Taylor
Taylor lay awake in bed.
He closed his eyes, opened them, closed them, opened them, and finally sat up, wincing slightly.
Glancing at the clock, he noticed it said 6:14am. With a groan, he rolled onto his side and switched on his lamp, before looking around the room.
He grabbed his watch from the dresser and put it on his wrist. Then he rubbed his eyes and felt under his bed.
Slowly, he pulled out the brightly wrapped birthday present, before falling onto his back again with a sigh and just staring at it. Pursing his lips, he looked at the clock again, then decided he might as well get up.
Early again. What was wrong with him?
Pulling a jacket over his bare chest and slipping on some pants, he carefully took the present and turned the light off.
"Dark! Dark!" came a voice, before he quickly turned it back on.
Flavian sat at the base of the bed, a worried look in his eyes. Taylor grinned.
"Don't worry," he whispered in his language, "I'll leave the light on for you. I'll be back later."
With that, he left the room, closing the door on the way out.
Slowly, he made his way to Avie's room.
Feeling the door handle, he turned it, and crept into the room. He chuckled a little at her sleeping position, before closing the door behind him and going over to the bed.
He knelt beside her, put the present on the floor, and leant in close to her ear. Then he blew softly into her ear to wake her up, ready to bounce back if she lashed out.
Avery
Avery's ear tickled. She could sense herself slowly waking up, but she was trying to convince herself it was a dream. Finally she realised she wasn't going to be able to kid herself, so she opened her eyes and rubbed them.
"Taylor?" she whispered, her voice groggy from sleep.
Taylor
Taylor bit his lip, deciding whether or not to go back for Flavian.
Deciding he probably should, he hid the present under her bed, leaning forward at the same time to kiss her forehead.
"Happy birthday," he whispered, "I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd wake the birthday girl up."
He tapped her on the nose, then stood up.
"Back in a moment."
With that, he left the room, heading back to his own. He saw his pet, almost asleep again, and quickly went over to him.
"Come and say Happy Birthday to Avie," he whispered.
Flavian jumped a little, got on his hand, then his shoulder. Then they both went back to Avie.
Avery
Avery gave a small smile at the sight of Taylor and Flavian. She sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes again.
"Hi again. What time is it, Tay?"
Taylor
"It's..." Taylor checked his watch as he knelt down again, "twenty- past six. Sun's just coming up."
And it was... there was just a little golden light coming from the curtains. Flavian jumped a few times on Taylor's shoulder, making him chuckle.
"He wants to say 'happy birthday' to you himself," he grinned, letting the fuzzle walk onto his hand, then setting him on Avie's lap.
Flavian managed to climb up Avie's nightdress to her shoulder, then kiss her on the neck. If he could, he would have blushed. Taylor grinned, knowing he was embarrassed.
"Cute," he whispered, scratching him under the chin.
Avery
Avery giggled. "Thank you Flavian." She took the fuzzle in her hand and petted it gently.
"And thank you Taylor. Even though you woke me up." She grinned sleepily, beginning to fell more awake.
"Let's go wake everyone else up!"
Taylor
"Wait, wait, wait..." Taylor stopped her, holding her elbow.
He waited until she sat down, then grinned.
"You might have FLavian's present, but you don't have mine."
He pulled the present out from under the bed.
"Ta da."
Avery
Avery let out a squeal as she took the present from Taylor. She carefully unwrapped it and sat looking at the box for a few seconds, before lifteing the lid and squealing some more.
Taylor
"I knew you wanted to learn, and don't call me Tayles," he grinned.
He leant forward and hugged her.
"Maybe after the charity thing tonight I'll give you a couple of lessons. Hmm?"
It was at that moment that Flavian took a peek into the box, and happened to fall in. Taylor chuckled, attempting to retrieve his squeeling pet.
"Now that's out of the way..." he began, putting him on his shoulder again, "what's say we load the super soakers and go on a waking spree?"
Avery
Avery jumped up, grabbed a jacket off her chair and put it on. She turned to Taylor, hugged him again and grinned.
"Can we start with Zac? I wanna get him back from when he did that to me last year! Come on... TAYLES!"
Avery blew a rasberry at him and grabbed his hand.
Taylor
"Careful with the ribs!" Taylor exclaimed softly as Flavian squeeled again.
Taylor glanced at him.
"You'd better stay out of the way, I know you hate water."
Flavian shivered, before Taylor took him back to his room. Setting him on the dresser, he opened his cupboard in search of his super soaker. He'd hidden it there in case something like this came up.
He found it, grabbed it, and took it back out to Avie.
