The next week Tracey woke up to a knock on her bedroom door early on her birthday morning.
"Ugh," she groaned and rolled over to face the door.
"Come in" she mumbled into her pillow.
Her eyebrows shot up as her Dad made a grand entrance with a huge bouquet of roses and balloons and made a slight bow beside her bed.
"You got flowers? For ME?" she said in surprise as she sat up and took them from him.
"Of course! Only the best for my favorite princess on her birthday!" her father replied with a smile.
"I'm not 12 Daddy," she said with a roll of her eyes, but inside she felt like she was. Her Dad had done things like this for her when she was younger but hadn't for several years. He had been really trying in the last week though. Always ready to spend time with her whenever she was available, trying to control his temper when they fought, making breakfast and dinner without ordering in...in some ways it was like he wasn't the same man.
She looked up at him and smiled..."You shaved! And got a haircut! You look great Dad! You look more like...I don't know...you I guess."
"Thanks...I think," he replied as he narrowed his eyes as if he had to think it over. "So what are your plans for the day? Do you have everything ready for the big party?"
"Oh! I'm glad you reminded me!" she said as she leaned over to get a notepad off of the nightstand beside her bed. "I made a list of things I need you to pick up for me tonight!" She tore the top sheet out of the notebook and handed it to him.
His eyebrows seemed to go higher and higher as he read through the first side and turned it over to find more on the second.
"This is going to take all day! Who's going to help you with everything here?"
"Jimmy's coming over to help and..."
"Jimmy...OUR Jimmy? As in your brother Jimmy?" he interrupted her and looked at her skeptically.
"Yes father," she said sarcastically with an eye roll, "anyway...a couple of friends are coming over to help decorate. Oh and Franklin said he'd come help Jimmy with any of the heavy stuff."
"Franklin's coming? Why didn't I know about that?" Michael asked.
"Jimmy just talked to him about it yesterday" she lied, "he has plans but he's going to stop over for a couple of hours anyway."
"He's a good kid," her father replied as he looked over the list he had to pick up again.
Tracey was too busy smelling her flowers to answer.
Michael watched with a smile before saying "Well...it looks like I have a long day ahead of me so I'd better get started."
"Happy Birthday sweetheart," he said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"Thanks Daddy! And thanks for the flowers...they're beautiful!" she said as she sniffed them again.
"Not as beautiful as you kiddo" he called back over his shoulder on his way out her door
As soon as she heard the front door slam, Tracey shot out of bed and got dressed in record time. She sent out a mass text message to Jimmy and Franklin and all of her friends that said they would help her get everything ready, letting them know that Michael was out of the house and the coast was clear.
She hurried down the stairs and stopped so fast that she almost slipped. When had the house gotten so clean? Did her Dad do this or did the maid come back? Who was she kidding...she didn't care...she was just happy that it was clean! That was way less work that she was going to have to do.
Ten minutes later the door opened and she heard her brother yell "Let's get this par-tay started!"
As she came around the corner, she caught him sneaking up to his room.
"Don't you even dare think about going up there to play a game!"
"Who me? Uh...no...of course not. I was just...uh...going to see if the place had changed since I've been gone. Yeah...that's all." her brother replied.
"Uh huh...yeah right" she said as she rolled her eyes and turned around to walk back into the living room.
"You know, Mom and Dad keep saying your eyes are going to stay like that if you keep rolling them all the time" he called after.
"Want me to get started on what they say about you? We could be here all day" she yelled back.
"Uh no...that's ok. I think I'm good" he said as he joined her in the living room.
They had just started discussing how they should arrange everything when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Tracey said as she ran to the door.
Now it was Jimmy's turn to roll his eyes when he heard a bunch of squeals and shrieks after she opened the door. Obviously her friends had arrived.
She returned to the living room, followed by three girls that looked around the same age as her.
"Jimmy this is my friend Amy," she said as she pointed to a tall girl with jet black hair who still had her sunglasses on. "This is Micah," the shorter brunette with blonde highlights and dark brown eyes gave a small wave. "And this is is Ashley," she ended with the short blonde with blue eyes that smiled shyly. "This is my brother Jimmy," she said to the girls.
