The Angelov Family IC

Phoenix woke up early, and stretched, trying to wake herself up with just that act. It was early, well, early for her, and she wasn't sure why she was up. What on Earth had woken her? Did she have something to do that day? No... Not besides going to the pool or going shopping. Was it a big day for someone? Not that she could think.. What day was it? Then, she smelled it. Coffee!

With an exaggerated sigh, she flung her blankets from her body, grabbed her glasses, and stood up. Someone was up, and that someone had made coffee. Whoever it was was her savior! Putting a large button down shirt on over her tank top and boxer shorts, she walked from her room and down the hall.

"Good morning!" The girl called, not knowing who was up, but someone had to be. As she walked softly from her room and down the carpeted hall, she followed her nose. She loved that smell of the coffee. And, if she was able to have some before she actually woke up, it would be the perfect day. And it was going to be the perfect day, she could tell.

As she walked into the kitchen, she didn't even notice who was in. Instead, she focused on the coffee mugs that were in the cabinet. After she had her Eeyore mug in hand, she poured herself some of the wonderful black coffee. She took a large gulp, made a face, and then got the white chocolate creamer and sugar, getting the drink prepared just right.

Ryan looked at his sister as she grabbed her mug and quickly poured herself some coffee. He had woken himself up early because he just felt the need to do something nice for her today. He ran a hand through his dyed red hair, the black underneath still showing through in select places. He was not a coffee drinker himself, so he just pulled out a stool at the island in the middle and sat down, not quite feeling the regular table this morning. He yawned and rubbed his eyes; he was not even really sure what time it was.

"Morning, sis...I hope you like the coffee..." even he could hear the fatigue in his voice. He had not really slept well in a long time, the dark circles under his eyes somewhat prominent. He looked down at his t-shirt and pajama pants to make sure he did not spill coffee or something on himself before his system was awake enough for it to hurt. Ryan tapped on the top of the spikes of his hair, it being conformed to spike for so long that it seemed to train itself to do it now. He smiled weakly, thinking about the time he can save gelling it now that it already knows what he plans for it.

"You sleep well...?" He turned around on the stool to look at Phoenix. Ryan stretched and rubbed his face, getting rid of that weird, 'your whole face itches' feeling. He thought about the iPod docked on the clock in his room, the background noise he needs to make himself fall asleep. "I didn't think anyone else would be up this early...I just figured I'd make this for you so that it was here when you did..." he blinked hard, trying to get his eyes to refocus. He knew he would be fine as soon as he ate something, but he was not overly hungry at the moment. He was more focused on his sister's replies to his questions than keeping himself from dozing off and falling off the stool.

Phoenix jumped at the sound of her brother's voice, and was glad that she wasn't holding her coffee. When she looked at her brother, she smiled sleepily and messed with her hair, actually messing it up a little more. It was something that she always did, because it didn't become the usual 'messy' instead it looked almost like it was styled to be sexy messy.

"I always love the coffee." She managed to say as she pulled a stool over to her older brother. He looked exhausted to her, which didn't really surprise her, she knew that he hadn't been sleeping well. It made her feel bad that he couldn't sleep, and yet he'd gotten up early to make her coffee, to do something nice for her.

"I did. Though you look like you didn't." She commented, nudging her brother. "Why aren't you in bed, Ry?" She asked, giving him a concerned look as she took a long slow drink of her coffee. She sighed contently and looked back at her brother. "It's not like you have anything to do today. You should be sleeping."

"Uhn...I'll be fine...I'm really glad the coffee came out well..." he yawned again, catching it in the bend of his clenched fist. His blue eyes were never bloodshot, no matter how little sleep he got, but they had a habit of stinging. Ryan gave his sister a smile, finding a little bit of energy to make it stronger than his last one. "What about you...? You don't have anything you have to do either..." as he spoke, his eyes kept trying to close, but he kept forcing them to stay open. He hoped Phoenix would not notice his fight to keep from falling back into the trap of sleep. He wanted a little bit of time alone with her before their brothers got up.

