ADVENTURES AT THE BLAKE ESTATE PART FOUR

I ended up spending the night at Neil's. His father insisted, and, when I called Grandma to make sure it was alright, she reminded me not to get pregnant until I was married, but I was free to experiment until then.

Another bed was brought into Neil's room, because guys don't share the same bed, and, after several virtual reality games (they were so cool) we went to bed.

Or so we tried. Geoffrey refused to allow a man and a woman to share a room. It didn't matter how often I tried to tell him that I was a guy. He wouldn't listen. He slept on the floor between us.

Ishtar came in next, saying that if Geoffrey was going to sleep with me, she was going to too. She grabbed a pillow and fell asleep instantly beside me. Of course, as a girl, I had no problem with this. My friends and I shared a bed all the time. But, as a 'man,' I was looked on with curious eyes by Neil, who began to speak, then said, "Never mind. I know you won't do anything to her."

At about three in the morning, Raymond, tugging on the hem of Butterfly's grey pajamas, came in, saying he was lonely. Since getting into Neil's bed would have been an acrobatic feat, for one would have had to jump over Geoffrey, lying sprawled in the weirdest of angles, Neil's oh-so-adorable little brother climbed into my bed.

Squished between Ishtar (who kept trying to hug me) and Ray, I didn't get much sleep. Finally, I drifted off for about two hours, and Ray woke us all at six with a family sized box of Cheerios.

"Ray?" Neil sat up in his giant bed. "What are you doing?"

"Look, Neil, you can lower your cholesterol." Ray said, pointing excitedly to the box. "Cholesterol. That's a bad thing, right."

Neil smiled and ruffled his brother's hair. "Yeah. Thanks for thinking about me."

"You have high cholesterol?" I asked.

Neil shook his head when Ray wasn't looking. "Where did you find this?" He asked.

"Butterfly took me to the grocery store." Ray said proudly as Butterfly stood silently in the corner. "Did I do good?"

"You did well." Neil corrected. "But you know father hates it when we eat foods not prepared by our chefs. I don't think he'll let us have it."

"I guess you're right." Ray said sadly. "I'll go feed it to the Jackson."

"Jackson?" I asked.

"It's his peacock." Ishtar replied, wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"And why can't you eat the Cheerios?" My question hung in the air for a long time before Neil decided to answer it.

"It's our mother." He said. "She was poisoned. Now all food is prepared by our own chefs."

Way to set a great morning mood, Nathalie. I thought. I bet they're all going to be cheery today.