"Hey ladies!" he said in greeting. He opened his mouth to chat more but Tracey was already on the move with all three girls right in line behind her. They were quickly moving around the house discussing what to put where, followed by Tracey calling for her brother and telling him what to do.
He glared at her as she barked out orders right and left.
"Where's Franklin? I thought he was supposed to be here to help me" he grumbled.
"He should be here anytime, he just had to stop and pick up the DJ so he could get his stuff set up." Tracey replied.
The doorbell rang just as he had finished moving the heavy stuff from the living room, and by heavy stuff he meant that he had taken all of the pillows off of the couch and thrown them in the closet.
He joined his sister at the door...
"Hey! Franklin! My homey! My brotha from another motha! My dog!" he said as he held out a fist for Franklin to bump.
Franklin just stared at him for a second before bumping his fist.
"Yeah whatever homey" he said as he shook his head.
"Is this the DJ?" Tracey asked impatiently.
"Yeah dog, this is my cousin Tavell...best in the business right here." Franklin replied as he pointed to the shorter man beside him who flashed a peace sign and a smile.
" 'Sup Dog" Jimmy leaned past Tracey for a fist bump from Tavell as well.
"Not much man, not much" Franklin's cousin replied as he grinned and shook his head but returned Jimmy's bump.
"Get out of the way Jimmy!" Tracey said in frustration! "Come on in guys" she said as she moved out of the doorway.
"Thanks so much for doing this," she said as she turned towards Tavell. "Did you download that song that I asked you too?"
"For sure but uh...country really ain't my thing..." replied the young man.
"I know I know but it's depressing and pretty much feels like my parent's lives right now. It's perfect to use tonight when they're trying to play it cool and pretend they're not watching each other" Tracey said with another eye roll.
"Well let's get crackin' then," Franklin said. "Come on cuz, let's go get your gear."
The two disappeared back out the front door with Jimmy trailing behind.
As soon as Tavell had set up his gear, he got some music going and all seven of them went to work getting everything ready. Before they knew it, everything was all set up and ready to go.
"Wow, I can't believe we got everything done so fast!" Tracey said in surprise.
"What's that they say? Many hands make light work?" Tavell grinned and bumped shoulders with Franklin.
"Thank you guys SO MUCH for all of your help! We've still got like three hours before the party starts! Just enough time to shower, get dressed, and fix my hair." Tracey said in excitement.
All four girls disappeared into Tracey's room to get ready, leaving the three boys downstairs.
"Last one in the pool is a..." Jimmy was quickly left behind as both of the other men took off running.
"...loser" he mumbled as he got to the pool and both Franklin and Tavell were already floating around.
They spent the next hour goofing off before finally getting out to get ready for the party.
Michael arrived home with an hour to spare before the party started. He stuck his head inside the door just long enough to yell "A little help out here?" His car was packed with everything from the list Tracey had given him and there was no way he was going to carry it all in himself. He glanced over his shoulder when he heard the door open behind him and all three guys walked out.
"Franklin," he greeted his friend, "what are you still doing here? I thought you had plans tonight?"
"Plans? I ain't got no plans other than...," Franklin let out an 'oof' as Jimmy elbowed him in the stomach. "Hey man what the..."
"What my dude here meant to say was that his plans got pushed back until later so he's just gonna hang with us for a bit," Jimmy interrupted.
Michael looked back and forth between the two with his eyebrows raised before looking over at the third man. "And who's this?" he asked.
Tavell stepped forward and extended his hand towards Michael. "Name's Tavell..."
"He's the DJ...oh and Franklin's cousin," Jimmy's muffled voice came from the backseat of the car where he was snooping through the bags to see what his Dad had purchased.
"We have a DJ? Oh man...the neighbors are going to kill me tonight," Michael laughed as he shook the man's hand.
Franklin had already grabbed several bags and had disappeared into the house so the other three followed his lead and soon had the car unloaded.
