The Ryder Clan

♧

Mr. Foster was brushing off the remaining dust after deciding he would set up a task for cleaning all of his old shoes from his drawer in the garret room.

"Oh, dad it's you," Lena sighed at ease again as she laid her hand upon her bosom.

"I thought you were someone else."

"Hmph." He grunted and blew another dust away with a poof then he began to polish the shoe.

"What did you think of me as?"

Lena felt a sort of discomfort. "Uh—Nevermind, dad. It's nothing really important."

"Alright then." Mr. Foster shrugged his shoulders.

Relief swept over Lena and she went to sit back to her musing where silence flowed once again at night.

The other day was brought forth in the afternoon when school was over. Little students were driven to ride the sleds over the top of the steep hill in a pile of snow. Each took turns and some rode their sleds with their companion.

The big students or much older students joined them later and settled on their own sleds. Serena and Aileen hopped together on the sled and a general cry came from them when they started to slide down the hill. Down it went in a swift where the wind caught their hair whipping momentarily in the frosty air. The sled went straight below until it reached to the flat ground. The little girls sat up in a peal of girlish laughter and turned their boots on.

"Let's do it again!" cried Aileen breathlessly, then a few seconds of pause she thought of a brilliant idea. "This time let's do a race with the boys," she whispered.

Serena agreed and they trudged along to the same spot from the beginning on top.

"Hey, Dan!" Aileen called the group of boys particularly directing to her twin brother.

"The last one who gets there will have to get rubbed on the face with a snowball," she declared, arching her daring brow. "I bet you can't handle it."

"Pooh, with you two it's so easy!" Dan snorted in response and raised his hand to whistle as he gathered his playmates in a circle. Dan and the boys got the message and they divided themselves where they were hurrying to find an available sled. They were facing each other by now, holding the rope firmly above the snowy hill. Dan and Aileen stuck their tongues out while Serena was straightening herself and lifting her small head behind her friend.

Determined they were going to win, all were ready to begin the race. The children counted in a chorus of delight,

"On three!" They shouted.

"Two!"

Another second ticked. "One!"

And with that, the kids were off from their recent position. Down and down they went. Behind Aileen, Serena clutched around her friend's waist when the speed escalated, causing her to jump from the bumpy ride on the way. The rest of the boys, including Dan, speeded up after them.

"Hold on tight for now because we're about to show them!" piped up Aileen in a thrill. Here, Serena was alarmed over the fact that this was moving faster than before, so she held her friend even more firmly. As soon as Aileen was about to land, Serena saw from the corner of her eye where the boys were standing in front of the fence. There they were already, Dan, Tom, and Gerald were waving their hands in victory while the girls were on their way to the finish line.

"Haha, Losers!" taunted Tom, one of Dan's friends. He formed a snowball where he threw it onto Aileen's face and then aim it at Serena by the time they landed safely. The girls wiped it off and got up eventually.

"Here, kitty, kitty." Dan provoked, juggling the snowballs in his hands.

"Wanna play?"

Nettled when she heard the name being uttered again, Serena was on the verge of booming her temper. But in the back of her mind, she remembered her sister's advice.

Patience.

The word was arduous to take in at first, but somehow, Serena managed to own it in the end. For a moment, the child attempt to restrain her temper.

"No, thank you." she shook her head airily.

"Pfft. You're no fun." He threw down the snowball lightly on her boot.

Serena shot a glare at him.

"Besides," she added it with a pause."Why would I play with a dum-dum."

In this, Dan yawned deliberately and threw another snowball at her little shoulder.

She fought back her temper.

"Bah. You're way boring than I thought, kitty." He stacked another one but rounder and slightly bigger this time, so he threw the last shot with such a force until it caused her to lose balance.

Serena fell on her back and couldn't hold it any longer.

"You!" She struggled to straighten herself and was now in hot fury, where she brushed off the remaining snow and walked over to him in full indignation. Within a second, she made a snowball herself and fired across Dan's face in return.

"Snowball fight!" declared the abominable Tom while Gerald was blocking his way and stood timidly before him. A hasty reluctance took place when the boy stood there.

"I-I think it's b-better if-if we go back now," Gerald spoke, shivering in the cold as he shifted his eyes toward the girls and felt the sudden duty to make them safe. "W-we don't have to play it rough for them."

Tom growled at his nonsense. "Oh come on now don't be a wuss. This is fun!"

"But-" Gerald was cut off the minute a snowball hit Tom in the face.

It came from above his view where he saw Aileen on the huge pile of snow.

"Who's the loser now huh?" Aileen hurriedly made another stockpile of it in her mittens and it flew against Tom's chest.

A lot of dodging and running was in the game and finally, the battle began, where little children went on playing outside until the sky was beginning to be dark. Gray amethyst clouds were seen ominous when the rumbling noise drummed loudly and it seemed to be a wintry storm heading its way to barricade the world with doom.

The rest of the hour that followed was seldom tolerable.

