"Where have you been?" Xander opened the gate. He crossed his arms and rocked his heels on the ground.
"Ge, I'm sorry," Zach's tiny voice cracked.
"I'm talking to you, Sabrina."
"Cut me some slack, Xander. I feel so tired protecting didi from a gangster," she complained.
"Is it true?" Xander paused to examine Zach.
"Meimei, I told you. He just returned my slipper. He has done nothing wrong," Zach carefully controlled his voice while his face tightened.
"But what was that KISS all about?" Sabrina raised her eyebrows and moved her head from side to side.
"WHAT KISS?" Xander's face pinched, and his vocal pitch rocketed.
Zach's face felt impossibly hot.
"MEIMEI! IT WAS NOT A KISS! I JUST STUMBLED BACK, AND HE CAUGHT ME!"
"Blah! Blah! Blah! Xander, are you planning for us to sleep outside?" She randomly changed the topic.
Xander suppressed his fuming anger. He inhaled sharply and looked at the two latecomers.
"Get inside," his voice threatened violence.
"Thank you, sweet brother." Sabrina blew a flying kiss and went in.
Zach slumped his shoulders and bent his head down as he entered the house.
Xander locked the gate and walked quickly to erase his and Zach's distance.
"Didi, I'm not mad at you. I-I'm just mad at myself for letting you go without me," Xander explained while his voice rose and fell.
Zach stopped and looked at his big brother with bright, glossy eyes. His breathing slowed as he reminisced about how Xander stood still at his side since childhood. He recalled how the bullies tried to pick on someone like his size, but because Xander was always with him, those bullies never stood a chance and veered away every time they encountered them.
'I must be able to protect myself also. I want to protect my little siblings like how Xander defended me. I must start by learning not to depend on him too much.' Zach decided a part of his fate.
"But Ge! I can protect myself. We're even at the same age. I don't want to bother you anymore," Zach persuaded.
Xander took a deep breath before smiling and patting Zach's head.
"We'll talk later Zachy. Come, help me prepare the food first. Our siblings are starving to death."
While courage still clung to his back, Zach wanted to clarify things at this very moment. However, he knew Xander had a point. He remembered what he heard while Sabrina was talking in her sleep: Fries before guys, foods before dudes.
"Okay." Zach hanged his head.
Xander and Zach entered the kitchen and saw Sabrina running through the things she bought earlier.
"Zach, you won't believe this. Look!" Sabrina's eyes bulged.
She held the egg high like it contained some magical powers.
"You only bought one, earlier right?" Zach stared openly at the egg.
Sabrina's eyebrows danced and the corners of her mouth lifted.
"No way!" Zach jerked his head back. His eyes rapidly blinked as he recalled everything that happened when Sabrina threw the egg earlier.
"How? Did he return it to you before leaving?" Zach scratched his jaw.
"I know right. I was about to ask you that too, but I'm sure I never saw him handing this egg back to us."
"OMG. Don't tell me..." Zach's breath hitched, and his knees trembled. "Is he like, Edward Cullen? Are they real?"
"And you want to be Bella?" Sabrina snorted. "If you told me he's a ninja, that could be more believable." Her laughter grew out of control.
"But how? Explain it to me then." Zach's thoughts scrambled to understand.
"Darling, let's just enjoy the fact that we will not be using yours or Xander's eggs for dinner." Sabrina winked and laughed.
Zach quickly gazed downward. He remembered the words he said to the handsome lad about having two eggs. After the light bulb flashed above his head, he felt an acute sense of purpose.
"Hey. I heard what you said earlier too," Zach revealed his trump card.
"Did I hear doing someone out in the open?" He replayed the entertaining event.
"You!" Sabrina immediately stopped laughing. She turned the faucet on and started to attack Zach with cold waters.
"Gege, you must've seen her face earlier. Haha!" Zach gleefully shouted as he avoided the water.
Sabrina and Zach joyfully messed around the table filled with kettles and pans when they heard a cutting sound.
"Seems you've got a lot of explaining to do later, Zach," Xander batted an eye.
Xander was slicing the meat, listening to his siblings' chit-chat behind him. As he heard both of them teasing each other, the movement of his knife became quicker and louder with every strike on the chopping board.
The two immediately shushed. They silently made faces blaming each other for Xander's temperament. However, knowing her brother's real personality, Sabrina motioned for Zach to come closer and whispered something in his ear.
Zach softly chuckled and nodded. Sabrina sneakily picked something from the bag she brought earlier and gave it to Zach.
"At the count of three," Sabrina whispered.
