Author's Note: I am SO sorry that I took so long to update! I was taking a break from writing for a while. And I only had one review for this story so I thought not too many people were interested in it. Sorry to sound greedy, but reviews really do encourage and motivate me to write. I'd love to know what you like or even dislike about any chapters; give out some nice and friendly constructive criticism. It's always greatly appreciated! Enjoy reading the chapter! :)
After Eric helped Leia move everything into his old bedroom, they went downstairs, and they got done unpacking just in time for dinner.
They sat at the dining room table and ate dinner that Kitty had made. Donna offered to help, but Kitty didn't trust her cooking. She saw how 'frail' and 'bony' her grandchildren looked, and she knew her cooking would put more meat into their growing bodies. Donna got insulted and knew that Eric didn't look any better when he was their children's age.
"Oh, kids, I made brownies for dessert later that you all can eat," Kitty happily said and proudly added. "There's brownies with regular chocolate and brownies with nuts."
"Thanks, Grandma." Leia and Reggie chimed together.
"Yeah, thanks, Mom," Eric said, too.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Eric, but I made them for the grandchildren," She spoke in a softer tone to him. Eric's shoulders slumped and exchange a look with his wife. Donna just smiled at him in amusement and rolled her eyes. Kitty raised her voice a little so the rest could hear. "But there's more for everyone else."
"What are you going to be doing for the summer, Reggie?" Red asked his twelve year old grandson.
"I'm going to summer camp." Reggie excitedly answered.
"Summer camp?" He frowned and looked at his son. "Eric, why aren't you making your son get a job or do chores around the house?"
"We do make the kids do chores, but he's only twelve, Dad, and I think child labor is frowned upon in today's world," Eric answered, and Red gave him a look knowing his son was being a smart ass. "Same goes for Leia. She's only fourteen. That's too young."
"Fourteen? That's not too young," Red thought that was ridiculous and sternly looked at his granddaughter. "When I was your age, Leia, do you want to know what I did at fourteen? I did yard work for my father, mowed the lawn, and plowed snow for neighbors to get money. Those were just small jobs on the side, but you can still get a job today without being lazy all summer."
"But laziness is my forte," Leia smirked, but Red looked displeased at her.
"Well, my forte is putting my foot up your ass. None of that is going to happen with me. You're going to work-"
"And have fun!" Kitty happily interrupted. "You'll have lots and lots of fun while you're here! It won't just be working, Leia."
Red rolled his eyes and resumed eating his dinner.
Leia ignored the rest of the adult's talk and anything about her little brother. Of course, she loved him, but she knew he was the favorite child despite what her mother said about her parents loving their children equally. Leia knew she could be a brat at times. She supposed she got that from her father and a bit of her Aunt Laurie who she heard...interesting stories about. Her Aunt Laurie got around a lot and didn't have the best reputation.
She loved her grandparents, too, more than anything, but didn't want to spend the entire summer with them. No kid would.
After dinner was over, Leia's family stayed over for a bit. Her parents had coffee with her grandparents and chatted about boring adult stuff while Leia watched TV with Reginald in the living room. Her parents were talking about how they're going to have a romantic vacation in Africa where Eric taught for a year to receive a scholarship to pursue a career in teaching. Leia and Reginald have been to Africa before, and she always loved how beautiful it was and seeing the animals roaming around at the savanna. After her parents' romantic vacation, they were glad to have the house to themselves being child-free.
Eric, Donna, and Reginald were about to leave, and they said their goodbyes to Eric's parents and Leia. She already said goodbye to her father upstairs in her bedroom.
"I'm going to miss you so much, Leia." Donna hugged her daughter, and Leia hugged her back. "I'll miss you, too, Mom."
"How could you and Eric name your kid after a space character who has buns on the sides of her head?" Red asked his daughter-in-law.
Donna was still lovingly holding onto her daughter as she answered. "We made a deal that if I have a girl, Eric would be able to name her. And if I had a boy, I could name him. He didn't like any of my girl names."
"That's because all of the names you like were for boys. There was Dylan, Jordan, Peyton, Rudy..."
"Just because we had a girl didn't mean we have to give her any feminine names," Donna reasoned. She used the same logic while she was pregnant with their daughter. She didn't want to use any girl names that were too girly or princessy. "When Eric suggested Leia, I hated it. All I could think of was how Leia is always portrayed as a guy's dirty fantasy. But Eric also made very good points that she was a strong female character that I didn't see before. Leia was the winner."
"I don't like Star Wars that much, but I thought Leia was pretty cool." Donna's daughter said. When they had a family movie night, Eric chose to watch Star Wars in honor of the character his daughter was named after. Leia and Donna fell asleep sometime during The Empire Strikes Back; Eric and Reginald were totally engrossed with the film.
