Once Viktor came to see me (an hour and a half later than he said he would), I told him we were going on a field trip.

"To where?" he asked.

"Home. Matt's dying of the flu or something, the triplets have a project due on Monday, and I'm sure that entire house is trashed. All I ask is that you just get Matt whatever he needs," I said.

"Aren't you more qualified to help the sick person?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. And I'm also more qualified to help the triplets with their famous American projects, as an American myself."

He laughed. "I took a year of American history. I know some stuff."

"Who won the Civil War?"

He thought for a minute. "The Americans."

He was actually more correct than he thought, probably.

I smiled. "Good enough."

"And anyway, I can't afford to get sick. Our first game is in a week, and I need to be ready, or you'll kill me."

"If you get sick, I'll take care of you."

He nodded. "Okay."

Just over an hour later, we were back in Bloomington with a few pizzas, mostly to keep the triplets from starving to death. They had been living off of cereal, apparently, for a few days, and while we probably should have gotten something more nutritious, I was lazy.

Maybe it was a good thing I wasn't in charge of the household. Matt's focus was always much quieter than mine, and he knew more than he let other people know.

I had a higher IQ, though, so that made me the smarter one.

I set the pizzas down on the kitchen table, which was cleaner than I was expecting. Sure, there were a few spills, but the dishes were done at least.

I then went up to Matt's room, leaving the triplets and Viktor, and I prayed that he wouldn't cough while I was in there.

He was asleep when I walked in, but before I could take three steps in his room, he rose his head and looked at me. It was dark, but his face pale face glowed.

"Good morning," he said.

"I hate to break it to you, but it's eight in the evening," I said.

He shut his eyes and laid his head back down. "What the fuck?"

"How are you feeling? The triplets told me that you're dying."

"I'm not dying. I just didn't realize how this place would go to shit if I got sick. What are you doing here?"

I smiled. "I'm taking the triplets back to my dorm, so we can finish their projects. Viktor's gonna stay here with you."

"But don't you have class tomorrow?" he asked.

"It's Friday."

"What the fuck?"

I laughed. "Same."

"I'm so sorry. I thought it was Tuesday, and now I'm fucking shook."

"It's not a big deal. I'll help them do their projects, no problem." I looked around the room. Of course, he was gone during the last school year, but he had reestablished his presence in his room. It was a mess. "How's everything here?"

"I have never been more tired in my life. It's just this constant cycle of getting things fixed, doing every chore imaginable, and almost crying. But it's whatever."

I smiled. "You're not cut out for the mom life, huh?"

"Not really. I'm definitely more of a dad."

"Well, I never told you this before, because I was pissed at you and Viktor for making me go to college, but thank you. I just wanted to do what any good person would do, and you didn't have to take it upon yourself."

He smiled. "We can't all be strong, independent women who are going places."

"I guess not, but I believe you have to be strong regardless of gender, and you fall into that category. It's hard to find a guy who'd step up to the plate and deal with what we've been given like you have. So, thanks."

"Like you said, it's what any good person would do," he said.

"You'd be surprised how hard good people are to find anymore." I laughed. "I'm talking like I'm forty or something. But I'll leave you to your rest. God knows you need it."

He rose his hand. "Wait."

I turned. "Yeah?"

"Can you bring me some water?"

I smiled. "Sure."

I walked out of his room and shut the door behind me. I could hear the triplets and Viktor laughing down in the kitchen.

I went down the stairs to where they were all sitting, just like it used to be, minus Matt, Mom, and me.

It made me smile.

It seemed that Natalie was in the middle of a story when I got to the kitchen to get Matt's water. "So Leah climbed up on the refrigerator to get it down, but-"

"Leah did what?" I asked.

"Please, Amanda, wait your turn. I'm talking."

The sass was strong with that one.

Natalie turned back to the others. "But it flew down just as she was about to snatch it. It ended up swooping just low enough to hit Melissa smack in the face, and her scream was the loudest noise she's ever made, probably."

Viktor laughed. "You caught the bird though, right?"

"We had to get Matt, and he caught it for us."

"You guys let a bird in the house?" I asked.

Natalie huffed. "We didn't let it in, it just flew in through the window after Matt told us to close it."

"You know what the moral of this story is? Listen to Matt."

"But where's the fun in that?" Leah asked.

"It's also fun to be living, which if you keep acting like unsupervised three-year-olds, that may quickly end for you."

Leah covered her mouth.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Please, what's a bird gonna do to us?"

"Peck you to death," I replied.

"Could it really do that?" Leah asked.

"No. She's just using fear tactics on us. She's being oppressive. We have to take a stand and assassinate her before things get out of hand and she starts executing us," Natalie replied.

"What are you talking about?" Viktor asked.

"Jesus, Natalie," I mumbled as I took some water up to Matt, then came back downstairs.

I had no idea how she got those ideas in her head. They would be funny coming from anyone, but they were absolutely hilarious from a nine-year-old.

It was a good policy to have, in my opinion, to question all authority. The only time I had a problem with it was when I was the one in authority.

