Saige smiles gently. "They sound really nice."
She begins to fiddle her fingers in her lap, looking out at the nighttime scenery.
"Well, I'm the youngest, I have 12 brothers and sisters, 13 if you count Miquella. Basil is the oldest, he's always been super overprotective. Him and Anise were always taking care of me. Then there's Clove, she's my oldest sister, but her and Valerian are always starting prank wars. Fennel and Laurel are always going at it over dirt on the floor, Ginger and Rosemary cook and sing. Of course the twins are always setting something on fire. Lavender cries over everything, and Cassia tends to be out knitting sweaters for the animals. Then there's me!"
Saige looks a bit sad.
"I miss them a lot. We used to have weekly music nights where we'd sing and tell stories. And of course the week wasn't complete without pranks and poisoning each other. This one time, I was trying to prank everyone to make them think that the doors in the house were alive, so I tied a string to all of them and would pull them to make them move. Lavender was the first to try to communicate with the doors, so swinging one way would mean yes and the other would mean no. It was really hard but I got it to work, I even had the doors dancing during family music night. It was super funny because everyone was starting to believe that the doors were alive, until one night when apparently there was a skunk war going on outside, and they ran into the house. We had to sleep outside for a week because it smelled so bad! And everyone was trying to blame the doors, but I felt really bad for the doors, so then I told everyone it was me and not the doors communicating. It was probably one of the longer pranks I have done, I usually can't keep it a secret that long!"
By the end of the story, Saige is smiling again.
"What about you? Have you ever done any super fun pranks?"
