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Amy wakes up to the sound of rain pounding against the window.
Normally if she woke up to rain on a Saturday, or woke up without an alarm at all, she’d be thrilled. She’d burrow under the blankets as far as she could, wrap her feet around Jake’s burning legs, and nestle into his side as the rain lulled her back to sleep. On most days, waking up to rain would be the most welcome surprise.
Today is not one of those days.
Because today is the first day of summer and the first Saturday Jake and Amy have off together in weeks and they had plans, dammit!
Well really, Amy had plans. But it was gonna be perfect. They were gonna go to all the way up to the new pool over in Brooklyn Heights and go to that place where they serve cookie dough in waffle cones and eat way more sugar than Amy ever allowed at home. It was gonna be perfect.
However those plans required a distinct lack of rain.
“Shit,” she groans as she flops onto her other side. The disruption causes Jake to stir, his light snores coming to a halt as he opens one eye.
“What issit?” he murmurs.
“Look outside,” she sighs.
Jake reaches out and pulls Amy to him, snaking his arm across her stomach. “What’s outside?”
“It is literally raining on my parade.”
He kisses the back of her head in an attempt to calm her down. “So? Now we can sleep more.”
Amy rolls her eyes, although she does scoot a bit further into his chest.
“But we were supposed to go to the pool today! I had a whole thing planned.”
“I know,” Jake says, his voice still gravelly from sleep. “But we can do all of that another day, you know. According to Phineas and Ferb there are one hundred and four days of summer vacation, so we have plenty of time.”
She can’t help but giggle as she wraps her arm around his. He’s right, of course.
“True. Although I’m pretty sure Phineas and Ferb had more than one hundred and four days. That show ran for years.”
“Right?! Like who actually builds a roller coaster in a day. That takes at least a week, obvs. I mean--”
An enormous rumble of thunder cuts Jake off, causing them both to jump.
“How long do you think we have?” he asks, eyeing the door to their bedroom.
“I give it five minutes,” says Amy. Jake scoffs.
“I give it two.”
Sure enough they’re both wrong, because not even thirty seconds later they hear the familiar pitter-patter of little feet thundering (Ha!) down the hall.
“MAMA!”
“DADDY!”
The door bursts open as all three kids race towards the bed, each wearing the same terrified expression. Hanna with her longer legs reaches the bed first and immediately dives right in between Jake and Amy. The boys are not far behind, scrambling to climb onto the bed before the next thunderclap. Gabe nestles into Amy’s side, taking the spot Jake had occupied only seconds before while Sam climbs on Jake’s chest and latches on koala-style.
“What’s that noise?” Sam asks, his voice muffled by the thumb currently stuck his mouth.
“Yeah, I don’t like that noise,” Gabe adds.
“It’s thunder, sillies,” Hanna tells them. Another clap of thunder strikes outside, this one so loud they can feel the house vibrate. All three kids let out a yelp, and Hanna grabs Jake’s hand as she scoots into his side. “Daddy, why does thunder happen? And why is it so LOUD?”
Jake rubs his thumb over his daughter’s hand. “Well, Nana always told me that thunder happens when all the angels go bowling. And they’re all super duper strong, that’s why it’s so loud.”
“But how do bowling balls get up to the sky?” Hanna asks.
“They fly, duh,” Sam replies with such conviction Jake and Amy can’t help but grin at each other over their his head.
“There are flying bowling balls?” Gabe asks, his eyes wide. If it’s possible he looks more scared than he did when they first came in the room. “What if it hit me?”
“They won’t hit you, baby,” Amy says as she runs a hand through Gabe’s unruly curls. “They’re already up in the sky.”
“You sure?” Sam asks.
“Yeah Mama, you sure?” Gabe echoes, a little softer than his twin. There’s a reason why Jake and Amy call him their little shadow.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she replies calmly. Another thunderclap. Both Gabe and Sam tighten their grips on their respective parent, while Hanna’s eyes are so wide it’d honestly be kinda funny if she wasn’t so scared. Amy gives Jake a pointed look. “That sounded like a strike! Don’t you think so, Daddy?”
“Oh definitely,” Jake replies with an exaggerated nod. “Those angels are expert bowlers, huh Bear?” He gives Hanna a playful nudge.
“I guess so…” Hanna says slowly. “But I still wish they weren’t so noisy. It’s scary.”
“I know,” says Jake before planting a kiss on the top of her head. “What if we go make pancakes to distract ourselves? Give the angels a chance to finish their game?”
“Can we make Uncle Charles’ strawberry sauce?” she asks hopefully.
“Well of course! It wouldn’t be a pancake breakfast without strawberry sauce.” Jake gasps. “And then we can make a fort! And watch movies. Everyone knows the best rainy day activity is fort making. Right, Ames?”
Four pairs of excited eyes look up at her, and as much as Amy wanted to follow her plan (Seriously, she made a whole laminated list of pool activities they could do. It was beautiful.), she knows Jake’ll make today just as fun. So she grins and tucks a loose strand of hair behind Hanna’s ear.
