Careless and Reckless — Chapter 13

"No it's mine!" Are the first words I hear as I step inside his house. A little blonde boy—no more than maybe eight or nine years of age—runs past me with a small auburn haired boy in tow. The blonde boy appears to be holding something and the auburn haired boy is chasing after him, his small fists raised, I'm not going to lie it's adorable.

There is a scuffling sound from behind them and soon an older looking woman comes into sight, her face is riddled with lines and her eyes have massive bags beneath them, showing her age and most likely a huge lack of sleep. Her salt and pepper hair is messily tied into a bun and she has a frustrated look on her face. She crosses her arms over her chest and speaks in a loud, firm tone, "Noah, Carter! What do you two think you're doing? Stop running this instant, you're going to ruin the house. I don't think you'll both want to have to clean it all up."

Both little boys immediately stop in their tracks and spin around. They both look scared of the woman, the tone she used clearly worked.

"But he stole my toy!" The auburn haired boy whined.

She gives him a stern look. "I don't want to hear it Carter. Both of you go to your rooms now," she says firmly, pointing towards a long corridor.

"Yes Anna," they both say in unison, their stares concentrated on their feet. The blonde boy, Noah I'm assuming, is first out closely followed by Carter.

Anna turns around to face us, her features softening when she does. "Ah Wyatt you're back. Did Cat enjoy his walk?" she asks warmly. I have a feeling she has a soft spot for the dog. As she says this Cat runs past Wyatt towards Anna, hopping around her in glee. Yep, I have a feeling she's his favourite as well.

Anna let's out a light laugh before her eyes finally settle on me. "And who's this young lady?" She questions, her tone indifferent. It's going to be hard to win her over, I'm sure.

Wyatt replies before I can. "This is Aurora, she's tutoring me in maths."

She gives me a once over before returning her full attention back to Cat and walking away with him, not bothering to respond. Okay, she's definitely not an easy one to please.

"Who was that?" I ask Wyatt as I follow him though his mansion.

"That's Anna, she's our nanny I guess you could say. Our parents aren't around much so they hired her to take care of us. She's been around since Nathan was born so she's like family," he replies with a shrug.

"Aww, the big bad boy needs a nanny?" I can't help but tease.

He shoots me a glare for that but doesn't respond, instead his face takes on a stony expression as he continues to lead me through the place until we get to a room that I can only assume to be his. "Make yourself at home," he says, gesturing to his room as he walks to a corner, towards his school bag. I casually make my way towards his desk as he fishes out a textbook and some paper before walking over to me.

"Alright," he begins, "teach me your ways."

I chuckle at him before opening up his textbook and going through one of the topics.

~*~*~

When Wyatt said he was bad at maths I guess I never actually registered how bad he could be. Seriously, he barely had his mind wrapped around the concept of BIDMAS and that junior school level. God knows why he's taking it for A-level he's practically at the same stage as your average ten year old. All I'm saying is that I've definitely got my work cut out for me. I've got to teach him about seven years worth of material in the space of a few months. Pray for me.

After my atrocious findings and a failed tutoring session I can honestly say that I'm knackered and it's only about one in the afternoon. I never thought tutoring could be this exhausting. I've taught people in the past and they've never been this much effort. Believe it or not I actually did tutoring as my volunteering for my D of E. Call me a maths nerd but it was way better and easier than other things I could've done.

"Alright I think we're done for today," I say with a sigh.

Wyatt nods and begins to pack away his things. I'm about to leave his room when I hear him call out after me. "Wait, aren't you going to stay for lunch?"

As I'm in the process of shaking my head my stomach rumbles and Wyatt smirks a victorious smirk.

"Isn't this what happened last time you were here? I offer you food and even though for some reason you want to decline your stomach agrees with me and you end up staying."

Before I can reply to his comment he has grabbed my wrist and is tugging me out of his room and down the stairs. I guess I'm having lunch with the Kings. This should be fun—note the sarcasm.

"Daniel Percival King sit down this instant!" I hear Anna snap from atop the stairs.

I walk–more like am dragged–into the dining room and see a boy maybe twelve or thirteen with light brown hair, styled into a quiff, and deep-set light blue eyes smirking cheekily at Anna whilst she glares at him.

His smirk soon turns into a scowl, however, as he says, "I've told you so many times to not call me by my full name, you know I hate it. Just call me Dan like everyone else."

"Well if you stopped being such a brat I wouldn't have to call you that. Now sit down," Anna retorts, that woman has a strong backbone.

