My Girl

by BehindTheMask97

When foster child, 7 year old Payton, goes to Seattle to have her brain tumor removed, her life will change forever. Little does she know it will be more than just becoming healthy again, she might just find her dad and finally have the love she deserves.

10. Chapter 10

TUESDAY

Payton P.O.V

Today was the big day. The day I will meet my family. Last night was super fun. Mommy, daddy, Sophia, and I saw The Lion King and even got to eat popcorn and candy. I had never been to a movie before but I liked it a lot. I woke up and saw that it was 10:30. We were leaving in like an hour and a half! Sophia was still asleep beside me. I walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Uncle Mark and Aunt Julia were cooking something that smelled super yummy. "Hey Pumpkin!" Uncle Mark picked me up and tickled me. I giggled.

"Morning Uncle Mark and Aunt Julia."

"So, you excited for later."

"Yeah, I'm kinda scared though. What if they don't like me?"

"Oh Pumpkin they'll love you! Mom is super excited to meet you."

"And I can call her Nana right?"

"Bingo."

"And then there's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tommy, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike, Aunt Hayley and Uncle Scott, and Aunt Amy and Daniel right?"

"Yeah, and then there's all the cousins but we'll introduce them to you one at a time."

"Are plane rides scary? I've only been in a hospital helicopter not a plane."

Aunt Julia smiled at me "They're not scary not really. It's like a car ride but with a prettier view."

"Are there really gold TVs?" They both laughed "What?"

"Who told you that?" Aunt Julia asked.

"Tristan, my last foster sister. She was nine."

"No sweetie, there aren't golden TVs."

"Aww so does that mean no yummy honey roasted peanuts?"

"They do have those."

"Well good because that's what I'm most excited for."

"I see that Sophia signed your cast."

"Yeah isn't it pretty?"

"It is. I like the purple and green."

"Me too. They're my favorite colors."

Daddy walked down the stairs. "Daddy!" I ran and jumped on him.

"Hey Pay. What have you been up to?"

"Just asking questions. Is mommy awake?"

"Mommy had to stop by the hospital real quick and pick up some charts to work on while we are in New York."

"Oh, OK. Oh daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Is it snowy in New York like it is here?"

"I think so but I'm not positive. Sometimes it is and sometime's it's not. It just depends on the weather."

"So it's cold enough for snow?"

"It should be."

"Can we make Nana a snow man?"

He laughed "Well of course. I'm sure she would like that a lot."

"Maybe she would help us."

"Maybe so. Where's Sophia?"

"She's still asleep."

"You want to go wake her up?"

"Sure daddy." I ran up the stairs and went back in my room to wake up Sophia. "Sophie, time to wake up!"

"Morning Pay."

"Morning now come on. I want to see if daddy will let us go jump on the trampoline before we go."

"OK, let's go."

We ran down the stairs. We got back into the kitchen and I went up to daddy. "Daddy, daddy, can we PLEASE go on the trampoline? Pretty please?"

Sophia joined in. "Yeah Uncle Derek pretty please?"

He sighed "You two still need to eat and get dressed. Then we have to make sure everything gets in the car. It's already 11:00 and we need to leave in 30 minutes to go pick up Brooke. We just don't have the time. But don't worry. Nana and your Aunt Kathy both have trampolines."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Now you two go sit and eat. Then both of you make sure everything's in your plane bags and get dressed."

"OK." We sat down and ate our chocolate chip waffles and bacon. After that we went up and checked our bags. Everything was in there. We then put on the clothes we were supposed to wear at the airport. We both had neyon pink shirts, blue jeans, and lime green hats. Momma said it's so we don't get lost. By the time we got downstairs mommy was home. "MOMMY!" I jumped up on her like I had daddy.

"Hey Pay! All ready to go?"

"Yeah. Is it time?"

"It's 11:45. We are going to pick up Brooke from school first."

"OK. Come on Sophie let's go get in the car."

"OK." We giggled and ran to the car. We got in the very back and saved a seat for Brooke. Thomas, Kennedy, and James were in the car with Uncle Mark and Aunt Julia. Mommy and daddy got in the car and drove us to pick up Brooke. Daddy went in the building and came back out with Brooke. We drove to the airport and had to go through some line and give them our suitcases. Next we had to go through these things that beeped if you had medal and put our plane bags on a thingy that scanned them to make sure nothing bad was in them. We went to a bunch of chairs that daddy said was called 'our gate' and sat down for a little while. An announcement came on and told us to board our flight. We handed some smiling lady our tickets and got on the plane. We were sitting in what was called first class and it was super comfy. I got to sit between Sophia and Brooke. They began playing Finding Nemo. I soon fell asleep.

