Chapter 2

By the kitchen, Betoy slumped down to his seat at the dinner table, frowning and muttering something under his breath. The father slid Betoy's plate right in front of him.

"I heard shouting, is something the matter?" Kanor asked.

Betoy glanced to his father and gave a fake smile. "Oh nothing, Tina was testing out her vocal cords, you know what fish do after they reincarnate into a 12-year-old girl, they get curious with their body parts and test them out!" He emitted a faint laugh after.

Kanor wasn't pleased. "'Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.' Gandhi once said." Kanor placed bowls of rice soup on the table. "I never knew you wanted a dog, why didn't you tell me?" He asked again.

Betoy scratched the back of his head while giving off an awkward smile. He should've made his voice softer whenever he lies, so that less people would hear it and less people would figure out that he's lying.

A thud came from the stairs. Betoy and Kanor glanced towards that direction and suddenly Tina was seen lying on the floor. She crawled towards Betoy and grabbed his leg, the boy tried to shake her off but her grip (even for a fish) was too strong.

"What kind of sick big brother are you?! Leaving me alone like that knowing the fact I can't walk in a consistent pace!"

Betoy formed a nasty smirk. "Am I supposed to be f-eel-ing gill-ty right now?"

They then threw random nonsense insults to each other.

A camera shutter came in. Kanor took a picture of them with his phone and it got their attention. "Enough, this is getting eel-logical!" He winked.

The two children fell silent and gazed at their father.

…

…

…

"Please end my misery." Tina uttered.

"Don't mind if I do." Betoy replied instantly.

The children continued arguing. Kanor's joke made everything worse than it already was.

"But there is no shame in trying, right? After all, this is s way better than being angry, right?" He thought.

Despite trying not to be angry, he could feel his face twitching and his head swelling up from the useless noise. He tried as hard as he can not to yell at his two children.

They've just met minutes ago and they're already fighting!

That's good! He thought, having read top ten positive quotes of all time and one of them is 'There's a rainbow around every corner.' In every healthy relationship, there are arguments that would lead to understanding!

"You're the worst big brother ever."

"You always come up with the greatest comebacks!"

But Kanor wasn't sure if this would lead to what he wanted, just like every other useless quarrel.

Along with a pound from his fist on the table, "Let us pray!" Kanor shouted joyfully like a preschool student who wants to lead the prayer for dismissal, and somehow still sounded like a father who wants his children to shut up so he could finally start eating. Knowing that Kanor's patience was already at its limit, Betoy and Tina seized fire, they both went to their respected stools, Tina having the king's seat, Kanor and Betoy on her left and right respectively. Kanor and Tina did the Sign of the Cross and held hands, while the one other particular family member refused to lift up a palm.

"Ama said 'let us pray' didn't you hear?" Tina glared at her big brother.

"I already prayed, right before I met the thing that would eventually ruin my entire life." Betoy obviously referred to her. He would never get to taste his favorite food ever again, just because it is somewhat related to his little sister. What replaced their breakfast were salted boiled eggs, one of the foods he disliked alongside the other one, which was still there, rice soup with ginger. To take it simply, it was all her fault that he had to eat such garbage.

For a while, mumbling came out from Kanor's mouth as if irritated. He lifted a finger from his vacant hand, "Then do it again, but this time, you do it with us." He tried not to come out as angry. "Our family motto is 'a family that prays together, stays together.' I didn't need to remind you I hope?"

Grumbling came out of Betoy's mouth as he did the Sign of the Cross and held his sister's hand. Everybody shuts their eyes simultaneously. It would be a little over the top if he didn't consider Tina as his sister because of a fight, but hold on, now that he thought of it, how could someone he only met a while ago be part of the family? The little time she was there she was an annoyance, and that little time of hers will rack up until God Himself decides not to extend it anymore. She will continue to be an annoyance and she will never be the little sister he wanted. He couldn't tell why he was so frustrated. He found her to be irritating, yes, he could say that all day, but why does he think she's annoying? Is it only because his expectations weren't met? Maybe that's a good enough reason to stand alone.

Flooded by his own thoughts Betoy couldn't focus on the family prayer. He opened his eyes to see Kanor and Tina still having their eyes shut, still singing. Their voices mixed sounded like a choir but only, well, they're only a pair. Despite his thoughts storming his mind again this time about how does Tina knew every word of their family song, he finds the song soothing. Tina had a relaxing yet powerful singing voice. The Rayuno family were great singers, adding Tina to the mix didn't change the trait in any way.

"You're not singing." Tina opened an eyelid with the song stopping in an awkward tone.

"Now now." Kanor responded, "Just because he's not singing doesn't mean he's not praying." Deep down, even being the devoted person he was, Kanor wanted the song to be over with.