The scowl doesn't leave Dan's face but he complies and sits down without another word. Damn, Anna really knows how to control these kids, good on her.

Wyatt leads me to a chair next to him at the table and it is at this point that Anna turns her attention to us. "So you're staying for lunch?" she asks, her voice void of any emotion, it's always like that whenever she speaks to me. I nod. "I thought so, this one wouldn't understand maths if it smacked him across the head with a lead pipe."

Everyone at the table laughs at the comment except for Wyatt who merely scowls. I take this moment to look at everyone at the table. There is of course Dan; there's also the two young boys from earlier and they're accompanied by a small blond girl with curly honey blonde hair and doll-like sapphire blue eyes. She has a cute button nose, high cheekbones and a bright smile on her face, I think she's one of the cutest children I've ever seen.

Across from them are a boy and girl who look to be the same age as Hugo and Alice, most likely twins as well. They both have jet black hair, hazel eyes and slightly tanned skin. I think it's safe to say that they don't look much like the rest of their family but they still both carry the good-looking gene nevertheless.

As I finish scanning the people around me I hear Anna mutter, "Where in Gods name is Nathaniel," angrily under her breath. Just as she says this footsteps start to thunder towards the dining room. Soon two boys are at the entrance. Nathan and a boy I've never seen before but he looks to be about two or so years older than myself. He has pale blonde hair, grey eyes and strongly chiselled features, of course like everyone else in this family his is ridiculously good looking. It's so unfair how other worldly this family looks, it puts the rest of the world to shame.

"Nathaniel," Anna snaps, "what on earth took you so long, your food is getting cold and Zackary why didn't you tell me you were here? How long ago did you get back?"

They both gulp and visibly wince at her harsh tone but it's Nathan who answers. "Sorry Anna, we were playing this new game that I just got today and lost track of time. Zack only got here this morning and we just had to start the game right away, again we're so sorry," he says in such a polite manner, kiss-arse. Anna seems to have everyone wrapped around her little finger, even the dog worships her.

She nods at them, clearly smug about how terrified they both were and motions them to sit down opposite Wyatt and I. Anna leaves the room and everyone begins to dig into their meals. Nathan immediately notices me and smiles. "Ari, nice to see you again. I'm surprised to be honest, usually my brother doesn't bring girls home but when he does it's just a one time thing." I blush at his statement and shake my head furiously at him.

"It's not like that at all," I say defensively "I'm–" I start but I suddenly freeze up when I notice that everyone's eyes are on me. Fuck. I hate being the centre of attention, make it stop, please make it stop.

Luckily, Wyatt notices my sudden quietness and steps in for me, thank heavens. "It's true Nathan, it's not like that. She's just tutoring me, we all know I suck at maths."

Nathan eyes us both sceptically but let's the matter drop and goes back to his food. I'm about to eat as well but stop when I hear another voice speak. I look up and find that the blonde boy is staring at me. "And who might you be?" He asks politely.

"I'm Aurora but everyone calls me Ari," I tell him shyly, considering I don't know him.

"Well Ari, it's lovely to meet you I'm Zack and may I just say that you look absolutely beautiful today," he smiles at me whilst saying this and his unexpected compliment makes my cheeks turn a deep shade of red.

"Thank you," I respond timidly, not knowing what else to say.

"Ignore my brother," Wyatt says loud enough for everyone to here. "He flirts with anything that breathes, don't let him get to you."

Zack scowls at him but everyone else laughs, including me.

~*~*~

After lunch I finally make my way to leave. I bid everyone goodbye, quite quietly because I still don't know them, and head towards the front door. As I'm walking down the driveway a hand grabs onto my wrist, forcing me to stop before spinning me to face them. I'll give you three guesses as to who it is.

He leans down so he's breathing in my air. "No goodbye?" He asks.

"I-I didn't realise, I'm sorry," I say breathlessly, unable to speak properly this close to him.

"Don't apologise, it doesn't help with the whole 'I don't give a shit' persona that you're going for," he whispers, making me laugh quietly.

I nod in response, making a mental note not to apologise so much, he is right in the sense that I do it a lot.

"See you soon, green eyes," he whispers huskily into my ear before spinning me around once again so I'm facing the way I was before. I turn back to catch a glimpse of him but he's no where to be seen, odd. I shake off the weird feeling I'm getting and start the walk to the park before deciding that I should probably finish what I started and jogging home.

I don't pay much attention to my music as I jog, my mind is too preoccupied with today's events, especially what just happened as I was leaving. My body shivers slightly at the thought so I shrug away the memory and continue my journey home.

What a day.