He felt his stomach hurt a little bit, likely asking for something to eat, but he ignored it for now, like he usually did. A smirk came up on the left side of his face, causing him to laugh quietly. "You know, sis...sleep is for the weak..." Ryan always liked to attempt jokes at how he was even somewhat strong, even though he knew he was not. He could not fight and he hated conflict. He felt terrible because he could not protect Phoenix the same way his older brothers could, all he could really do was talk at people.

He felt his eyes close again and did not really have the energy to fight it this time. He took a deep breath and felt his stomach rumble, still hoping Phoenix would not notice that he was ignoring all of the signals from his system to do something to keep it running. Ryan was afraid that if he did any of that now, it would waste valuable time with his sister and he did not want to do that. His head felt light and he felt a little bit dizzy, so he stood up carefully and just hugged his sister, holding on for balance at the same time. "I love you, FeFe..."

Phoenix shook her head. "I smelled the coffee." She explained, holding u the cu as she felt the caffeine taking effect. She couldn't help but laugh at her brother, trying to stay awake, and hide the fight from her. She'd known him for too long not to know that he was tired. It was like lying to yourself, when he lied to her.

"Yeah, and you are anything up weak, right, Ry?" She asked, winking at him as she took another sip of her coffee. "I'm glad to know that you aren't dying from lack of sleep, and you are remaining strong." She said, stretching slightly.

"I love you to, RyRy." She said, hugging him back before she stood up and made her way to the refridgerator. "You need to eat though, brother." She said, getting out eggs. "Plus, I'm sure that everyone else will be waking up soon."

He smiled at her as she walked over to the fridge to start getting out ingredients for breakfast. Thinking of her winking at him made him laugh a little. "You know it, FeFe...I could totally wreck a teddy bear...just let one try to beat you up..." Ryan gave a smirk and blinked a couple times, clearing the blur from his eyes. The sight of eggs made his stomach rumble for food even more and he tried to silence it. "Hey...you need any help, sis...?"

As he waited for her to answer, he turned to look out the window. The sun was casting a slightly bright illumination, considering it was only seven or eight in the morning. He ran a hand through his hair again, his eyes fighting with him to close again. Ryan could hear the birds starting to chirp outside and it made him smile weakly. He leaned his head on his hand and yawned again, his stomach starting to hurt quite badly.

Even with the stomach pain, it was not long before he had dozed off on the island. Ryan's head rested on his arms, flat on the top of the small table in the middle of the kitchen. His breathing started off into the normal pattern and his shoulders relaxed. He was happy that he got up early to do something for his sister, but it took its toll on his today. This was the first time he had lost the fight to stay awake in a long, long time.

As Phoenix was mixing the eggs and milk for scrambled eggs, she heard her brother ask if she needed help. She shook her head and kept whisking the eggs. She had the pans frying, and she planned to make a big breakfast for everyone.

Phoenix liked taking care of her family, since they took care of her. She hated for her mother to be forced to wake up to cook for four fully grown children, and she thought that it was always a good thing for her to help out when she could. Although she would admit that she would do what any seventeen year old girl would, and just leave and go out with her friends, leaving everything for everyone else.

As everything was cooking, the girl looked over to see her brother, asleep on the couch. She laughed and shook her head. Of course he had. It was a new thing, seeing him actually asleep, but she thought it was cute. When everything for him was done, she put them on a plate and brought it over to the island. "Ry, the food is done." She said quietly.

Lifting his head slowly, he took a deep back and bent back a little to try to crack his back. He looked at Phoenix, then at the food on the island in front of where his head was resting only a moment before. "Oh...thanks, FeFe...I would've helped out, you know I would've..." Ryan gave her another weak, exhausted smile as he took the fork next to the plate and looked at it. He smiled to himself and looked over at her. "I'll still help if you want...I don't wanna start without you..."

