Liam was the first to bolt up the stairs towards the sound of the wail, closely followed by Addison and I. Jesse and Grayson said they 'couldn't be bothered moving' so they stayed in the kitchen with Callie.

As soon as we reached the landing our eyes settled on Alec who was laying on the floor. The bottom half of his body was in bathroom and his top half on the landing.

"Dude why you laying on the ground?" Liam looked directly down at Alec who groaned and held onto his side.

"I just wanted to take a leak but some fucker left these on the floor," Alec pulled Callie's bath toys from beneath him. I bit down on my lip not wanting to laugh at my brothers pain.

"Do you not open your eyes when you walk?" I sniggered while watching him slowly get up.

Alec rubbed his back before looking down at me, his eyes squinted dangerously. "Not when it's bloody 10am. Who the hell opens their eyes before 10am on a Saturday!" He shouted to no one in particular.

Addison's lips quivered slightly as she restrained from laughing, she attempted to be serious. "Does your back hurt? Do you want me to get you any painkillers?" Her gentle voice shook with laughter as she attempted to be concerned.

"No Addy I don't want painkillers, I want to be able to take a piss in my own home without tripping over crap!" Alec spat raising his voice a little, we couldn't hold it in anymore the three of us burst out laughing.

Liam fell to the floor clutching his stomach as he gasped for air while I cried with laughter. Addison shook her head and bit down on her lip giggling to herself not wanting to laugh in Alec's face.

"You're all annoying," Alec murmured and slammed the bathroom door in our faces which only made us howl with more laughter.

///

"Higher, higher!" Callie demanded with her finger pointed towards the sky. Jesse pushed the swing with more force causing Callie to almost fly off the seat.

"Not too high Jess!" I yelled over to him, shaking my head disapprovingly. It was a miracle Callie had survived this long with Jesse for a father.

A slight breeze rustled the leaves making them fall to the solid ground one by one. I zipped up my jacket to keep warm, looking around the park at the flowers and the freshly cut green grass.

I breathed in the fresh air, through my nose and out my mouth. The air was perfumed by the heavy scent of lilies and cut grass. It was nice smelling the fresh air, living with seven other people could make a house smell real bad, especially when he majority of them were boys.

"What you thinking about?" Alec asked, snapping me out of my daydream. I turned to face him on the bench and shrugged.

"Nothing, what you thinking about?" His eyes fell down to his hands as he sighed. It was just Jesse, Callie, Alec and I at the park since Liam and Addison had to run some errands and Grayson said he had plans back home. Probably inviting some girl over while the house was free. Noah was still at work, as per usual.

"I gotta pass my exams this year Sav or I'm fucked," Alec exhaled and looked at me. His eyes were the shade of acorns, just bright enough to shine in the shadows.

Jesse and Alec both had brown eyes while Liam and I had bright blue eyes. Noah and Grayson' were green, crazy how genetics worked right.

"You will, you just need to focus more on your studies this year and less on girls, parties and games." I half reassured him, half lectured him.

Alec was resitting his last year of high school again because he failed last years exams, he's one of the few nineteen year olds still at my school.

He wasn't stupid by any means, or well not academically stupid anyways. But he just didn't try.

"Okay okay mum," he playfully nudged against me with his arm, I pushed him back while laughing. He knew I was right though, he just didn't want to give me the satisfaction of admitting it.

"I'll help you study if that's what it takes to get your butt out of high school," I offered. Alec knew I would help him as well even though he was a twat half the time he was still my brother, and I still loved him and wanted the best for him.

I was two school years behind Alec but still he needed all the help he could get. Besides, I'd like to think I'm rather smart. Noah used to call me Alberta Einstein because I kept getting full marks on my tests.

"Oi!" Jesse hollered to get our attention, we turned to face him as he pointed down at Callie and patted her back. She started walking towards us slowly not being able to move much in her big puffy pink coat.

Alec lifted Callie between us and sat her down on the bench. I watched as Jesse walked away and headed to the trees, most likely for a smoke.

I hated that he smoked, actually I hated a lot of things Jesse did but Jesse wouldn't be Jesse if he didn't do those things.

I've tried to get him to quit so many times I've lost count. I've even tried begging a couple times but each time he just told me to 'mind my business.'

Ten minutes passed before Jesse walked over to us, he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and stood in front of us. "Noah texted me, he's home so we should probably head back."

My heart jumped a little with excitement at the thought of seeing Noah, I hadn't seen him for a couple days now since he'd been on the late shifts at work.

We nodded and started walking home, taking the shortcut through the woods. Noah and Addison were the only ones with cars, Liam used theirs sometimes but he didn't have a car of his own. Jesse rode a motorbike, so we usually just walked everywhere if it was close enough.

My family didn't have too much money to spend on things like multiple cars since there was eight mouths to feed. My brothers and Addison worked as much as they could to help out but the higher paying jobs were hard to get nowadays.

My parents hadn't left much money for us either since my dad was a deadbeat who spent most of our savings on alcohol and drugs once mum died.

But despite all that, I wasn't ungrateful. I was happy enough with what I had, as long as I had food on the table and a roof over my head I couldn't really complain.

I noticed Noah's black Ford Fiesta parked up on the drive, he was definitely home. Alec turned the key in the lock, pushing the door open.

"Savannah banana!"