Eleven

Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

The noise from the storm outside was deafening. We were all locked inside the Walker household. All the parents were locked down at their work so it was the Taylor twins, the quads plus Madison, Liam and I.

"Mom and dad can't get back, neither can Aunt Lilly or Uncle Nick." Madi tells us, having been on the phone with them. "And we can't order dinner either because the roads are all closed up so it looks like cereal for dinner."

"Why don't you cook something?" Ella asks, looking around the room but they all look at her with deadpan looks. "What? Can none of you cook?"

"It hasn't really been a priority of ours." Liam points out. "Mom normally cooks for all of us, and if she doesn't then Liv and Crew do."

"Okay, but what about when you move out and live on your own, then you're screwed?" Ella points out. "At least we know what we are doing tonight." She stands up and moves to the kitchen, the rest of us following her.

"And what's that?"

"Cooking lessons." She grins then looks at me. "You can take four and I'll take three."

"Sure." She got Ezra, Eli and Gray and I got Madi, Liam, Gabe and Emmeline. "What do you want to make?"

"What about homemade pizza? It isn't that hard and they have all the ingredients here. Then for dessert we can make cupcakes." Ella brainstorms and I agree with her. It's easy enough for a group activity and a fun dinner, something everyone here likes.

"I'll do the toppings and base, you can do the dough and the dessert?" I split the responsibilities and she agrees. Ella isn't the biggest fan of cooking but she likes baking, but for some reason she really likes making dough, pizza dough, bread, doughnuts anything she wants at that time. "Alright, all of you wash your hands, please."

I grab my four and move to the side of the kitchen with the stove. Eleanor's kitchen was pretty big so having all of us in here didn't really feel cramped, thankfully. Both Rory and I weren't the biggest fan of cramped spaces.

"We need to chop vegetables." I tell them, grabbing what I can find in the fridge, purposefully picking the vegetables that look like they would go bad in the next few days if they weren't used. In the end I ended up with zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant and tomatoes. I also grabbed a tin of sweetcorn from the pantry. "Okay, Em, Madi. I need you to chop all these vegetables into really small cubes, the smaller the better." I tell them demonstrating the ideal size, the smaller they are the less you would taste them but would still get the health benefits from them. "Gabe, can you grate these tomatoes for the sauce please? And Liam, you are helping me with the chicken."

I nod when I receive a round of affirmations, taking the bag of chicken breasts that Eleanor had already taken out to defrost for dinner.

"What do you need me to do?" Liam asks, watching me chop the chicken into small pieces.

"Can you find me spices, literally anything that would taste nice on meat, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt?"

"Got it." He salutes and goes to find what I asked for. Glancing over at Rory and she's already covered in flour unsurprisingly. The three boys are following her instruction. She gets Ezra using the hand whisk and Eli adds certain ingredients as needed for the cupcakes and then she and Grayson are making the dough.

"Can you turn on the oven please, for two minutes?" Ella asks and I do what she asks.

"To what temperature?" I ask, turning the knob.

"Um 230."

"What's that in Fahrenheit?"

"Hey CAI, what's 230 Celsius in Fahrenheit?" Ella asks her phone and the automated robotic answer tells us.

"230 degrees Celsius is the equivalent to 447 degrees Fahrenheit." The robotic voice tells us and I turn the dial. "Is there anything else I can help you with, Miss Soleil?"

I cringe when it uses Elle's last name but she doesn't miss a beat not bringing any attention to the fact. "Set a timer for two minutes please."

She goes back to kneading her dough but before either of us could change the subject Emmeline has to just ask.

"Why did your phone call you Miss Sol... something?"

"That's my adoptive surname." Ella shrugs, not at all worried. If we were in Europe we might have. We were well known all across our continent, we owned the biggest tech company, as well as others. Also the Soleil's were well known already. They were the biggest luxury hotel chain across the world and have only continued growing. And even though Ambivalent was big in America we have kept our names out of the news here.

