There was a fruit bowl in the middle of the table. Vanya had accidently focused her power on it, making it explode. Pieces of fruit exploded everywhere and fell into all of us. I gasped loudly as I saw tiny pieces of fruit on my blazer and skirt. We all dusted it off of our clothing in disgust.
"This is my favorite shirt. Wow." Klaus gasped dramatically. "Oops." Vanya said with a shy smile. "That was impressive." Luther sighed gratefully.
"Look, we know that you're involved in a plot to assassinate the president." Diego said while standing up angrily. "You were recently hospitalized, isn't that correct? You still appear to be suffering from delusions of grandeur and acute paranoia." Dad said sternly. "Am I? Explain this." Diego said before passing the photo of Dad on the grassy knolls on the day J.F.K got killed.
"That's you. That's two days from now on the grassy knoll at the exact spot the president's gonna get shot." Diego explained to him angrily.
"Well. . . I suppose you've solved it. You've single-handedly unearthed my nefarious plot." Dad said, but something in his voice told me that he was lying. "Is that what you want to hear? You fancy yourself a do-gooder? The last good man who will save us from our descent into corruption and conspiracy? This is a fantastic delusion." Dad said right after. In my opinion, it was kind of harsh. To even more prove my opinion, Diego just stood there, shocked.
"The sad reality is that you're a desperate man, tragically unaware of his own insignificance, desperately clinging to his own ineffectual reasoning. More succinctly, a man in over his head." Dad finally finished off.
The silence in the room was unbearable. I looked up at Diego to see that he was crying. My mouth gaped open. I was in shock. Diego was always a mad and "rough and tough" guy. I would never in a million years think he would be crying. But, he was.
"You're wr- wrong." Diego stuttered before sitting down slowly.
"Look, forget about the president. We have a catastrophic war coming in five days. We need to figure out how to stop it." Five said concerningly. "War? Men will always be at war with each other." Dad brushed it off.
"No, this isn't just some war. We're talking about a doomsday. The end of the world." I said. "Well. . . You're the special ones, aren't you? Why don't you band together and do something about it?" Dad asked.
I was about to reply back but Klaus started acting weird. Klaus started to shake and grunt uncontrollably. We all looked at him weirdly, including Dad. "Is he having a seizure?" Allison asked. "Overdosing probably." I sighed sadly. "Should we do something?" Luther asked, sounding actually concerned.
"Klaus! Now is not the time. What are you doing?" I whisper yelled at him. "I'm. . ." Klaus said while continuing to shake. "Out with it, boy." Dad ushered. ". . . Ben!" Klaus yelled randomly. I looked at him as if he was crazy. He started to gasp and pant loudly while also sweating.
"Well. . . Thank you for coming. I've seen about enough." Dad said before getting up with his books.
Luther all of a sudden got up and ripped open his shirt. I looked away awkwardly. "Look at what you did to me. Look at it!" He started to yell. All Dad did was look at him weirdly.
"You two in the culottes. A word, in private?" Dad told me and Five. We both ran behind him and followed him. He just moved seats to the bar side table where we all sat on tall stools. Some people ushered the rest of my siblings out of the room and down the elevator. Now that we were alone, Five started to talk.
"You two seem to be the sensible one of the bunch." Dad started. "Maybe because we've been through more them" I said quietly. Dad looked at me from the side of his eye, "But certainly the smartest" he complimented with a smile. I didn't reply.
"The other night you quoted Homer at me. Why?" Dad asked after waiting a while. "You forced us all to learn it as kids." I said. "In the original Greek, no less." Five added. Dad just nodded.
"This world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline." Five started to explain. "Worlds end. Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on. We can do something about this one. I need your help." I continued to Dad. "You're my last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't wanna make." Five ended.
"What do you know about time travel?" I asked. "I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing. . ." Dad started to say. All this sounded like complete bullshit to my brain.
"What transpired when you tried traveling before?" Dad asked. "I botched it." Five sighed. "How?" Dad asked. "I jumped too far forward, got stuck in the future for 17 years in an apocalypse." Five said.
"And what about you?" Dad asked while looking at me. I looked down at my thighs, "well— I got angry at you once for ignoring me and tried to time travel. Instead, I got myself stuck on the borders of time for 16 years". Dad nodded in response.
"Then we both brought our powers together and jumped too far backwards. . . Except this time we brought our entire family with us."
"Maybe your both appetites is disproportionate to the size of your abilities." Dad said. He was basically saying that we were trying to much of our abilities. "Start small. Seconds, not decades." He said. He was right, though.
"Seconds?" I asked. "Look, no offense, but I need a bit more time for what I'm trying to accomplish." Five explained. "So much can change in a matter of seconds. One could overthrow an empire. One could fall in love." Dad said.
"I was really hoping you had more than that." Five sighed. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help." Dad said. "I'm sorry, too. I gave you such a hard time as a kid. I didn't know any better." Five laughed a little.
"Yeah, same. I used to yell and throw utensils at you. But, you were always unfair with me, which I never understood why." I said sadly. "Unfair in what way?" Dad asked me. "You never let me practise with my siblings and you always told me I was 'power-less' because I couldn't exactly control it." I laughed at the memories.
"I'm sorry" He sighed, "I'll keep that in mind when I adopt you in the future" He said with a smile. I smiled back at him.
"Want a drink?" Dad asked since both me and Five since we were technically old enough to. "I shouldn't" I said with an awkward smile. But it was too late and the bartender had already passed it to me.
I watched as Five gulped it down faster than I could breathe. I looked at him as if he was crazy. He saw me looked and smiled. I didn't smile back, for many reasons.
I took small sips on my drink since this wasn't a taste I was used to. After I finished, we left. It was still very awkward between me and Five. Especially the ride down the elevator. The talk with Dad actually went kinda well (except for the fact that Dad got pissed at my siblings).
Maybe life wasn't as bad as I thought.
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