Derek P.O.V

6 ½ hours later, at 8:00 we landed in New York. Pay, Sophia, Brooke, Thomas, James, and Kennedy were asleep. I picked up Pay and Brooke, Meredith got James, Mark got Sophia and Thomas, and Julia got Kennedy. We walked through the airport where Michael and Kathleen were picking us up. They saw us and came over to help with the kids. After we had everyone and everything loaded in the cars we drove to mom's house. I got Pay and Brooke again and carried them to the bedroom Michael was carrying Sophia too. We put them in beds and went downstairs. I realized the older kids were all missing. That meant they were up to something. When Ella, Evie, Ava, Megan, and Logan were together you always had to watch out because you never knew what pranks might be pulled. The youngest kids all seemed to be asleep while the middle kids were playing in the game room. Ziven, one of Hayley's kids saw me. "UNCLE DEREK!"

He ran to me and threw himself in my arms. Ziven was a really cute kid. He had very dark longer brown hair, a tan complexion even in November, and big crystal blue eyes. "Hey Ziven. How are you?"

"Good, I missed you a lot! Four months is a long time!"

"Yeah, it is. Sorry I missed your birthday party."

"It's OK, where's my new cousin? Payton, mommy says she's my age."

"She is and she fell asleep in the car."

"Bummer."

Sarah Paige saw me next. Boy she had grown. She had her dark brown hair in a French braid and her blue eyes were even prettier than I remembered. "UNCLE DEREK!"

I picked her up after putting Ziven down. "Sarah Paige! You've grown!"

She giggled "A whole THREE inches!"

"Wow, you're so tall now!"

"I know I'm 4ft 11in!"

"UNCLE DEREK!" Emma sprinted into my arms too. Emma was the little odd ball with how she looked. She had the blue eyes like everyone else but had her dad's light blonde hair.

"Hey Emmy!"

"Where's Payton? I wanna meet her!"

"She's asleep, you'll probably have to wait until tomorrow."

"Oh, OK, well then where's Aunt Mere, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Julia?"

"Kitchen." The three went running towards the kitchen only to be replaced by Jackson. Lily, Tyler, and Matthew. All of Kathleen's kids got the dark brown hair and big blue eyes genes. Tyler and Matthew were identical except Matthew had curly hair and Tyler had straight. They greeted me by yelling "UNCLE DEREK!" and jumping up and down. "Hey guys! How have y'all been?"

"Good."

"Do any of you know where the older kids are?"

Tyler, Matthew, and Jackson all shook there heads and went towards the kitchen. Lily smiled at me "I do Uncle Derek!"

I smiled back "Oh really, and where might that be?"

"They took the bikes and skateboards to the abandoned skate park but it's a secret. The adults think they are all just riding around the neighborhood. Well not Logan. He had football practice and will be here later."

"Oh really."

"Yeah don't tell anyone though."

I laughed. "OK I won't."

Once Lily went to the kitchen I decided to go check on the teeny boppers. I went to the skate park and appalled doesn't even begin to cover what I felt when I saw the kids. Megan was making out with some guy, Evie was drinking a beer sitting in some guy's lap. Ella and Ava were standing in a circle with a bunch of other kids watching something which seemed like a fight. I realized Cannon had to be involved in the fight and moved closer to here what was being yelled. Ella and Ava were pleading with whoever it was to stop. Megan and Evie decided to walk over and check out what was going on. Evie and Megan began pleading as well. I decided enough was enough and decided to stop the madness. "AVA, EVIE, MEGAN, ELLA, CANNON! GET OVER HERE NOW! AS FOR THE REST OF YOU I SUGGEST YOU GO! THIS LITTLE PARTY'S OVER!" A bunch of kids scattered away and I saw Cannon for the first time. I understood now all the pleading. He was bleeding pretty bad from what I could see. I moved closer. I crouched down. "Cannon are you OK?"

"Yeah, I just need some help up." I knew he wasn't fine. His nose was bleeding and it looked like his lip was busted open. His blue eye now was blackened around it. His brown hair had some blood from the cuts. His face was pretty bruised too. I helped him up and made him sit down on a bench so I could check him out.

"What was all that about."

"Nothing, can we just go home?"

"Cannon…"

"It was nothing Uncle Derek! Please I just want to go home."

"You want to show up bleeding and beat up after telling your parents you were riding around the neighborhood?"

"No I guess not."

The girls had gathered around now. "Now what happened?"

"The losers just attacked me."

"Wait first off, why weren't you at football today?"

"Only the quarter back, receivers, and defense had to stay late. I got to leave at like 2:30."

"OK, now why did they attack you?"

"It's nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing."

"They're from the team we are playing Friday."

"Why did they attack you though?"

"Because I'm the fastest running back and they know with Logan as QB and me as running back they would lose and decided they would beat the crap out of me."

