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Jaz woke up early the next day, and was not surprised to see a cheerful Penny preparing to dash downstairs.

“What’s up, Penny? Why the rush?” Jaz asked, curious.

“Oh, I just want to check my email before school! Want to come down with me??” Penny asked, smiling broadly at Jaz.

Slightly surprised to be invited to something Jaz had assumed would be a private affair, checking one’s mail… Jaz stumbled over their words, “Um.. sure. Sure Penny. I’ll come with you.”

“Great!” Penny replied, and, to Jaz’s further surprise, grabbed Jaz’s hand and pulled them along with them down the stairs in their slippers and PJs.

Awkwardly, Jaz practiced some chess moves while Penny checked her email, glancing periodically over at their new sibling.

“Um.. Penny?” Jaz finally asked.

“What’s up?” Penny replied.

“I .. uh.. I forgot to finish my homework last night. Would it..” Jaz started, only to be interrupted by a bubbly giggle.

“Oh geez, don’t let Wendy hear you say that! You’d better go do it!”

Jas smiled, and headed to the dining room with their workbook. It didn’t take too long to finish the math worksheet, but Penny was apparently done with her email before Jaz completed the last problem.

Right on time, Wendy called out from the kitchen, which was wafting delicious smells all over the house, and making Jaz’s stomach grumble loudly. “Breakfast! Most important meal of the day, kids, come and get some French Toast!”

“The French have a special toast?” Jaz mumbled to themselves, and went to grab a serving.

Everyone else had beat them to the kitchen, and were wolfing down something covered with butter and syrup and a light dusting of something powdery. It smelled amazing, but only the shape of the bread resembled anything close to toast.

Confused, Jaz poured some syrup on their food, watched bemusedly as Wendy sprinkled some dust on top.. and bravely took a bite. Shock went through their face, and the second and third bites followed in quick succession. In fact, their plateful was gone so fast that Wendy asked with a chuckle if Jaz wanted a second helping. With a nod (because their mouth was still full of gooey yummy-ness), Jaz handed their plate to Wendy, then dug into a second helping. How, they wondered, was something THIS good considered breakfast?? Not about to complain, Jaz polished off their seconds, and then looked up a bit guiltily as everyone had already cleaned up their places, disappeared upstairs, while Layla was cleaning up the pile of dishes cheerfully. Jaz stood up, with the intention of helping, but Layla laughed and waved them off, telling them to hurry up and get ready for the school bus.

Glancing nervously at the clock, Jaz ran up the stairs, threw on their school clothes, and grabbed their backpack just as the bus honked. Hurrying down the stairs, Wendy called a lilting, “Have a good day, sweetie!” after them, and Jaz yelled back, “Okay, Wendy!” and shut the front door behind them. Jaz thanked Penny for having the bus driver wait for them, and slid into a seat next to her, trying to follow Penny’s cheerful ramble as the bus started moving.

Back at the house, Wendy smiled to herself, and motioned to the blocks to Jimmy. With what was part playtime, part learning, she worked on Jimmy’s skills, then gave him a bath and put him down for a nap. Before too long, she mused, she wouldn’t have this naptime for chores, and would instead have the whole morning to herself as Jimmy went off to kindergarten.

Later that day, Jaz was first off the bus, and quickly claimed the computer. A quick check of their mail, unfortunately, proved that it was too early to have gotten a reply from the pen pal people, and Jaz frowned disappointedly. Checking their phone proved that even Kayla had forgotten to call them back with their siblings’ information, too.

Feeling a little lost and alone, Jaz shut down the computer monitor and headed to join the homework party in the dining room.

Before they were done with their homework, however, Wendy slid into the seat across from them with a smile.

“Hey, don’t look so glum, Jaz. Kayla called me an hour ago, you’ve been approved to contact all of your brothers, I have their phone numbers here for you.” Jaz looked up, surprised. “Really?”

“Would I lie to you?” Wendy asked with a smile, and pushed a slip of paper with some numbers on it across the table to Jaz. “You may call as soon as you finish your homework!”

