Inhaling the delicious aroma of omelets on his frying pan, he took a deep breath and shouted his favorite morning greetings.
"Laura! Breakfast is ready!" Then, the corner of his mouth suddenly twitched upward. Although only a few days passed since he moved away from the orphanage to his new house in Beverly Hills; he felt that he has been moving from there ages ago.
"Comin!" Came her reply from upstairs, followed by giggling and some commotion caused by her and the other girls.
Then came Laura, Drew, Jolie, Milla, Annie, and Melissa who quickly grabbed their plates and took their shares of bacon and egg.
By then the kitchen was now in a full house. The boys were busy chatting about boys things such as cars and games, especially how would modify his new old mustang car, and they wanted to take part in her restoration.
Robin was busy with her breakfast, eating messily like a swine. Ione was berating her for her inappropriate eating manner while also helping her correcting her attitude. The fact that she had a good table manner when they had dinner last year showed she was just craving for Ione's attention.
The last was Jessica, she should not be here today because she was supposed to go to her parents in Philadelphia; but there she was, inside his house, eating his breakfast.
"At last, the grumpy man has finally smiled," Jessie said with her chin rested on both of her hands at the table and directed her 'earnest' smile at him.
Everyone was giggling at him so he just rolled his eyes at her.
Then he sharpened his gaze at this freeloader who he thought always came not only in the orphanage but also in his new house for a free breakfast and said,
"Jessie, what are you doing here? I thought you were going home to your parent?"
"Yep, the flight will be at 3 this evening. I came here to check on something."
"Check on something huh?" He repeated with a mocking tone. "You can just tell me the truth that you were addicted to my cooking and decided to choose the late flight so you can eat breakfast here?"
"Heh! He got you there Jess." Mary's voice suddenly came from the kitchen entrance. She wore a matching set of colorful leotards and thighs that hugging tightly her curvaceous body.
Beads of sweat ran down from all over her body showed she was serious about maintaining her figure. It was also proven that these horny dogs' eyes hooked at her from the moment she entered the kitchen. Is that a drool on River's mouth? He thought he should teach River about self-control or else his dating life with Laura would go very badly.
Mary came behind Jessica, hugged her, and rested her chin on Jessica's head. Jessica leaned her head and rested it on Mary's ample bosom. Al was sure that every male in this room envied Jessica's head right now.
Jessica grinned sheepishly. "Busted, seriously, you made such a great househusband, If I was a rich woman, I will have my knee on the ground and propose."
"Thanks for the compliment and no thanks for your offer. And I've told you before Jessie, if you want to be a rich woman, work for me and I'll put you on the list of Forbes top 300."
"I can't wait for that day will happen," Jessie said. She suddenly grinned and nudged Mary who was on her back with her elbow. Both of them then grinned,
"What is it?" Al asked.
"I heard from darling Mary that you'll be meeting your future in-laws tomorrow! So I also came here to see your last happy face, Al." Jessica laughed followed by everyone else in the room.
"Laugh it all you want everyone, I'll make sure you get coals for your Christmas presents." The kids immediately shut their mouths after hearing his threat.
But after a few moments passed, the kitchen was full of laughter again following the moment when he started to laugh at his joke.
As usual, John came from the front door after patrolling around the house in searching for paparazzi or any reporters. He was carrying today's newspaper and joined the breakfast. He also told him the summary of the newspaper.
There's a lot of news about him releasing his book followed by the long line that occurred in Venice Beach because of the book signing featuring him.
Everyone got curious and passed the newspapers that John carried so they can read the article. There's a lot of amazement and astonished sound coming from them as they read the news about him.
"Ah before I forgot, Al. The patrolling officer caught some paparazzi wandering near the house and some of the neighborhood. They've taken care of it."
"Again? How many of them this week, three?" Al asked with a tired voice.
"Five," John answered.
Al sighed while everyone was surprised that the number. They thought that these paparazzi were so fast to find his new house like a shark smelling blood.