Avery
"Oops, sorry Tay." She giggled and led him downstairs to Zac's room. She let him go in first and lingered behind him, still giggling softly.
"Get his head!"
Taylor
Taylor grinned, loading the soaker, then aimed it for Zac's peacefully sleeping head.
"Ready... aim..." he began.
"FIRE!"
In a split second, they both let loose and pounded Zac with water. After Zac was woken up, Taylor grabbed Avie's arm.
"Come on!" he exclaimed, their shouts no doubt waking up everyone else.
Taylor darted out into the hallway, expecting Avie to follow him, and headed straight for Ike's room. He threw the door open, didn't give him a chance to respond, and immediately soaked him like a maniac.
Avery
Avery squealed at the top of her lungs.
"WAKE UP IKE! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! WHOO HOO!" She yelled while soaking him with water. She doused his bed and then charged out motioning for Taylor to follow her.
"Come on, Tay, Jess now!"
Avery ran into Jessica's room. Surprisingly, she wasn't awake from all the noise. Taylor and her looked at each other, grinned and sprayed her from head to toe.
Taylor and Walker
"What's going on?!" came Walker's voice from down the hallway.
Taylor hesitated.
"Uh oh."
Avery
Avery hid behind Taylor and as hard as she tried not to, she felt herself burst into laughter.
"Sorry dad." She tried to stop laughing and only managing to bring it to a little giggle.
Zoe
Zoe padded out of her room after hearing all the noise.
"Happy birthday Avie!" She gave her dad a puzzled look. "Daddy, what's going on?"
Zac
"Oh not much," Zac said sarcastically, having just walking dripping water up two flights of stairs. "We were only woken up from peaceful sleepyness by a couple of cruel siblings with supersoakers at 6:30 in the freaking morning! I demand an appology. And then I demand the first shower."
Taylor and Walker
Taylor laughed at the sight of him.
"Yeah well, it's Avie's birthday. I think she deserves a bit of fun," he grinned, then turned to his father.
Walker just shook his head.
"Please, can we keep the super soakers out of the house?" he began, "as much fin as it is, we don't want someone slipping and hurting themselves. Take it outside."
"But they're not willing to go outside," Taylor pointed out with a grin, "besides, I think our work here is done."
Walker couldn't help a smile crossing his face.
"Well, seeing as Zac seems the wettest... though I'm sure I might change my mind once I see Jess and Isaac... he can have the first shower."
Taylor shrugged.
Avery
Avery just grinned mischievously. She came out from behind Taylor and faced her dad and an annoyed looking Zac.
"Yeah, Zac, go have a shower. I'm sorry. Taylor and I were just having a bit of fun."
Avery stuck her hand out to shake Zac's, if he was willing to accept her apology.
"Besides, you did this to me on your birthday."
Taylor and Walker
"Sorry Dad," Taylor said quickly as he grinned, and aimed the super soaker at Avie's back.
He pulled the trigger, and completely soaked the back of her shirt, then took off running downstairs before she got over the shock.
"TAYLOR!" he heard his father yell, and chuckled.
He knew he didn't mean anything by it, which was lucky. He guessed anyone else would have been in the deep end by now.
Downstairs, he headed for the front door. Once outside, he threw the super soaker down and whistled for a Ka'Millen. One came, and he picked it up.
"White fluffy rabbit. Pronto," he urged in it's language.
The Ka'Millen shifted shape, and Taylor waited for Avie to emerge from the house.
Avery
*JORDAN TAYLOR HANSON!* Avery boomed in his head. She'd made her voice public, so basically everyone in the Hanson household could probably hear her yelling at Taylor. *That was unfair, we were working as a team!*
Avery ran after Taylor, following him out the front door, still laughing.
Taylor
"SO WHAT?!" he yelled before she came into sight, "you're the birthday girl, you deserve it."
Then he held up the beautiful white dwarf rabbit in his hands.
"And don't even think about soaking me missy. If you do, the rabbit gets it. And I know you love rabbits, so don't even try and con me. And you know I hate telepathy too, so if you use it on me I'll get you back," he raised his eyebrows with a grin.
Avery
Avery stopped short at the sight of the rabbit.
"Hmmm..."
She frowned for a second then smiled. She ran back inside and locked the door, then ran around the house locking the rest of the doors.
Taylor
"Oh she's asking for it," he grinned.
He thanked the Ka'Millen and let it go as it turned back into their 'dog', and ran around the side of the house. Taylor made his way around the back and tried the door, which was, of course, locked.
