A/N: I'm baaack!

And I had a very wonderful time (I want to go back, I miss Kimberly)! Although I know that you probably really don't care about how my long weekend went, I'm going to tell you a few highlights anyways! Yay!

So, first of all, we had an Oktoberfest! In February! (If you've ever been to Kimberly, you'll know it has this sort of German flair (the Platzl, for example)) And we gave eachother German names (I was Uley). And talked in German accents (these two Welsh boys we met actually thought we were from Germany).

And we slid down part of the ski hill on old boxes and a broiling pan (which was really fun, but very painful, I have bruises all over). And we did a scavenger hunt on the ski hill and won 2nd place (which was dinner in an igloo!) and 3rd place (which was $150.00 gift card to RCR Resorts).

Overall, an excellent family day long weekend!

And now, onto the part you all came here for!

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

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Chapter Seven: The Walling's Home

Nights were extremely boring for Esme. Although she loved sorting and viewing and drawing new blue prints, it got pretty boring when you looked at them for 12 hours a day and had no one to share them with. These long nights made her wish two things; 1) that her family was here with her or 2) that she could sleep. It was times like these that made her extremely envious of the slumbering world.

She decided that she could be an insomniac. She didn't sleep, so if anyone ever asked what was wrong with her, insomnia was the perfect excuse. She left the room about a half hour earlier than yesterday, she had nothing to do and was beginning to feel extremely claustrophobic. She stepped out onto the very psychedelic carpet and began to slowly make her way down the hall. Being out in the hallway really didn't help. There was that one cluttered table taking up a large amount of space, and the objects it could no longer hold were scattered along the ground. Things that looked like they hadn't been used in years filled every inch of available space on the table. She felt like she could almost hear the legs whining in protest. About six feet down the hallway was an old metal shelf. It looked like it belonged in a garage or an undone basement. There were sections that were duct taped together and it leaned slightly to the right. Similar to the table, the shelf had massive amounts of papers and books and CDs and cassette tapes and even old toys piled on it. That didn't even looks safe. It was a hazard. Every hallway she entered was similar to this one. They all had various storage instruments taking up most of the space, and they were always as full as possible.

As a complete contradiction to the hallways, the rooms were practically bare. The living room had an old, stained couch in the shape of a V, a very used coffee table, two end tables donning each side of the couch, each holding a very mismatched lamp. One of the lamps used a combination of browns and reds, there were crystal beads hanging from the shade and the post was an elephant standing on its hind legs. The other lamp was very round in shape with a large round base. It was white, but the lamp shade had ropes and horse shoes wrapping around the bottom. And on that large round base, was a very bow legged cow boy, hands on his holsters. There was a thick, black T.V. in front of the couch. The walls were bare except one painted picture of the dessert, painted with oranges, purples, reds and blues.

After doing a round of the house, and only to be very unpleasantly surprised with what she saw, she knew what she had to do. She was going to Ikea!

"I was really astonished at the amount of furniture this family had in the house! Most of the rooms are completely bare, and the hallways are overflowing with useless stuff! I'm really hoping that my little surprise won't be too horribly received."

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It was not long before Esme had reached the enormous parking lot for Ikea. It too her a while to find a parking spot, but it was not long before she was inside the humongous store. Armed with a shopping cart the size of a small car, she started to make her way through the Ikea maze. First stop: Bed sheets.

There were many to choose from, flower prints (ones that were more tasteful that the ones presently on the bed), solid colours and other various designs. She decided to go with a basic brown, one that would match almost anything. She picked up a few, all in neutral colours, for any other beds that may need some sprucing up.

The next stop was couches. After deciding to stay inside the brown colour scheme, she chose a modest brown leather couch, big enough to fit the entire family and a few friends.

She chose out new lamps, coffee tables, end tables, throw pillows, picture frames, blinds, plants, various pieces of other furniture and plenty of desks. By the end of the trip, she had filled six large carts with all her purchases, and had six young, male employees pushing them. She was quite thankful for the large van.

The six very helpful young boys graciously loaded everything she had purchased, and made her way to a paint store, where she picked up several buckets of paint in browns, golds and soft yellows.

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She drove much faster than usual, anxious to get home and start the renovations. And arrived home before 9 o'clock.

