them in the oven, and give them time to cool. Mashed Potatoes can be done pretty quickly.” I nodded and began getting the things for our pies.

“Why did we put the nutmeg up there?” I asked Alina, before lifting myself onto the counter to see into the cabinet better.

“Because that’s where it usually is. Now don’t fall. We don’t want Daddy, Mikey, Mattie freaking out on us.”

“Hey, Ave, Lina, are you going to ma- why are you on the counter?” Mikey asked walking in.

“Because when we moved in here, we put the nutmeg and all other spices up here.” He shook his head and walked to the counter, pulling out the nutmeg, and throwing me over his shoulder, and placing me on the ground after turning around.

“Here you go. Next time, call for someone to get things from the places you can’t reach.” I grumbled incoherently before getting a bowl to mix everything I need for the crust of the pie. I mixed everything into the bowl for the crust, and got out one of the pie pans. I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I placed the crust on.

“What are you giggling at?” Alina asked me, bringing over the apple pie filling.

“I thought of how I feel like Snow White while she makes the pie. So not fair. She had overly intelligent wild animals helping her out. We get four men who get lost in grocery stores.” I said to her.

Alina started giggling also and we saw that Mattie was entering the room curious.

“Why are you girls giggling? I hope it doesn’t involve certain hockey players that are in the living room.” He said smirking when our eyes widened.

“Well, it did involve two hockey players, and two other boys as well. And pie.” I answered him, putting on the top part of the crust in a cross hatched form. “Apple pie is done.”

“You guys are making apple pie? Can you make a lot of apple pie? That’s your best pie ever.” He said to us.

“Alright. We’ll make more apple pie.” I started making more dough and Alina made more of the filling.

“Well, we can make three more apple pies, and we can make one strawberry.” Alina said mentally estimating how much we could make.

“Alright.” I said pulling out four pie pans. “We should just put them in the oven all together.” She nodded and we starting making all four pies. I put them in the oven and placed the timer for 20 minutes.

“So the pies and the turkey should finish at the same time. We should get started on the mashed potatoes. You peel, I cut?” I asked lina. She nodded and we got the sack of potatoes. The process took a bit longer than usual due to the amount that we had to make.

“If anyone saw how much we’re cooking, they’d expect over twenty people to be here, not seven people.” I said to Alina after a few quiet moments of constant peeling and chopping. She nodded in agreement.

“Oh yeah. We’re either going to have a lot of leftovers, or none at all. And if we have left overs, we can always send the boys away with food. God knows how they survive without decent food.”

“I’ve seen their eating habits. It’s a miracle they can stay in such great shape considering that they eat out a lot. Then again, they always get the healthiest thing on the menu.”

With amazing timing, the turkey and the pies finished together, along with the mashed potatoes. We placed the pies onto the counter to let them cool for dessert, and cleared out the dining table. We placed the plates, forks, knives, spoons, cups for everyone in their designated places, and set the table with the cornbread, salad, and mashed potatoes.

“DADDY, BOYS, DINNER IS READY!” I yelled. We could hear their quick steps as they all appeared and sat down.

“Finally. We’ve been smelling everything in the living room, and we’re starving now.” Mattie said. We smiled and disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with the huge turkey.

“Holy shit... That’s one huge turkey.” Kaner said staring at the main dish in awe. We grinned and sat down.

“We know.” We replied.

“We figured out that if we’re feeding our brothers and Daddy that we should get a really big one, and send off everyone with leftovers.” Lina said.

“And now that you two are here, we can send you two off with leftovers as well. And just as a disclaimer, we made five pies. Four apple pies and one strawberry pie. With Vanilla ice cream, or Cookies ‘n Cream. So don’t say I didn’t say there wasn’t any dessert.” I added. I handed daddy the carving knife and fork. He stood up and began carving the turkey, giving Alina and I a piece before cutting some for the boys and himself. Then everyone helped themselves to the salad, cornbread, and mashed potatoes.

“Bon appetite” Lina and I said to everyone as we dug in. We heard simultaneous moaning and groaning from the four men, while Daddy gave us an appreciative smile.

“Are you guys ok?” Lina asked them. They all just nodded.

“It’s been awhile since we’ve had your cooking.” Mikey said. We just grinned.

“Well, you’re staying for a couple more days, right?” I asked them. Daddy and our brothers nodded. “Good, you’ll get our cooking for a couple more days... I wish we could send you guys leftovers.”

“That would be amazing. Next time you’re in New York for a game, ask Coach if you can come stay with me. And then you can make me food to last me a week.” Mattie said with a grin.

“Yeah! And then when you play Pittsburgh you can come and make me food!” Mikey agreed.

“Ok.. but do you know how odd it will be for you guys to be seen with us... like think about it. You’re both famous in your own ways... And I don’t think people know we’re related... Oh my god... we should screw with the media.” I said, forming a plan.

“Let’s just eat, then you can create this plan of yours.” Daddy said. “And when you’re playing the Caps, I’m calling Coach Q and holding you two hostage for a couple days and just have you cook for me as well.”

“Daddy, I can cook for the whole Caps organization, I mean well there is Cody Eakin and he is cute and that Russian rookie Dmitry Orlov. It’ll be great and well for Shitsburgh meh.” Lina said.

“Mike Green and Jeff Halpern from the Caps is attractive as well. And I like Pittsburgh. Jordan Staal is hot. And Flower is just adorable, Crosby has an amazing ass, and Letang’s hair is amazing.” I added.

“Yeah, but they’re not as amazing as the Caps. I mean hell imagine if I dated like Dima? Our babies would be the cutest,” she gushed.