He stood up, trying to get his balance and all of his limbs out of sleep mode. He stretched out his body, various joints popping back into their regular places as he did. He held his elbow, the joint cracking there hurting more than the others did. Ryan smiled at his sister again, trying to mask that he temporarily messed up his left elbow. He felt like he must have come across as a sorry sight this morning, but he was happy it was only Phoenix that saw him. He trusted her more with that vulnerable side of himself.

Ryan kept his eyes trained on Phoenix, hoping she would tell him there was something he could do. He felt so useless letting her do everything by herself and he hated it when that happened. He tried hard to find something he could do, but the light-headedness came back and almost knocked him backwards. He did not want Phoenix to see how weak he had let himself get this morning just because he wanted to do something nice for her, so he just had to hold out until they both started eating. He was sure he could at least keep up appearances that long.

Phoenix smiled at her brother and patted his head. She knew that he wouldn't want to eat without her, so she had a plate made up for herself, so, while she was in a lull of making up their food, and she didn't have the prep for the rest of the food yet, she sat down, seeing him stretching.

"Sit down, Ryan." She said, grabbing his arm to make him sit with her. "Eat." She told him, starting on her own food. She knew her brother too well, and knew that he would try to help her with everything. He never liked her lifting a finger when he could help her.

As she ate, she watched her brother. "Why are you really up? Why aren't you sleeping?" She asked him, her eyes suspicious. "And don't use me as an excuse, Ryan, or I will have to kick your butt." She warned playfully.

Phoenix waited for her brother's answer when she heard someone else walking in. When she saw Damien, she smiled and pushed her hair out of her face. "Good morning." She said with a wave of her hand. She knew she'd taken over his job, but she didn't really feel bad about it. While she loved his cooking, she still liked to do nice things for him.

"Well, you know we don't say anything.. But.." She smiled and winked at him. "We love your cooking, but you were asleep and Ryan here, was about to pass out." She explained, kicking Ryan playfully in the shin. As she finished her breakfast, she scooted the plate across the island.

"If you are that hurt by it.. Cook me some more." She said cheerfully, giving him the most innocent look she could muster. As the baby, she usually didn't have to say much, and it was usually enough for her to get what she wanted.

The sun shone through the deep red curtains of her bedroom, finding its way into her closed eyes. Her face scrunched up slightly in annoyance, but she was well aware that it was too late. She was already awake and there was no use trying to go back to sleep. A soft sigh left the woman’s lips as she slowly sat up in bed, her firsts finding their way to her eyes where they rubbed for a moment. She blinked her chocolate brown eyes before looking around her room. She could tell it was probably still early and her children where probably still asleep. But it was her day off anyway, so that meant that when they did get up, breakfast would already be ready. It had slowly become a tradition in their home that on her day off, the kids would take over the morning duties. This was mostly on the weekends, but it was nice not having to wake up early and worry about getting everything ready for her children.

Her legs slipped out from beneath the covers, touching the cool wooden floor that was below her. A shiver made its way up her spine as she began to adjust to the cold floor. She made her way into the bathroom and began filling up the tub with warm water. About an hour later she was exiting the tub, fully awake and feeling relaxed. She brushed out her curly dark brown hair before pulling it up into a pony tail. She dressed in a pair of jeans and brown blouse that came off her shoulders. She exited her bathroom and was hit by the smell of coffee and eggs.

“Damien must be up,” she said softly to herself with a soft smile. He was the cook of the family and she couldn’t help but hope that he would end up at culinary school one day. He was that good, at least in her mind. But perhaps it was because she was his mother and mothers always thought things like that about her children. She shook her head, dismissing the fact and exited her room. She made her way down the hall, passing by the doors that belonged to each of her children. There was only one closed, Kevin’s. She paused at his door, wondering if she should wake him to make sure there was still something to eat for him.