"But how could anyone tell if he was silent the whole time!" Tina acclaimed.

"Is it a priority for you to expose me as this AWFUL person that you have to interrupt the family prayer?" Betoy sneered.

Tina flushed in embarrassment. She looked down and apologized. Deciding not to continue the conversation any further, she proceeded singing with Kanor from where they stopped. At first her voice was shrill, just like what a 12-year-old would really sound like until it gradually faded out as the song goes on. Betoy enjoyed the brief moment of Tina being what she was supposed to be.

The Rayuno family was always devoted to God, Tina fitted perfectly inside like a puzzle yet again. Another thing Betoy recently discovered from his little sister, she was religious, maybe more than their father Kanor who would kill his own flesh and blood if God tells him; this is just to say if God would order something so atrocious, no need to mention the books of course.

The prayer ended and immediately Betoy dug into the food like a mutt. Not to mention again that the food in front of him were the ones he disliked, the food was also below average but he couldn't care less anymore and continued digging in, the same goes for Kanor as well, who was nearly choking from his food. They weren't only hungry, but also in a hurry. They already wasted a lot of precious time because of those long useless quarrels between the siblings. It would be a miracle if they could still keep up with their schedule. After eating, Betoy would go back to his room, lie down all day and stream anime from pirate websites while Kanor would do all chores all by himself.

"Why the rush?" Tina asked, "Isn't the point of eating together is to appreciate the food and have a little chat?"

Kanor coughed. He pounded his chest to ease up the pain from swallowing a bowl full of rice soup at once. He admitted to himself that there was nothing to appreciate here. The food is a blessing from God and Kanor was ashamed that he could turn something heaven-sent into utter garbage. Kanor coughed again and readjusted his glasses.

"Yes, of course!" He mused, "What do you want to talk about?"

"You know the usual stuff." Tina cucked a sweet smile, "About the crime rates around the country and how our president would declare war that would lead to World War III in the future." She snickered.

The joke was hard for a normal person to understand. Not everyone knows that in their country, the president didn't have the power to declare war, only the congress has. Betoy rolled his eyes on how much of a tryhard comedian his little sister was. Tina paid no attention to how Betoy was acting.

"I want kuya to tell me why his room is full of anime girls!" Tina sent out a smug face.

The big brother nearly sprinkled water across the dining table. He gulped the water inside and took deep breaths to get his breathing back to normal, and Kanor got that in photo. Betoy was sure Tina was trying to pick up another fight to get back at him. He literally destroyed her during the family prayer, and now she's coming up with a comeback!

Betoy cleared his throat, "I have a hobby, there's nothing wrong with that." He didn't mention what hobby it was, and he wasn't talking about watching Japanese cartoons and reading Japanese novels and comics.

"There IS something wrong with that." Kanor said, "You lock yourself inside your room all day. You do realize we have chores. I can't manage all of them on my own, at least wash your wet blankets!" This was Kanor's opportunity to finally get Betoy a piece of his mind without sounding like a real killjoy of a parent, which he didn't realize he already was.

"Now you have Tina to help you." Betoy replied.

"Aww don't you want to spend time with us kuya?" Tina faked a frown. She was obviously dragging Betoy to do some boring work. The burn a while ago during the family prayer really stung her, huh?

"We have a new motto for now, a family that cleans together stays together!" Kanor added.

That sounded so wrong in so many ways Betoy couldn't help but laugh. "No thanks, the old motto fits us so much better."

"Come on kuya we could take the time to know each other more!" Tina insisted.

Tina was still trying to get back at him or at least, that's what Betoy had in mind. Kanor could see how genuine Tina's words came out of her mouth. It didn't seem like it, but Tina wanted to have some family time, she had a hard time expressing it without saying it directly so she wouldn't sound cheesy.

The little sister continued insisting while the big brother refused, and soon it transformed into another of their petty quarrels. Kanor didn't know what to do. Getting angry was still outside his options, he needed to keep his calm. Even if he manages to stop them from getting on each other's throats again by 'calmly' telling them to stop, in a few seconds they would start all over again. He was stuck in a corner; he didn't know what to do.

He sighed in defeat. There must still be time for him to finish all chores today while getting the rest he wanted. He could ask Tina to help him, maybe have a little father-daughter bonding, if she didn't want to do chores, well there must be other ways for them to bond, though he had to sacrifice his time doing chores. His head ached. He should make a time schedule.

He looked at his watch and his eyes widened in realization.

It was THAT day of the year. The hell with chores, nobody wanted to do them anyway, now it's time for Kanor's notorious icebreakers. He glanced at his children before looking at his watch again. Kanor had a devilish grin on his face that made his two children look at him in curiosity.