... how to survive a meal

"Angelo! Angelo, wake up!"

Groggily, my eyes fluttered opened as I groaned at the infernal thudding sound resonating from my door. "Mhm wh-what?"

"What do you mean what? It's the first day of school, get up! For crying out loud, you sleep like the dead!"

A massive yawn ripped through my throat before I replied, "You're going to wish you were if you continue shouting like that!"

"What did you just say?"

Despite my weariness, my lips tugged upwards at her sharp tone. "Never mind, I'm getting up."

"Good! Breakfast is waiting for you."

"Ah, thank you, Nagini!"

"What did you just call- you know what, nevermind! Just...get ready!"

The sound of footsteps slowly faded out of my hearing range. A few minutes later, I stood up and slowly walked over to the mirror that sat on the table across my large room.

My curly dark hair was overgrown, but it went well with the golden-brown hue of my skin. A smile tugged at my lips as the thought of a lion crossed my mind-

My eyes widened as the events of my dream came rushing into my head. Without wasting a moment, I stuffed them away in my mind's chest, locking them securely where I had kept other unwelcome memories of my past.

Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths, trying to bury all memories of the events that had taken place about seven years prior.

About a minute later I opened them and then dragged myself to the bathroom so I could get ready for the day.

. . .

My house is a pretty big one.

It contains about twenty-one rooms altogether: fifteen bedrooms, three living rooms, two dining rooms, and a kitchen. Well, those are the rooms in the main house at least.

A variety of paintings cover a portion of its walls. They depict all sorts of things, from types of transportation to smeared paint. Not far from the paintings, various statues also decorate the place, but those are mainly of animals.

The house also has a spiraling staircase which connects the second, first, and ground floors- the only floors in it. I had been descending it when I saw her standing at the bottom.

She folded her arms as she fixed her blue eyes on me, their dark color made even darker by her glare. My eyes landed on her shoulder-length dark hair, which looked like it had housed birds in it not too long before then. A small chuckle escaped my lips as the thought crossed my mind.

Her eyes narrowed at me. "What's so fun- you know what, nevermind! So, I had to wake you up this morning."

I almost scoffed at the subtle accusation of her words. "Yes, you did. Enjoy the feeling you got doing that because we both know you wouldn't get it again!"

Her mouth dropped slightly open before her glare grew even fiercer. "You know, I wouldn't have had to wake you if you'd just used an alarm!"

I groaned. "See, this is why I called you Nagini!"

"Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well you're female, like your namesake, you always do the first three letters of the name, unlike your namesake, and you seem to have a talent for slithering into-"

"Forget I asked!" She put her fingers to her forehead and massaged it for a few seconds before fixing her glare on me once again. "Just... tell me why you wouldn't use an alarm!"

I scoffed. "Why on earth would I do that? I wake up perfectly fine by myself every other morning."

"Yeah, but not today! What if you had something important to do?"

"Did I?"

"What? Of course not!" She groaned. "I'm just saying, what if you did?"

I continued my descent down the stairs, grinning when I reached her. "Well I'll have you to wake me up, won't I?"

"What-"

As she stood there wide-eyed, I quickly used the opportunity to walk to the dining room. Finally coming out of her seemingly paralyzed state, she began striding after me. "I won't be here forever you know!"

"I know that," I called back. "Just as long as I need you!" I pulled out a chair at the large table and then sat down." Now, where's Pierre? I thought you said breakfast was ready."

As if flipped by some alien emotional switch, her frown turned upside-down. "Oh that's right, I have a surprise for you! Be back in a jiffy!" She quickly rushed past me into the kitchen.

My blood ran cold as a sudden thought struck me.

Dear Lord! Please, not that-

"Tada, I made you breakfast! Delicious pancake!"

Oh, shit!

She rushed back in, setting the enormous silver platter she held down in front of me. Upon it sat some dirt brown, thick, mysterious substance.

"Oh silly me, I forgot the plate!" She rushed back into the kitchen.

I quickly used that time to poke the concoction with the tip of my finger. It seemed soft enough. Not quite like the famous rock cakes she had made two years prior (I have them to thank for the loss of my last baby tooth).

Leaning in, I sniffed it. A weird odor emanated from it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.

"And I'm back!" I quickly rose my head up as she sat a plate and fork down in front of me. "Oh, I can see that the smell is drawing you in already!"

I cleared my throat. "Well... you could say that."

Beaming, she wasted no time in using a giant kitchen knife to cut a slice out of the concoction, which she then placed on my plate.

