A Birth day

Ruby focused on placing sevrl more peices as Aria placed down her cards and won a game with Marcus . She just smiled and waitied while he spoke to Evan about his training. She gathered the cards again and shuffled them before placing them down on the table and turnng to Look at them all as Evan spoke.

" I could get to that washing , will be done tonight" she said standing " I don't mind before you ask" she said and walked to where the bags sat, taking out the laundry she placed them into the large washer in the laundry room and set it going. Returning she smiled " what? I lived with guys before, I know what there like and I have been threw trainning, every little help, helps." she said smiling as she sat back down again.

Ruby smiled as she placed another peice " She has a point." Ruby said and chuckled

"Thank you," Evan said. "And you're right. Every little thing does help."

"Did you ever open that package you got this morning?" Tara asked Evan.

"What package?" Evan asked.

"Someone dropped off a package today just a bit before lunch time," Edward told Evan. "It was addressed to you. It's on the coffee table on our side."

"Hm..." Evan said, getting up. He went to get it, and brought it back and opened it. He took out a letter and read it. "Seriously? Homework? No one said anything about ruddy homework." In the box, he removed five identical, thick books entitled A Wizard's Guide to Wilderness Survival. "There are five copies here. One for me and one for each of the kids. We're supposed to read these--whether we return tomorrow to Colorado or not." Marcus had to laugh.

"Evidently, you're going to be doing more field work when you get back," Marcus said. Evan put the books on the floor, determined on not getting into them tonight. And as soon as he laid them on the floor, the books started to growl at him.

"What in the world..."

"Best find out what they want, Boy," Edward told Evan, laughing. "Sounds to me like they think you should be on your homework straight off." Angus accio'd a leather belt from his closet, and when he went over to the books, they began to snap and bark at him, like a pack of angry dogs. Marcus got up and slipped up behind one of the books and put his foot down on it to weight it shut.

"Well, I could do that," Tara said. She put her foot on another, and Angus took the two that they'd weighted down, and soon, they had all five books closed, stacked up and Angus wrapped the belt tightly around them and fastened it, successfully containing all five copies, despite the fact that they were all still growling.

"They'll keep til morning," Angus told Evan, "but then I think you lot should get on it."

Aria nodded " its nothing" she said and smiled sitting down and dealing out a second hand but at the sound of a pack of dogs she looked up and chuckled " wow angry book" she said chukaling as they all got up and caught one book each, She watched as they tied them closed even Ruby chuckled .

"oh I would get those done asap" she said glancing at the tied pile of books " shouldn't take too long, I had a whole pile more from Owens to read." Ruby said and chuckled. " okay does any one want a fresh coffee?" she asked standing and walking over to the kitchen to put a new pot on for every one.

"That would be good," Angus said when Ruby asked about coffee.

"Why not?" Edward said.

"I can always drink coffee," Marcus said. "Something I picked up from Khaat and her love of French roast coffee. I must say, you buy a much better blend of coffee, Angus."

"That's because I think standard French roast is bitter," Angus said. "I like dark roast coffee, but I don't think it is necessary that it is bitter. The coffee I buy for this house is a really dark roast, but it's smooth and not bitter at all."

"Is it really a dark roast?" Simone asked.

"Yes," he said.

"I've always liked your coffee over here but I could never figure out what was so different about it," she said. "You might have to buy the coffee for our place too."

"I have several large 5 pound cans in the pantry. Take one," he told her.

"I think you might as well pour coffee for everyone, Ru," Angus told her, as he saw the cookie plate levitate and start to float towards the basement stairs. "Ruby--grab those cookies," Angus told her. "If they want some, they can come and get some, not swipe the whole plate."

Ruby chuckled nd set about putting the coffee on for eery one hearing Marcus tlk to Angus about coffee Ari chukled and nodded " its not coffee unless you can taste the bean" she said looking at them both " what, I've had Colombian coffee from the Huila region to Arabica Typica from Martinique, but I can say nothing beats the french roast it is absolutly the darkest roast of all." she said placing a card down as she played Solitaire again.

Ruby chuckled and looked to Angus as he spoke " okay" she said and picked up the tray walking with it over to the table and placing it down as the kettle boiled and she returned to make the pot. Walking around she refilled every ones cup and set the pot down next to the cookies.

"Did you expose her to all that gourmet stuff?" Evan asked Angus.

"No," Angus said, "well, not that particular stuff, anyway," Angus said. "She's allowed to like Columbian coffee. It's alright. It just isn't my particular favorite. We do disagree on some things."

"And, so, now that you've made that comment, I have to ask. What's your favorite?"

"Columbian is alright. It isn't bad coffee, but my personal preference is pure, 100% Hawaiian Kona, in just about any roast, but I like the dark roast best," Angus said. "It's very expensive, though. It's over $50, or 40 pounds, for just a single pound of pure Kona. I don't buy it very often."

