The thoughts

She thought about these things for a long time and slowly drifted off to sleep in the swing in the balcony. She did not know when she fell asleep.

Her messy raven black hair was all over her face. She had some remnants of drool at the corner of her moist cherry lips. Her beautiful phoenix eyes had dark circles around them. Her tall frame was huddled in the swing but she still slept like a log.

When she heard laughter just outside her bedroom door, she woke up with a start, and mumbled to herself, "Where am I?" She was disoriented at the moment. She rubbed her sleepy eyes and got up from the swing and went to her bedroom and then threw herself on to the bed.

Knock knock...

An annoying knock sounded at her bedroom door. She cursed, and with her half-lidded eyes went to open the door to see which idiot came to disturb her so early in the morning.

She was going to curse again, when she saw that it was her beloved Grandpa Tan. Her lips quirked up into a pleasant smile.

"You are here?"

"Ya, we thought that it would be a great surprise for you. So we came.", Grandpa Bill said with an usual tone and seemed to hide something.

Sophie, due to her lack of sleep the previous night was muddle-headed right then, so, she did not notice the unusual tone of his voice. "Okay then, since you all have come, enjoy yourselves. I need to sleep a while more. Please don't disturb me unless there is something urgent.", Sophie said and went back to her bedroom and closed the door, leaving them standing there like fools.

In the living room, everyone was present except Sophie.

C suddenly asked, "Why are you all here? There must be some reason you old guys came here in such a rushed manner. Tell me, what is it?"

"Boy there is nothing, We missed you young children, so, we came here to see all of you."

"Can't we miss you punks?", another chimed in. They looked like small kids who were caught stealing.

Seeing that being straightforward did not work, they could only try a different approach. Natalie approached Old Man Po and suddenly hugged him and said, "Grandpa, I've missed you a lot."

"I've missed you too, my child." Grandpa Po had a good impression of Nat, as she was not a pretentious lady. She likes to say things face to face. She was such a sweet and charming child. He loved this little girl in front of him. He melted upon seeing her acting this way. He knew they were acting just to know the truth. But he couldn't break this young girl's heart.

"Okay, okay, stop acting like this. You are such a big girl, but, you still act this way!", he said while shaking his head.

"I'm always a child in front of Grandpa." Then, as if she learnt something, made a shocked face which morphed into a wronged face with tears glistening in her eyes and ready to fall at any moment, she said slowly, "Now that I've grown up, does Grandpa plan to not love me anymore?"

Grandpa Po was at a loss. 'When did I say such thing?', he thought. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember saying such things to the young lady in front of him. He could only helplessly console her saying, "No, my child, Grandpa will forever love you and dote on you." Seeing that her acting succeeded, she gave a smug look to C, hoping for a praise. But C ignored her and turned to the old men sitting in front of them with a helpless look across their faces.

He asked slowly and intimidating manner, "So, do you plan to spill the beans or would you like me to investigate the matter myself? The second option would be a problem for you. I hope you all know that!"

"Boy, you are threatening us?", Grandpa Bill said in a menacing and equally intimidating tone.

"Yes, I am. What are you going to do about that?"

"Forget it, and tell him.", Grandpa Tan said with a sigh.

"Ah..... Are you sure? I mean...", Grandpa Smith started to say, but Grandpa Tan cut him off saying, "It would be better if they knew, so, that they can be prepared for the upcoming battles."

"What are you all talking about?", C's interest was piqued.

"Robert is going to get married.", Grandpa Bill said with another heavy sigh.

Everyone in the living room became silent. Even Natalie who was acting before became dumbfounded and forgot to keep up her acting pretense.

"WHAT???" They were all shocked and yelled together.