#needs coffee

Rays of sunlight hit Mari’s sleepy face one spring morning inside her bedroom. She grouchily tried to get up, but a part of her was too lazy that it had knocked her back to the bed. Nevertheless, she managed to get up after 2 more tries. Her attention then turned to the alarm clock on her bedside as it read 8:45 am. Saturdays and Sundays are the days she doesn’t need to go work, so she has time to relax before Monday calls in for another round of 5 work days. The assistant librarian yawned and stretched as she got out of the bed, after which she took a shower, and got dressed up in the usual outfit of floral camis, cardigans, jeans, and ankle booties. Today was supposed to be a nice day to go out with the weather being bright and with little clouds that could warrant rainfalls, and it is jam-packed with a ton of errands to do in San Francisco with her brother Harry and friend Issa’s wedding drawing closer each week.

As soon as she finished getting makeup and drying up her hair, she then went down the stairs, and headed straight for the kitchen and dining area. But as she was about to make a turn, a knock was heard from the front door, so it took her eyes towards the door and she opened it up to see that a familiar face smiling back at her.

“Oh Marina, hello,” Mari greeted the blond teenager, “I didn’t expect a visit from you today. So what has brought you to come over today?”

Papa has asked me if you might need some help for Harry and Issa’s wedding in July, the otherwise muse but bubbly girl signed to her, So I came over here to help you guys in any way possible.

“Why of course, we do need more help,” she smiled back as she escorted Marina to the house, “We’re heading to San Francisco in a little bit after breakfast. Perhaps you can join us with that.”

I would love to go with you guys, she couldn’t agreed more as she signed the reply.

“Well, I hope you have an empty stomach on hand, because we’re just going to...” Mari’s sentence was cut off abruptly when both girls heard loud noises coming from the kitchen, “make breakfast...”

Perhaps we should check out the kitchen to see what has happened, since the noises came from there, Marina’s face grew more concerned as she signed to her and both continued to hear the kitchen noises.

After an affirmative nod, Mari and Marina rushed to the kitchen where they were greeted by what would have been a war zone to many, but is actually and unfortunately a normal thing to Mari every weekend: Many of Mari’s family and friends were scrambling either to trying to cook or feed the pets, getting something quick to eat, or making a mess of the kitchen, and apparently some weird noises coming from a… kitchen appliance?

Anyway, the pets (Scooby Doo, Marie Torchic, Piplup, Rowlet, & Scorbunny) were fighting for attention and huge shares of food as Ahkmenrah tried to carefully measure the allowable amount of pet food they can eat, Harry & Issa were nearing completion of cooking most of the food (eggs sunny side up, garlic fried rice, and corned beef with onions and potatoes) with Uncle Gru’s Minions causing havoc everywhere, Philip and Kairi ducked away from plates, bowls, and drinking glasses thrown about at random intervals as the Minions kept going crazy and they were trying to get orange juice, water, toasted bread & its accompaniments, and hot chocolate, and Kirby started to moan in hunger while Margo was doing her best to keep him calm down as her sisters Edith and Agnes watched on.

“Poyo...” the sad starving Star Warrior moaned, his little arm holding onto his grumbling stomach.

“Just hang in there, Kirby,” the oldest of the Gru sisters reassured him, “They’re almost done with the food soon.”

“I still don’t get why Kirby is always sad when he’s hungry,” Agnes sighed as she told Edith.

“Beats me, those puffballs must have big appetites for sure,” she remarked, “Have you seen that masked knight friend of his trying to eat that many sweets before?”

“Uh, Harry, Issa. What is going on in here?” Mari asked both brother and future sister-in-law of the chaos engulfing the area before ducking herself and Marina to the floor as some plates crashed onto the wall unannounced.

“What else but the usual, sis: Uncle Gru’s Minions are at it again: throwing plates and bowls, grabbing and dropping random items onto the floor & walls, and hoarding bananas,” the Boy Who Lived began to list down the things of madness verbally to her and Marina as the latter two got up again, “The pets are craving for more food than needed, Kirby suddenly goes hungry and is moaning in pain...”

“And there are some problems with the coffee maker for some reason right now,” Issa added in to what he has said.

“Wait, the coffee maker is having PROBLEMS!!!” Mari gasped in horror when she overheard arguments to where the aforementioned object were located and with her (not biological) uncle Gru, aunt Lucy, and grandfather figure the Doctor all tangled up in there.

“Alright, who’s going to repair that blasted coffee maker right now?” The Doctor groaned in dismay after multiple attempts to start it up properly as normal.

“Not me, Sir Grumps-a-lot!” Gru refuted it, clearly not in a mood to fix anything in a grumpy hungry state, “I’m not going to fix that thing while not having something to eat.”

“Look, gentlemen, please,” Lucy tried to calm the storm brewing, “Right now is not a good time to fight over just a dysfunctional coffee maker on a Sunday morning.”

“You’re going to fix it!” the Doctor told Gru.

“No, you’re going to use that weird technological stick of yours to fix that coffee maker!” the former super villain argued back.

“Okay, okay, what is the situation happening here?” Mari asked the trio as she walked towards them with Marina following behind, uneasy and confused.

Mari, what is going on over there? Marina signed to her out of concern.

“Oh, Mari, hello!” Gru soon noticed her presence, waving back at her and trying to hide the previous emotions he had earlier, “It appears that this coffee maker over here doesn’t want to open to any one of us today. Quite a baffling experience we’re having today”

“In short, you’re suffering from a caffeine withdrawal right now,” the Doctor scuffed a bit, not hiding his annoyed expression, “Sometimes, you pudding brains are really that weird over your obsession with coffee.”