"Oh, well we should get you cleaned up a bit before we take you home." I took the Kleenex out of my pocket and began getting the blood off of him. "And Megan," I looked into her guilty blue eyes, "who on earth was that guy?" She held her little head in shame for a minute. Her dark hair had grown and was now at mid back.

"My boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"Seven months now."

"Oh and Evie," She had the same guilty look in her blue eyes and covered her face a bit with her long dark curly hair, "please tell me you weren't drinking."

"It was just one beer and it was gross. I'll never drink again."

"OK, well I won't tell all of your parents about this little, umm, slip up on one condition."

They all eagerly said "WHAT?"

I laughed. "No more lying, no more fighting, ABSOLUTLEY no more drinking, and I would like to say no more kissing but I understand people kiss at your age nowadays so just maybe no more making out that heavily."

"OK." They all mumbled out.

"Wait Uncle Derek." Cannon said.

"Yeah?"

"What do I say about my face?"

"The truth. Say some rivals decided to beat you up but you knew fighting was wrong so you didn't fight back."

"OK, can we go back now?"

"Of course."

The kids got the various bikes and skateboards and we walked back to mom's house together. Once we got there the kids greeted the other Aunts and Uncles. That's when someone noticed Cannon's face. Hayley said "Cannon, what happened?"

"Nothing." I cleared my throat. "I got beat up OK. Some stupid rivals beat the crap out of me to try and make it so I couldn't play Friday but they didn't succeed. Now no more talking about it."

The adults mumbled out "OK." Although I knew they probably wanted to go beat the crap out of the losers just as much as I did. I got a chance to greet Hayley, Scott, Nancy, and Tom. After that Logan showed up. Sweaty and smelly but still the big goof ball. He gave me a huge smelly sweaty hug as well as the rest of the relatives. At 9:30 the families all left, well except Meredith, Mark, Julia, our kids, and I. Mom gave us all hugs and ordered us to bed. We checked on the kids first. James and Thomas were fast asleep in my old room, Sophia, Brooke, and Pay were cuddled together sleeping in Kathy's old room. Kennedy was asleep in Nancy's old room which was now a nursery for the grandkids. Meredith and I made it to our guest room and fell fast asleep.

WEDNESDAY

Payton P.O.V

I woke up sort of confused. I didn't recognize the room I was in. Then I remembered that I was at my Nana's house. I decided to try and find her. I ran down the stairs just like I would have if I were at home. I saw an older woman with curly short grey hair cooking. I walked in there like I had known this woman my whole life. "Nana?"

She turned and smiled at me "You must be Payton. I've been looking forward to meeting you." She came over and gave me a hug. It felt good, better than a normal hug would have. There was something different about her. Her hugs made me feel warm and loved. It was a wonderful feeling.

"I've been so excited to meet you too!" I smiled and actually felt a tear from my eye. I wasn't sad I was just so happy. I had never had a Nana.

She picked me up and put me on her counter. "How would you like to help me cook? I was just about to mix the pancake batter."

"I would love too!" She handed me an egg.

"So you just tap this on the side of the bowel and let the egg fall in the bowel." I did like she told me and was very pleased. I barely got any shell in the bowel. "Good! That was very good."

"Thank you. What's next?"

"The mix." I poured the powder in the bowel. "And now the butter milk." I poured that in to. "Now let's see, would you like chocolate chips, blue berries, or strawberries in the pancakes?"

I really liked blue berry and chocolate chip pancakes but I really wanted to try some strawberries. "Strawberries please."

"I love strawberries."

She poured a bowel of chopped up strawberries in the batter. "Can I stir it?"

"Sure sweetie." We both stirred the batter up. She then poured the first batch on the skillet. "So Payton, what do you like to do?"

"You can call me Pay Nana, but I like to play soccer, cheer, jump on my trampoline, and I really like puppies and my dollies!"

"OK then Pay. A lot of your cousins play soccer and you get to see Evie cheer on Friday at the football game."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and as for trampolines, there's one in the yard. What is your favorite dolly?"

"My American Girl Doll."

"What's her name?"

"I changed it yesterday."

"Really? What is it now?"

"Suzie."

"That's a pretty name."

"It was one of my foster sister's name."

"So, what happened to your arm?"

"I slipped and fell on it on the trampoline. It's OK though, it doesn't hurt."

"Well that's good. It's a pretty cast. Purple is my favorite color."

"MINE TOO! Well purple and lime green."

"Those are very pretty."

"Nana?"

"Yes baby?"

"Thank you for being so nice to me."

"It's no problem. You're one of my babies and I love all my babies."

"I love you too Nana." I really did. She was probably one of my favorite people now. Uncle Mark walked in the kitchen.

