Cameron Spencer was bored.
He was fourteen, it was summer and there was nothing to do. His parents had gone to the grocery store – his brother and sister had gone with them – at eleven and seven, they were still young enough to think that going to the store meant they could talk mom & dad into getting them some kind of treat, but Cam knew better. They would just tell him to use his own money if he wanted ice cream or a video game or something. Besides, Jake & Page were babies anyway.
Glancing out the window in the back den, he could see through their backyard to the Drake's backyard – Emma Drake was doing some kind of dance routine or something, God only knew what. Cam snorted, flopping on the couch with a sigh – another baby. Emma was younger than Jake. All of his friends had gone off to camp or summer school or vacation with their family – they weren't going anywhere till later in the summer. Mom said maybe next summer he could volunteer at the hospital, but he wasn't real thrilled about that either – mom just wanted to keep her eye on him. Besides, if he volunteered at the hospital, every old nurse he ran into would gush about "how proud your great-grandparents would be" and the freakin' "Hardy family legacy." Not to mention his Great-Aunt Bobbie, still working part-time. Cam sighed again. He couldn't go anywhere in this damn town without running into someone he was related to – sometimes it was really irritating.
With another heavy sigh, Cameron hauled himself off the couch and wandered over to the closet in the corner of the den. Maybe there would be something to do in there. Pulling open the door, he sighed in despair.
"God, what a mess," he muttered to himself. Years of board games, puzzles and random kid toys. There was a bucket of Army figurines – there was Page's old Little People play sets – all kinds of junk. He spotted a cardboard box on the floor and slid it out into the room. His mother's handwriting was scrawled in black marker on the top.
"'Stuff from Gram's house,'" he read out loud and then remembered – it was stuff from his great-grandma's house – one of the many boxes they'd packed up and just stashed in their house until his mom was ready to deal with going through all of it. Great-Gram had passed away almost three years ago, so they must have just forgotten about this box –he was pretty sure mom had finally gone through the rest of them.
Yanking it open, Cam pulled out one of the rectangular boxes. "Oh man," he muttered. "It's a whole box of videotapes! How old is this crap?" He pulled another one out and read the title. "'General Hospital presents the 1998 Nurses Ball.' What the heck is a Nurses Ball?" he wondered. He turned the tape over and read the back copy, which explained that the Nurses Ball was a fundraiser for AIDS research.
"'Performers at the 1998 Nurses Ball included Ned Ashton, Scott Baldwin, Serena Baldwin, Brenda Barrett, Lucy Coe, Dr. Julie Devlin, Dara Jensen, Maxie Jones, Dr. Eve Lambert, Dr. Alan Quartermaine, Edward Quartermaine, Emily Bowen Quartermaine, Mac Scorpio, Robin Scorpio, Lucky Spencer' – Dad? – 'Marcus Taggart, Elizabeth Webber -' Mom too? –'and Karen Wexler.' I have totally gotta see this!" Cam said with glee.
Suddenly thankful that his parents had not yet gotten rid of their ancient VCR, Cam popped the tape in and watched a woman wearing an elaborate ball gown sweep across the stage, her blonde hair in a complicated updo. She welcomed everyone, reminded them about a silent auction and raffle tickets. The tape faded out and then the blonde was back, in a different dress and an even more complicated hairdo. She talked for another minute or two and then finally announced the names of the people in the first number – Cam sat up excitedly – mom & dad were on already!
"Cam?" Elizabeth Spencer called out as she walked back into the house with a grocery bag in each hand, Lucky, Jake & Page behind her. "Cameron! Get out here and help carry these bags in!"
There was no response and she looked at Lucky in exasperation. "He better not have left this house."
Lucky shook his head and said, "No, I think I hear the TV in the den."
"Then why won't he answer me?" Elizabeth demanded. "Teenagers," she continued, muttering.
Lucky laughed. "Please – he's the best behaved kid in town." He grinned devilishly at her, adding, "Especially when you consider what his mother was like at that age."
Elizabeth groaned, rolling her eyes. "Do not remind me. And like you were some kind of angel?" He shrugged and she turned towards the hallway. "Will you get the rest of the stuff from the car while I get him? He can at least help put this stuff away."
Lucky nodded, heading back outside with the two younger children while Elizabeth headed down the back hall.
"Cameron!" Elizabeth called, heading towards the den and – yes, that was the TV Lucky had heard. "What are you –" The words died on her lips as she registered the sound from the TV – a singing voice that, apparently, even 20 years later, could make her weak in the knees.
"Mom!" Cameron jumped as she walked in – he had been thoroughly absorbed. "I didn't know Dad could sing!"
Elizabeth couldn't answer – her eyes were riveted to the TV, the groceries completely forgotten. "Oh my God. Where in the world did you find this?"
"Box of Great-Gram's stuff," Cam shrugged, gesturing in the general direction of the box.
"Oh my God," Elizabeth said again, even though she was laughing by now. "That awful dance – LUCKY!" she yelled. "Lucky, get in here!"
Her husband appeared in the doorway just a moment later. "What? What's wron – oh, holy hell. Where did that get dug up from?" He stared at the TV for a minute and then added, "And can we get it buried again?"
Elizabeth laughed. "Cam says he found it in a box of Gram's stuff – oh my God. Can you believe this? Look how young we were."
Lucky shook his head, running his hand over his face. "Look what dorks we were," he muttered, side-stepping the punch she aimed at his arm.
"Shut up – you had a blast and you know it."
Lucky raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and it wasn't because of the cheesy dance routine."
"Oh?" she asked, innocently. "Why was it then?"
Lucky rolled his eyes. "You know why," he retorted and his wife laughed again.
"Because you were totally in love with me, even if you didn't know it yet?" she asked, leaning over to give him a kiss and he shook his head.
"Like you didn't have the hots for me, too," he replied, at which point their banter was interrupted by a gagging sound.
"'Scuse me – son in the room," Cam complained and Lucky laughed, perching on the arm of the couch as Elizabeth sank down to sit on the floor by the box.
"Sorry, kid," Lucky said. "Not to be cliché, but you'll understand one day." Cameron groaned and flopped back onto the couch. Somehow, despite his discovery, he was bored again. Parents!
Elizabeth grinned as she started pulling tapes out the cardboard box. "Lucky, she's got the tape of every last one of those Balls. How did I not realize that?"
Lucky shrugged. "Baby, it was an emotional time. We had to get Audrey's house packed up so quickly – I don't think we paid attention to half of what we tossed in those boxes."
"But, honey, don't you know what this means?" Elizabeth said slowly, looking at the tape in her hands.
Lucky shrugged again. "We've got a bunch of videotapes?" Then he realized what tape she was holding – he could just make out the numbers "1995." Suddenly, the penny dropped and her words from a few minutes ago finally registered. "Every last one of them," she'd said.
"Oh, crap," he muttered and she grinned triumphantly, waving the tape case at him.
"That's right, Lucky Spencer – the 1995 Nurses Ball. Site of the long-rumored but never proven-to-me hip-hop performance by you and your father!"
Cameron sat up as his mom popped the first tape from the VCR and inserted the second one. Hip-hop? By Dad and Pops? The day had just gotten interesting again.