She pulled her hand away, knowing well that if there wasn’t something left to eat, there were plenty of people to cook something for him. Though, generally, there was plenty of food for everyone to have seconds. They were definitely a food family, but that certainly didn’t mean they were larger people. Lunette was sure it had something to do with their gypsy blood or something to that extent. They were rather wealthy and successful, which she gave credit to the gypsy blood. But it didn’t hurt that her family had been rather successful and a good portion of their money had been passed down to her along with the psychology clinic that had been founded when she was just a little girl.

Lunette stepped away from her son’s door and made her way down to the kitchen. She could hear her children talking, and from the way the conversation was going, it didn’t sound like Damien had been the one to make breakfast. A soft laugh escaped her lips as she imagined his face in her mind. She knew he would more than likely be somewhat upset about not being able to make breakfast for everyone. But leave it to Phoenix to solve that problem. She shook her head as she entered the kitchen. Her hand found its way to her son’s shoulder.

“Don’t order your brother around Phoenix,” she said with a play smirk on her lips. She released her son and made her way over to the coffee pot. “However, if you aren’t planning on making some more breakfast, Damien, you can whip me something up too,” she said, turning to him for a moment to give him a soft smile. Lunette turned back to the cabinet and pulled out her favorite mug. She poured herself a cup of coffee before proceeding to pour a hefty portion of vanilla half and half into her cup. She took a sip allowing the warm liquid to make its way down her throat. She turned back to her children, her head tilting slightly to the side.

“Why are you two up so early? It’s not often that anyone beat Damien to the kitchen.” Her eyes made their way to her youngest son, Ryan. He looked worn out, like he hadn’t been sleeping. Her lip found its way in between her teeth. She was concerned, but didn’t want to push at it now. If he wanted to tell her what was going on, he would go to her at least she hoped he would. If he didn’t, she would be sure to push the subject later. She moved to one of the stoles beside Phoenix awaiting some answers and her breakfast.

Red sighed, struggling to keep his eyes open. Did they really have to drive through the night? Yeah the traffic was better, but was his health worth it? His phone buzzed, a text message from his mom who was riding with his dad in the Honda. He flipped it open, Almost there! Just a few more minutes. he read.

Good, almost there. He still wasn't happy about the move, he had sulked about it to himself all the way. He followed the moving truck that was headed to their new home as it turned onto a side street and stopped in front of a small, gray, ivy covered house. He flipped off the radio, rolled the windows up and slipped the key out of the ignition. Once standing and outside of the pick up he got his camera from the passenger seat and slung it around his right shoulder, where it usually was.

After taking a few shots of the house and his parents, Red went in to check out the house. It was small, and old, but he could live with it, he guessed. Not like he'd be here too long, once he got things in order he planned to take a year off before college to travel and photograph the world. Man, he couldn't wait to do that.

"Red," his dad barked. "Come grab some boxes and bring them in." Red walked back out, still exhausted, but helped his parents move all the boxes and furniture into the house before collapsing on the couch.

Phoenix heard her mother before she saw her, and she smiled. It was the woman's day off so she wondered what she was doing up so early. Outside, she could hear another truck at one of the smaller houses on their street and guessed that someone else was moving in.

They had bought and built their house in an area that was nice, but old. It was a large house, really beautiful. And their neighbors were always commenting on it, how lovely it was, how it made their own houses look bad comparatively. But, Phoenix liked the neighbors and people were still moving in, obviously.

"I'm not bossing him around, Mama." Phoenix said innocently as she looked at her mother, and stood up. "I was asking in a bossing tone." She corrected, before kissing her mother's cheek and going to get dressed. "I'm full anyway." She called, before she ran upstairs to the shower.

After about thirty minutes, she was dressed in a pair black shorts and a red halter top, before she hurried outside. She was awake, there was nothing else to it. The people had stopped with the noise so she assumed that they were done. Still, she walked in that direction, wanting to see which house it was.