Screwing his face up, he went around to below his window. He'd left it open for Flavian, who liked fresh air.
"FLAVIAN!" he called out in the fuzzle's language (which wa sjust mainly a series of squeeks).
The ball of fluff appeared at the window.
"BIRTHDAY GIRL LOCKED ME OUT!"
Flavian disappeared. Having this happen before, he knew what he could do for his Taylor. Taylor just sat on a nearby log to wait.
Flavian may know what to do, but it didn't make his legs any longer.
Flavian jumped from the sill landing in a pile of clothes, then shuffled to the door as fast as he could. Peeking out the doorway and seeing people walk past, he began to shuffle along the skirting boards - careful of the water on the floor.
He made his way to the back door and looked up at it, trying to remember what to do. Seeing a piece of string hanging from the door handle (there for the Ka'Millens) Flavian jumped for it, pulling the door handle slightly. It was still locked.
Slowly, he began to climb up.
Settling on the door handle about fifteen minutes after he'd left the sill, he pushed the lock down, then jumped up and down on the handle itself. The door handle went down, Flavian went flying, and the door opened.
Taylor jumped up, seeing it, and went to rescue his pet.
Avery
Avery heard the door open and realised Taylor was back inside. She went down to see him, her arms over her head.
"Ok, truce, ok?"
Taylor
Taylor, after picking Flavian up from the floor and watching him shake himself, turned to her curiously. He must have been the only person in the house - bar Zoe and their parents - who'd made it out dry. That seemed to help arous his suspicions.
His eyes narrowed.
"What are you up to?" he demanded, a slight grin on his face, "don't forget you want me to teach you harmonica."
Avie
"I won't do anything... this time. Squirt me again, and you're a dead man, Tay. Come on, let's go upstairs. I'm hungry."
Taylor
Taylor wasn't sure whether to trust her or not - one year off being a teenager and all - but decided it'd be easy to get her back for anything later on. Even if it was much later.
With a sigh, he ruffled the fur on Flavian's head, then began to follow his sister from the room.
Avery
Avery bounded into the kitchen, excited about her birthday. She poured herself a glass of milk and turned to Taylor.
"You want one?"
Taylor
"No thanks, I'll have juice," he replied, making his way to the refrigerator to get what he wanted.
After having a drink, he sighed.
"So... what's your plans for today? I'm guessing you're not going to be spending the whole day with us," he grinned.
Avery
"I don't know, might go see some friends. But you never know, I might like to spend most of the time with family. It depends what we all have planned, doesn't it?" Avery finished her milk and washed out her cup.
"When can we start with the harmonica?"
Jessica
Jessi walked dowqn into the kitchen. She was soaking wet.
"Will somebody PLEASE tell me what's going on?"
Avery
Avery grinned sheepishly. "Sorry Jess, Tay and I just got a bit excited coz it was my birthday."
She held out a plate of toast as a peace offering. "Toast?"
Jessica
"Okay, but why did I wake up all wet? How did I just wake up now?" Jess was confused, she had a feeling that something very unusal, and somewhat frightening was going on in her sleep, but she didn't want to worry her family.
Avery
Avery frowned thoughtfully. "You mean you didn't wake up coz we squirted you? Taylor and I went on a sort of rampage and shot all of you with the super soakers." On that note, Avery turned to Taylor, giggled and high fived him.
"Oh yeah, sorry. Are you ok?"
Jessica
"No, I mean, it was really weird. I knew I was asleep, but I couldn't wake up. And I'm usually a really light sleeper." Jes tried not to show how worried she was. This was the third weird thing that had happened in her sleep this week.
Avery
Avery's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Have you talked to mom and dad yet?"
She looked at Jess, wondering if maybe she didn't want to say something in front of Taylor.
*Is everything alright?* Avery thought, almost whispering so there was no chance that Taylor could accidently hear.
Jessica
Jess projected her thoughts to Avery. [I don't think so. I think there's another dreamwalker, but I don't think he's using his gifts for good., It's like] Jess searched for the right words, [it's like, i'm sleeping, and there's a malevolent presence in my dreams, and then I being died down, so I can't get up.] Jess furrowed her brow. [Don't tell anybody else, all right? Whoever it is, I'm stronger, I know it.]
Avery
*Jess... I don't like this. What if something really bad happens? Should I tell mom and dad then?*
Avery sighed out loud. *What if you're not stronger? Jess, I have faith in you, but I'm so worried.*
Jessica
"Don't worry, Avie," She said out loud, "Everything's fine." Jess smiled, and put on a surprisinly good show of being happy and unconcerned.