***

The next morning, I took the triplets back to Winterview with me, and I made the dumbass decision to make them drink three two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola on the way there.

It was an hour of "I have to pee!" and "I'm not touching you! I'm not touching you!"

And they only got through one bottle.

That pretty much summed up my terrible children skills, and I swore to myself that I'd never have kids, for their own sake.

We walked across the campus and to the dorm. I watched them take it all in, gazing at the older lecture halls, and I smiled to myself. It wouldn't be too long before they'd be in this exact situation.

I opened up the door to my dorm room, where Jackie was still asleep. It was ten in the morning, but she was passed out, and I wouldn't have been surprised if she was dead.

Friday night could do that to a person.

"Okay, so my roommate's asleep, so you have to be at least kind of quiet for now," I said to the triplets.

"Is this where you live?" Leah asked in a hushed voice.

I nodded. "Yep."

"This is a piece of shit," Natalie said.

I rose my eyebrows. "Natalie!"

"What? I'm just saying."

"You can't say shit. You're nine," I said.

"But you and your friends cuss all the time."

"That's different. We're not nine."

"How old were you when you said your first bad word?" Natalie asked.

I smiled. "Mom said my first word was 'damn.'"

Natalie laughed. "Was it really?"

"Supposedly. I wouldn't count it out," I said, laughing myself.

Leah laughed.

I switched gears back to their project. "Okay, so we still have two more bottles of pop we need to drink before we can start on your bottle people, so-"

"We should sell cups of it," Natalie said.

I pointed at her. "I like the way you think. I need you guys to be as adorable as possible, so we can charge people like crazy for them."

"But our target is a bunch of broke college students," Leah said.

"Maybe we should have more reasonable prices then," Melissa said.

"Five dollars per cup sounds fair," Natalie said.

Leah looked down at the ground. "That's not exactly reasonable."

"May I suggest fifty cents?" I said, and Leah and Melissa nodded in agreement.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Sure, if we're selling Dixie cups of it. We control the market here, since there's no competition. It's basic capitalism."

"Natalie, I admire your knowledge of the economy, but we really just need to get rid of this, and maybe make a little bit of a profit," I said.

"Fine, but don't come crying to me when you're all upset that we could have made much more money," Natalie said.

I made a mental note that if I ever wanted to start a business, Natalie would be my go-to partner.

They set up a table just outside my door, with plastic cups of Coke and the cutest smiles they could muster.

I also made them work on rough drafts for their essays at the same time.

Power.

It was wonderful.

"How does this sound?" Natalie began to read from her paper. "'Alexander Hamilton, aka George Washington's favorite son, was born in-'"

"I think you should stick to facts in your paper," I interrupted.

She looked up at me, then back down at her paper. "Was born in 1755. He was an important part in the forming of America."

"That part was okay."

"He is most known for the musical Hamilton, and that's pretty much the only reason anyone cares about him. Plus, he is on the ten dollar bill. Not many people liked him, since he was a loud mouth, but he was still an alright dude."

I shut my eyes. I personally liked it, but it wasn't very academic.

"Maybe you should try making your paragraphs more focused," Melissa said.

Natalie crossed her arms. "What's wrong with this? I think it's a great introduction."

"It's just you should focus on one idea at a time. That'll make it even better."

Ten thousand points to Melissa for diplomacy.

"Hm." Natalie read through her work one more time. "Nah, I like it this way."

Melissa looked up at me. I nodded.

"She's right, Nat. You should give general information on him in the intro, then talk about it in detail in the later paragraphs," I said.

As I looked up from Natalie, I saw Diego walking toward us.

"What's up?" he asked me. "Oh my god, are these yours?"

"What, the kids? They're my sisters, not my kids," I replied.

"Hello kind sir, would you be interested in some Coke for fifty cents?" Natalie smiled as she talked.

"Yeah, no. Fuck that," Diego said.

I laughed. "You're such an asshole. They're just trying to get rid of some pop, so we can get started on their projects."

"Did you just call it pop?" he asked.

I stared at him for a moment. "Yeah."

"It's soda."

"Look, buddy, I don't know where you're from, but here in Minnesota, we say pop, so you're just going to have to live with it."

"I really, really hate this state," Diego said. "It's cold, snowy, you guys say pop, one time I even heard a little kid call the game 'Duck, Duck, Goose' 'Duck, Duck, Grey Duck.'"

"That's what it is!" Natalie suddenly spoke up.

"Do other places not call it 'Duck, Duck, Grey Duck?'" I asked.

Diego shook his head. "Just Minnesota."

I didn't know how to reply to that.

It was Duck, Duck, Grey Duck, and anyone who disagreed could come at me.

I would defend my state's honor.

-------------------------------------------

Hey everyone! Thank you for reading!

Question time: What do you want to happen in this story? I have a general idea, of course, but sometimes getting from Point A to Point B is difficult. So any mini scenes or ideas that you guys have, I'd be happy to include. I'll cite you and everything 😊.