I add the spices Liam brought me and then go wash my hands. "Can you grab a pan please?"

"What size?"

"The biggest one you can find." I told him. "Need anything else?" I ask Rory when her timer dings.

"Switch off the oven and add a bowl of boiling water into it please."

"Sure." I followed her directions, it was too cold to prove her dough outside and it was storming. We also didn't have the time so she was creating a fake setting. If she was making anything else she wouldn't have but it was only pizza base so she didn't really care.

I lean back on the counter watching Liam placing the pan on the stovetop and then he watches me for the next instructions.

"Turn the heat to medium high. A little lowers, look, because this is a gas stove. You can see the flame. If you turn it a quarter it is really high and that's too hot. It would cook the outside of your food leaving the inside raw and you don't want that. If you turn in the furthest you can it would take you forever to cook. But some recipes call for a low heat, it's mainly used for simmering food though. But right in the middle is great for cooking all sorts of stuff like meat and veg." He listens carefully to what I was saying, following the directions. "Now add a bit of oil, enough to cover the bottom of your pan, a little more, that's enough."

"Now what?" Liam asks me.

"Wait until your oil is hot. A good way to check is if you touch a small piece of your chicken in and it starts sizzling then it's ready. Then place the pieces around the pan, don't overcrowd it, you don't have to fit it all." He nods and I move over to Gabriel. "Ready to start making the sauce."

I grab a saucepan and put it on the stove as well, Gabriel following me. "So what do I do?"

"Pour all the tomatoes into the pan." I wait until he's done. "Now add tomato paste."

"All of it?" he asks, looking at the sachet.

"Yeah. Do you guys have any oregano?"

Emmeline grabs the bottle from a spice rack and hands it to me. "You say that's weird." She comments.

"What." I ask. "Oregano?" She nods, I didn't think I did, or-ruh-gaa-no.

"How do you say it?" I question, a bit baffled.

"Oregano." Uh-re-guh-no. It sounded like she just said it with an American accent and sped it up a bit.

"We have different accents, it's obvious certain words are going to sound different." I point out.

"I think you would both sound weird with an American accent, I can't picture it." Madi chimes in and the others agree with her.

"What, don't think it would sound natural, sweetheart." Ella replies, changing her accent to match the southern one they all adorned and they all looked shocked then burst out laughing.

"What the heck, that was actually really good." Liam gets out in between laughs and Ella grins. It was a trait she had picked up at the agency and it had saved her but being able to use so many different accents without sounding anything less than a native person from that country.

"Why thank you." She grins, taking a mock bow.

"Why thank you." Ezra repeats, trying to mimic her accent but wasn't nearly as successful as Rory was and it just increases the laughter in the room. "How do you do that?"

"Soften the vowels, you all say them pretty harshly, speak in the front of your mouth rather than using your throat." He tries again with Rory's instruction and does a better attempt this time but it still wasn't great

"You know what, I give up. Can we put on some music or something?"

"I have a speaker in my room, if you want to go grab it." I tell him, directing him to where it was and he goes and gets it, using Rory's phone for the music since she had the biggest selection. And soon enough he and Rory are dancing around the kitchen, singing on the top of their voices, the rest of us joining in occasionally but mainly leaving them to because they were the only two able to hold a tune, in fact they sounded amazing.

"Are you done with the dough?" I called Ella, since the toppings were almost ready.

"Yeah." She answers, kneading the dough and splitting it into pieces enough for all of us and the parents for when they get back. "Who wants to roll their base first?"

Emmeline and Madison went first while the rest of us started cleaning up the kitchen. It wasn't that bad, just a lot of plates and flour everywhere so we were done in a couple of minutes, minus the sink full of dishes Liam and Grayson had been nominated to do. The rest of us were sitting down around the kitchen table and at the seats of the island, watching Rory trying to teach Ezra a dance move.

