Two delicious portions of pasta stood on the dinner table, a sight that made Sophie's stomach growl and her mouth salivate. She covered one of them generously with parmesan and prepared additionally some lemonade.
Jacob would want to decide the amount of cheese for himself, since she had definitely a larger volume in mind than he did. Now she only had to call him for dinner. His room was not far away, just through the living room and down the hallway.
She opened the door to his room eagerly, driven by her hunger for the delicious food that waited in the kitchen.
"Jacob, dinner is ready."
The opening door gave first sight to the desk of her brother, littered with colorful pieces of cloth and a few drawings Sophie didn't recognize. Next came the window left beside the desk in sight, where a surprised Jacob crawled through the wide-open window, seemingly trying to exit the room.
"Ugh… it's not what it looks like?"
His light blue eyes locked on her while he brushed nervously through his short blonde hair. The usual put on smile that their Father often flaunted mirrored on his younger lookalike face.
A smirk formed on Sophie's face at the amusing sight of this ridiculous situation. Wouldn't it be a waste to not exploit such an opportunity?
"Well, what are you running away from this time? Your homework, or my cooking skills?"
Jacob pulled himself inside, bearing a nervous chuckle and avoiding eye contact. He was way too easy to throw off, and seeing him squirm like this was always entertaining.
"Ugh… running away? I mean… yeah, of course! I was trying… I was trying to get away… because…"
She ignored his poor attempt at explaining himself and grabbed his arm. As much as she enjoyed teasing him like that, her stomach urged her to move to the kitchen as stage.
"Anyway, it's time to eat dinner. You can explain in the kitchen why you didn't join us earlier even though you didn't want to do your homework either."
He gave no resistance to her pull, stumbling with her while stuttering some more excuses.
"What? No… I didn't… of course I wanted to join. It's not… I mean the homework… ugh…"
His constant struggle for words kept the smug smile on Sophie's face blooming. Jacob could never hide secrets from her, always way too honest and bad at lying. At least his attempts would make for an entertaining evening.
Sophie didn't even mind the occasional shameful gaze Jacob threw at her while eating. He was obviously feeling guilty, but the Spaghetti was just too tasty to bother with it right now.
'He must have worked on the outfit that was on his desk.'
That thought made enough sense, yet she hadn't recognized the design. Perhaps it was an original creation instead of his usual superhero inspired costumes. It was certainly more interesting than doing homework and would explain why he missed out on a rather boring sounding afternoon in downtown.
The sudden sound of the entrance door getting slammed shut announced a return. Had their Father forgotten something?
To her surprise, entered Karen the kitchen shortly after, dropping Sophie's mood significantly.
"What are you doing here?"
Her hostile question caught Karen unprepared, who looked over at Jacob, probably searching for backup from him. Yet her brother was predictably not going to put himself into the line of fire. Probably seeing his chance to escape the need to explain himself to Sophie.
"I'm back from work. Where's… your Father? I've seen that his car is gone."
She looked rather disappointed at the empty chair opposite of her. Her disregard for Sophie's attitude annoyed her even more.
"At work… shouldn't you have met?"
Karen's brows furrowed, worry written all over her face.
"I must have just missed him. Do you know when he comes back?"
Even that continuous effort didn't seem to gather the results Sophie wished for, but that was quite childish anyway.
"No. But it sounded urgent."
A similar worry appeared on Jacob's face, and she wondered what could be so worrisome about a boring office job, until Karen got herself a portion and sat down at the table, which got followed by a rather awkward silence.
Sophie herself was still feeling annoyed by Karen's presence alone, while Jacob looked relieved that he was not the center of attention. Yet Karen seemed to Sophie like she didn't even bat an eye at the situation. Even going so far to break the silence.
"How's your nose Sophie, does it still hurt?"
Jacob's interest at the notion of her injury posed the right opportunity for Sophie to escape that conversation.
"Don't look like that, Jacob. I've just fallen on my face, nothing important. What interests me, though, what were you doing earlier?"
Her brother looked up like a deer caught in headlights, frozen in place from the returned attention.
"Ugh… what?"
Karen's eyes stayed on Sophie, clearly annoyed by the intentional dodge of her question. It was nearly as entertaining as the gears she could almost hear in Jacob's head turn, as he was trying to come up with an excuse.
"Well, you said you couldn't join us because you had homework to catch up to. Yet I find you in your room, working on another one of your projects. If I look in your backpack, what will I find there? Finished homework or not?"