"Hey ma, pumpkin, what's cooking? I'm starved."

"Morning Mark. Pay and I are fixing my famous strawberry waffles."

"Yummy, my favorite. Hey Pumpkin, where's Sophia."

"She's still sleeping."

"Hmm, you sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, the bed is super soft."

He laughed. "I'm glad you slept well."

"Uncle Mark, will you go on the trampoline with me?"

"I don't know Pumpkin. It's cold and snowing outside and I don't want you to hurt your arm anymore."

"Please Uncle Mark, please, please, please?" I gave him my biggest puppy dog eyes and batted my eyes at him.

He smiled "And how can I say no to that?"

"Yay, come on let's go!" I grabbed his hand and tried to pull.

"How about after breakfast?"

I sighed "OK." I sat on the bar stool. Uncle Mark sat by me.

Nana put a plate of yummy pancakes in front of me. "So your cousins should be here later, they are all very excited about meeting you."

"Really?"

"Yes very."

"There's a lot of them."

"It's OK, you'll get to know them quickly."

Daddy walked in the kitchen. "Daddy!"

He came and gave me a kiss on my head. "Morning Pay."

"Morning."

"Morning Ma, are those your famous strawberry pancakes?"

"Yes, and Pay helped me make them which makes them even better than they would have been."

"I bet so." He sat by Uncle Mark on the other side. "Heard from Callie or Arizona?"

"Not except last night. They are going to have Thanksgiving with Bailey and her family."

"That's good, I didn't want them to be alone."

Sophia walked in the kitchen. "Morning Pay, Daddy, Uncle Derek, Nana."

She gave Nana a big hug and sat by daddy. Once we ate Sophia and I dragged Uncle Mark out to the trampoline. We jumped for a little until Nana called us inside to meet the first round of cousins. Uncle Mark introduced me to them. "Well pumpkin, this is Aunt Hayley, Uncle Scott, and your cousins. Ziven, (he pointed to a boy who looked about my age. He had tan skin, long dark brown hair, and crystal blue eyes), Sarah Paige (A girl who looked a bit older than me with long curly dark brown hair and blue eyes) and Megan (An older girl smiled and waved at me. She had long straight brown hair and blue eyes) Logan's at football practice."

I smiled at them. "I'm Payton, but you all can call me Pay."

Aunt Hayley smiled at me. "Hello Pay." She gave me a hug. I really liked Aunt Hayley, she reminded me of Aunt Arizona. I heard some more people walk in the house. "You want to go meet your Aunt Kathy's family." I nodded and she took my hand. "Pay, this is your Aunt Kathy, Uncle Mike, Tyler (A boy about my age with straight brown hair and blue eyes smiled and waved) Matthew (A boy that looked just the same as Tyler but with curly hair smiled at me) Jackson (A boy with dark brown hair and blue eyes waved at me) Lily (A girl that looked a lot like me actually smiled at me) Suzie (A little girl that reminded me a lot of Brooke smiled and waved) and Ella (An older girl that looked like me again smiled at me).

Aunt Kathy smiled at me. "We've all been very excited to meet you."

"I've been really excited too!" She smiled and gave me a big hug. Another group of people showed up . Aunt Kathy smiled "Well look, it's your Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tommy." Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tommy walked in. "Well of course as I said this is your Aunt Nancy and Uncle Tommy. This is Ava (An older girl with long straight brown hair and blue eyes smiled at me) Emma (A girl that seemed to be my age with blonde hair and blue eyes waved at me) and Morgan (A little girl with dark brown hair and blue eyes smiled at me) Evie is at cheer practice and Cannon is at football."

I smiled at Aunt Nancy and her family. She came over and gave me a hug and smiled. "I've heard all about you. I've been so excited to meet you. You're even prettier than your daddy said."

I giggled "Thank you."

Ziven smiled "So, you wanna go play?"

I smiled "Yeah." He took my hand and I ran off with a lot of my cousins.

Derek P.O.V

The kids all ran off in their own ways. All of the adults sat around the couch. Kathy smiled "Oh my goodness Derek! She looks just like you! And she's sooo sweet!"

"She likes you guys. When she doesn't like people she hides behind our legs and goes all shy."

Nancy said "She looks just like all the girls. She's definitely a Shepherd."

"Thanks for being nice to her."

"I'm not a monster Derek."

"Well…"

She whacked me upside the head. Amy walked down the stairs. Hayley laughed "Look who's finally up."

"Haha, so Pay's pretty great isn't she."

"Yeah, how's she been doing Derek?" Kathleen asked.

"She seems to be doing OK, but I have no idea how she really is. She'll talk about her foster siblings occasionally but never what happened. Not any since what she said to me in the hospital."

"Give her time. She'll open up eventually."