“I’ll get the blankets.”
Cheers erupt from the bed as everyone scrambles to their positions, Hanna dragging Jake to the kitchen so they can start on breakfast while Amy and the boys search for the best fort-making materials. They scrounge up every single pillow they own, from Amy’s old pregnancy pillow to the hard-as-rocks decorative ones Jake convinced Amy they needed for the couch, and more blankets than Amy even knew they owned. Before too long the whole apartment is filled with the smell of sweet strawberries and syrup.
After scarfing down as many pancakes they can stomach all five of them put all of their energy into creating the biggest, most incredible fort the world has ever seen. Hanna takes charge, directing Amy and Jake as they move the heavier pieces of furniture while Sam and Gabe organize the pillows by size and shape.
“A little to the left, Daddy,” Hanna instructs.
Jake shuffles to his left before setting the end table down.
“Here?”
“No Daddy, my left.”
“Right, of course.”
Hanna rolls her eyes, her expression a carbon copy of Amy’s. It’s all Amy can do to keep from laughing. Their daughter may have Jake’s curls and his love for all things action, but the rest of her was ALL Santiago.
“Mama,” Gabe calls. He’s on top of a chair, holding onto a blanket with one hand and a pillow in the other. “We can use the heavy pillows to keep the blankets from going bang!”
Amy grins as she makes her way over to the chair. She takes the pillow out of Gabe’s hand and sets it up against the back of the chair so the blanket stays in place.
“Great idea, mijo!” she says.
“Mama what about this?” Sam asks, not to be outdone by his brother. Amy looks up to see Sam’s favorite Harry Potter blanket draped over the table and the couch. “It’s like a secret passageway!”
“Wow Sammy, that’s so cool!”
“See Ames,” Jake huffs as he finally places the end table in the perfect position. “We’re preparing them to be awesome engineers one day. I mean come on, I knew they were smart but that passageway? That pillow/blanket design? They’re GENIUSES!”
He leaps over to where Gabe is standing and lifts him into the air with a playful growl, causing Gabe to shriek with laughter. “Daddy, I not a genius. I’m a Gabe!”
“You sure? Because I think you’re a genius,” Jake says before tossing him back into the air.
“Yes!” Gabe squeals, his giggles echoing throughout the room.
Jake’s grin widens as he brings Gabe back down to earth, planting a kiss on his head before setting him on the ground. “Okay, fine. You’re Gabe. But I think you’re a genius, too.”
“What about me, Daddy?” Hanna asks from her perch on the couch. “Am I a genius?”
“You, my little bear, are definitely a genius,” Jake replies. “All of us are. Papa Ray told me so.”
“And if Papa Ray says something, it has to be true,” Amy adds.
Hanna nods, apparently satisfied with that answer because she begins rattling off instructions to the boys.
Two hours and approximately one hundred pillows later the fort is complete and Amy’s pretty sure she’s never been prouder of anything in her life. It has multiple rooms (and a secret passageway), a fan for proper ventilation, and christmas lights draped across the blanket ceiling. The floor is covered in pillows for optimal comfort and it is the perfect distance from the TV for optimal movie watching. They used their floor lamps as the base, creating ceilings high enough for all of them to be able to sit without crouching.
“This,” Hanna gasps as she crawls into the fort. “Is the bestest. Fort. Ever.”
“Yeah, the bestest!” Gabe agrees, snuggling up next to his sister.
“The best,” Amy says gently. She will not have her kids using improper grammar, no matter how adorable it is.
Jake pops the movie into the DVD player (It’s no surprise to anyone that they choose the Lion King. All three kids are obsessed. Sam wants to be a lion when he grows up.) before climbing in after the kids and pulling Sam onto his lap.
They watch the first movie together, singing along to all the songs. Jake even does some of the voices, and the kids straight up howl with laughter at his hyena impression. But after awhile Jake and Amy slip out, allowing the kids to play together for a bit. Hanna’s got the boys playing house, and it’s possibly the cutest thing they’ve ever heard.
They can still just make out the storm raging outside, but it’s been completely forgotten now. The kids’ playful cadence echoes throughout the house, their voices mixed with the occasional giggle or squeal. Amy and Jake end up in the kitchen just listening as they lean against the counter.
“Good day after all?” Jake asks, nudging her arm with his. Amy smiles as she looks up at him.
“The bestest.”
He lets out a laugh before turning back to look at the fort, scooting closer to wrap his arms around Amy’s middle. A burst of hushed giggles erupts from the fort, causing both of them to smile.
“We really made that,” Jake murmurs into her ear.
“I know. The pillow foundation is actually quite impressive.”
“No, I meant the kids. We made them.”
Amy’s smile widens as she leans back into Jake’s chest and takes his arms into hers. She’d never get over how goddamn lucky she is.
“Even more impressive.”