Previously on "The Otherworlders": Sir Geoffrey, having heard that Sebastian's mission will take them to his wife's cousin's engagement party orders Sebastian and his classmates to make a pit stop at the McFadden manor first.

Sebastian sees this as the perfect opportunity to make sure Jake and Cameron are completely up to speed on Vampyric protocol.

**********

Sebastian stands in the doorway of his bedroom and ushers Cameron and Jake inside. Once they're in, he turns, and with an easy sweep of his hand, announces... "This is my room."

Silenced and in awe, Jake and Cameron take in the vastness of the space that is Sebastian's bedroom. It's so big, a family of four could take up residence with comfort and ease.

Glossy wooden furniture, accented with pewter grey pipe fixtures populates the entire space. And with the exposed beams, the hardwood floors, the stark Edison bulbs hanging from the ceiling, and the vintage wire containers and knick-knacks scattered throughout the room, Sebastian's bedroom has the feel of a funky, industrial downtown loft.

As Jake and Cameron look for someplace to discreetly stash their stuff, the door suddenly bursts open, and like a flash of lightning, a six-year-old Mateo McFadden — dark floppy hair, big brown eyes — races into the room. Without stopping, he leaps up into Sebastian's arms, causing Sebastian to stumble backwards with an "Oomph!"

"Bash-Bash!" Mateo giggles gleefully as he hooks his arms around Sebastian's neck and gives his brother a big hug.

Sebastian laughs and hugs Mateo back. "Hey, Matty Magpie," he coos, brushing Mateo's unruly bangs aside and kissing him on the forehead. "What's up?"

"Come play with me." Mateo pleas, strategically pouting and hugging his brother even tighter.

Sebastian kisses Mateo on the top of his head before lowering him to the ground. "I can't, buddy," he says apologetically. "I have to study with these guys." He hooks a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at Cameron and Jake, each of them sitting on a couch in a makeshift sitting area at the foot of Sebastian's bed.

Mateo stands with his arms still wrapped around his brother's legs and peeks out at the visitors. When Jake gives him a smile and a subtle nod of his head, Mateo pulls back shyly, burying his face against Sebastian's thigh.

Sebastian turns and looks back over his shoulder. "Sorry. This is my little brother, Mateo. He's, um... well, he's not very good with strangers."

Sebastian tries to gently pry Mateo from his leg with little success. With Mateo still firmly attached to him, Sebastian hobbles over to the door. He pokes his head out and shouts down the hall. "Astrid!" He waits a second, but no response. "Astrid! I know you're in the game room! Come and get Mateo for me... please!"

Within a minute, a lithe and lovely fifteen-year-old girl comes running down the hall, sliding to a stop in front of Sebastian's door. She's dressed in a pink, Juicy Couture tracksuit, made more for fashionable lounging than for any sort of sport. She shares many of Sebastian's features, sable-colored hair — pulled into a high messy bun — bright hazel eyes and pale creamy skin, but her features are more delicate, almost regal.

Although she's clearly been running, she looks remarkably put together, like she made a very determined pit stop at the powder room on her way over.

Sebastian narrows his gaze and takes in Astrid's freshened up appearance as he gently pries Mateo's clenched arms from around his leg and tries to hand him over to his sister. "Can you please take Mateo to his playroom and keep him occupied for a little while?"

"Sure." Astrid smiles as she works to untangle Mateo from Sebastian's leg, all the while trying eagerly to get a good look at his classmates. She leans in and whispers, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

Sebastian frowns and mutters, "They're not my friends, they're my classmates."

"Fine, whatever!" Astrid hisses. "Still, you realize, Bash, it's only polite to—" She stops cold as she notices Sebastian leaning in and staring at her face intently.

"What? What?!" Astrid asks defensively.

Sebastian purses his lips. "Are you wearing makeup?"

"No!" she protests.

At a foot taller than his half-sister, Sebastian peers down at her, his eyes narrowing even further. "You are!" he cries, straightening up to his full height. "You're wearing makeup!"

"I am not, Sebastian!" Astrid shoots back, taking a few steps away from him. "It's probably just the light," she murmurs defiantly.

Mateo starts to bounce enthusiastically in Astrid's arms. "Triddy's wearing makeup! Triddy's wearing makeup!" he squeals.

"Mattie!" Astrid reaches up and covers Mateo's mouth in a desperate attempt to silence him.

Undeterred, albeit now muffled, Mateo continues, "Trithy's wearin' may'up! Trithy's wearin' may'up!"

Sebastian scowls and props his fists on his hips. "When did you start wearing makeup?"

Astrid looks at him, seeking sympathy and whispers, "Okay, look Bash, maybe I'm wearing a little bit of blush and a tad bit of mascara. So what? Seriously! Can we please talk about this later?!"

At the sound of the siblings fighting, Cameron looks up from his phone. Jake looks up as well.