“What about John Carlson?” I said then quickly shut up.

“I don’t think so,” she said softly.

“So you’re gonna make me an aunt to half Russian babies? Fine... Then I’ll have my babies be half Canadian. Now to choose... Flower?” I asked her

“Nah, he and his girlfriend are too cute together.” Lina replied before eating a bite.

“Yeah, I’d also just want to be his best friend.. I can’t be with Crosby. I can’t have babies with a guy who’s ass looks better than mine.” This caused Daddy to choke on his sip of water.

“Careful Daddy. And yeah. That would be weird.” Lina said.

“Letang... He seems like a heart breaker. I’ll just have babies with Jordan Staal. He’s tall, blond haired, blue eyed, canadian, attractive, and understands hockey.”

“Good pick. Stick with Staal. You can then have your own mini army of Staal hockey players.”

“Oh my god. I really don’t want to hear my baby sisters talking about which guys from other hockey teams they want babies with.” Mikey said groaning.

“I second that.” Mattie said.

“Well, fine. I’ll choose from my own team. I’ll either go with Hammer, or I’ll ask Abby if I can borrow Sharpie.” I said with a smirk.

“I’d choose those two as well. Hey, Ave, do you think Abby would let us borrow Sharpie?” I shrugged and looked at Daddy, sending him a wink to let him know that we’re joking.

“Ok, no. Just no. No fraternizing with the enemy, or the team.” Jonathan said putting down his fork, his plate almost empty.

“Well my team is the Washington Capitals, so I don’t think there will be a problem there,” Lina said shrugging. “Also, I may have said this but although I don’t trust men with blue eyes and blond hair I guess Staal can be the exception for Avery.”
“Wait, does that mean you don’t trust me? Wait, Ice Princess at least you trust me right?” Kaner said his eyes looking into mine.

“Do you really want me to answer that Kaner?” I asked him with a grin. He nodded. “I still have to threaten you to make sure that you don’t peek while I’m showering after practice or a game... granted I do that to the all the young unmarried guys, but still. What does that tell you?”

“That you like reminding everyone not too take a peek.” He said. I just laughed.

“Fine. I trust you enough to be able to go on that ice with you, and face the league, win or lose, and through all injuries that I may possibly get.”

“I’ll take it.” Kaner said before getting a second helping.

“And Jonathan,” I said sweetly. He answered me with a hum. “you’re not my father. If I want to ‘fraternize’ with the enemy, you can’t tell me no.” Lina laughed at his shocked expression, and while Kaner let out a small chuckle, the look in his eyes said differently.

“He may not be your father, but we’re your older brothers.” Mikey said pointing at himself and Mattie. “We say you are not allowed to fraternize with the enemy. And we have Dad to back us up.”

“Right Dad?” Mattie said for reassurance. Daddy didn’t answer them. We all looked at him and he just gave us a smile and a wink, his eyes sparkling.

“I’m sorry boys, but your sisters are now 18. I can’t really tell them who they can or cannot see, or as everyone has been saying, fraternize with the enemy. Its their choice. I want my little girls to be happy.” We blew daddy a kiss and everyone groaned, including Jonathan and Patrick.

“Oh, and I cannot believe we’ve been saying ‘fraternize’ this whole time.” I said before continuing to finish my plate.

“It’s not our faults that these four idiots can’t realize that we’re old enough to date.” Lina said.

“Now how about we just stop talking and finish this meal and then watch a movie, alright.” Daddy said looking at our brothers.

“Yes sir,” they said.

“And they said we were the ones that had that freaky twin thing,” Lina muttered. I nodded in agreement and finished my plate. I leaned back into the chair and patted my belly.

“I have a food baby!” I giggled. Daddy shook his head at me and the boys rolled their eyes.

“It’s when you do things like this why we don’t realize you’re old enough to date.” Mattie said with a grin.

“Shut it. I’m sorry that I don’t have an endless pit for a stomach and I get food babies when I’m full.” I retorted. Lina nodded with her empty plate.

“And even with your bottomless pits we still have leftovers.” She said with a sigh.

“Hey, I want dessert.” Kaner said. “I can eat more, I just really want apple pie.”

“You’ll get your apple pie. We just need to clear the table. Are you all done?” Everyone nodded and Alina and I began clearing the table. We took everything into the kitchen and began putting it away.

“This is for Jonathan, and this is for Kaner.” I said pointing to the tupperwares filled with leftovers. Lina took two sticky notes and wrote the names and stuck them on each tupperware.

“Now to get the pies.” We grabbed the dessert plates and forks, and took them to the dining room. We returned to the kitchen and carried out the five pies.

“These four are apple. That one is strawberry. Here is a gallon of Vanilla ice cream. Knock yourselves out.” Lina said pointing to everything. We handed Daddy the knife and had him cut up the pie pieces. Once again, he gave us two slices each with an ice cream scoop on each slice, before giving the boys and himself some, knowing that if we didn’t get any first, we wouldn’t get any at all.

“Oh my god.” Kaner moaned. “Why are you in the NHL and why are you a painter when you can bake and cook like this and make clothing like no one’s business?” We shrugged.

“Because we like food and clothes. But we like the NHL and painting even more.” Lina answered.

“Also have you not seen how much our brothers eat? It’s like feeding an army, we had to learn how to cook like if it was just that,” I shrugged.

“It is official. You are the team’s cook-slash-baker-slash-personal dresser.” Patrick said taking another bite. “I’ll talk to Coach Q about it. He’s had your cooking. He’ll agree.”

I just nodded. “Now Lina and I are going to watch Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton’s version if you’d like to join then you guys are welcome to.” I said setting up the dvd player.