"So much for privacy here. I thought Beverly Hills supposed to be paparazzi-free zone." He mumbled.
"Not only that," John said and he took out supermarket gossip tabloid, opened up a few pages of the magazines, and gave him the page he was looking for.
"This, this is the photos of my house and the orphanage?"
"Your house address is stated very clearly here. Luckily the orphanage was far from any famous street so the address was never mentioned. They thought that you already get out of the orphanage the moment you have starred in <E.T.> So they never expect you still live there until a few days ago. Not to mention that since everyone knew you wrote those books, they are more and more thirst for your information."
"What!?" It was Mary's turn to surprise. "But how? We already spent so much money to maintain this house and the orphanage's secrecy as tight as possible."
"They are really persistent, Mary," John answered.
"So, what's your suggestion, John?" Al asked.
"I don't know, maybe, increase the security around your house, or move to a neighborhood with more privacy than here. There's a lot of options. Or wait for the construction of your new house in Malibu to finish. Your new mansion in Malibu was out of reach from everywhere and the only way to take a picture is by only renting a helicopter."
Al hummed, the construction of the Point Dome Mansion would be finished at least another two or three years max but would he be patient to wait until then?
"John, can we still have contact with your friends?" He said. He knew John's friends were people who were from the navy like him.
"Yes, why?"
"I have a job offer to them."
After Mary finished her breakfast, she and Jessica stood up. "Al, could you take kids back home? I have a meeting with the board about the film distribution right now. There's also a Christmas Eve party between the producers guild this evening. Tell Kate I'll be coming late tonight."
"Party? Are you going alone?"
"No, I'll come with Jodie. Bye champ." She said and kissed him and his foster siblings on their forehead.
She left with her back showed to the rest of the kitchen resident and they saw that her hips swaying graciously and her ass jiggled up and down as she walked. The males widened their eyes and the females stared in jealousy, except for Robin who licked her lips.
"Man, sure anyone who becomes her husband is a lucky bastard. She's smart, beautiful, confident, witty, and caring." Anthony suddenly said.
"Or her wife..." Al added.
"Yes, her wif-what?" Anthony jerked his head in surprise at him, so was everyone else.
Al just smirked and leaving them flabbergasted.
Jessica looked at his eyes for a moment and decided to ask him the million-dollar question, "Jodie? Al, is she?" Her question stopped in the middle but everyone who had an adult mind knew the rest of the question.
"I don't know Jessie, I don't know." He said and looked over the window to see the sun peeking from the horizon.
~~~
After he dropped the kids back at the orphanage, he went to the mall and wearing his usual disguise. He and his friend decided to go on the Christmas present shopping spree and looking out for gifts for their families.
The mall was overcrowded with people who wanted to buy Christmas presents, so Al and his friends decided to split up.
There's a lot of things he needed to buy for the kids, his friends, and also Gwen and her family. Robin decided to tag along with him, telling him that if she followed Ione, she would know what she would give to her.
"So whatcha gonna buy?" Robin said while happy skipping beside him.
"A lot of presents. There's a present for mom, Mary, Toby, Laura, Jon, Annie, Melissa..."
"Okay okay, I get it, you want to buy a present for everyone. ED, you are rich right, why don't you made a list and ask someone to buy it?"
"It's a tradition for me to buy the present by myself. I'm not too busy at the moment. You know when we are graduated from high school and became an adult, times like this will be very rare. There will be college, my company that still needs to be taken care of, a film project I will star in or direct. We are still a child in the eye of law Robbie, so why don't we just enjoy this little thing."
"Enjoy the little things." She repeated with a low voice. "You are right, let's sneak to the mall broadcast system and tell them that 1987 will be the end of the world." She grinned evilly.
She turned away from him and before she could go away, he grabbed her hood and held her in her space.
"Al." She moaned.
"Be nice Robbie, there's a lot of things for me to buy and I don't want this Mall closed because of one of your pranks, understand?"
"Spoilsport." She mumbled and pulled her hood from his grip.