"She's lucky to have a guy like Han Solo. He's so handsome. I just need to find my Han Solo." Leia said dreamily.
"Yeah, right," Eric snorted. "Not after I'll have him get frozen in carbonite first so he won't lay his hands on you."
Leia just rolled her eyes at that. Her father was always overprotective of her about boys. What he didn't know was that she didn't even have her first kiss yet. And she was fourteen.
How lame was that?
"I wish my Han Solo can be Leonardo DiCaprio." Leia grinned, fantasizing about being the future Mrs. DiCaprio.
"Isn't he that turtle you kids watch on TV?" Red asked.
"No, Grandpa, that Leonardo is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," Reginald informed him. "Leonardo is the actor and every girl's wet dream."
"Well, not every girl," Donna added and smirked. "I'd have to say Johnny Depp is pretty fine."
"Of course, the guys with the British accent always win. The sexiest of all accents." Eric replied.
"That is true." Donna nodded along with her daughter being in the same agreement.
After Leia said goodbye to her family and watched them leave, she knew her summer vacation started now to be with her grandparents.
She didn't want to admit it, but she kind of missed them already. Just a little.
"Well, what do you want to do, Leia? I can be like one of your gal pals from school!" Then Kitty did her loud laugh, and Leia tried not to cringe at that when Red gave her a stern glare as if to warn her not to make a face. "Want to make popcorn and watch a movie?"
"While that does sound like loads of fun, I'm pretty tired, so I think I'm just gonna go to bed. Is that okay?" Leia asked, looking at her grandparents.
She saw a slight flicker of disappointment cross her grandmother's face before quickly replacing it to be cheerful again.
"That's okay, Leia! There's always tomorrow! And the next day! We will have so much fun together!" Kitty looked at her husband. "Isn't that right, Red?"
"Yeah. Right. Fun," Red glared at her. But Leia wasn't sure if that was a glare or if he always looked serious. "Right after you do some stuff for me first-"
"Oh, no. Leia doesn't need to do any of that on her summer vacation!" She smiled brightly at her.
"Work builds character, Kitty!"
"But we're the cool, hip, and fun grandparents, Red! Why can't we be the cool, hip, and fun grandparents?!" Kitty protested.
Leia put her hand onto his shoulder and complimented in a sweet voice. The same voice that would have her get easily wrapped around her father's finger. "You know, I've always thought that you were my favorite grandfather."
That even got Red touched. "Really?"
Leia happily nodded with a hum of approval.
Not only Red raise Eric, but he also raised his highly promiscuous daughter, Laurie. He knew the deceptive tricks that he remembered his daughter did to be the 'innocent and sweet little girl'. He wasn't going to let that slide with his granddaughter.
"Nice try," Red remarked dryly, making Leia's shoulders slump in disappointment. Her father was easier enough to fool. "That cute and sweet little good girl act is not going to work with me, Leia."
"Oh, Red, you used to fall for it all the time with Laurie." Kitty reminded, giving him a look.
"That was the problem! You know the things she did behind my back! That's not going to happen with Leia!"
"Leia is not going to be like Laurie, Red."
"Yeah, I'm nowhere near like her," Leia defended herself. "I didn't even have my first kiss yet..."
"Oh, that day will come soon, dear." Kitty lovingly patted her in comfort on her back.
"When you're thirty," Red grumbled.
Leia rolled her eyes and said being annoyed. "You sound just like my Dad." She left the kitchen to go upstairs to her bedroom.
Leia woke up early in the morning and got ready for the day. After doing her usual morning things, she went downstairs for breakfast. The smell of pancakes wafted in the air.
"Good morning, everyone!" Leia greeted brightly and helped to serve herself a glass of orange juice. She looked at the plates of breakfast that were on the table. "Is that pancakes I smell?"
"Yep!" Kitty answered proudly. "Chocolate chip pancakes! I know they're your favorite."
"Thanks," Leia said gratefully and sat at the table with her grandfather who was reading the newspaper.
"So, Leia, what do you want to do today?" Kitty asked as she joined her family at the table.
"I was thinking about going to some place that Dad and Mom used to hang out. It's called The Hub, I think."
"Oh, yeah, the place is full of degenerates," Red grunted, looking at her across the table. "Just don't bring one here."
"It's fine if she brings over a friend, Red," Kitty told him off with a slight glare.
"Can you just take me there and drop me off?" Leia asked her grandmother. "I'll call you when I need a ride."
"Okay, I can do that. I'm sure you'd rather hang out with kids your own age than a couple of old farts like us, huh?" Kitty asked and then laughed, but her heart wasn't in it.
"Yeah, thanks." Leia was glad she understood and continued eating her breakfast.
