Routine

"Good morning everyone! Time to get up, or you'll miss breakfast!"

Penny groaned as she woke up to Emma's good morning call. She glanced lazily around the room and blinked. She glanced at the calendar and saw that the twelfth day was circled, and Conny's name was written on it in cursive.

Oh, yeah. Today was the day of Connie's adoption.

Penny slowly slid up into a sitting position on her bed and grabbed her hair brush and a pony tail and began doing her hair. Everywhere, the older kids were helping everyone get ready for the day.

"Hey! Stop messing around and get ready!" Gilda yelled.

Penny glanced up to Emma's side and saw two kids. They were holding out their uniforms and sniffling. Penny smiled. "Emma, I'll take care of this."

"Thank you, Penny!" Emma grinned at her.

Emma and Penny ran after the kids, and Penny saw the one person she was looking for...Connie. Penny giggled as she scooped Connie in her arms and gave the little girl one of her biggest hugs. "Good morning, Connie!" She grinned at Connie's stuffed animal. "You two, little bunny!"

"EEE!" Connie squealed excitedly. "Penny, you're squeezing me!"

"Mornin', Penny." Don smiled, walking up to the two girls.

"Don!" Penny grinned, giving her older brother a hug. When they released each other, Penny grinned at Don. "Hey, let's hurry up and head to the dining room!"

"Okay!" Connie grinned. She ran off, followed closely by Don.

Penny smiled as she watched the two run off. "Yep. Those two sure are cute together. I feel bad that Connie will be separated from him today. Who knows...maybe Momma will be so kind to take us to visit Connie after she's settled!"

Hearing Emma yelp, Penny turned around to see Emma hissing in a silly dangerous way at Thomas and Lannion. She snickered at them. "Now you've done it!" She hissed playfully and ran after the two boys and grabbed them both in their arms, and they doubled over laughter. Phil happily climbed up and relaxed on Emma's head, and the four laughed.

Gilda sighed with a smile. "And off they go again..."

Emma ran back into the kitchen with Phil grabbing half of her mouth. 'Ey, 'uys!" Emma grinned. "G'mornin'!"

"Hi, Emma!" Norman called, pushing a cart of food. "'Morning! Morning to you, Penny." Norman turned to Penny with a smile, and the girl an up to Norman and the two shared a hug.

Ray walked up, holding a jug of water. "Good morning, Emma. You too, Penny."

"Morning, Emma!" Penny smiled at her older sister. She turned towards Norman and Ray. "Morning, Norman! Morning, Ray!"

Norman laughed at the two girls. "You two are so full of energy, and you haven't even had your breakfast yet!"

Ray nodded in agreement at the two girls. "C'mon, how old are you two? Five and four?"

Emma glared angrily at Ray, boosting up Phil in her arms. "I'm eleven! Same as you guys! And one of the oldest kids here!"

"And I'm ten!" Penny humphed. "Younger but closer!"

Ray chuckled. He always did that whenever she did something cute or unexpected. Or being a complete idiot. Or whenever she played with the younger kids.

Yup. Ray and Penny were the closest of the group. Penny always hung out with him. She found him fascinating. And enjoyable to be around with. Mama told her that when she came to the house, she never left Ray's side for days until she felt more comfortable.

Hearing Mom chuckle, Emma and Penny turned to Isabella, their foster mom. "You're laughing too, Mom?!" Emma complained.

Mom smiled. "Emma, Penny, come help me out."

"Sure!" Penny squealed.

Emma ran up to Mom and hugged her tight. "In a minute! I wanna redo my entrance because Ray teased me!"

"Why change it?" Mom smiled at Emma. "It showed just what I love about you."

"That I'm five years old at heart?"

"That isn't what I meant. I love how deeply you care about your family."

"What about me?!" Penny whined, clutching Mom's sleeve. Mom smiled at her. "Yes, you share the same love for your siblings, Penny. I love how you stay positive and joyful."

Emma and Penny grinned. "Thank you, Mom! I'm glad!"

"So am I!" Penny grinned, joining in on the hug.

When they were all seated, Mom pulled out her bell and rang it. Penny sat down next to Ray as Mom began her speech. "Good morning to you, my darling children. Now, let us appreciate that all thirty nine of you are able to live happy lives under this roof." She clasped her hands and closed her eyes. "We are thankful."

"Thank you for our breakfast!" Everyone prayed.

The kids dove into their meal.

Mom smiled as she handed Connie her food. "Now, open wide..."

Connie smiled as she took a bite out of her meal. "Yummy!"

"You're acting like a little baby, aren't you, Connie?" Mom smiled at her.

"It's okay, right?" Connie asked. "Especially today!"

"Of course."

Pretty soon, it was school time. Penny glanced down at the tablet and picked up her scanner. "Answer each question within ten seconds. When you hear the tone, begin."

When the tone buzzed, Penny quickly scanned each answer as fast as she could. She finished it before the bell buzzed.

Gilda sighed as the lights turned on, and she fell head-first on her desk.

"Well, I think I got at least half." Thomas grinned.

"I'm jealous!" Connie grinned. "I didn't even get most of the questions!"

"Let's quiet down and go through the results." Mom smiled, glancing at the results sheet. "Norman, Penny, Ray, Emma. Perfect scores again! Fantastic! I'm so proud!"

"YAY!" Emma grinned.

"Awesome!" Penny grinned.

None of them could be close to beating those three. Norman's smarter than any of them combined. And then there's Ray. Who's good at solving any problem he's faced with. To top it off, Emma learns really fast. So she can keep up with them pretty easy. Penny has the same amount of intelligence as Emma. They say that this house has never had four kids at this level together before! And no wonder Mom's proud of them!

"NORMAN!"

Don's sudden outburst quickly changed the mood of the room, and everyone glanced at him.

"I'm challenging you to tag!"

Norman smiled.