The sound of knife pummelling the board filled their ears when Sabrina held her first finger up, the second, and the third.
"Ah!" Zach initiated the act.
"Zach, are you okay?" Sabrina hastily wore a theatrical mask.
Xander, hearing his precious brother's scream, put his knife down and bolted to Zach in a matter of two seconds.
"Hey, what happened?"
"I think he cut his own fingers." Sabrina looked like in distress while Zach's lips trembled as he covered his own hands.
"Let me see!" Xander commanded.
Zach received Sabrina's cue and immediately threw the miniature cockroach hidden in his hands to Xander's direction.
"AH!"
At the sight of the toy's brown wings and thorny feet, resembling closely to a real cockroach, Xander flinched and knocked the small table with a pitcher of water behind.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Zach and Sabrina rolled on the floor laughing and holding their stomach.
A flash of adrenaline tingled through Xander's body when he realized that the cockroach was inanimate.
"You! You!" Xander's heart was racing fast as he exposed his fangs to the persons twisting on the floor.
Matron Chen and Papa Chen cleared their throats twice, observing the performance of the three musketeers.
Hearing the head of the household, the three of them quickly straightened their spine and bowed down.
"Kids nowadays ah. How many times I told you to fill your stomach first before playing?" Papa Chen reminded while his stern, wary eyes darted everyone in the room. In his face was a roadmap of the life's journey his years had taken him on.
"Now, now let them be. The other kids are still playing too." Matron Chen tapped her husband's back smiling to the three of them. Crinkles were painted at the side of her eyes, while a streak of grey hair escaped from her buns. The travelogue of her wisdom could be drawn in her smile.
"Ma, Pa, we're sorry. We will double our time," Zach apologized and nudged his siblings to continue cooking.
The husband's and the wife's lips slightly spread before they gave them a crisp nod and walked away.
Around the circular table, the family held their hands together and closed their eyes. After Xander led the prayer, everybody started to eat merrily.
Clatters of spoons and forks colliding with the porcelain plates echoed through the dining hall.
Zach was responsible for feeding Xiao Lu, while everyone stayed quiet and focused on filling his or her growling stomach. On the side, Little D licked and chewed the piece of bone in his dog bowl.
Sabrina finished her meal first and sat patiently at the table while waiting for her siblings. She was followed by the others until Tres, as expected, finished her meal last.
A barrage of voices then outbroke.
"I'm so sleepy now. I'm so full." Xiao Lu's eyes were drooping while he held his stomach. After a few futile attempts at staying awake, he put his head on Zach's lap and closed his eyes. Zach chuckled as he gently caressed Xiao Lu's baby cheeks and listen to everyone tell their own stories.
"The Adobo[1] is so delicious! Geges and Meimei are such awesome cooks," Yang praised.
Zach felt a sharp pain in his chest upon hearing the word "Adobo", but he was still able to put up a smile along with Xander and Sabrina.
"Now children, you should congratulate your big brothers, Xander for completing junior high school as second honor, and Zach as the first honor." Matron Chen's eyes gleamed with pride.
"Wow! Geges are awesome!" Uno, Dos, and Tres shouted and rushed to their brothers hugging them. Yin and Yang also followed giving their praises, while Sabrina smiled with satisfaction to the both of them.
Xiao Lu snored loudly as a way of giving his compliment.
"And of course, you should also congratulate your meimei, Sabrina for graduating senior high school!"
Out of nowhere, the party poppers in Xander's and Zach's hand exploded, while Yin and Yang brought the surprise cake both Matron Chen and Papa Chen baked.
"Tha-Thank you. I didn't expect for something lavish like this." Sabrina's eyes flooded with water.
"You deserve it, honey. Although you're a little naughty sometimes unlike Xander and Zach, you still proved to be a role model to your little siblings. I'm so proud of you." Papa Chen walked towards Sabrina and kissed her head.
The remaining members of the family also joined in and created one big group hug. Xiao Lu woke up from the commotion and saw the chocolate cake at the table.
"YAY! ICE CREAM!" Xiao Lu yelled, and everyone took their time to laugh.
All of them were eating their slice of cake, except poor Little D, who was drinking his own milk instead.
"Ma, Pa, I already told the principal that Zach and I should be in the same class next year. She agreed." Xander turned to look at Zach and smiled.
Zach smiled back. He felt genuinely happy that he would be together with his big brother. Though he knew it might be an obstacle for him to be independent of his brother's wings, he would rather spend his remaining one year giving more time to his family before everything change.
"That's good to hear." Matron Chen beamed.