The joy Sophie had from seeing him squiggle so uncomfortably faded as Karen interjected.
"Stop teasing him like that. I've seen that Jacob was learning the entire afternoon."
Stepping on her nerves had definitely worked, and Sophie held not back with her sarcastic undertone.
"Is that so? I can't remember asking you, but anyway. I just wanted to ask Jacob to tell me about the new outfit he's working on. Not that it's your problem."
The tension between Sophie and Karen dispersed as Jacob hesitantly spoke up.
"Oh… ugh… I can… show you… after dinner. No problem… really."
The awkward silence returned, and the rest of dinner was uneventful until they finished eating. Karen had a stony expression when she stood up and took the empty plates.
"I'll take care of the dishes, you have fun."
'Thanks for nothing…'
[---][---][---][---][---][---][---][---]
Jacob's room looked as finely ordered and clean as always. The only things standing out were his desk, which he used to go after his hobby and the comic posters that had inspired it.
What first started as his fixed idea to become a superhero himself had benefited her too, as some costumes he had made for Halloween or Carnival hung in her own closet.
She sat down on his bed and waited for him to calm a little down from his earlier panic. What didn't seem to happen soon, as he stormed erratically into his room.
"Sophie! What the… why are you still so hostile towards her?"
Her eyes wandered lazily around and she shrugged with her shoulders.
"Why not? I don't like her. Just because you already treat her like a Mother… doesn't mean I have to do that too."
His brief burst of confidence faded right before her eyes.
"Aren't you… afraid, that she might just leave again? What would then be with Dad?"
There was a part of her that felt that dread, but the rest knew that Karen wouldn't leave, ever.
"And if, maybe Dad would then have time again. Not that you wouldn't get enough attention anyway."
Sophie's eyes graced his calendar at the wall while her arms crossed. There was his trip with their Father this weekend marked red, while she had since weeks only gotten the cooking earlier and even that got interrupted.
His eyes went back to his feet, avoiding eye contact.
"I don't… Dad would surely like to spend more time with you. It's just something related to my… apprenticeship after summer."
She stood back up and went over to the desk, pulling Jacob with her.
"I don't blame you or him. Now what's with those new costumes?"
On the desk laid brightly colored cloth on the surface and sketches in a drawing style that could only be from Max. Sophie took one of the drawings from the stack. It showed what looked like Jacob in a questionable outfit. The design itself reminded her of a rather awkward costume combination of Tailor Moon and Powder Ranger's.
"What crime of fashion is that supposed to become?"
He snitched the paper from her hands, obviously sulky from her opinion.
"That's an excellent design! Max said so too when we made it."
She took another one of the paper drawings, which definitely depicted Felix in a topless skin tight outfit that bordered at unsuitable for minors.
"Of course he did. Why would he ever pass up on an opportunity to gawk at Felix's abs?"
Jacob ignored her giggling and took that drawing as well.
"That's not… okay, now I see it as well… either way, it's still my design."
Sophie smiled at him apologetically and took the drawings from Izzy and Monica.
They were less risky and, like Jacob's own, more in line with an actual anime style, except for Izzy's stomach free part where someone had crudely drawn some rather angular looking muscles.
"Ah, it's not that bad, just a little too comical for my taste. Did you draw the muscles there? I did not know you liked Izzy that way."
He relaxed a little at her half-hearted compliment and took Izzy's drawing to see for himself, before chuckling.
"Hm… no. Haha, she must have done that herself. Do you want to see your outfit?"
Sophie peeked quickly at Max's outfit, only to shudder. It was topless, like a mirror of Felix's design, just that Max didn't have the figure to pull it off.
"Sure, just promise me you rework Max and your own. Felix will stick out anyway, but you need something that falls more in line with the magical girl outfits from Izzy and Monica."
Jacob fiddled in his wardrobe and pulled a finished costume out. It was like Monica's, so not with the stomach free, and bright like the rest.
"At least it's cute, but pink is certainly not my color. What are you even planning with them?"
He reached her the outfit and scratched himself nervously.
"Oh… ugh… you remember how Max wanted to make a comic? We settled on an idea and… the costumes are for… something related to that. I… I can't tell you more… at least not now."
She felt the soft cloth and fine seam in her hands, which had certainly been a lot of work.
"I'll look forward to it then. Just don't expect me to wear this in public for promotion events."
Sophie gave him a thankful smile before leaving.
'Rather would hell freeze…'