Cameron sees Astrid and instinctively flashes her one of his infamously charming smiles, surprised by how pretty Sebastian's sister is. "Hey..."

Astrid's face lights up and she blushes furiously. "Hi." She practically giggles out the word, "I'm—"

"Fifteen!" Sebastian barks out as he whips around and glares at Cameron. "She's fifteen!" he repeats.

"Sebastian!" Astrid's mouth gapes open. She stares at her brother, who doesn't notice her because his laser-beam stare is still very much fixed on Cameron.

"Dude!" Cameron holds his hands up, as if to proclaim his innocence. "All I did was say, 'Hi!' Geez!" He mutters, "I thought Vampyrs were  big on introductions."

Annoyed, Sebastian lets his head fall back then lets out a sharp exhale. "Fine!" He looks up. "Astrid, meet Cameron and Jake. They're from the Academy." He makes a face that speaks volumes about how quickly his protective brotherly instincts have kicked in. "Cameron, Jake," he says through gritted teeth, "meet my FIFTEEN-YEAR OLD sister, Astrid. Now!" He throws his hands up in the air. "Everybody's met everybody. Are we good?!"

Still balancing Mateo on her hip, Astrid cranes her neck around Sebastian and tries to continue the conversation. "Well, it's very nice to meet you both. If you ever want to—"

"Okay! Time to go!" Sebastian begins to nudge Astrid out of his room.

Astrid struggles to keep eye contact with Cameron while also keeping a tight hold on Mateo. "Again, it's great to meet you guys," she utters as she backs towards the door. "I truly hope you find our hospitality—"

And the door slams in her face.

From the other side comes, "I hope you find our hospitality truly welcoming!" And then after a beat. "And just so you know, I'll be sixteen in three months, in case anyone's interested!"

"No one's interested, Astrid!" Sebastian grunts out. "Now, go away!!"

***

Later, Sebastian paces in the middle of the seating area in the middle of his room while Cameron slouches deep into the couch and Jake lays on Sebastian's bed, sprawled out spread-eagle style, staring desperately up at the ceiling.

"Okay," Sebastian continues his lecture, oblivious to his classmates' quiet agony. "Let's pick up where we left off in the car," he says, determined that they're as up to speed as possible.

Cameron and Jake let out a collective groan.

"Look, guys..." Sebastian scolds them. "We have a lot of etiquette lessons to get through before we head out to the engagement party." He stops his pacing and stands before them, hands clasped behind his back. "So, I think it's time for a pop quiz, just to make sure all this information is actually sinking in. Okay," he continues, "so when entering the Prince's residence, you must always..?"

Sebastian looks expectantly at the boys as he waits for a response.

Cameron scrubs his hands over his face in an attempt to keep himself awake. "As a non-Vampyr, we're to enter the Prince's residence two paces behind you," he says, exhausted.

"Aaaaand..." Sebastian urges, "...this is because..?"

Cameron lets out a long, sharp breath, then scrubs his hands over his face again, this time running his fingers up through his hair, leaving his usually tousled coif practically spiking up from the roots. "Because" he grinds out, "we don't want to insult the First Son of a Great House, especially not in front of royalty."

"Excellent!" Sebastian claps proudly. "Very good. Very good!"

Jake has now flipped over and is lying face-down on the bed, his head smushed into the pillow. "These are really, really stupid rules," he says, his voice muffled. "Why don't you just have us kiss your ass in front of the Vampyr prince and be done with it?"

"Ha, ha, ha," Sebastian scoffs. "While that's a rather crude way of putting it, it does convey the sentiment, so I suppose it'll do."

Jake grabs a second pillow and covers his head completely, groaning in agony. If he has to endure even another minute of Vampyric protocol, he's going to scream.

"All right, now," Sebastian says. "Let's get back to the ceremony and the processional."

Jake does scream at this point, but it comes out more like a strangled cry, and Cameron has now slouched down into the couch so low, he's practically become one with it.

Sebastian ignores them both and marches on. "First of all," he says continuing to pace.

"...before entering the main hall," Sebastian declares, "when you hit the doorway, you must bow at the waist as your name is being called by the Page. Something like this..."

He folds his left arm behind his torso and presses his right arm against his stomach, then then bows deeply to illustrate.

Popping his head up, he smiles. "Now, don't resume standing until your full name, title, and affiliation have been called and the Page has given you the—"

"Nope!" Jake pops up off the bed, shaking his head furiously. "Nuh-uh. No way!" He begins to walk in agitated circles.

"What?!" Sebastian spreads his hands in question.

"I don't bow like that for anyone," Jake counters. Standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed defiantly over his chest, he gives Sebastian the side-eye. "Especially not a Vampyr. I mean, after what you guys did to us during the Shadow Wars, you really think I'm gonna—"

"Oh, by the gods! Really, Jake?!" Sebastian throws his hands in the air. "We're about to start a mission and you're gonna get offended... preemptively?"