The rest of their homework was completed much faster than the first half had been, and Jaz quickly searched the house for an empty room to make their calls.

Jaz found the living room was empty, and sat down, pulled out their phone, and looked at the numbers. It wasn’t until just this moment that they had considered the fact that Phoenix probably didn’t want to hear from them at all. Jaz briefly considered not calling him, then shook their head. He deserved a call whether or not he appreciated it.

Dialing the number, Jaz asked the voice at the other end of the phone for Phoenix, and was put on a brief hold.

“Hello?” a very familiar voice asked.

“Um.. hi, Phoenix. Its… its.. Jaz. I wanted to call to see how you were. I mean – how your new house is. Are you .. um.. you okay?” Jaz stumbled over their words, hoping to themselves that this hadn’t been a huge mistake.

Jaz couldn’t see it, but Phoenix’s face screwed up into a sneer. “Really? What a pansy-ass thing to do. I don’t care about you, so why should you care about me! Get lost!” he hung up the phone with a satisfied smile, and went back to playing in his room.

With a gulp, Jaz hung up the phone, and took a deep breath. Pushing back the tears, Jaz resolutely looked at the next number, and told themselves that Phoenix’s response must mean he was doing just fine. Maybe next week he wouldn’t be so mean. He had probably had a friend over and didn’t want to look bad in front of them.

Dialing the next number, Jaz asked the man with the English accent that answered the phone “Landgraab residence.” with a curt tone if Myles was there.

“Certainly. Let me get him.” the voice responded, and after a pause, Myles was put on the line.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Uhh.. hi. Myles, it’s Jaz. I just wanted to check in on you, see if everything was alright… ” Jaz began, trying to come up with a good reason that they could use for calling if Myles complained like Phoenix had.

“Oh, geez, hi Jaz. How are you? How’s your new house? Things are GREAT here, I have a little brother, and a huge house. Heck, that was the butler.”

“The.. what?” Jaz asked, confused.

“The Butler.” Myles replied with a laugh. “He works here and does all the chores. So I don’t even have to clean my room!”

“Oh.” Jaz answered, still confused, but afraid to say so, “How is high school?”

“Oh, it’s so much fun!” Myles answered, and launched into a lengthy description of some of his classes, something called a Computer Club, and more descriptions of some of the friends Myles had made already. Myles wrapped up with a laugh, “I guess having money makes friend-making easy. Everyone wants to be my friend now that I live at the Landgraabs!”

Head reeling with all the information, Jaz laughed back awkwardly, “Well, I’m glad you’re doing okay. I should go, now. I still need to call the twins.”

Myles readily said goodbye, and went back to whatever he did in that great big house with no chores.. and Jaz dialed the last number.

A pleasant woman answered the phone, and introduced herself as Lana McKinnon, the twins’ new foster mother. She thanked Jaz for her concern, and described the twins’ new room, some of their favorite toys, and apologized that they were out at the park with her husband, so she couldn’t put them on the phone.

“How about I send you a picture of them playing in their room instead?” Lana asked, finally letting Jaz have a moment to answer.

“Sure, Mrs. McKinnon. I would like that. Maybe next time I call I can talk to them?” Jaz asked hesitantly.

“Oh, certainly!” Lana replied, then both said their goodbyes.

Within moments, a text message arrived with a picture of Braydon and Brett playing quite happily with some rather new-looking blocks. The floor was carpeted with a crazy blue pattern, and there were boats on the walls. Bemusedly, Jaz closed their phone, and sat for a long moment by themselves, feeling much better now that they knew their brothers were all going to be just fine.

Before long, Carlo and Layla had come into the living room, Carlo with a snack, Layla with her phone in hand.. and Jaz casually turned on the TV as if just being allowed to do so wasn’t a huge novelty for them.

Jaz watched TV for a while, chatted with their new siblings, then exhaustedly headed to bed when Wendy said it was bedtime.

They had completely forgotten the earlier disappointment about the pen pal application, and sleep came quickly to a tired young mind. Tomorrow was soon enough to worry some more about it.

WC: Day Seven < | Challenge Home Page | > WC: Day Nine