I gave her a small smile. "You know, pancakes are meant to come in batches!"

Waving the knife around, she drawled, "Oh I know, but do you know how much stress it is to make it like that? This was way faster. Anyways, Bon Appetit!"

I slowly picked at the slice with my fork, which didn't escape Annie's notice. "What's wrong? Don't you want to try it?"

Not particularly, no!

However, I didn't particularly feel safe saying that, considering that the kitchen knife wasn't too far from her reach.

I forced my lips into a huge smile. "Oh, I'm just thinking about how much I'm going to enjoy this!"

She beamed once again. "I know you will. Now, eat up!"

Gulping, I pushed my fork slowly into it, bringing out a piece and holding it up to my mouth.

Here goes nothing.

Closing my eyes, I stuffed the fork into my mouth.

However, despite my best efforts, the food wasted no time in leaving my mouth the instant I put it in my mouth. Why? Well, let's just say that I finally understood what the funny smell emitting from the slice had been.

I choked out, "Y- you put alcohol in this!"

"What? Angelo, don't be-"

I glared at her. "I can taste it!"

We both didn't say anything, then Annie's cheeks reddened as she mumbled, "It was only a little!"

Good lord!

My eyes widened. "A- a little? Ann, your definition of 'a little' is about a whole bottle!"

"I thought you might need the confidence booster since it's the first day of school!"

"Mhm-" My eyes landed on something inside the pancake.

Oh dear Lord, this woman was trying to kill me!

I turned my horrified face to her, pointing a shaking finger at the pancake. "There are still eggshells in this!"

"There are?" Leaning forward, she peered in the direction I was pointing. "Oh dear, so there are! I thought I got all of them out."

Dusting my hands, I stood. "Well, thank you very much for trying to poison me, but I need to get to school now!"

Her eyes widened as her lips trembled. "You think my food is poison?"

I sighed while turning round to pick up my bag. "No, Ann, I don't think your food is poison. Then again, I've never actually tasted anything you've made that can be considered food, so I can't-"

"RAHHH!"

"Ow!"

I whirled around, rubbing furiously at the back of my head. Luckily for me, my jungle of a hair managed to absorb the brunt of her blow, but it still stung!

I glared at her. "You threw my fork at me?"

"Oh stop your whining, at least I didn't use the knife!"

"Really? Wow, what a really reassuring thing for my guardian to say!"

"Well-"

A groan broke through the air, interrupting her. "Why so loud this morning?"

I pointed a finger at Annie, then said to the man, "Well Max, you can thank your twin for the noise, what with her trying to poison me!"

"Angelo, if you call it poison one more time-"

Max stopped rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, she cooked?"

A loud gasp came from behind me, courtesy of Annie.

"You too? Fine then!" She threw back her chair, shooting us both a dirty look. "I'm never cooking for the both of you again!"

I shouted after her retreating form, "Oh no, how else would doctors be collecting checks from us?"

"Go to hell, Angelo!"

"Yeah well I'm going there, and it's called school nowadays!"

Max chuckled as he sat down on the table, wincing when he saw Annie's food. "Damn! I bet she left eggshells in there, didn't she?"

I nodded. "As if the bottle of alcohol wasn't bad enough!"

"Bottle of alcohol-" Shaking his head, Max sighed. "Anyway, want me to drop you off at school?"

I shrugged. "Yeah."

I racked my eyes over his disheveled dark hair, then the white shirt and joggers that covered his muscular build, and the eye bags that sat under his dark eyes. "Aren't you going to work today? Also, I thought Tony was going to take me?"

Max shook his head. "Nah, I gave most of the staff a day off because we've been working so hard recently. That's also why Pierre wasn't around and this-" he nodded at Annie's creation, "-happened. Though I can't afford to take more than today off." He chuckled. "Can't have your dad coming back from the dead to strangle me because I made the family lose the title of being one of the richest in the world, now can I?"

Dad.

I quickly closed my eyes, fighting back the memories that banged viciously on the chest.

I'm doing so well now, I can't start thinking about them-

My eyes flickered open when I heard Max clear his throat. "Sorry, that was thoughtless of-"

"No, it's fine," I replied quickly.

Max's eyes lingered on my face a bit longer than I thought was necessary, but he nodded. "Alright. Well, let me just make myself look presentable then we'd be off."

"Off to where- Oh, right. School."

I sighed. Right, off to another dull session

Turns out I was wrong about that.