“Oh dear, this is getting nowhere,” Lucy worried as the situation hang on a thread.

“Okay, okay. Let me get this straight: the coffee machine is not able to open and work properly, and now you two are caffeine-deprived and fighting over who’s going to repair it?” Mari quickly recapped the situation for the three, but mostly to the Doctor and Gru.

“Uh...” both men now began to look nervous, staring at each other out of fear, before facing Mari again and meekly squeaked a ‘Yes’ for an answer.

So that could explain that argument earlier? Marina signed in to the two out of concern.

“About that silent girl next to you? Why is she doing here?” Gru asked Mari.

“Marina here is one of many adopted kids of some friends of mine and she decided to drop by today,” she clarified to them, “She is unfortunately mute and can only communicate via sign language and body language.”

“Hmm… I see,” the Doctor mused on the guest, before realizing something, “But then what to do without coffee with the broken coffee pot?”

“I highly doubt Harry can magically fix that thing,” Lucy sighed.

Marina noticed that there are sparks flying from the coffee maker, it looked like it may have to deal with the Minions Mari has told her and her adopted siblings a lot. She nudged Mari to check on the thing with her, and what the assistant librarian saw had her jaws dropped in shock: water was splashed onto the machine and was dripping down towards the sink hole, causing a short circuit in it. Mari recalled that at one point, one of the Minions, Bob had nearly dropped a vase of water onto Harry’s laptop when he tripped on a rug while trying to water the flowers in the backyard and it too would have suffered the same fate as the coffee maker had Harry not cast a time freeze spell to save both the little Minion and the laptop and grabbed the vase immediately before the first drop landed on said laptop.

“Uncle Gru, I think that the Minions didn’t watch where they were throwing water at, and were responsible for the short circuit in this coffee maker,” she brought the damages to her forever relatives and was annoyed that her uncle Gru wasn’t paying attention to the Minions again.

“WHAT?!? They short circuited the coffee maker!?!” he freaked out in horror, before slowly regaining his nerves and began to glare at his Minions in disappointment, “Minions! How are you going to explain yourselves over a coffee maker and a short circuit?”

The Minions were understandably upset at the fact that their boss was mad at them for destroying a kitchen appliance with water splashing from the sink, they were scared that he’ll throw a fit about it if they don’t apologize and admit the truth. They eventually, as a group, mustered the courage and said ‘Sorry, Boss’ in Minonese.

This act warmed Uncle Gru’s usually grump bear heart, and hugged them tightly, he know that he couldn’t stay mad at them for long if they acknowledged their sink water meets coffee maker mishaps and owe them up. Although he did warned them never to play with water near all appliances and forms of technology ever again, and they were more than happy to respect that rule.

“So… Now that is settled, how we are going to do without some coffee?” the Doctor groaned in dismay, now that the coffee maker is down.

“Doctor, you can still fix broken machinery with your Sonic Screwdriver, right?” Mari informed him, “Perhaps, you can do it, but try not to be grouchy about it like earlier so much that got Marina worried.”

“Anything for you and your siblings, Mari,” he happily smirked back as he pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver while Mari and Marina helped in cleaning out the excess and ripping water on the coffee maker and the area it occupies before he began to program the Screwdriver to repair the coffee machine in very little time as possible.

The coffee maker began to roar back to life as it light up again to work as it normally did, everyone’s eyes looking at it in amazement like seeing Santa for the first time. Harry was putting down the dishes of food he and Issa cooked earlier on the dining table when he saw the coffee maker being revived back to working order and asked if it could still work properly again.

The Doctor brought out a mug, filled the machine with ground coffee, and had it to make a regular brew. And just as the fam bunch were expecting the thing to die on them big time, it was working relatively fine again: it did what the Doctor had pressed on and coffee was pouring onto the mug like there was nothing to worry about. He then drank some of the coffee without second thoughts and released a sigh of satisfaction, proving that the coffee maker is restored to its original state.

“Doctor, you’re a mad genius!” Kairi gasped, “Your Screwdriver managed to fix the coffee maker without breaking a sweat.”

“Pardon me?” Philip was still getting used to 21st Century lingo and colloquialisms while he too was stunned by the miraculous repair.

“Yes, yes, I see that you all took notice of it, and that I can appreciate it,” the Doctor slyly bragged a bit as he was about to make some more coffee for the coffee drinkers in the bunch, starting with Gru, “So: What kind of coffee preparation you people would like to have?”

“I’ll go for a cappuccino, Doctor,” Lucy asked him, relieved that the problem has been resolved.

“Espresso please!” Gru chimed in.

“Doctor, you know that I often go for a mocha drink,” Harry informed the Time Lord ahead of time.

“Yes, I know that very well,” he happily noted before he turned to Mari, “So, are you going to get some coffee?”

“Nah, you know well that I’m more of a tea drinker than anything, but today, I’m gunning for some OJ right now,” she replied.

Marina also declined the coffee offer and opted for some hot chocolate instead. As the fam bunch settled in for breakfast, eating and sharing their thoughts & stories, along with sorting out plans for the upcoming July wedding, Mari could take a sigh of relief, knowing that things in her crazy bunch will end well regardless of the messes they get themselves into. Surely, she won’t see everyone trying to be normal and stop the chaos entirely (because every single one of them have different personalities and quirks) any time soon, but one thing is for certain: sometimes, a little bit of chaos on the weekends isn’t that bad at all.