"All this is for one party?" Franklin asked with an amused expression on his face as they all stood around the dining room table now covered with bags and boxes.
"Where's the good stuff Dad? Who eats all these veggies and dips and stuff?" Jimmy complained as he continued going through the bags.
"Your sister does," Michael replied with a laugh as they laid everything out for the party. "There's good stuff in there too though...cookies...chips...cupcakes.
By the time they had all of the food and drinks set out they had about 45 minutes before the party started, so Michael disappeared upstairs to take a shower and change clothes. He didn't know how Tracey and Amanda could shop all day long all the time, he was exhausted and never wanted to see another store in his life after today. He took his time getting ready because he figured he'd let his daughter have her moment with her friends and have fun for a bit before the chaperone appeared. He smiled to himself...who would have ever thought he would be the one that was a chaperone. Before too long the walls of his bedroom were vibrating from the music that had begun pounding from downstairs. Tracey had been very insistent that he wear the specific outfit she had laid out for him. Why he needed to wear black dress pants and a light blue button down dress shirt he didn't know. He was sure everyone else would probably be dressed much more casually, but hey...it was her birthday and he'd do whatever it took to make her happy today. He walked out of the bedroom fifteen minutes later and walked towards the stairs before he stopped when he heard all of the loud voices and giggles and decided to take a detour to the bathroom. If he was going to be surrounded by a bunch of people Tracey's age and have their music pounding into his head all night, he'd better prepare himself. He grabbed a few ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet and downed them before heading downstairs.
"You look great!" his daughter let out a shriek as she ran over and threw her arms around him.
"Whoa, slow down there sweetheart," he said with a laugh as he returned her hug.
"Thank you so much for everything Dad...this is the best night ever!" she squealed and took off back to a group of her friends.
"And it just started...imagine that" he said to himself as he wondered what he had gotten himself into. He was surprised that there was even room to walk in the house. He had assumed that his daughter would have packed the place out and had anticipated having to escape to the privacy of his car to avoid the crowd. She had actually kept it under control though...assuming she hadn't invited a ton of other people that hadn't shown up yet. He was relieved to count fewer than 20 people there at the moment. Most of them had made themselves at home around the pool or in the dining room that had been emptied of its table and chairs and was now a dance floor.
The doorbell rang but nobody else even turned their head.
"Don't worry...I got it..." he said to no one in particular with a shake of his head. As soon as he opened the door he wished that he had ignored it too.
"Hola mi compadre," Trevor greeted him loudly from behind a large box in his arms. There was a girl standing behind him holding a gift bag.
"Trevor..." Michael just stood there stunned.
"Well I have to say, I really thought you'd be a better host than this Mikey. Not even going to invite us in?"
"First of all...who is 'us'?" Michael asked as he leaned his head around Trevor to better see who was with him. The young lady appeared to be in her late teens, possibly even early 20's like Tracey.
"Oh uh...this is my sister's kid Naomi," Trevor awkwardly gestured towards the girl.
"So...your niece..." Michael prompted with a roll of his eyes.
"Right...yeah...my niece. I uh...well I didn't really know what to get Tracey for her birthday so I needed to call in backup." Trevor muttered.
Michael shook his head in amusement and stepped aside to let them into the house.
"Well it's nice to meet you Naomi. I didn't know T had a niece but then again I didn't know he had a family period. We just all assumed he was sent back from another planet that didn't want him." Michael laughed at his own joke.
"Hardy har har chuckles" Trevor said with a glare as he pushed past Michael.
"Uncle Trevor! Hey!" Jimmy had wandered into the room.
"Hey kid" Trevor replied.
Jimmy waved him into the other room, saying that Tracey was outside by the pool and would want to see him. Naomi nodded at Michael and followed her uncle out to the pool side. Michael could hear Jimmy quizzing her about what it was like to really be related to Trevor as they walked away.
He ran a hand down his face, already feeling tired. This was going to be a lot longer night than he had originally anticipated.
