Amalia's POV
Once the school day ended, Riley and I hopped on the bus and made our way home, sharing a hug before going our separate ways. As I unlocked the door and stepped inside I felt myself relax, the peace and quiet a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of school before vacation. My parents were nowhere to be seen despite their car being in the driveway and neither were either of my siblings, so I could only assume they were finishing up packing or something. I still had a few things to pack myself, but for the most part, I could spend my last couple of days in Oregon somewhat relaxing.
I slid my backpack off my shoulders and dropped it on the floor before heading to the kitchen to look through the fridge. There was something about a cold glass of apple juice — or anything, really — after a long and tiring day at school. The heat was starting to pick up and everyone was becoming restless, so I enjoyed the tang and the cold condensation on my hands. It really felt like summer was beginning.
Letting out a content sigh, I shuffled over to the kitchen counter to take a seat, however, just as I placed my glass down there was a loud yell accompanied by hurried footsteps.
"Liaaa!" I span around to see my little brother running through the living room to come to a sudden halt in front of me. He looked upset. "Help me!"
He grabbed my hand and tried to drag me away, but I resisted. "Woah, hold on. Help you with what?"
"Find Steggy! I don't know where he is. He's been looking forward to vacation for ages and I can't leave without him."
With my brain fried from school, it took a second for me to process what he was talking about; his stuffed stegosaurus toy he'd had since he was five. We went on a family trip about three years ago and visited a museum, and the moment we stepped foot in the dinosaur exhibit, Tao was mesmerised. You could tell just from his expression that he was completely fascinated, and so of course, asked our parents to buy him one of the dinosaur plushies with the stegosaurus being the first one he laid eyes on. Ever since then, Steggy has been one of Tao's favourite toys to the point where he's the only one allowed on his bed, and the only one brought on trips or vacations. I was honestly surprised he wasn't freaking out more.
"Okay, don't worry... where did you last see him?"
"I don't know... I think he was on my bed when I left for school this morning."
"You think?" He nodded. "Okay..." I bit my lip, a little lost as to how exactly I was supposed to help find his toy if neither of us knew where to look. "Then let's start in your room. If he's gonna be anywhere, he'll be there, right?"
The corners of Tao's mouth twitched upwards slightly into somewhat of a smile; despite his worry, he just seemed glad I was willing to help. He took my hand properly this time and lead me upstairs, straight down the hall to his room on the left. Our parents were pretty strict about us keeping our rooms tidy, but I remembered being kind of messy when I was younger and that paired with the fact that Tao could be quite sporadic with when he played and what with meant I expected a challenge of sorts.
The moment the door opened, my hand fell to my side as Tao ran towards his bed, tiptoeing around the different pieces of clothing, toys and miscellaneous objects scattered across the floor. He began searching under his blanket and pillows which left me to look around the rest of the room, tidying up as I went. I wanted to make the search as easy as possible... if we were even looking in the right place.
Over the next half hour or so, we searched Tao's entire room; under his bed, inside his closet, and even scoured through his various toy boxes to no avail. It was hard to not get frustrated as we skimmed through the rest of the bedrooms along with the bathroom and continually turned up nothing.
Eventually, we moved back downstairs and explored the living room, with Tao soon making me chuckle as he hopped on the couch and leaned forward to look underneath. I repositioned the DVDs on the shelf I'd been looking through and shuffled over to join him, allowing my hair to fall freely once I bent over and make me look like some kind of mad scientist. It was clear how silly I looked in the reflection of the TV, so I wasn't surprised when my brother and I shared a glance and he burst into a fit of giggles. He tried copying me, but his recent haircut meant he had very little hair to work with.
A moment later I heard movement behind us and slowly lifted my head, looking over my shoulder to see Yuna closing the back door and making her way through the kitchen towards us. As soon as she laid eyes on us she paused and frowned, understandably confused.
"Are you two... alright?"
"We're looking for Steggy," I replied, resting an arm across the back of the couch. "Care to join us?"
"Steggy's lost?" Tao and I nodded, causing her to step forward and place her hands on her hips. "In that case, we will tear this place apart until we find him!"
Yuna spoke with such conviction that I laughed. "I'm not sure mom would appreciate us wrecking the house the day before we go on vacation."
"Yeah, well... soon enough she won't have to look at it."
There wasn't much I could say in protest to that, and so the three of us gathered together and spent a good amount of time covering the rest of the living room, finding several random toys and trinkets we'd forgotten about but finding no sign of Steggy. I could tell Tao was getting frustrated and I couldn't blame him; at that point, I'm pretty sure he'd struggle to sleep without the toy. The thought of that was upsetting.
As more time passed I began to feel slightly hungry, and so I took the opportunity to wander into the kitchen to grab a snack whilst my siblings slumped onto the floor. Unsure what to eat, I looked around for a minute before opening up one of the bottom cupboards and rummaging through it, pausing when I noticed something pointy sticking out from behind a box of cereal.
"What the—" I reached in and pulled the mysterious object out, letting out a sigh mixed with a chuckle once I realised what I was holding. "Guys!"
Both Yuna and Tao glanced up as I got to my feet and made my way back to them, with the younger scrambling to grab the plush from my hands. "Steggy!"
"Where'd you find him?"
"He was hiding in the cupboard behind some cereal," I told Yuna. "Guess he went on an adventure.
She nodded, raising her shoulders in a shrug. "Huh. Well, at least he had plenty to eat."
"Nuh-uh!" The sound of Tao pouting drew both of our attention. "He only likes Fruit Loops, and we don't have those anymore. So now... he's hungry!"
"Wha—" Yuna barely had a chance to question what was happening before Tao jumped up and knocked her to the ground, climbing on top of her and waving his toy in her face. He made all sorts of noises to pretend Steggy was trying to eat her whilst Yuna just laughed and gently tried to push him away.
I found it hard not to smile as I exclaimed, "Get offa her, you monster!" I bent down and wrapped my arms around my brother's waist to try and pick him up, only to stumble and fall over myself. Within seconds, the room was filled with happy squeals and giggling whilst Yuna and I were being playfully mauled by a dinosaur.
We were all too caught up in our own chaos to notice when our parents came into the house from the backyard and, no doubt, were looking at us wondering what on earth was going on. It was only when dad cleared his throat that I glanced up and witnessed the pure confusion on their faces.
"Should we even ask?"
In response to that question, we somewhat pulled ourselves together, with me pushing myself up to sit cross-legged and Tao sliding off of Yuna and into my lap. We were behaving like maniacs just seconds ago, but at that moment, we looked surprisingly innocent.
Mom rolled her eyes, and with a chuckle said, "We're glad you kids are enjoying yourselves, but uh, just one question... have you finished packing your bags?"
At last, the room dipped into silence, her words forcing us into thought. My siblings and I shared a look, all having some kind of shared realisation, and after a pause, we jumped up from the ground and scrambled upstairs to our rooms. As close as I was to finishing my packing, I was glad to see I wasn't the only one dragging behind.
It was times like those that made me love my family even more. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to our vacation.