"Good morning, everyone," she called into the door, her arms loaded with boxes and bags. She took just enough to make it look like she was just strong, rather than freakishly strong.

"Wow . . . What is all that stuff?" Asked Sandra completely amazed at the amount of baggage that came through the door.

"Oh, it's not much. I just bought some new furniture for you guys, I just thought this could be a fun little project for us to do."

"Um . . . okay . . ." Sandra replied.

"Alright!" Esme smiled, "let's crack these babies open."

The four of them (even Andy) began to assemble various pieces of furniture with strange Swedish names. There were only a few minor mess ups, Andy had assembled one of the coffee tables upside down, and Jim couldn't read the instructions on one of the desks.

It was about 8 hours of labor later, that they had finished putting together all of the furniture. Jim and Esme had even moved the old couch out to one of the dumpsters in the alley out back and had moved the new couch in.

"Good job, everyone. Now lets start painting!" Esme said enthusiastically.

Andy was really reluctant to help with this. Him being a male, didn't really see the need to redecorate as much as Esme, or even Sandra did. Nor did he particularly enjoy spending his afternoon putting furniture together, or painting the walls of the living room. And on top of it all, he didn't like spending time with the family. Esme was nice enough, but there were better ways he could be spending the afternoon.

"I am actually so glad Esme did this for us. This place is a dump. And my mom bought all of our pervious furniture from a garage sale, which is gross. And she's such a nice person, when she first came in here with all her expensive clothing and matched luggage, I thought she was going to be a total snob and we were going to have to deal with this high class mother who had never done a days work in her life. I'm happy to be wrong." Sandra told the cameras.

The living room had the first coat of paint on the walls. It was a soft brown, not too dark, but not so light it was beige. The room was really starting to come together. All of the various colours and new pieces of furniture tied nicely together, nothing seemed out of place anymore.

Jim, although wasn't showing any emotion, was very pleased with the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition that was taking place in his own home. Esme was a very friendly, nice, caring person and it was lovely having her around. He always thought their home needed more of a theme. But they just couldn't afford new furniture on their budget. He really appreciated what she was doing for them, and he was really glad they didn't end up with some insane, racist mother, or something. He also really enjoyed the time he was spending with the kids. He didn't see them much on a regular basis, and he hadn't really spent any time with them in the last few months. It was very nice that Esme could not only redecorate their house, but bring their family together, too.

"Wow, guys. This is really looking great!" Jim said with as much enthusiasm as his flat voice could muster.

Esme smiled and nodded.

"Let's go out for dinner," Esme suggested. "To celebrate. My treat."

"Yeah, that sounds great, but you've already done so much for us, Esme." Jim replied. He was starting to fee very guilty. Esme had done so much for them already, and he couldn't just sit by and watch her make all those sacrifices for a family she met two days ago. It just wasn't fair.

"Oh, don't think anything of it. We never go out to eat in my family. It'll be fun."

"I thought you said you didn't cook much?" Sandra asked suspiciously. She distinctly remembered Esme saying she didn't cook much at home. But if they didn't go out . . . how did they eat?

"My son likes to cook." She replied smoothly. She had a small hesitation on the answer, but it wasn't long enough for anyone to notice.

"Oh, nice."

"So it's settled." Esme said. "We'll go out."

She was not over excited about the eating part. But she was excited about spending some more time with the family. She wanted to get closer to Andy. He was so distant all the time. He was the one person of the family she knew absolutely nothing about.

It was a short, quite drive to a small local restaurant. It wasn't crowded, and they soon got a table.

There was relaxed, easy conversation coming from everyone at the table except Andy. He just sat in his chair silently nibbling on his chicken fingers and fries. It concerned Esme (who was able to choke down a whole dinner without making any faces).

Why was he so distant?

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A/N: Well, there you go. Esme gets to do her redecoration of the house!

And like I said in the last chapter about the Wallings, there's something Andy is keeping from me! And its frustrating me, I feel like I can't write about him because I would just be spewing lies! I need to figure out what's wrong with this kid . . .

Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. And feel free to drop me a line, anytime, they really make me feel good. And they let me know that there are people out there who care!

Have a great weekend,

Until next time,

tanis ann