The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0419

"Never bet against me, Sinclair," Jackson says with a sigh, flashing my brother a beautiful grin.

"Yeah well, next year," Rafe grumbles, narrowing his eyes. I laugh, pleased to see my brother have to deal with losing - it's not something that happens often to him. "You're on my team. Jesse, you're out."

Jesse squawks with injured pride, taking a step back and pressing a hand to his chest. "This is war, cousin," he says, quite seriously, before flashing his eyes to Jackson. "Jacks you're on my team next year - we're best friends, after all -"

A great deal of laughter goes around, the debate continuing as we all troop back downstairs and cobble together what we can for dinner. This is always my favorite part of Midwinter, if I'm being honest - the fact that every year mom freaks out about not having enough food prepared even though, of course, the chefs leave us more than enough and we've never gone hungry.

And so she has the boys continually going down to the kitchen for tray after tray of food, and cheese, and cookies, and cakes, and ice cream - so much that by the end of the evening we're all completely stuffed with little tiny portions of snacks and food, and there's a huge stack of plates in the corner, and everyone's lazy and full and ready to digest.

But of course, Roger lets no one rest. Instead, he and Jesse rouse everyone to laughter as the hours pass, organizing games and pouring drinks and keeping the mood light and fun. By the end, we're all a little drunk - or more than a little - and that's when the music comes out. Mom moans and begs Juniper to play the piano, and Juniper pretends to resist until mom's practically on her knees, and then Junie sighs, and stands, and flumps down on the seat of the piano hidden away in the corner and begins to play an incredibly complex concerto.

Jackson's eyes go wide with shock the moment he hears her start to play. He watches Juniper's hands fly over the keys and I grin, turning my face to watch him instead of Juniper.

"How does she...do that..." he whispers, fascinated, his words a little slurred. Jesse and Roger have been targeting Jackson in particular tonight with their refills, determined to get him to come out of his shell a bit.

"Junie's been a concert-level pianist since she was a kid," I whisper to him, letting my full pride in my sister's ability be heard in my voice. "But don't tell anyone - she'd rather die than let anyone outside this room know. She thinks that talent isn't very cool." Jackson just glances at me, agape, before turning his eyes back to June.

"No, no!" Cora says, giving Juniper an angry little tap on her shoulder. "Don't play that - you know what we want!"

Juniper stops mid-chord and turns a wicked grin up at our aunt. "You mean, you want...this?" And she bursts immediately into the rock-and-roll riff of an oldies song we all know and love, about a too-talented man playing piano in a bar for a group of people with big dreams. Markie lets out a big whoop and bursts into the chorus. We all join in a second later.

Jackson stares around at everyone in a little bit of shock, but I wind my arm around his waist and pull him close, and he just laughs and gives into it, shaking his head and attempting to join in when he can. With the way his voice croaks as he tries to find the notes, I actually wonder if Jackson's ever tried singing before.

But no one says anything, or makes note of his slightly off-key mostly wordless contributions to the songs. Because he's family now, and he's here, and whatever he adds is the perfect addition to our little chorus.

And even though the future weighs hard on each of us, we take a moment to set our fears and our worries aside. And so we sing, and laugh, and drink - all of us, together, for the rest of the night, appreciating this perfect moment for precisely what it is.