Archer Warrick March 10th,20XX

Waves of stress rolled off Joyce as we entered the elevator, and her arm tapped against her thigh as she tried to keep calm. Her other hand rested on my shoulder, and she would occasionally shoot me a warm smile to calm me down, despite my not being worried.

The twins hobbled after us on their alternating crutches and depended on each other to make it over the various hurdles on the floor. Joyce made to help but then forcibly turned away and kept her hand on my shoulder.

Her weird behaviour was both because she was angry at the twins for both disobeying her and getting hurt, but also because she’d tried to help them before and the results hadn’t been great.

It was incredible that they’d sprained alternating legs at the same time, but they didn’t seem to upset out it. Kaja had sprained her right ankle while Tillo had sprained his left. I could tell from their awkwardness that they were uncomfortable with the side’s they were stuck to. I suddenly realized that the two always stood and sat on their respective sides. Kaja was always on the left and Tillo was always on the right, like they were mirror images of each other.

“Archer, you’ll need to move a bit more so the twins can make it into the doorframe.”

I ran ahead, feeling sorry for the twins but also slightly scared at the negative feelings Joyce let off. The feelings weren’t scary, like my uncle’s had been, and I could tell she wouldn’t ever hurt us, but it was still uncomfortable to read, and I couldn’t completely block it all out.

While I wasn’t particularly expecting to see anything when I entered the hotel suite, I could confidently say I wasn’t expecting what I saw.

Aaron was asleep on the large couch in the living room. It was clear he’d been dragged out of his room, since he’d brought a pillow and a blanket with him despite the hotel room being adequately warmed.

The Tv was on and a modified version of the song we’d heard in the car filtered through its speakers as a focused Eva and an equally focused Destia memorized the moves. They weren’t watching the music video but rather the dance practise and had slowed it down so much that the audio was distorted.

Joyce entered the room after me and quickly took stock of the situation before rushing forward and lightly shaking Aaron awake. Still, her mood slightly softened, and she wasn’t as stressed as she had been before.

Joyce had already grounded the twins and had deducted their allowances. She had also given them a half-hour lecture she had forced me to listen to as well. As of now, all she needed was to make sure they were well settled in their rooms so they could recover.

The doctor had said they would be better after about a week of bedrest, ice and elevation and another week of slow movement. It would be interesting to see the two excitable teenagers have to stay still for almost two weeks, considering Kaja had already tried to race Tillo to the car when we’d left the hospital.

“Ah! I’m up! I’m up! Great Jedeyi, what happened to the kids?”

He accidentally let out an expletive as he saw the two sheepish looking twins on their crutches. Joyce gave Aaron a specific look and the sleepy man straightened his posture and fixed his face to look more serious. It was only after he looked imposing enough that Joyce finally spoke.

“Twins, would you like to tell Aaron what happened?”

The twins finally realized this wasn’t something they could joke their way out of and shifted in their spot. Or well, they tried, but the crutches made it difficult for them to complete the action.

Destia stopped dancing and looked on to the scene with a curious expression. She weighed her options before making a choice and tapping Eva on the shoulder. The two packed up their things and left for another room, leaving the twins to be scolded in peace.

I wanted to leave as well, but Joyce kept half an eye on me, having subconsciously associated me with the two troublemakers, and clarified that I had to be here for the scolding as well.

This wasn’t the first time I would have been scolded for someone else’s misbehavior, but that didn’t make it any more fun.

We all expected Kaja to offer an explanation to the united front of Aaron and Joyce, but Tillo surprised everyone by taking lead.

“Well, A-Aaron. Kaja and I- no. Even though Joyce specifically told us to wait for her before getting onto the rides at the mall, Kaja and I got overexcited and ended up goofin- behaving recklessly and got hurt. No, she actually told us not to get onto those rides at all but we didn’t listen. We’re really sorry and we’ll make sure it won’t happen again.”

He continuously self edited as he gave his explanation.

Aaron was still half asleep and struggled to get into ‘adult’ mode, but it was cool to see him try to match Joyce’s mood even without the two discussing it beforehand. He thought long and hard to come up with an appropriate lecture that would both scold the kids and satisfy the angry Joyce.

“This can’t keep happening kids. This time you two got off with ankle sprains, which is terrible, but what if something worse had happened? You need to really reflect on this and think about whether the five seconds of fun you had was worth getting hurt like this-“

Joyce discreetly nudged him with her arm as he tried to wrap things up with a light lecture and he heavily exhaled in preparation to keep going.

“I’m not sure if you two know this, but Joyce and I really care about you, As do Archer, Destia and Eva. When you do things like that, you’re not just hurting yourselves, you’re also making us worry about you. When we tell you not to do things, it’s hardly because we want to take away your fun, or because we don’t like you two. We tell you these things because we know what could go wrong, and as much as possible we don’t want you two, or any of you, to go through a worst-case scenario. I hope I’m getting through to you two when I say this isn’t just a lecture. This is just us saying that its unfortunate that this happened, but you need to see why it happened so it doesn’t happen again.”

The smiles on the twin’s faces, sheepish as they were, quickly faded away and I think I saw tears bead in Kaja’s eyes.

Even though I wasn’t trying to read their minds, the waves of hurt that rolled out of the two took me aback and made it slightly difficult to keep standing.

Well, not that I blamed them for feeling that bad.

As detached as I pretended to be from this situation, I somewhat felt like they also aimed this lecture at me and I felt terrible despite having done nothing wrong. Aaron and Joyce were always so nice to us and patient with us. Getting lambasted like this, even though it was more of a serious talk, was heart wrenching and difficult to get through.

I didn’t want them to be disappointed in me, and I could see that the twins felt the same way.

“And Archer, as unfair as I’m sure you see this, you aren’t completely innocent either. You were there when the twins were messing around, weren’t you? You’re younger but they respect your words as much as they do each other’s. We’re all a family now, and if you see any of you doing something wrong you have to speak up. Its better to make things a bit awkward than to let them do reckless things and get hurt. Right?”

The lecture finally turned to me and felt just as terrible as I’d thought it would.

The disappointed stares from both Joyce and Aaron, padded with a layer of worry and warmth that made it difficult to hold any resentment.

Ahh, I really didn’t like this.

“We’re really sorry and it won’t happen again.”

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.”

I ended up apologizing as well, and even though I didn’t completely agree with what Aaron had said, I was willing to try and internalize his advice.

Joyce and Aaron quickly softened as they realized the twins were that upset and wrapped them into a tight hug. Before I could feel left out, Joyce extended her arm and drew me into the cliché display of affection.

Tillo’s crutch slightly dug into my leg due to the close proximity, but I didn’t mind it and instead sank into the warmth.

I was still a bit upset at it all, but what else could I do but let it go.