"Kitchen's this way." Babe pointed out of the living room they had walked into. She let go of Henry in the hallway, casually stepping to the side as a twelve year old boy with paint all over his clothes bolted past, out into the yard to call something at his mother. "That was Hugo."
Henry nodded, going ahead of Babe to the kitchen and freezer. He opened it, scanning it and grabbing a bag of frozen corn. "Catch." He threw it gently, straight to Babe's hand. "Must be tough, having so many brothers."
Babe caught the bag just as she hobbled into the kitchen. "I guess? I mean, they're all super talented, so it kinda feels like I'm racing to keep up." She joked as she hopped up onto the counter, crossing her injured leg over her knee and setting the bag, with no towel, on top of the bruising. "Hey, there's a bottle of lemonade in there, like the big not-quite-a-gallon things? Could you grab it?"
"Sure. But serious, you're amazing. On the ice, you get out there and you could beat up the professionals." He said, opening the door again to grab the lemonade. Once he had it out, he set it on the counter next to her, still taking in the details of the house. He could tell a lot about a family from what was on their fridge, from pictures to magnets and handprints. Right now, since they hadn't been here long, the house was somewhat undecorated.
There was, by way of decorations, the following in the kitchen. A fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, in plain view with a big red arrow on the wall next to it, pointing at it. There were a few drawings on the fridge already, including one entitled 'Satan', with a picture of the goose from the yard and signed by Babe in the corner.
Babe grabbed a glass from the cupboard to her right, and filled it up before sliding it to Henry. She then proceeded to drink straight out of the bottle as Rico rushed in looking kind of frantic.
He took the glass, raising an eye at the goose picture. And the fire extinguisher. Who needed to make fire safety so obvious? Henry looked up at the sound, seeing another boy coming into the kitchen quickly.
"Babe! I need-you know, your shirt? With the uh…" Rico waved his hands wildly, trying and failing to speak.
"My mesh one?" Babe asked, raising an eyebrow. "My room, up on the shelf in my closet. Right side, under the hat box full of photos." He nodded gratefully, and then he was gone again.
Henry watched the exchange, thoroughly confused. Their interaction was interesting, however. They understood each other pretty well. "Rico?" He questioned. (I don't know if he's met Rico yet so I'm just guessing he'd know the name…) He leaned back against the counter and took another sip of the lemonade.
"Yeah, my twin, remember?" Babe said, nodding. "He was at the tryouts, and you saw him at lunch." She remembered him showing up to tryouts, and the argument that had followed. Rico had understood though, after she'd explained things.
Henry nodded, remembering seeing him before. "And he needs your shirt." He said it like a joke, but he was honestly questioning that. At least the family seemed pretty close knit. He'd never had the experience of siblings, being an only child. The hockey team was the closest thing he'd ever had to brothers.
"Yeah, he and I swap clothes all the time." Babe said, as though that was a normal thing. To her, it was though. The music upstairs stopped suddenly, and there was a cry of 'Eureka', quickly followed by a thwap. Babe snorted, shaking her head. "Looks like Adrian had another idea."
Henry nodded. Apparently, siblings did that kind of thing. Interesting. "I take it Adrian's the family genius?" He said, a wry smile on his face. "Busy house." She was clearly well adjusted to dealing with a lot at once, the kind of thing only siblings could really teach you.
"Oh, god no." Babe shook her head, gesturing vaguely at the room around them to symbolize the whole house. "That's the thing, they're all geniuses. Adrian and Zach have this business they run, and they're constantly coming up with new stuff. Kai is a tech wiz and inventor, Hugo is an amazing artist, Rico is such a good actor, you'd think he actually became whoever he was playing. And Evan is our resident architect. The things he can build with legos…"
Henry watched her closely. "And when you get out on the ice, you're amazing. You have no idea how awesome it is, to have that kind of talent at your age." She didn't seem to understand it, and he wanted her to realize that.
"I play a sport that I'm not even supposed to play." Babe said, before taking another drink from the bottle of lemonade. "My accident was just the thing mom was waiting for to get me off the ice."
"Your accident?" He'd felt like he'd heard about it before, but he had no details he could think to put with it. Hopefully, it had nothing to do with her ankle. And, when he thought about it, maybe if she felt like she wasn't supposed to play a sport, it didn't count as an accomplishment even when she got as good at it as she was.
Babe, with some minor difficulty, managed to roll up her pant leg, revealing a long and jagged scar. "That accident I told you about. Although, if we're being honest, you don't accidentally chuck an entire skate at someone."
His eyebrows went up. "Whoah. Someone threw a skate at you?" Henry's tone was incredulous, his face shocked. It looked awful, and the idea that someone had intentionally done that to her was horrible.
"Oh yeah. It was part of some plan to end my career and stuff." Babe said with a shrug, rolling the pant leg back down. The back of corn sat next to her on the counter, intentionally forgotten. "The guy didn't plan on my overwhelming spite and ability to do whatever the hell I put my mind to."
Henry shook his head, wonderingly. He watched her closely, remembering the scar well. "That's awful. At least it didn't end your career, and you're still fighting." He kept shaking his head slowly, shocked that someone would ever do something like that to a person like Babe, who had her kind of talent and potential.
Babe shrugged nonchalantly, playing with her locket. "Stuff happens. You just gotta keep powering through, and things'll even out." It was said so casually, about something that could, very well, have ended her career right then and there.
Henry shook his head. She was a tough thing, that was obvious. He finished his lemonade, setting the glass down. "If you're alright here, I should head back. Lots of homework." He added the last bit ruefully, foreseeing a late night.
Babe made a face, and was quiet for a moment. "You could stick around here for a bit. I could help you out with your homework, and get some of mine done."
Henry glanced at her. "Do you understand the complexities of the little numbers they give us?" He was, of course, referring to math. Something about it always escaped him, no matter how hard he tried. "Sure, I can stay. Do you want me to grab anything else?" She probably shouldn't do too much walking.
"I've still gotta go upstairs and shower." Babe said, making a different face at the ceiling. "This'll be fun. You go grab your stuff, help yourself to anything in the fridge that isn't clearly labelled with someone's name. My name is fine." With that, she slid off the counter.