O.O Based on true events. ((curls in a ball))
"Ready to go?" Katie asked Jordan who continued to sulk.
"Yeah." She grumbled, fussing with her red skirt and scarlet blouse impatiently.
"Let's be off, then. C'mon, Snowy." With a mrrt, the tabby hopped on Katie's shoulders, draping himself across her shoulders.
-
"First stop, Aunty's house." Katie called cheerfully, driving down the road, aware that she was being followed closely by her friends. "We'll help get the food ready then head over to where the reunion's actually gonna be."
"It's not going to be here?" Prowl asked. "It seems like such a nice place for it."
Katie chuckled. "It's going to be on the beach." She explained. "Aunty just lives nearby. We'll get ready here then migrate over to the beach unless the weather acts up."
"Migrate?" Jordan echoed as Armonie laughed.
"Aunty's words, not mine." Katie said with a chuckle. "We'll be working with the Aunties and older cousins before we leave." She added.
"Huh?" was the general consensus
"The Aunties are the ones who prepare the food, and the older cousins are the ones who do the smaller tasks like wash dishes, get the table ready, fetch drinks, decorate, etcetera, etcetera." Katie explained. "Younglings don't do zip, grandfathers and fathers sit around drinking beer or barbequing, mothers watch the younglings, and grandmothers sit and gossip amongst themselves. It's like a ranking system that's very informal."
"You're family's strange." Armonie told Katie with a chuckle.
"You don't know the half of it." Katie replied. "We're here," she added a moment later.
As she got out, a woman who looked like she could be her sister poked her head out the door and beamed at Katie. "Hey, Laulau!"
Katie laughed. "Hey, Full Moon!" if the other woman was surprised that Katie spoke, she hid it behind a smile and a tight hug. "These are my friends Jazz, Prowl, Roddy, Armonie, Jordan, and Snowy." She winked at the last one as the tabby twined around her ankles. "Guys, this is my cousin Emily."
"Snowy I know." Emily said with a smile, bending to pet the cat before rising again to shake their hands. "It's nice to know Katie has friends." She said with a grin, earning a sharp jab to the ribs from her cousin. "Come in. We're just getting started."
Katie hefted the large platter of cookies she had brought and followed her cousin inside. "Emily and I are two of the three 'younger aunties'. If the aunties need extra help, we sub in. If there's enough help, then we take over the older cousins and get everything ready." She explained as she propped the door open and walked in.
There they were met with confusing but oddly orderly chaos.
What Hot Rod assumed were the 'older cousins' looked up from their myriad of tasks including making utensil packs, decorating cakes and cookies, transferring food to platters and trays, washing, drying, and putting away dishes, stopping what they were doing to say 'hi'. How three people could do that all at once, he didn't know, but they seemed stressed. Two little kids zoomed toward Katie, nimbly dodging aunties and cousins alike with the ease of long practice.
Emily took the cookies from Katie and put them on the table before she was all but tackled by the two kids. The two older cousins and third younger aunt – who were introduced as Nicole, Erin, and Wanda respectively – at them before returning to work.
The aunties bustling in the kitchen noticed and smiling came one by one to give them all a hug and a kiss on the cheek as long, strange names passed in one ear and out the other.
"Everyone born into the family has a Hawaiian name." Katie explained, rolling up her sleeves to get to work. "We generally call them by their English name, but sometimes we use their Hawaiian names as nicknames."
"So what will we be doing?" Armonie asked, following her lead and rolling up her sleeves.
"Wanda, Emily and I will assist the Aunties. You guys help poor Nicole and Erin. They look like they desperately need it." the two older cousins shot her a grateful glance as she passed.
Jordan looked dubiously at the two teens who continued to bustle around. "How can we help?"
Erin – at least, they thought it was Erin; the two girls looked quite alike – paused and looked them over. "I'm Erin. Call me by my Hawaiian name and I'll punch you, no joke. Do you two have steady hands?" she asked the two women who nodded. "Can you decorate the cakes and cookies? That's what's giving us the biggest problems." Smiling, Armonie and Jordan went over and got to work. "You, work on the utensils – one fork, one knife, one spoon and wrap it all in a napkin. Go until you run out." She tugged on Prowl's sleeve and pushed him lightly toward where Nicole was working.
"Erin, here's another one." The hot pot was shoved into the girl's hands by an Aunty who bustled back off.
In turn, Erin shoved the pot into Hot Rod's hands. "You two take the hot plates from the Aunties and put them in the plates and bowls. When you're finished with them, bring the empty pots to me, and I'll wash them." she pointed at a different table laden with wooden and glass bowls and platters.
"How can we tell which goes where?" Jazz asked as he was handed a pan full of sizzling…something.
"It's labeled," Katie explained gently, making sure he had a good grip on the pan before leaving.
Jordan and Armonie entertained themselves decorating the palm-sized cookies with different designs the rest of the family wouldn't know of; Autobot and Decepticon faction insignias, various characters in Cybertronian that they had picked up while at the base, etcetera.
Nicole and Erin found it amusing, and stole a few when they weren't looking to munch on.
"It's Aunty's rule of snitching." Erin explained during a lull in the cooking and washing. "If you help out in the kitchen, you have the right to snitch food here and there."
"Snitch?" Armonie asked, looking at the younger of the two cousins.
Erin grinned. "Take something to eat." She picked up a piece of coconut gelatin and ate it with a smile. "But of course it always tastes better when you take it when no one's looking." She added, mouth full. With a muffled chortle, she stood and went back to cleaning dishes.
"It's chaotic." Jordan observed, drawing Nicole's attention from making utensil packets with Prowl.
"Wait 'till the rest of the family gets here. First it'll get crowded, then it'll get loud, and then it'll be even worse." Erin came back and plopped down in her previously vacated seat, pretending like she was about to faint.
"And then us lowly older cousins will be called on like serving girls to fetch food, pass out utensils, and so on." At this, she sighed dramatically. "Our work is never done."
"And then Anuhea and Joshua will come and insist you play with them, give them horsie-back rides, chase them, and play cars with them." Katie said dryly, slinging an arm around the teen's shoulders.
"Thanks, Katie. I needed that. Really, I did." The girl said dryly, earning a slap on the back.
"Good to hear it. Always ready to help out a cousin." Katie nimbly dodged the flick of the dishtowel and laughing, sat down where Erin had just been. "Enjoying yourselves so far?" she teased, picking up a cookie and munching on it.
Jordan rolled her eyes. "I love it here." She said sarcastically, though they didn't miss the humor in her eyes as Emily and Erin began to trade quips at each other.
Katie smirked. "Good. 'Cause it's about to get a lot worse. Rest up; we're nearly finished, and you're going to need all the rest you can get." Smirk still in place, she left the apprehensive policewoman and laughing Italian behind.
Based on true events and real people. :)
My cousin does call me Laulau though I have no idea why, and in turn I call her Mahealani or Full Moon. ;) There is a sort of ranking system in my family though no one really acknowledges it or gives names to it as I do. I also hate it when I'm called by my Hawaiian name, even a shortened version of it. And I'm always helping out with my step-sister doing multiple tasks at once. O.o
The reunion (and story) will actually go somewhere in the next chapter. XD;;