"Yeah, I guess so. How are all the other kids?"

Kathy smiled "Well mine are great, fighting with each other but that's nothing new."

Nancy sighed. "Mine are fine, well Evie and Cannon are growing to quickly. High school, I mean it's crazy."

Hayley sighed "You think yours are old? My youngest is seven. Logan's driving, Megan's dating, Sarah Page is going to be in middle school next year."

Nancy smiled "Face it, your old Hay."

"Your getting on up there Nance, just you wait."

"At least I won't be 40 next September."

"Uggh, don't remind me!"

We all laughed. At 12:00 mom called us all for lunch. We ate some grilled chicken and the kids all went outside. At 1:00 Logan, Cannon, and Evie got here. They all went straight for the food and Logan plopped on the couch by me. "Hey Uncle Derek."

"Hey Logan, how was football."

"Good, your coming to the game Friday right?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Well I'm starving I'm gonna go get some more."

Evie motioned me. "So Uncle Derek, can we take a walk?"

"Of course." We walked outside and began walking.

"You're not going to say anything to my parents about yesterday are you?"

"No but I do want to know why in the world you were drinking."

"I don't know. It's just sort of something I've picked up on in high school."

"It's not a good habit. Look Evie, addiction runs in the family, I just thought you were smart enough to not give in."

"Look, Uncle Derek, things haven't been so good in my life for a while so I turned to drinking."

I stopped walking "What do you mean not good? Your beautiful, a cheerleader, popular."

"It's not that."

"Then what on earth has pushed you to drinking?"

"Do you remember my best friend that had leukemia?"

"Of course."

"He went into remission, went out of remission, went back into remission, back out, back in, and is now back in. He doesn't want to fight anymore. He wants to die."

"Oh Evie, I'm so sorry."

"The worst part about it is I can't talk about it. I'm supposed to be the strong one, I'm supposed to be the one that smiles and makes him laugh, but all I really want to do when I see him is cry. Do you know how much pressure that is?"

"Evie, look I know it's hard, but their's other ways to deal with it. You can talk to your mom, your dad, Nana, any of your aunts or uncles, even Cannon."

"But I can't. I can't even talk about it with them because when I try to talk about how I feel I feel like I have no right. I feel like my friend is the only one that has a right to be upset."

"But that's not true. You have a right to be upset. Anyone would be upset if they were in your situation."

"But I don't feel like I have a right to be upset."

"But you do. You have every right to be upset." I noticed she was crying now. I grabbed her into a hug. "Shhh, everything will be alright." We stood there for what seemed like hours. When I saw the time, I realized we should be getting back. It was already 5:00. "Come on, let's get back."

We walked back to the house. Once we walked in Mere came up "Oh there you two are. Derek you need to get dressed, we are all going out to eat tonight. Evie, you probably need to go change to I don't think you want to wear your cheer clothes to eat."

The day before Thanksgiving the family always went out to eat at a little Chinese restaurant we found one year. Meredith and I walked up to our room. "I'm worried about her Mere."

"What do you mean?"

"Her best friend has cancer, she's drinking, I just don't want her to ruin her life."

"Drinking? Derek, have you told Nancy or Tom yet?"

"I'm not going to. It would just make things worse."

"If you really think so, but I think you should tell them."

"Why is that?"

"Well we would want to know if one of our kids were drinking."

"Speaking of our kids, are they all ready to go?"

"James is dressed but is napping, Brooke is dressed and playing with Morgan and Suzie, and Pay is dressed currently playing with Ziven, Emma, Lily, Sophia, Tyler, and Matthew."

"Sounds like you've got things under control."

"Derek, I was thinking…"

"About what?"

"How would you like another baby?"

"Well I would love another baby, but I also think we should get Payton for sure adjusted before anything."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you think she'll open up to us soon?"

"I don't know about soon but I do think eventually she will."

"I hope so. I really want to make sure she's dealing with all of this."

"DEREK, MEREDITH, COME ON IT'S TIME TO GO!" I heard ma call us down. I went and got James out of his bed and headed down the stairs.

Payton ran over to me. "Daddy, can I PLEASE ride with Aunt Hayley?"

"Of course Pay."

Logan and the older kids got in his car which still looks CRAZY to me. Logan driving? It's so weird how fast kids grow up. I got in Nancy's car which consisted of Nancy, Tom, Meredith, Suzie, Brooke, and James. Once we got to the restaurant we all sat down and ordered our food. I got sweet and sour chicken. After dinner we all went home and everyone went back to their own houses and we all went to bed. We had our Thanksgiving tradition that has lasted since Logan was a newborn. We would wake up at 6:00, go to Central Park where we would ice skate, mom and the women would go home to start cooking while the men took the kids to do fun things. This year we were taking the kids to a big hill to go sledding and then to a play ground. Sometime during all that we would feed the kids a light lunch and at 6:30 we would eat dinner. After dinner the kids would decorate the house for dinner. I finally fell asleep.

