Child of a King

Chapter twenty-eight - The color of hope

With a steady hand and narrowed concentrating eyes, I placed the last piece on my creation. Beaming in pride, I bounced up and down in excitement that my little creation had turned out just how I wanted. It had taken a long time and a lot of redoes, but it finally stood exactly as the way that I wanted. It was perfect.

Clapping my hands excitedly, I ran for the patio doors as butterflies of anticipation to show it off erupted in my belly. I spotted Ray on the lounge chair; black sunglasses shielded his eyes as he sipped on a bottle of beer.

"Ray Ray!" I called with a small giggle, running up to his side.

"Stelly!" He mimicked my tone, sounding almost like me as he perked up, matching the same energy I had.

"I finished it!" I announced, clutching his free hand in mine as I jumped up and down.

"No way", he gushed, slipping his sunglasses slightly down to peek at me with mock astonishment.

"Yes way!" Pulling on his hand, I used all my strength to try to get him out of the lounge chair. Tried being the key word. "Come on!"

"Alright, alright!" Taking a big swing of his beer, Ray stood up way too slow for my liking.

"Wait!" I stopped abruptly getting him to follow me as I looked around. "Where's Slade?"

"He'll be here in..." Gazing at his watch, he pointed towards the forest. "3, 2, 1".

Right on the dot, Slade emerged behind the trees, running along the trail. He stopped in front of the patio where he placed both of his hands on his hips, his chest heaving as his skin glistened with sweat.

"Time?" He asked in between breaths.

"Same as last time".

Slade growled in irritation as he used the back of his hand to wipe his forehead.

"You just need to exercise harder", Ray said matter-of-factly.

"Says you who don't exercise at all", he stated, rolling his eyes.

"I do exercise".

"Right".

"I do", Ray insisted. "See for yourself". Using the hand that held his beer, he brought the rim to his lips taking another big gulp. While doing so he pointed to his bicep. "Did you see it? Exercise at its finest".

As Ray flexed his muscles a few more times, Slade shook his head in amusement.

"Slay?" I said, moving to stand at the edge of the patio.

"Yes, sunshine?" Slade rested his arms on the railing, devoting all his attention to me.

"It's ready!"

"It is?" His warm brown eyes sparkled at me as a smile played on his lips.

"Yup! Come see!" Grabbing his hand, I tugged him towards the staircase, dragging him towards the door. Clutching Ray's hand in the other, I thought to myself that I was getting my exercise in for the day as I used all the force in my body that I had to trail them behind me.

"So cute", Ray mumbled, as I kept telling them to walk faster. It wasn't cute! It was an order, not a request. Bet he wouldn't tell a sergeant that she was cute if she gave my brother an order.

"Tada!" I exclaimed, when I finally got them into the living room where my hard work stood.

"Wow!" Slade said, taking it all in. "Did you really make all this yourself?" He asked.

"Yes". I beamed even though I felt a little shy as they complimented the racetrack, I had put together myself without anyone's help. I had lined up all the racecars, ready to race through the course that snaked through all sorts of LEGO houses and buildings. I thought it was funny to make it look like our cars would race through an actual city instead of just going around in a loop. Exactly like some of those Formula 1 races Ray liked to watch on the tv. That's where I came up with the idea in the first place, asking the twins if it could be fun to make a race at home.