Chapter 28
They went back out to the living room when called and were given a large bowl of popcorn matching the one the boys had been given. The kids sat on the floor in front of the TV while AJ and Jessy were on the couch with their popcorn. They watched 'Batman Begins' and paused it whenever someone made a comment or asked a question. Because it was a weekend night they decided on a second movie before everyone headed off to bed.
Saturday morning the kids got up to the smell of bacon and pancakes. They were offered a choice of chocolate chip or blueberry. Neither adult was surprised when three of the four wanted chocolate chips. Allen however surprised them by asking for blueberry. He said he loved them but it had been over a year since he'd had any. AJ and Jessy kept the pancakes coming while the kids kept shoveling them in. Danika noticed this and after finishing the one she'd been eating went into the kitchen to shoo them to the table so they could take a turn eating.
After the meal AJ asked what the teens wanted to do before lunch. They could go for a walk in the woods behind the house or he offered to put up the volleyball net in the yard or there were board games if they wanted to stay inside.
Being teenage boys they were already thinking of their next meal. Jessy told them they were planning on burgers and hot dogs on the grill for lunch. Happy to hear that the kids put their heads together and decided that volleyball sounded most fun. The four kids played the game, the boys gleefully keeping score since they appeared to be much better players than the girls.
Seeing Danika and Bethany's frustration AJ asked if they would mind if an old man like he joined the game. Danika knew how good AJ was at volleyball since he taught her class in it. Meanwhile Breen had no knowledge of the older mans stamina and Allen had only seen him coach baseball, so they laughingly agreed to let him join the girls team.
They weren't laughing long however, from the first serve over the net that Breen made it was clear this was a whole new game. In less than half an hour the score was tied up and by the time Jessy called them for lunch the girls and AJ were quite a ways in the lead. It was clear the boys didn't like loosing but they were good enough sports to know they'd been had.
Lunch was eaten on the patio however the adults had a hard time keeping Bethany from feeding Dammit hot dogs. She had seen that the dog liked Danika quite a bit and she wanted that focus to change to her. AJ finally had to warn her that she could make Dammit very sick if she kept it up. That was the only thing that got her to stop.
That afternoon the seven of them went for a walk in the woods. Dammit got more of a woorkout than she'd ever had. There were so many sticks being thrown for her that she had no idea which one to chase. However, the poor dog's confussion was funny to watch.
Jessy had put a large pork roast into the crockpot that morning and after lunch she poured in a bottle of BBQ sauce so they could have pulled pork sandwiches for dinner along with a large salad. Everyone was happy to have a salad with their sandwiches with the exception of Breen. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with the salad but he did have two sandwiches.
That evening they decided to try some games. AJ pulled out to a multi deck of UNO cards. They played quite a few hands and it was clear that Allen was the best UNO player. They switched to another game by the maker of UNO called ONO 99. This time Jessy turned out to be the overall winner.
As they played the discussed plans for the next day. Lots of ideas were tossed about but nothing really stuck out as an idea that all of them could agree on.
To be continued…..