It was early Saturday morning, which meant I didn't have school and I could sleep in. I was having the most coolest yet weirdest dream ever. I was dreaming that I was flying the dragon from my favorite book series over Hogwarts, whilst fighting off demons with a sling shot. I was wearing Abraham Lincoln's hat and I had little knight people sitting behind me. I was doing all of this while eating mysterious flavored cookies. I wish I knew what kind they were.

Until my dream was rudely interrupted by my obnoxious twin brother, Ashton.

"What?!" I half yelled, muffled under my pillow.

"Whoa, somebody's not happy." He said with a mocking lisp.

"What do you want? I wanna get back to my dream?" I said, annoyed.

"Were you dreaming about Angie again?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows.

"Yes, Ash. I dream of Angie and I making out every night." I said sarcastically. "No, it was something else. Now what do you want?"

"Mom wants to see us downstairs."

"For what?"

"I don't know, she sounded angry though."

"Aw fuck." I said, thrashing in my bed trying to get out of my tangled sheets.

Ash and I sat halfway on the stairs for a minute trying to figure out what we might have done. We could see mom in the kitchen aggressively wiping the counter. She was rubbing so hard her bangs were flying back and forth.

"Did you 'accidently' set something on fire again?" I asked, with finger quotes.

"Not that I remember, but I have a D in history and biology right now so that might be it."

"But she's used to that though." I jabbed at him playfully.

Ash and I made our way down to the kitchen. we braced ourselves for anything we may or may not have done.

"Hi mommy!" I said with fake enthusiasm. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"Well that's why I called you down here. Have a seat."

Ash and I looked at each other confused. "Okay? What's up?"

"Since your father and Demon aren't here to help your handicapped mother, that makes you two the men of the house. You guys are just a few days from being seventeen so I think you're both ready to handle adult conversations and more responsibility." My mom explained, strangely calm.

"You sure you want Ash here, ma?" I said, earning a punch in the arm from Ashton.

"I need you both to listen to me." Her tone quickly changed.

Ash and I both looked at her dumbfounded.

"I got fired this morning."

Ash and I's jaw dropped while exclaiming expressions of shock simultaneously. Him and I started asking a bunch of questions at the same time until my mom hushed us.

"Boys, calm down!" My mom half yelled.

"What do you mean you got fired?! Who's ass do I have to kick?" Ashton stood up and started yelling.

"Watch your mouth!" She said. "Nobody's ass needs kicking. They had somewhat of a reason. It's my condition. They're worried that my memory is getting worse and they want me to stay home. I told them the situation with your father and they didn't take it. Since we're a small business in a small town, they didn't want to risk me making a mistake. They're not blaming me for having this condition, they're just doing what they think is best for both the store and me. So, I am going to apply for other places around town in hopes of getting hired somewhere. But until that happens, this is where you guys come in."

Ash and I grew more and more fearful.

"Spencer, I need you to see if you can pick any more hours. If you can please take them. It would help all of us immensely." She looked over at Ashton. "Ash, I need you to start applying to places too. You need to look and act professional when you're asking for a job."

"I can probably pick up more hours at Double Dutch." I said confidently.

"I can see if Riley's dad will let me work for him." Ash said hesitantly.

"What does he do?" Mom asked.

"He has his own lawn mowing business, he fixes cars, and he chops his own wood and sells it."

"You don't know the first thing about cars." I said.

"I know how to use an axe, wanna go outside and I'll show you??" He threatened.

"Ash, stop it." Mom said annoyed. "Can you talk to him when you see Riley again?"

"Yeah, I'm seeing her later today. I'll see what he says. I figured I would chop wood for him. It can't be that hard to throw an axe into wood."

Honestly, I don't trust Ashton with a rock.

"Okay good." Mom said with somewhat relief. "Thank you boys, I really appreciate this. This won't be a permanent thing. It will most likely be a couple weeks until someone hires me. I hate asking you to do this because it shouldn't be the children's job to support the parent, but if we don't have any money coming in at all, we're not gonna make it. I'll make it up to when things go back to normal."

"Mom, you don't need to make up anything for us. You've done so much for us the last few months. We'd be happy to do this." I said.

Mom started to tear up. "Thank you.."

Ash and I hugged mom. I had difficulty keeping myself from crying. You could say that I didn't have the best morning.