"That's not what this is about, Sebastian." Jake protests, still shaking his head. "For a Shifter, a deep bow like that is either a sign of the highest respect, or it's an act of submission, especially when you do it in public. I don't know this Prince Julian dude from Jack. So, I'm not about to give him a sign of either sentiment, protocol or no!"

Sebastian tilts his head and squints intently at Jake. "Do you realize what an affront that would be if you refused to bow before the Prince?"

"Honestly, I don't care," Jake says, defiantly. "There has to be another way. I refuse to believe that this is the only way I can greet this prince dude."

Sebastian takes a step closer to Jake, clenching his fists at his side. "He's not a 'dude,' Jake! He's a prince! And, no, there is no other way to greet him. This is how it's done! This is how it's always been done! Just because Shifters have no sense of decorum—"

"Hold on a minute!" Jake takes a step closer and gets right up in Sebastian's face. "It's not like you Vampyrs have any idea what the word 'respect' means! If you did, you never would have—"

"Guys! Guys! C'mon!" Rising from the couch, Cameron steps in between the two boys and pushes them apart. "Could we please just stop! Just stop! Let's not replay centuries worth of Otherworlder history and figure out how not to piss anyone off, not to start a race war, and not to blow our cover, okay?!"

Both Sebastian and Jake huff simultaneously as they turn their backs to each other.

The tension, charged and electric, is suddenly diffused when a perky ten-year-old girl, in floral overalls, barely tied Keds, and two messy blonde buns sitting lopsided on either side of her head, bursts into Sebastian's room.

Sebastian, who's facing the door scowls. "Greta! What the hell?!"

His little step-sister, Greta, bursts out laughing and points her finger up at Sebastion. "You said hell!"

Sebastian rolls his eyes.

Greta continues laughing as Sebastian mutters to himself, "Gods! I've got to get a better lock on that door!"

Then, he sucks in a deep breath, and grasping at any semblance of calm, he lowers his gaze down to his sister's 4 ft. 6 in. height and growls out, "Seriously, Greta. Get out of my room, now! We're busy!"

"Farid would never kick me out of his room!" Greta proclaims proudly.

"Well, Farid's not here now is he?" Sebastian clips back, trying his best not to sound like he's Greta's age.

Completely ignoring her older brother's retort — as she's often wont to do — Greta marches right past Sebastian over to Jake, who's standing in the middle of the room with his back still to Sebastian, every one of his muscles taut and his arms crossed angrily over his chest.

Greta looks up at him, then says with the kind of confidence and forthrightness only ten-year-old can muster, "You're cute!" Then she gives him a big, beguiling smile, displaying her slightly crooked teeth, with a large gap on the side where her last baby tooth had just recently fallen out.

Completely caught off guard, Jake looks down at Greta and his stoic stance immediately softens. He lets his arms fall to his sides and gives her a lopsided grin in return. "Uhh... thank you?" he says, not exactly sure how to respond to a precocious ten-year-old who might be taking a fancy to him.

Still looking up, Greta angles her head and says, "I don't think you're a Vampyr, though, are you?"

Jake's eyebrows shoot up and he responds cautiously, "No. No I am not."

"Well then, what are you?" Greta asks, her chin jutting out with genuine curiosity.

Oh, wow! This kid has, like, zero filters! 

Jake smiles down at Greta and answers simply, "I'm a Wolf-Shifter."

Greta gasps and her eyes go wide. "Oh, that's so cool!" She jumps up and down, then asks, "Can you shift for me? Like, right now?! Please!!!"

"Okay, that's it!" Sebastian marches over to his sister and scoops her up, tossing her over his shoulder. "Jake is not a circus animal, Greta." He says as he heads for the door.

Greta squirms and giggles. "But, Bash!" she cries out. "I just want to get to know your friends!"

"They're not my.... Ugh!" He rolls his eyes. "Never mind!"

When he reaches the door, he plants his sister out in the hallway and is just about to shut the door in her face when she pipes up, "Father wants to see you!"

The door stills. "What? Now?!" he asks.

"Yep!" Greta nods firmly, then breaks out into another giggle. "He says he wants to see you in his study, right away!"

Sebastian frowns. What could Father possibly want to talk to him about while guests are at the house? 

He stalls as he racks his brain trying to recall if there's anything he's done recently that could have angered his father.

"He said now, Bash!" Greta reiterates, pursing her lips, not wanting to get in trouble for not having successfully delivered her father's message.

"All right! All right!" Sebastian grumbles. He looks over his shoulder at Jake and Cameron still standing in the middle of the room, then turns back to his sister. The timing couldn't be worse!

"Fine!" Sebastian says. "Go tell Father I'll be down in a minute." 

**********

A/N - I have to say, I love Sebastian's family! I have a younger brother, and we had fun growing up together, but I've always wondered what it would be like to grow up in a house full of kids.

Something tells me, though, I might be overly romanticizing it a bit. 😁

Until next week! ❤️

~ Paula