After breakfast was over, Kitty drove Leia to The Hub sometime in the afternoon. She dropped her off at the parking lot, and Leia waved her goodbye, seeing the old Toyota go away.
Leia entered the old building and saw the place was more like an old-fashioned diner. There was even a jukebox and some arcade games. She saw how many people were there. It was a bit overwhelming and she felt lost, not fitting in. She didn't know who to talk to or where to sit. There was absolutely no one she knew.
It was like the first day of school all over again.
Leia supposed she could spend her money on food. There's a food corner Leia went to her and there was a guy behind the counter. He had a scruffy appearance and may be around eighteen or twenty. Looked like he'd rather work at any other job than the one he had.
"Gonna get something, kid, or what?" He rudely asked her.
"Well, I think food would be the obvious choice," The guy just glowered at her in response, clearly not amused with her sarcasm. She sighed, cursing her father that she inherited his sense of humor. It had to rub off on her eventually. "I'll have coke and fries, I guess."
"Sure thing." He nodded and went to get her order.
Leia waited for a few minutes to have her food and then the guy returned with it. She paid him for it and looked around to find an empty table, but accidentally bumped into someone. The unexpected contact made a few of her fries fall onto the floor.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Leia apologized to the boy, being embarrassed. He appeared to have just walked into The Hub.
The boy dressed in a grunge style brushed off the fries that landed on him. He wore a Led Zeppelin shirt, but also a black long-sleeved shirt underneath, with jeans, and black combat boots. Leia was about to say that she loved the band, Led Zeppelin, even though she really didn't. It's how her friends flirted with other guys to get their attention. But her mother told her that she didn't have to completely change herself to please a guy.
"It's okay," The boy casually replied being unbothered. Leia thought he looked so cool and he was even cute, too. His blonde hair reminded her of how Nick Carter's looks in an almost similar style. His blue eyes stared at her as if he's trying to figure something out. "You don't look familiar. Did you just move here?"
"No, I'm staying with my grandparents for the summer," She clarified. "I'm Leia Forman."
"Leia?" He said the name like it was something strange and foreign. "Like that hot chick from Star Trek?"
"Star Wars, actually," Leia corrected. "My Dad loves the movies and named me after her."
"Your Dad sounds pretty cool to like Star Wars." He complimented, but Leia didn't sort of agree. Her father can be a bit of a dork at times, especially with his lame Dad jokes.
"Thanks. What is your name?"
"My friends call me DJ."
"DJ?" Leia tested the initials out on her lips. "Does that stand for anything?"
"Dwight Jameson. Make fun of that and it's your funeral," Leia wanted to laugh at the name, Dwight, but she wasn't one to judge. She got made fun of for having Leia as a name back at her school. "I just prefer DJ."
"DJ is cool," Leia agreed and she could feel how much her cheeks were hurting because of her grin. She was swooning for a cute guy she did not know. Leia felt awkward now and didn't know what else to do. She couldn't stare and be captivated by DJ's face forever. "Um...nice meeting you, DJ, but I'm gonna go over there and eat my fries so..."
"Why eat alone? You can hang out with me and my friends." DJ offered and Leia couldn't believe it and felt touched.
"Uh, really? Thanks." Leia smiled gratefully and followed DJ to his friend's table.
"Hey, guys." DJ greeted his friends and he pulled up another chair for Leia to sit.
"What took you so long to get here, Deej?" One of his guy friends asked him, looking like a jock from their school. The boy that every girl could only dream to have. They all seemed to be around Leia's age.
"It's my folks. You know how it is, Van," DJ told him. Leia wondered if he had a rough home life. "Crappy parents."
"Who's the redhead?" A black boy asked with a curly afro.
"I'm Leia Forman." Leia friendly introduced herself to them.
"Leah?" A skater girl was confused as if she didn't hear the name right.
"No, Leia." She pronounced it slowly.
"Yeah, I'm gonna stick with Leah," Her dark brown eyes looked at DJ. "So, what? Is she going to be your newest girlfriend now?" The way the girl said 'she' sounded venomous; it was like she hated Leia already. She could easily beat up Leia.
"No, Taylor, we just met and she was going to sit and eat by herself."
"What a gentleman..." Taylor grumbled and crossed her arms.
"They broke up in the fall. I'm Mac, by the way." Mac (the one with the curly afro) informed her and Leia immediately understood the tension between DJ and Taylor.
Leia didn't want to admit it, but her father was right. This group may be her new friends. She would love to be friends with them because they may help her endure the summer better. She just hoped she won't ever get on Taylor's bad side.
Author's Note: I was going to write more, but I thought it would get way too long. So Leia bonding with the kids will be in the next chapter. Please leave review to let me know what you think! :)