THURSDAY (THANKSGIVING)

Meredith and I woke up at 5:45 and went to get the kids dressed warm enough for morning ice skating. We went in the girls' room to see that Julia was already in their getting them dressed. We went to the boys' room and got Thomas and James bundled up. We went downstairs and found mom in the kitchen making omelets. Everyone got their plate and ate. We drove to Central Park and parked beside Hayley and Scott's car. We found the whole family renting ice skates, well except the kids that had some of their own. Once everyone had skates we went out on the ice. I helped Payton learn how to skate. I picked her up and twirled her in the air. She giggled and I couldn't help but smile. She was really cute. Eventually Ziven came over and took her hand and they started skating together and holding hands. The whole family was watching the two giggling seven year olds just having a blast. Around 11:30 the women left to go cook. We told all the kids that they had 30 minutes left. At one point I tuned in on Megan, Logan, Evie, and Cannon racing. It was pretty amusing to watch. They would pull each other down and push each other. The funniest part however was Megan biting Evie. In the end Cannon won. They all laughed and came off the ice. We took the kids to a little deli where they all ordered some sandwiches. After lunch we went to the hill to go sledding. The older kids made it into a contest. A bunch of the little kids made snow angels and the whole family started a snowball fight which attracted more and more people. After the snow ball fight we went to the play ground. The kids all played hide and seek while the dads sat around and talked. We talked about the kids, football, and tools. We got the kids home just in time for dinner. We said the blessing and all ate. After dinner we put on the Christmas music and began decorating the house. We hung up the lights outside and put up the nativity scene. We put up all the indoor decorations and finally put up the Christmas tree. The kids all voted that Payton should put up the star. I held her to the top of the tree and she put the star on. It was 10:00 so everyone headed home. We tucked in all the little ones and went to bed.

FRIDAY:

Payton P.O.V

I really liked my family. They were all really nice. I especially like Ziven. He was super nice and we had a lot of fun together. Yesterday was really fun. Ice skating, playing in the snow, playing hide and seek. I felt like I had known my family all my life. I was first awake again so I went down to the kitchen where I knew I would find Nana. Aunt Nancy, Uncle Tommy, Evie, Ava, Emma, Cannon, and Morgan were all already there. Evie smiled at me. "Hey Pay!"

"Evie!" She picked me up and made me giggle. She was really nice.

"How are you?"

"I'm good! I'm excited to see you cheer!"

"I actually brought you something."

She handed me a pink bag with a bow on it. "What is it?"

"Well open it silly!"

I opened it and inside was a red, black, and white football uniform with a bobcat on it. On the back it said Payton and had the number 42 on the back. "THANK YOU!" I put it on over my shirt as soon as I got it unfolded.

I jumped in her arms again. Aunt Nancy smiled "So where's everyone else?"

"I think they're still sleeping. What time is it?"

"It's 10:30."

"Oh, we slept late."

She laughed "Your daddy always slept late when we were little."

I giggled thinking about my dad as a little boy. Emma grinned. "You wanna go jump on the trampoline."

"YES!" Evie put me down.

Aunt Nancy called "Shoes Pay!" and I grabbed my boots off of the stairs where I left them. We went outside and jumped up and down. We did flips and played popcorn, where one person sits and the other person bounces them like popcorn. Daddy walked outside and Emma asked him to jump with us. Daddy got on the trampoline and we laughed and jumped some more. Brooke and Sophia came outside to jump too. Next Ziven and Sarah Page came out to jump. Daddy laughed.

"At this rate Nana will need a second trampoline to hold all you kiddos."

We all laughed and continued jumping. Daddy got off and went back inside. I realized that Ziven, Sophia, Brooke, and Sarah Page were all in football jerseys but not Emma. "Emma, why aren't you wearing a football jersey."

"Oh mine's in the car. We didn't want to ruin the surprise of your present."

"Oh, well thank you I guess."

She giggled. We played pop corn again but this time two people sat down. After jumping for a while we went inside. Mommy was sitting in the kitchen with my aunts. "Pay, you should probably go put on some jeans or something. I don't think you want to go t the game in pajamas."

I looked down and giggled. I was still in my puppy dog pajama pants. "Whoopse."

I ran upstairs and put on some of my blue jeans, a black long sleeve shirt, the football jersey, and my grey UGGS with the buttons. I went back downstairs to my family. Logan and Cannon were sitting on the couch talking about some play or something. I plopped down beside Logan and he smiled. "Hey Pay."

"Hey Logan. Whatcha doin?"

"Oh we are talking about the game."