Serena Foster had no choice but to be accompanied by the Ryder family because of the snowy storm. Back at home, Lena called the Ryder's on the phone if they could keep Serena under their care and let her stay for the night until the storm ends. It would have been cruel of them if they didn't agree, so of course, they did. Mr. Ryder, the head of the family, called out from the top of his voice for his family to gather around the sitting room. All of his three kids came marching down the stairs including his oldest son and the kids sat in separate space for them to keep their distance. His wife came in next after they were seated.

"Serena, would you want some of these? I baked them earlier." Mr. Ryder offered some brownies when he walked over to her. Much of his stern set of ways he put to discipline his kids, he also managed to deal with the cooking and bring all the fun in the house.

Serena gave a little gasp as she reached out to take. "May I have more?"

"Yes, of course, of course," assented Mr. Ryder in a jolly mood. "It's a pleasure."

Dan got up suddenly and raised his head. "I want some too, dad."

"Ladies first, son." Mr. Ryder retorted when he glanced over his shoulder at Dan. The little lad sat back and folded his arms across his chest when he saw Serena reaching out to take a lot of brownies.

"Not fair. She gets to take more than I do." protested Dan sulkily.

"Don't cry like a baby, doofus," Ace chimed in. "She's our guest." A boy of fifteen years ventured to ruffle his little brother's hair. Then Dan jerked away from his brother's touch and huffed moodily around the corner. Immensely unsatisfied over this petty nonsense.

"You can take it now." Mr. Ryder walked across to offer Dan. But then he shook his head.

"No, thanks. She took most of them." with a scowl under his forehead.

"Danny my boy, don't be like that. You know your father can bake these again tomorrow." Mrs. Ryder soothed her boy beside him, feeling that she should speak up by now.

He shook his head again. A moment of silence prevailed when Aileen rose up.

"Hey, let's do something together before the storm stops!" Aileen jumped up in rapturous thrill when an idea struck her mind.

Mr. Ryder was all ears by now as he placed the tray of brownies on top of the mantelpiece. "Tell me, young lady. What is in your mind?"

"Let us play hide and seek, dad. Serena, you better join us." she stepped forward and pulled her friend from the chesterfield. Around the room, she wandered to see if anyone would gladly play.

"Yeah, sure I'll join." Ace volunteered mechanically.

Dan groaned in defeat since this was an opportunity for him to get out of his tedious state. "Fine. I'll join too." He was still folding his arms with a scowl.

All eyes landed on Mrs. Ryder who sat idly by the fire. When she noticed this, there was no way she would want to join since her face paled. Away she whisked to evade the situation. Mr. Ryder turned back and shook his head when his wife left the room.

"I think your mother is tired. But I'll join you kids." He returned with a sigh.

Once Aileen started to cover her face and counted from twenty, the rest of them scurried away to begin hiding. Mr. Ryder was hiding behind the door, Ace was hiding behind the curtains and Dan followed to join him.

"Hey, go find somewhere else." Ace whispered sharply. Evidently, shooing off his own little brother.

Without a second to waste, Dan went flying upstairs and hid inside the closet of his room. Serena, however, was still searching herself a spot. When Aileen was almost finished counting, Serena rushed to duck under the round table before it was too late.

"One, and zero!" Aileen opened her wide eyes and wandered off to find them. Upon further searching, she went upstairs and knew someone was hiding up there because of the audible sound she heard before when she was counting. After a moment of searching upstairs, she went away to her room.

In her bedroom, it was clean and tidy. Her childish curiosity led her to think someone was under the bed, but she checked and there was no one, unfortunately. Casting behind, she caught a glimpse of the closet door slightly ajar. In this, it gave her attention. Knowing what she had to do, Aileen stepped closer without even a sound of a footstep and she stood very still before the closet when a head bobbed out.

"Found you, Dan." Aileen cracked a victorious smirk before her twin brother.

"I thought you weren't here," Dan grumbled and scratched the back of his perspiring neck.

"I didn't have to try." Aileen shrugged her shoulders.

The rest, she went off and eventually found Ace because Dan had told her about his hiding spot as a sign of revenge. A great startle escaped from the kids on the stairs when Mr. Ryder jumped out from his spot and burst an appalling "Boo!" from behind the door. It drove them mad-crazy in the end.

"Dad!" In a chorus of waves.

Soon enough, this caused the Ryder family flooded hearty laughs under their roof in between their gasps, throwing off jokes at each other when they were done playing the game.

Nearly an hour had passed and the storm gradually receded. It was not long once the storm had finally ceased. The door suddenly rang, and Mrs. Ryder returned to answer the door as she let the guest came into her house. Lena Foster. A young beautiful lady she was, somewhat drenched in melting snow when this soon struck the kids completely. Clearly, they realized she came here for a purpose.

"Serena!" Alarmed at the thought of forgetting her existence, they wildly bolted in and out of the house altogether, searching their missing guest.