Family Picture

I almost freaked when Claire pulled out these pink shirts out of this bag she had brought in. Now when I say pink I mean Pink Pink. On the front of the shirt it said "Ateara" and she showed me the back. I almost hit the floor. The back said "Daddy."

She threw the shirt at me. I caught it. She pulled hers out. Once again the shirt had "Ateara" on the front but "Mommy" on the back. This worried me.

"Quil, go put on your khaki pants and that shirt. We've got to be there in an hour," she said as she pulled out a little pink long sleeve onesie just like ours.

"Ateara" on the front, this little shirt had "baby" on the back. I almost freaked. I reminded myself. They are probably trying to prank me. Stay calm.

I walked back to my bedroom. A lot had changed. There was women stuff everywhere!

"Claire," I yelled through the house.

I heard her walking toward the room.

"I wish you wouldn't yell. Blaire is asleep," she said calmly.

"Sorry, where are my pants?" I asked.

She pointed at the made bed. Sure enough there they were.

I looked at her. I needed to get dressed right? Then she needed to leave. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Then she did the most unexpected things. She took off her shirt.

Okay, not to be a pig but I looked. I mean dang you would too! She was beautiful. When she turned and faced me she blushed. I guess she noticed. She put on the pink "Mommy" shirt and walked over to me. She gave me a quick kiss. Then she walked out of the room.

I quickly composed myself and changed into the tan khaki pants and pink "Daddy" shirt. Boy was I going to hear it for the pink AND the daddy thing.

Then Claire walked in with a baby. Not just a baby but a tiny pretty much new born baby. I almost crapped my pants. They seriously just took this prank way too far, to get a baby involved.

She handed the baby to me. I held it with one of those 'oh my gosh I'm going to break it' ways. Claire giggled and told me I'd get used to her. She grabbed something and walked out of the room. I followed. I carried the little baby girl with me.

As I followed Claire I looked down at this baby. I started to look at its facial features. The baby had Claire's eyes but my nose and lips. If this was a joke they did one hell of a job. This kid could seriously pass as OUR baby.

When I looked up I was in one of the spare bedrooms of my house, but it was painted a soft pink and all the furniture was white. I mean it was great for a little girl but way to much for a prank.

Claire took the baby from me; I almost frowned. I liked her. Crap I was getting attached to a kid that wasn't even mine.

I began to look around the room. On the wall you first see when you walk in the room had silver letters across it that spelled out B.L.A.I.R.E. I didn't even think you spelled Blair with an 'e' at the end. Then it clicked Claire's name had an 'e' at the end so would our daughter. I smiled at the thought of naming our baby girl after my beautiful Claire.

What was I thinking? This is all just a prank. I looked over at Claire and Blaire. Claire was changing her. Claire looked so confident and she was so gentle. Before long the baby girl had on her "Baby" shirt and even a pair of khaki pants. Her little clothes seemed to swallow her whole.

"Come on, Quil. Grab the diaper bag. Lets go," she said as she picked up the tiny baby.

I grabbed the diaper bag as Claire grabbed a blanket and a little pink toboggan.

"Hey babe, did you put a diaper in here big enough for Paul?" I asked smirking as I held up the diaper bag.

"You know if he heard you say that he'd try and kick your butt," Claire said with a laugh.

"I'd like to see him try," I said as I opened the door for Claire.

Claire had put the baby in the car seat and picked the car seat up. Then we headed for my jeep. I asked Claire if she wanted me to carry Blaire but she insisted that she was fine and that she could do it.

Then we left. Before long we arrived at the beach. Once there I saw two boys in navy blue shirts. I couldn't make out the name on the front but as we got closer I could see "Twin 1" and "Twin 2" on the back. Playing with twin one and two was another little boy probably a year younger than the twins. This younger boy had on a military green shirt.

There was other kids as well. One with a deep red and a much younger one with a burnt orange color.

As I stood there Paul and Rachel walked up. Paul started up his picking. I dished it back. Rachel took Blaire from Claire. Rachel did her silly baby talk with my little Blaire.

"Everyone is here come on lets go chat with all of them," Paul said after a few minutes of constant verbal abuse over the pink shirt.

As we walked up I went straight over to Embry and Leah. Leah had a kid on her hip.

"How old?" I asked.

"She'll be 15 months on Monday," Leah answered with a smile.

Sam said for us to get all the kids together that we were taking family pictures after we take one big group picture.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Sam and Emily had a little girl about four years old. They were in the deep red shirts with "Uley" on the front.

Jacob and Nessie were in black shirts with "Black" on the front. All the writing was in white. Apparently they had no kids and I couldn't figure out if they were married or not. I couldn't keep up with my life much less everyone elses.

Jared and Kim had a little boy probably two years or so. They had burnt orange shirts.

Paul and Rachel had the twins and another little boy about three. The twins I'd say were six. They all had navy blue shirts on.

Seth was there with a golden shirt and "Clearwater" across it. Apparently he was still single and hadn't imprinted.

Embry and Leah had the military green shirts with "Call" across the front. They apparently had two kids. The boy looked a little younger than Paul's twins but older than Sam's little girl. They also had the fifteen month old baby girl.

And there Claire and I stood with Blaire. We had Pink shirts. We stood out against all the different deep colors. Why couldn't we have brown or something better than PINK?

Collin and Brady even had better colors than my family did. Collin was in white and Brady was in tan. Rebecca and her husband were there in a pastel blue color. They had a kid with them too.

We all stood in a group, all the adults in the back and the kids in the front. I held Blaire and I was turned so the camera could see her. I smiled at Claire.

"You guys did great with the prank today," I whispered to Claire.

"What prank?" she asked looking at me.

I ignored her question and looked at the photographer. They began their count down.

"On the count of three say cheese. One…. Two…. Three…."


I sat straight up in my bed. I was confused. My bedroom was back to my bedroom. There was no girly things no presence of Claire nothing. I hopped up and made a mad dash to the spare bedroom. It was empty just like it always was. I sighed inwardly.

Good I wasn't in pink nor would I ever let Claire talk me into wearing pink! At least it wasn't a well thought out and well planned prank! But that made me sad in a way. That meant that it was all in my head. I had in a way pranked myself in a way. I was sad. That sweet beautiful baby girl was all just a sweet dream. Well one thing was for sure. My future sure was going to be a good one if this is how things go.

Quil Ateara