Zach wiped the icing from Xiao Lu's hands, while Xander also cleaned the chocolate hanging on Zach's nose.
"Will meimei play with us every day now?" Xiao Lu mumbled while chomping his cake.
"No, Xiao Lu. Meimei is planning to work part-time," Papa Chen explained. The dark circles under his eyes became visible.
"Where will meimei work?" Yang asked.
"The news is, I applied at Collins Technologies. And, by miracle, they hired me. I got a call just this morning. They want me to start tomorrow," Sabrina said with a bubbly voice.
Matron Chen and Papa Chen stayed quiet.
"Wow! That's so cool!" Uno, Dos, and Tres curled their hands under their chin.
"Wohooo! Will they give you the new model of their virtual gear then? I saw it in the news," Yin exclaimed.
"You silly. Don't worry; I'll give it to you if I ever got one." Sabrina giggled.
"Is it far from here?" Zach asked in a concerned tone.
"Not really. Just one bus away."
Xander gave Sabrina a "thumbs up" while she rolled her eyes.
"Then will meimei leave us?" Xiao Lu hardly swallowed the cake.
Everyone kept silent looking at Matron and Papa Chen for answers.
"Awww. Not yet baby. Not until Xander and Zach graduate," Sabrina replied.
Xander and Zach shook their heads softly looking at Sabrina.
"Ahw, I-I mean I'll still be staying here of course. Nothing to worry." Sabrina shifted.
"But I heard you guys would work far away from here when you graduate. It's true that you will leave this orphanage then." Yin's lips trembled. He could not contain the trouble in his heart.
"BANG!" A sound of a shattering plate flared up the tensed environment.
"I-I'm sorry." Matron Chen bent down from her chair to pick up the splinters of the plate.
"I'll do it Ma." Xander squatted down and helped Matron Chen.
"It's okay. It's my fault, let me clean my own mess." Matron Chen continued to pick up the broken pieces.
"Ma, you're doing it wrong. I'll get the broom." Zach stood up and hastened his pace once he saw the sweeper.
"Let Ma do this, at least I won't feel so useless after all." While she drew the fragments from the floor, a sharp shard pricked her thumb, and the blood slowly seeped out.
"Ma! Xander and Zach can handle it. Look what you've done!" Sabrina bounced on her feet to look at her mother's cut.
"I-I'm sorry." Matron Chen pulled her fingers from Sabrina. Tears were glistening in her eyes as she covered her mouth and ran towards the kitchen.
Everyone's mood became sullen.
"It's okay Children. Mama is just tired. You go now and prepare to sleep." Papa Chen stood up and patted Xander's back before following his wife.
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Zach's attention was fixed to the stars as they slowly lost their brightness. His thoughts were swirling around his near-approaching and dreadful fate.
Everyone told him the possibilities of the future were endless - that no one possessed the knowledge of how things would end up. But they also said that one had the power to shape them - to pull strings from behind and stir them on the path one had chosen.
However, Zach believed that he was the exception. No matter how he circumvented the rules, he felt that destiny only prepared a single route for his journey.
"Xander, can someone really rewrite the stars?" Zach's mind was racing, searching for answers.
Xander turned his head and observed Zach. Zach's blue eyes were clouding, going distant to the point of no return. He looked up at the ceiling again, as he felt a painful tightness in his throat.
"Did you know that someone had walked on the moon?" Xander tried to push away the pain.
It was now Zach's turn to gaze at Xander.
"Neil Armstrong was the first one, right?"
Xander smiled.
"Did you know that someone had circumnavigated the world?"
"Juan Sebastian Elcano and his crew were the first group," Zach recalled his History lesson.
"Did you foresee that people can fly even without wings?"
"Jean de Rozier was the first one to fly using a hot air balloon."
"Did all sound possible Zach?"
Zach pondered for a while.
"If I was living in the past, hmmm, it deemed impossible." Zach frowned.
"Now Zach, tell me, is it impossible to rewrite the stars?"
The two pairs of eyes met. Xander could see the ocean of emotions both of their hearts mirrored in those blue eyes - dread, uneasiness, reluctance, resignation, and uncertainty. If he only had the power to change things, he would do it with all of his might. But his soul knew that Zach could only do it.
"You'll be the first one to do it, Zach. Gege believes in you."
Xander scooted beside Zach and encircled his arm around his shoulders. He leaned his head closer to Zach, hoping that the warmth of his love, would wash away his little brother's worries, even for just this one night.
Zach looked at his big brother as tears started to roll down his cheeks.
"Thank you, Xander."
He hugged Xander, snuggling his head on his brother's shoulders and cried himself to sleep.