And even though some of us got off to a rough start, most of us were still not close at all. This was really nice. It was the first time my heart ached for the childhood that was taken from me without permission.

I helped the girls put their tomato sauce, cheese and toppings onto their pizza and then slid it into the oven, letting Gabe and Eli roll their next. Officially giving up trying to teach Ezra, Rory comes over to help me roll the parents pizzas so they are ready for them once they finally get home. We had received word that the storm was easing but they are going slow and should be getting back soon.

"How did you do that so easily? It took me eight minutes to roll out a single pizza but it took you two to roll out two." Madi asks.

"I've done this millions of times, and when we're with our cousins and you're taking too long they will literally take the rolling pin out of your hands and then you have to wait until last." Ella explains making me roll my eyes.

"No, that happens to the rest of us. It hasn't once happened to you. No one is brave enough to deal with your terrifying grandparents that would go to war if some one even looked at you wrong."

Ella waved her hand, brushing me off. "Sentmatics."

Ella bends down, placing the first pizza in the oven and starts helping me scrub down the counters.

"How long does it take in the oven?" Emmeline asks me, staring at Rory and I's current position. We were the only ones behind the counter and Ella was standing and I had my arms wrapped around her from behind.

Even though it was obvious she hadn't addressed her, Ella decided to answer her sister. "Only a couple minutes, maybe like five."

Ella sways in my arms to the beat of the song as we wait for the first pizza to finish.

Begrudgingly I unwrap my arms from Elle and go to take the first pizza out. I was placing the next tray in when I heard something shattering. I automatically turned around but not to see where the sound came from. Instead my eyes flew to Ella's and sure enough there was a terrified look in her eyes. I close the oven and place a hand on her. She flinches at my touch before she registers who it was and then she leans in closer to my touch, letting out a shaky breath. The only people who had caught her reaction were Grayson and Emmeline.

I lean my mouth closer to the top of Ella's head, pressing a kiss to her head and whispering in her ear. "Go up to my room and have a few minutes to yourself, I can deal with everything here."

Normally she would have argued but that specific sound was a trigger for Ella and she needed a few minutes of privacy otherwise she might have a panic attack or meltdown. All she needed right now was an empty, preferably dark space and my room right now was both of those things. With a last kiss to her head I let her go and she quietly slipped out of the room while everyone was preoccupied.

Grayson moves closer to me so no one would overhear him. "Is she okay?"

"She will be." I assure but I decide it's best for Ella not to be alone right now. "I can't leave the food here without anyone else knowing what to do. Do you mind going to check on her? I don't think it's best to leave her alone right now."

"Of course." He quickly follows up the stairs while I try to get everything under control. I help make sure there aren't any glass shards around and then help finish dinner which was almost done when we see headlights shining through the kitchen windows, all four parents following soon after.

"Hey guys." Eleanor greeted with a large smile, the others tumbling in behind her. She takes in all of us and then her smile slowly drops into shock. "You cooked?"

"Ev decided it's an essential life skill to know and she wrangled all of us into learning." Liam explains, going to help our mother unload all of her things.

"I hope you don't mind if we used your kitchen without permission, and used some of your groceries." I apologise. "We made it for all of you as well."

Auriella descends the stairs with her brother and immediately latches onto my side greeting the others.

"Of course I don't mind, I meant it when I said make yourselves at home, this is your home as much as it is any of the others." She walks more into the kitchen. "Now what did you all make? It smells amazing."

So do you like the family bonding? I really enjoyed writing the chapter it more of a filler but a sweet one.

I have no idea when the next chapter will be done because I haven't actually written it yet but hopefully soon.

Also I just published Opulent Influence and if you don't know it is a one-shot book with chapters with Ella and Xander that I go from when they are first rescued all the way through to their kids.

So that is out now, I should update it once a week hopefully so go check it out.

Leave a vote and comment and I will see you next chapter

Ara <3