"Okay, first thing first, as gratitude for accompanying me to buy my gifts, let's get your presents for Ione and your parent. Do you know what things that they might like?"
"Why do I need to give my parents a Christmas present? They could buy anything they like with their money." She argued.
"Robin, it's not about the gift but the thoughts that count. When was the last time you give a present to your parent?"
Her silence answered his question and he could feel her guilt creeping up within her. She never bought gifts for her parents, whether it was Easter or Christmas. Even she never sent cards or wished for them. She thought that it was unnecessary because her parents can get whatever they want with their money and Robin felt there's no need to give them anything.
But after hearing Al was giving his family a present every year, she suddenly ashamed for herself.
"Oh, Robbie." He patted her head and she squirmed under his touch. He grabbed her hand and dragged her along with him. "Let's go, we'll find a nice gift for them."
She nodded and just followed him without muttering any words.
A few hours later, Al and Robin came out of the who knows how many stores they visited with a mountain of plastic bags and boxes filled their arms.
"Al, you asshole, I didn't know you need to buy gifts this much. If I knew you are going to buy this much, I'll never tag along with you." She said with an exasperated sigh. She could get mad and threw a tantrum at him but after helping her choosing gifts for Ione and her parents, her anger turned into happiness instantly. She can't wait to give him a surprise Christmas present tomorrow.
"Too late for regret my dear Robin." He grinned, "Anyway, the last stop is a book store."
"There's more!?" Her face was a mixture of surprise and annoyance. "Al, it's so heavy." She whined with a high cute tone.
Al chuckled hearing her cute whine, "Okay, okay, let's go to the parking area to put these gifts first."
John who was waiting at the mall entrance saw how big the pile of gifts and suddenly, his face turned ugly but he still came to them and helped them carry their gifts.
"John, can you carry all the gifts Robin brought?" Then he turned to Robin, "Robbie, you can go to the bookstore first while I and John take this to the car."
"Finally, my hands are so fucking sore." She gave all the gifts to John and started to walk away from them.
"Well, at least you have a rack to keep those gifts from falling." He teased.
Still having her back at him, she gave him a double middle finger and leaving him there with John. He shook his head at her and signaled John to follow him.
After he put all the gifts inside the car, he went back to the mall and found out there was a commotion that occurred near the entrance.
He passed through the crowd to see a man was arguing about something with a girl. Although she had her back at him and the crowd disturbed his vision, he fully recognized that look. Those purple streak on her hair and that oversized hoodie.
Al sighed and slapped his head. Of course, why the hell he just left Robin alone without supervision. He should find Ione first and handed over Robin to her.
He penetrated the wall of the crowd until he could finally reach her position. He grabbed her elbow, turned to the angry man, and said, "Sorry bro, she's with me."
That man was so surprised at his arrival and before he could say anything, Al ran away from the crowd while dragging Robin along with him and leaving the crowd with the trail of her scream.
As they reached the book store and seeing nobody following them, he started to berate her for her foolishness, "I swear that I could never leave you alone for five fucking minutes! What the hell did you do to make that man angry... oh shit." He suddenly stopped scolding her as he finally realized his blunder.
Robin(?) still had a surprised look on her face. Her small hand squirming under his hard grip, her bob-cut hair(?) with streaks of purple and blue(?) looked like it was rising in fury. Her small frame trembling whether because of fear that she has been pulled forcefully here or maybe it was anger because she has dragged away from her prey.
"Who the fuck are you!!" They both said in unison.
"ED?" Came 'real' Robin's voice from the book store entrance. "Who's your new girlfriend?" She asked with a shit-eating grin look.
Al looked at Robin and the girl he dragged here and found a resemblance between them. They both had the same dressing style, gothic style. While Robin had a curvaceous body, this girl had a petite and cute frame that made everyone want to protect her but her goth and boyish look repelled that feeling.
Currently, Robin and this new girl were glaring at each other and after a few moments passed, both of them shook their hands and nodded at each other.
"Okay, what happened and I'm confused." He uttered.
To Be Continued...
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