"You can afford it," Edward said. "If you like it, buy it."

"So we can drink it too," Evan teased.

"Oh, I see your plan now," Angus said.

"Subtle, isn't he?" Edward laughed. "Thanks, Ruby." He was just about to pick up his cookie when he saw Finn swipe a cookie off the plate. "Finn, you naughty boy."

"He doesn't normally do that," Angus said. Marcus got up and went over to his bowl.

"Well, he apparently didn't get any supper tonight," Marcus said. He put some kibbles in the dog bowl, and Finn went over to it to ate.

"Sorry. Forgot," Angus said.

"That's okay. Finn took care of it himself, although, not the way we'd have had him do it," Marcus replied.

Ruby laughed and looked to Aria " Aria said that not me" she chuckled as Aria looked at Angus and shrugged " hey if you ask I got to say" she said grinning at them both then sat listening to them both talking about coffee then she laughed seeing Finn take a cookie standing Aria moved to find the kibble taking some she pored it into his bowl " there thats better for you" she said rubbing the dogs head as she passed him and went back to sit facing Marcus again.

Ruby sat and listened to Angus and Evan and chuckled as Evan tried to perswade to get Hawaiian Kona coffee. " hum would make a change but an expencive one" she said smirking teasingly at Angus " I have nver trie that one yet" Ruby said as she sliped another peice of the jigsaw in its place. " Angus is ther estill some home made ice cream in the freezer?" she asked " we could make some ice cream sandwiches, I saw some wafers in the pantry."

"Should be," Angus replied to Ruby. "I think there's some French vanilla, some chocolate, and, maybe some pistachio, but not a lot of any of them. The kids most of it, including all the strawberry. There's enough for quite a few ice cream sandwiches though. And it might keep the kids from eating any snack in the pantry that isn't nailed down."

"I confess to eating my share and someone else' of the pistachio," Marcus said. "I rather like that one."

"I can make more," Angus said. "Eat what you like."

"Those boys are hollow from the toes right on up," Edward laughed. "They certainly know how to pack away the food--like every other healthy teen ager. That'll ease up in a couple years, though."

"Robert will run it off them," Angus said. "Let them fuel up while they can. They're going to be transformed into some decent athletes by the time snow comes again."

"Hey," Sam came in. "Got anything to eat? We're hungry."

"See what I mean?" Edward said. "Hollow, all four of them. What do you want to eat?"

"We thought about ordering a pizza," Sam said.

"At this hour? And in this storm? No. Not happening," Angus said. "Have a little heart for the poor sot who has to come out in this weather to bring it to you. We have food here. Cook something."

"Cook? Me?" Sam frowned. "I don't cook."

"You need to learn," Edward said.

"Good idea," Angus said. "Sam, you and Victor are on breakfast duty tomorrow morning. Figure it out."

"What! What'd we do? What are we being punished for?" Sam was upset.

"Nothing. You need to learn, though. Just don't poison anyone," Angus said.

Ruby laughed and pulled out the ice cream and the wafers placing some ice cream between the wafers she then dipped them into some melted chocolate and placed them on a plate to cool "Come get an ice cream wafer" she said and chuckled as she sent two over to Angus and Evan one vanilla and one pistachio with two cups of fresh coffee. " enjoy guys" she said as she continued to make and dip the wafers once all the ice cream was gone she sent two over to Marcus and Aria one chocolate and one pistachio.

Aria looked at the two on the plate and then to Marcus " so, which one do you want?" she asked smiling not bothered by which ever one he wanted as she liked both flavours.

"Thanks," Marcus said.

"Those look great, Ruby," Evan said, taking one.

"Good idea, Ruby," Marcus said, taking the vanilla one.

"And that gets rid of those small amounts of flavors. I'll make some fresh ice cream tomorrow. Sam, take a wafer for each of you before they all melt," Angus said. Sam took six of the wafers and disappeared back downstairs.

"That boy just looked like he was in a fair panic," Edward laughed.

"He is," Angus said. "If he thinks he's ready to fight werewolves and vampires and trolls, he needs to figure out how to assemble a simple meal."

"You know what we're going to get," Edward laughed. "Slices of apples and a jar of peanut butter."

"They'd better do better than that, or that's what they'll get for supper tomorrow night," Angus said.

"Would you do that?" Simone asked.

"Yes. He would," Marcus laughed. "He's making a point. They want to be treated like adults. And if that's the case, then they need to take on some of the responsibilities of it."

"And that's a fair point," Edward said. "So what if the girls cook, and not the guys?"

"Then the guys will be on supper duty where I can see who's in the kitchen," Angus said. "I don't care if they serve sandwiches or bowls of cereal. They're plenty old enough to serve something."