Ryan managed to avoid the question of being awake at such an early hour long enough for their mother to distract from the situation. Smiling, he picked himself and walked over to her, giving her a weak, tired hug. "Good morning, Mama, did you sleep well...?" He felt a little bit better upon finishing his breakfast, but he sighed at Phoenix disappearing to get ready. He was probably far too clingy to his sister, but she was one of the few people he truly got along with. He looked down at himself and considered the idea that he should probably get dressed in the near future.

He smiled when Phoenix came back, but she was out the door quickly after. Ryan sighed and picked himself up lazily again, heading upstairs to throw something on quickly. He could tell, just somehow knew, that his mother worried about his crazed exhaustion level this morning. He did not really know what there was to say; he was getting close to no sleep, fairly consistently. The reason was his own demon, he refused to let it out of its cage on the people he loved, knowing all they would do was worry about him more.

After a period of probably five minutes in his room, he came down in a pair of dark tan cargo pants and a long, dark blue V-neck T-shirt. His iPod was in his left pocket with his cell phone and his right pocket held house keys and his wallet. Slipping on his black sneakers and putting his headphones in, flipping his iPod onto his playlist of MUSE and Chevelle, he went to follow after his sister. Ryan looked around for a moment when he got out of the house, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the natural light. When he finally spotted her, he ran to catch up with her, trying not to lose track of her before he could catch up.

Kevin was lousing in his bed not really wanting to get up. The food coming from the kitchen however was an obvious note that his brother was up and cooking. He inhaled deeply and smiled. Smelled good as always. He wasn't hungry through. A little odd on his part, but he just wasn't. He had been up eating last night anyway. Maybe he was still full from that. Or maybe it was just too early to be awake and hungry.

He turned over in his bed, letting his tangled odd blond hair fall into his face before he blew it out of his eyes. He curled up and closed his eyes to go back to sleep when he heard noises outside. Movers. Great. People were moving in again. He tried to use the pillow to block the noise but it didn't much work. He eventually gave up on trying to go to sleep and got up. He cleaned himself up and pulled on a nice pair of jeans and white T-shirt.

Instead of leaving the conventional way and alerting his whole family that he was awake and alive, he opened up his window. The jump wasn't too high so he risked it. He got on the window sill and leaped out of the room. He landed on his feet but nearly fell backward when pain fired up his right leg for mere seconds. Once he steadied himself once more, he started walking. He didn't know where to go, but he just wanted to walk and use the nature around him for some type of inspiration as he often did for his writing.

Through his day dreaming, he somehow ended up in the park. He blinked a few times to bring himself back to reality and looked at the scene. No one was really there. It was too early yet for people. He smiled. He liked the quite serenity when there weren't people out and about. A noise behind him though, alerted him to someone else’s presence. He pouted but shrugged it off and sat down in the dew covered grass that reflected and refracted the light from the sun.

Red looked over at his dad who was sitting next to a box debating on whether to unpack or sleep on it. "Ugh, I'm going to sleep well tonight," Red moaned.

"Better than traffic," his dad said dryly. Red nodded, traffic was one of few things that Red truly hated. He stood up, unable to sleep being that it was sunny outside.

"I'm gonna go take some shots, be back at some point," he said and started towards the door. His dad was pretty good about letting him do whatever, but his mom...

"William?" she called. She was the only one that called him by his real name, which he hated. "Do you have you cell phone? When will you be back?" Red rolled his eyes.

"Don't know ma, I have my phone, I'll be back at some point," he turned and walked out before she could get another word in. He went out and took constant pictures, the shutter never stopped clicking. He did this for fun every now and then. He walked down path in front of the house and turned right.

There was a huge, beautiful house to the right of theirs, that dwarfed it even more. He saw one girl walk out the front door and snapped a picture of her. He examined the picture on the small digital camera's screen. Pretty, he thought. He wasn't thinking about the picture either.

He took a few more shots of the house, the lighting was really good for it. In one, he caught a kid jumping out the window. He turned to see him walking away in the opposite direction and laughed a little to himself. My neighbor is a window jumper, he thought sarcastically, but he didn't really care at all. He did the same thing when Ma didn't want him going out to take night shots.