"Are y'all going to win?"

"I hope so."

"Me too. So what time is the game?"

"Oh it's not until 7:30 but Cannon and I have to be at school at 5:00."

"Will you explain football to me?"

He laughed "I can try. There are two teams. Our team, the Bobcats, and then the rival team, the Eagles. There is offense and defense. Offense is when your team has the ball, defense is when you try to not let the other team score. On offense you have your quarter back, that's me, your running backs, which is what Cannon is, your receivers, and your linemen. The linemen protect me, the running backs run with the ball, the receivers catch the ball, I throw or run it. We try and get it in the in zones which is how you get touchdowns and then you get to try and make an extra point." He continued talking for a while. "Understand?"

I giggled. "I sort of lost you at the whole extra point thing."

He laughed. "Well your daddy knows about football so he'll explain it to you during the game."

"Good."

His phone rang. "Hey, I've got to take this Pay but I'll play with you in a minute OK?"

"OK."

I scooted over to Cannon. "So you understood that Pay?"

"Sort of. Basically if we score a touchdown it's good but if the other team scores a touchdown it's bad."

He laughed "Pretty much."

"Where's Evie?"

"Oh, I think she had to go put on her cheer uniform. They have to cheer for the TV since this is a really big football game."

"Oh, why is it so big?"

"Our schools have been rivals for 50 years, even when your daddy played football there."

"My daddy played football?"

"Yeah, so did Uncle Mark. You should ask Nana to show you some pictures."

I giggled. "Will do."

Ziven came in the room with us. "Hey Pay, you wanna go play for a while?"

"Yeah!" He took my hand and we ran to the game room.

"How about Xbox kinnect?"

"OK!"

He put the disk in and we played some game where we were in a raft and had to make it to the end of the river. Tyler and Matthew came in and wanted to play to. After we beat the rafting game we played the soccer game. Aunt Amy and Daniel walked in. "Hey kiddos, we were sent to tell you all that if you want lunch to go ahead and eat because we are going out to eat early before the football game." Aunt Amy said.

"OK." Ziven paused the game and we all ran in the kitchen but I slipped and hit my head on the corner of the counter. It hurt pretty bad so I started crying. Ziven yelled "Mommy!"

Aunt Hayley and Aunt Nancy came in to see what was wrong. They came over to me. "Pay, are you OK sweetie?" Aunt Hayley asked while Aunt Nancy put a towel on my head.

"My head hurts." I said.

"Hang on sweetie." Aunt Hayley picked me up and then yelled "Derek, Meredith!"

By this time most of the other adults had made there way to the kitchen. Aunt Hayley sat down and held me while Aunt Nancy got the blood off of my forehead. Mommy and daddy walked in. "Oh, Pay sweetie are you OK?"

"I'm OK, my head just hurts a little bit."

Aunt Nancy sighed "It needs a few stitches."

Daddy came over and looked at my head. "Mark!"

Mommy came and held my hand. "Pay sweetie, Uncle Mark is gonna give you a few stitches OK?"

I sniffled "OK."

Daddy sighed "Nancy, will you go grab a suture kit?"

She nodded and left right as Uncle Mark got in the room. "Uh oh Pay, what happened."

"I slipped." Ziven came and sat by Aunt Hayley on the side mommy wasn't on.

"She was really brave though." I smiled at him and he smiled back. Aunt Nancy walked back with a little box thing that I guess was a suture kit. "Want me to hold your hand Pay?" Ziven asked.

"Yes please." He took my other hand and I closed my eyes.

Uncle Mark said "OK, one little pinch." I felt a little sting and whimpered a little bit but stayed still. I felt a few tugs and before I knew it he said. "Alright Pay your all done."

Ziven smiled "Wow Pay you were really brave."

"Thanks Ziven."

"You want to eat now?"

I forgot why we had all run in the kitchen until Ziven reminded me "Yeah."

Aunt Hayley put me in the chair beside where she was. "What would you two like?"

We looked at each other and both yelled "Peanut butter and jelly please!"

She laughed and we watched her make us sandwiches. She gave us both a glass of milk and we ate together. After lunch Ziven smiled. "Want to go play some more."

I giggled "OK." We went back in the game room and he showed me how to play the Pacman machine and then we played air hockey. Sophia came in and we played Just Dance 3 on the kinnect again. I was surprised at how good Ziven was. After that we decided to watch a movie. We decided on Toy Story. We sat and began watching the big TV.

Derek P.O.V

Pay and Ziven were really cute and really getting along. After a while I saw the majority of the kids make there way to the game room saying something about Toy Story. Logan and Cannon said goodbye and we wished them luck before they headed to the school. The adults went to the living room and turned on the news to see what was being said about the big game tonight between the Eagles an the Bobcats. We sat around with the TV on and talked. Hayley smiled "Pay sure is a tough little one."

