exploded in his head. He opened his eyes to find himself sitting up in bed with his head against the rafter of the slanted roof next to him. Groggily, he rubbed his head and looked around his room. There was an open window in the wall behind him with a hint of pre-dawn light shining through, a blank wooden wall in front of him, and to his left was a door that opened to the stairway that led down to the rest of the house.
His view of the door was obscured by a girl with a mischievous smile on her face. Her dark brown curly hair came down past her shoulders, framing a soft face with bright blue eyes, long dark eyelashes, a petite nose, and full red lips. She was wearing a light brown dress with a white lace collar. Over the dress was her signature pale blue apron. She wore no jewelry or makeup. She was standing next to the bed holding an empty bucket in her hands, and the smile on her face was now growing into a grin.
“Sasha! What did you do that for!” he barked.
“What?” asked Sasha, who was clearly trying not to laugh. “You told me to wake you by whatever means necessary.” She tried to look put out, as if he was the one who had just done something wrong.
Rubbing his throbbing head again, he looked up into the twinkling eyes that looked down on him. He growled, “And you thought that a bucket of cold water was necessary?”
A mock look of deep contemplation came over Sasha’s face. “You see, I couldn’t find a bucket of warm water and well … I suppose I could have been a bit less… oh, what’s the word I’m looking for… rude? But then I suppose I would not have been so apt to rudeness if someone hadn’t put a beetle in my soup two nights ago.”
Legon’s anger subsided a bit. He had put a beetle in her soup two nights ago and she did owe him for it. He took a moment to think about that night, reminiscing about bean soup flying across the dining room and Sasha screaming… Ah, it’s the little things in life, he thought. He’d worried about what she would do for revenge ever since.
Now that he was drenched and boasted a spectacular pain growing in his head, he didn’t have to worry anymore. He should have known better, though, when she had invited him on a breakfast picnic. Legon and Sasha would often go on picnics together, and despite the fact that they liked to play jokes on one another, they were closer than twins. Sasha had brought the idea up to him last night, egging him on by questioning if he could get up in time. And like the idiot I am I gave her an opportunity.
Sasha smiled, glanced over her handiwork, gave a small giggle, and left the room with a slight skip in her step. Legon took a moment to get out of bed, then went to the dresser in the corner of the room and got out some dry clothes. He pulled on a pair of grey woolen pants, an off-white button-up shirt, and a pair of dingy socks. Lastly, he put on a pair of brown leather boots and went into the hall connecting his room with the rest of the house.
To his right was a railing and open space that looked down on the lower floor. To his left were closed doors that lead to different rooms in the house. The first he passed was Sasha’s and then his parents. The hallway was lit by the light coming from the kitchen below. He came to the staircase and made his way down the creaky wooden stairs into the kitchen. As he went down the stairs he smelled food cooking. He picked up his pace at once. Getting up would normally be a lengthy project this early in the morning, but one benefit of Sasha’s little prank was that he felt like he had already been awake for a few hours.
He walked into the large open room that was their kitchen, dining, and family room. A heavy wood table stood in the center of the room and in the corner opposite the front door was a counter and cast iron stove at which Sasha was standing. To the left of the stove and counter was the back door and next to it on the wall was