Phoenix saw someone taking her picture and frowned before he took a picture of her house, or more. Was he a paparazzo? It was strange that he was standing there alone. Usually there would be multiple people when something went down.

That made Phoenix wave at her brother really quickly before walking toward the boy. He looked like he would be just starting out, making her wonder about it. Maybe he was just an artist? She hoped.

"Nice house, isn't it?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest to watch him. "Only a few years old. Not nearly big enough for everyone." She said, before smiling. "Is there something that you wanted to see? You aren't paparazzi, are you?" She asked, sure her brother would be following.11

Red was looking through his pictures while standing on the sidewalk when he heard the voice. Immediately, he turned the color of his name... but brighter. "Nope not paparazzi... is that normal 'round here?" His Tennessee accent heavy, his voice soft. "I just moved in next door... sorry. I wasn't expecting to see anyone. I was just taking a few shots, I mean normally I don't shoot people or houses or anything, just nature. I'll go do that now. Sorry."

What did I expect? Some one not to think the new guy weird. Especially with my accent here, he shoot his head and turned off the camera, slinging it over his shoulder again. "Um, can I ask you where a good place to do that would be?" he said rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. "You know, I've never been here before."

Kevin heard her trying to walk by him unnoticed and a small grin played at the corner of his lips. He looked over at her and watched her try to creep on by. He would have normally just ignored her and continued to day dream about whatever he had decided for that day, but he knew this girl. She was one of his neighbors and he had seen her around before. There was nothing wrong with having a bit of fun.

"Hey there love. What are you up to?" he asked playfully and rolled onto his stomach so he could see her right side up. "Trying to ignore me?" he asked and gave a small pout. "I promise I don't bite friends. We are neighbors, right? I see you around my house a lot and I have seen you at school before. Your name is... Millie, right?" he asked and ran a hand through his golden hair.

He hadn't intended to be too flirtatious, but that was how he always came across to people. 'The player'. It was kinda funny though. Damien would be blamed the next day for his action since no one could tell the difference except their family. He wondered if Millie knew who he was. He could put her to The Test. That would be nice. He grinned.

Phoenix was glad to hear that he wasn't working for someone and smiled. His blush was kind of cute, mixed with his very thick Southern Accent. She smiled and looked around.

"Well, in my humble opinion, I think that my house is the prettiest thing in the town, but..." She bit her lip and thought. "The park is a pretty good place. But as long as you aren't going to sell the pictures, we aren't going to sue you." She promised.

"I'm Phoenix Angelov." She said, extending her hand. "Welcome to the neighborhood." She looked back at Ryan. "That's my big brother, Ryan." She said, nodding his way.

Ryan waved when Phoenix introduced him. He glared at the boy, worried that he would steal his sister from him and he would be left with no one to still share everything with. He sighed, realizing if something like that was going to happen, there was not really a whole lot he could do to stop it. He loved his sister and was possessive about her, but he felt like he eventually was going to get in the way of her being happy if he kept it up. He did not really know what he should do right now, because he did not want to go back to the house, but he did not know if his presence was still requested here at all.

He lowered his head and walked quietly away when Phoenix went back to focusing on the new neighbor. He walked back behind the house, finding a place with a nice clump of trees to hide in. Ryan sat down again one of the trees and hid his head in his arms, the song "What Do They Know" blaring through his headphones. His heart wrenched every time it seemed like someone was going to steal Phoenix away from him, but he figured it was about time he stopped fighting things that might make her happy. He could feel tears start to run down his cheeks and he sniffled, grimacing at his emotions.

He considered the idea that he was overreacting. That there was a chance nothing would ever happen and everything would be fine. But he could not reconcile with himself that that was how things would go. Ryan would not let himself believe that this new guy did not already have the intent of stealing his closest friend from him and leaving him completely alone. As he sat with eyes closed, he felt himself become dizzy and fought to keep consciousness, but ended up crying himself to sleep in his wooded hiding place.