Un-betad
Characters aren't mine, that is all.
Dialogue Flex: "Why are there so many choices?" she asked.
Dialogue Flex: "Why are there so many choices?" she asked.
Once I arrived back home my mom was literally glued to me. It was a bit overwhelming, but I had missed her too even if we'd talked every evening. She told me about phone calls with my dad and paperwork I had gotten in the mail from Austin Peay. I knew I'd have to go to the campus in a few days to ensure my classes were all registered for and pick up books. I definitely didn't fear college, but I hoped that it would help this time fly by faster.
When I walked in to the kitchen, I was surprised to see stuff spread out over the entire table. I looked at my mom curiously, but she just huffed.
"Why are there so many choices?" she asked more to herself than to me. "We're trying to pick two fundraisers before they redeploy so we have money for the welcome home stuff, but I swear each company gave me like five ideas each. Do you wanna help?"
"Sure, but throw the t-shirt ideas out, those are way overdone," I replied as I grabbed those and put them to the side. "You'll also want to throw out any bake sale or cookout things since according to Cynthia the 506th tried it, and they barely broke even."
"I knew you'd be helpful," my mother compliments as I looked over what was left.
"What's this?" I asked as I held up a small towel. My mom explained to me that it was a rally rag like you'd see at football games, and the idea was as the soldiers landed there would be a sea of these flying in people's hands. We'd have them embroidered with our unit crest, their name, and their OIF mission number. I looked at my mom stunned…this wasn't that hard, and I put it in front of her.
"I'll take two of those," I stated simply, and I could guarantee the Cullen's would want one too, so that right there was three. People would go nuts for those, because no one had ever done it before. Or, at least, I hadn't seen it done.
"I thought you'd like that one, and I was thinking about the buttons too," my mom informed me as she passed me the paperwork on it. "I think those will sell well for the kids."
I nodded, and we had it decided: rally rags and buttons. So, my mom went to work on packing up everything for her meeting that evening, and I headed up to my room to finish unpacking and getting laundry sorted. I had procrastinated a little too long since getting home, but got side-tracked the second Edward called.
"I'm home," he immediately told me, and I instantly felt relief. I hated the traveling part of a deployment, so knowing he was at his home base made my fears a little less. "When do you start school?"
"Three weeks," I answered. "I get my books this week."
"You're going to do so good in your classes," Edward cheered me on, but I had to admit getting back into a routine after leaving Dallas was hard. I missed him more now than I did before, but I knew the countdown had finally begun.
"I took all easy stuff," I joked because it was so far from the truth. "You know me, total slacker and all."
"Sure you are," Edward drew out. "But, seriously, after this deployment I'm going to start taking classes. I go to the board in two weeks."
"How is studying going?" I questioned curiously, and Edward went on to tell me about how he wanted to burn the study book. I really couldn't blame him, it was huge. We started talking about random stuff again, and I suddenly realized how quickly we went back to normal…or, our old normal. I found comfort in that when we hung up, and Edward told me he'd call again the next day.
Of course, neither one of us had planned for the blackout that was still left to come.
The rally rags are the coolest thing we've ever bought from a unit fundraiser, I'll see if i can dig up a picture for the next update.