Terrence moved slowly, watching where he placed his feet. He didn’t want to step on those certain floorboards that squeaked and risk scaring the small girl. He quietly picked his way across the floor, and stopped at the edge of the child’s bed. Gently, he placed a hand on her shoulder, and for a moment, his eyes became locked on the stark contrast of their skin tones. She was very light in color, almost a peachy shade. He was dark in tone, close to the color of chocolate. He smiled at this.

“Rosie,” He said, voice barely above a whisper. “It’s almost daylight. Time to get up, kiddo.” The girl turned over to face him, her blind eyes staring at nothing.

She sinabi nothing as she sat up, stretching and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her feet dangling quite a ways above the floor. She sat there while Terrence retrieved her shoes and socks. He moved back to where the girl sat, slipping her socks onto her small feet, then her shoes. He tied the laces in a messy, double knotted bow before standing. He hooked his hands under her arms, and picked her up off the bed, propping her on his hip.

    They proceeded down the hallway, turning into the room adjacent to Rosie’s room. He stopped in the doorway, taking a bit less care with these two. “Noah, Natalie, it’s almost daylight, get up and get dressed!” He called, and two twins woke with a start. They opened their mouths to protest, but then snapped them shut when they saw who was standing in the doorway. They scampered out of bed, pulling on their clothes and shoes.

Terrence turned, and almost collided with Daemon, who was coming out of Heather’s room. “You wake her already?” He asked and his brother nodded.

    “Just got James left, and then we can get moving.” Daemon said, moving around his brother to go into the last room. sinabi brother made his way to Heather’s room, leaning against the doorframe on the side of his body that didn’t support a still sleepy Rosie. The girl was pulling on her shoes, already dressed. At a cough from Terrence she looked up.

    “Good morning.” She sinabi with a smile, rising from the kama and walking over to Terrence, taking Rosie from his arms to dress her.

    “How’d you sleep?” Terrence asked her, covering his eyes with his hand as Heather stripped the small girl of her pajamas in favor of pants and a shirt.

    “I slept fine. I’m assuming you didn’t?”

    “Not a bit.” At this, Heather sighed.

    “Terrence, that’s not good for you. You really can die from exhaustion…” She warned. Terrence sinabi nothing until Heather pulled his hand from his eyes. “What exactly would you expect Daemon to do without you?”

    “Exactly what he’s doing now. Learning to survive as an imperfect in this ‘perfect’ world.” He spat the word ‘perfect’ from his mouth like it was a mapait taste. He hated that word, and the people who used it. “He’s going to have to learn to live without me guiding him all the time anyway, Heather. It’ll do him some-” He stopped short at a tug to shirt. He looked down to see James, shoes on the wrong feet, sando on backwards, and thumb stuck in his mouth. His bright green eyes sparkled, and without using words he seemed to say: “Look, I dressed myself!”

    Terrence laughed, and bent down to remove the three-year-old boy’s shirt, and put it on him correctly. He sat the boy down and fixed the problem with his shoes as well, then picked him up. When everyone was dressed and gathered in the hallway, Terrence spoke. “Bow your heads.” He said. He waited for everyone to do so before continuing. “Lord, we thank you for sending your son to die for us, and for every time you have blessed us in the past. We pray this araw will ipakita us kindness, and we will live to see tomorrow. Amen.” He finished and looked back up. “Well, let’s get going.”