Alternate version...
"Out of my way," said Delver Deepriver, shouldering Lithos aside and stepping past to fill his plate from the trays of food that the cooks of Schistcraft Mentory had set out for their lunch.
Lithos twisted with the movement and kept his balance, cocking his head as he studied the larger boy.
Delver Deepriver was still a boy, but he was a dwarf: larger, heavier, and harder to move than Lithos would ever be. Lithos was also a dwarf -- or else he wouldn't have been in the Mentory -- but by birth he was a goblin, and even on the tips of his toes he had to stretch up to see what was on offer for lunch. Fortunately he wasn't a picky eater; he usually just scooped a bit from anything that had a ladle, took it to one of the tables, and ate it all. Which was still what he planned to do, but first...
A quick-muttered word and a small gesture, and the plate Delver was carrying cracked in half. Delver swore as his meal dropped and scattered, half of it falling onto the toes of his well-shined boots. Lithos made sure he had his back turned before Delver whipped around to glare at him; he was just turning to see what was going on when the burly dwarf took a step forward, stopped, and then hesitated on the edge of taking another step forward.
"Trouble?" asked a soft voice at Lithos' shoulder. His brother Iacomus -- James -- was standing next to him, hands empty, watching Delver expectantly.
Lithos shrugged. "Delver cracked his plate. Too strong for his own good, I think."
The big dwarf hesitated still, caught now between his suspicion that Lithos had somehow Done Something To Him and his satisfaction at Lithos acknowledging that he was the stronger and tougher of the two of them.
Lithos didn't mind acknowledging that; it was true, and in fact so completely obvious that he couldn't understand why the boy felt the need to keep trying to drive the point home. And, of course, muscle and bone weren't the only way to be strong, and Lithos didn't mind making that point in return.
It was Iacomus' presence that tipped the balance, though. He was a dwarf but also a halfling, and wasn't any larger than Lithos; but in their schoolyard scuffles he fought with a bloody-minded, brutal efficiency. Delver Deepriver and his friends were rightly wary, and at this moment Delver shook his head and walked over to the back of the line, setting the broken halves of his plate on a table as he went to stand with the rest of his friends.
Lithos waited while Iacomus filled his plate, which he did with considerably more care than Lithos had. Iacomus wasn't picky, exactly, but he appreciated good food and preferred to assemble a decent plate. When he was done, they walked together to join their other siblings at a table in the far corner.
So there's an alternate opening for an even weirder party. Our parents would still be former adventurers who retired to open an inn, but in this scenario they retired because they kept adopting orphans during their adventures, and it was getting awkward to take care of them. This would be -- potentially -- a dwarf campaign in which almost nobody is playing an actual dwarf.
Another variant possibility is that one of our parents actually works as a Justice, and that's how we end up investigating mysteries and solving problems ourselves. I'm not sure how that would fit with the "owning an inn" idea, but it would give our DM one hell of a set of plot hooks...
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