Mere smiled "You should have seen her with the broken arm incident. She barely cried except when it first happened and when they had to give her a shot."

"Really?"

"Yeah she really is tough."

Scott said "Well she and Ziven seem to be hitting it off."

Nancy laughed "I think they have crushes on each other. It's really cute."

I sighed "She better not have her first crush. She's way to young."

They all laughed. Amy said "I bet your gonna be that dad that's cleaning a gun when she brings her first boyfriend home."

"Actually I am going to be THAT dad."

They all laughed. Tommy said "I thought I was going to be THAT dad. It didn't work because Evie said with pleading eyes to please not scare her first boyfriend off."

"Pay already has me wrapped around her little finger so maybe I won't be THAT dad."

Mom pointed "Oh look it's Evie and the rest of the cheer team."

I looked at the TV and sure enough it was the Bobcat cheer team. They were doing some sort of pyramid thing with Evie on top. After that the news anchor said something about the 50 year rivalry. I stopped paying attention to the news and looked at my watch. It was already 6:00. "Hey people, we've got to get a move on it if we want to eat and make it to the game. It's an hour and a half until kick off." Everyone went to make sure all the blankets were in the car and whatever other warm stuff we might need. Then we went to make sure the kids were all dressed and ready. Mere got the kids' jackets and we put them in the car and drove to the Cracker Barrel we were eating at. Everyone got out of the car and we all ordered our food. Pay giggled at the table with Ziven. Maybe she did have her first crush. I sighed. I knew it was only going to get worse from here. We all ate and then got in the cars to drive to the school. We got there just in time to still find good seats. We got 50 yard seats and everyone sat down. I sat between Hayley and Meredith with Ziven, Pay, Sophia, Emma, Lily, and Tyler in front of us. Matthew was sitting away from Tyler to prevent any fights. The whole family was bundled together. We saw Evie with the cheer leaders and she smiled and waved at us. We all waved back which must have been sort of weird. I mean like 31 people waving. I laughed at the thoughts that probably were around us. I saw the spirit tunnel forming and then our sea of kids all in their football jerseys make their way down to it. The marching band played the National Anthem while everyone stood. After that they got in the spirit tunnel and played the fight song as the football team ran through the banner. The kids all ran up back to get their seats. The Eagles kicked it off and I saw Cannon catch it. He ran about 60 yards without being touched. Right at the 10 yard line he got tackled and then the offense ran out on the field. Logan got the ball and handed it off to Cannon who ran in for a touch down. Everyone cheered and the fight song began playing again. The kicker made the extra point easily. The game went on and it was a BLOOD BATH. It was probably the most physical football game I've ever seen played. At half time the score was Bobcats 28, Eagles 31. We watched as the teams went into the locker rooms. Then we made the hot chocolate rounds. All the adults got up and each carried back hot chocolates to the kids. The half time show with the band started it up. Their theme was Disney which made Sophia and Pay have like mini heart attacks from excitement. After the show the teams came back on the field. The first play Logan got sacked hard. He stayed down for a minute but Cannon helped him up and they got in a huddle with the rest of the team. The next time the ball was snapped, Logan faked it to Cannon and passed a Hail Mary pass to a receiver for a touch down. The quarter went on and the game got even more brutal. The fourth quarter began and the anger from both teams was almost coming off of them. With the score at Bobcats 48 and Eagles 51, things were getting quite heated. No one scored and with 30 seconds left Cannon began running the ball. He got to the 6 yard line and was tackled HARD by a huge lineman from the other team. I saw the other guy go down right on Cannon's head. The other guy got up and walked away. Cannon didn't. Cannon stayed down and didn't move. Not an inch. The ref blew his whistle and the trainers ran out on the field. They checked his eyes and I saw him move a bit which was a relief. They helped him off the field. He looked very confused. Probably a concussion. The game went on and Logan lead the team to a victory over the Eagles. The final score was Bobcats 55, Eagles 54. The student section all ran on the field and celebrated the big win. We all went down to congratulate Logan and check on Cannon. Logan was over with the trainers and Cannon. We walked over to them. "Cannon? You alright bud?" Tom asked him.

"Huh?"

I looked in his eyes and realized he definitely had a concussion. "What's the date?"

"Umm, 34?"

I laughed. "Not quite." Evie came over.

"Good job boys! Cannon? You ok bro?"

He looked at her. "Yeah."

Logan laughed "He has a concussion. Ask him a question. It's pretty funny."

Evie laughed. "What's your name bro?"

"Umm, Friday?" The kids were laughing.

"OK kids, don't make fun of the concussed kid."

They laughed even more. We all got in the cars and drove home.

.