Chapter Two
The morning of my birthday party, Mom woke me up at 8:00am. I grumbled and pulled the blankets back over my head.
"C'mon sleepy head, get up!" she cried excitedly. She was always like this when I had birthday parties. She always went way overboard on special occasions. Ever since I was seven and I had my first real birthday party she had woken me up early and we would go out and buy all our decorations and everything we needed. We'd spend the whole day preparing for the big event.
It was like she thought if she had a party for me then I wouldn't go out and leave her. She was always afraid I would leave her.
"No, Mom, I'm tired," I mumbled into the pillow.
She grabbed my bedspread and ripped it off me. She had turned the lights on and pulled up the blinds. I groaned and curled up in a ball.
"Get up! Get up!" she said, "We're going to pick up Greg to help us!"
I opened my eyes slowly to get used to the light.
"C'mon Hope, we don't have much time!" she said. She nudged me on the shoulder.
"Fine, I'm getting up, just leave me alone," I grumbled.
"Okay, hurry up!" she said happily. She cheerfulness this early in the morning was really irritating. I was not a morning person. I never knew where that came from either. Dad, Mom and Colin were always up before eight, even on the weekends. I liked to take my time dragging myself out of bed so it wasn't such a shock.
I got out of bed a couple of minutes later and showered. I put on a sweatshirt and jeans and went downstairs. I was sure that our cook Roberta would have something special for me for my birthday. Roberta had been working for us ever since my mother moved here a few years before I was born.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" everyone screamed as I walked into the dining room. My mother snapped a couple of pictures.
"Mom, please, I'll get enough of that tonight," I said frowning for every picture she took.
"Just humour her," Daddy said as he gave me a hug.
Our maid and my mother's best friend, Rachel and her husband Wesley were sitting at the table already laughing at my mother.
Rachel had been working for us just as long as Roberta had and when she married Wesley he became our unofficial butler and chauffeur. I loved them both like family, since I had grown up with them.
Tyler was sitting in his usual chair. He was staring at the middle of the table with a strange smile on his face.
"Good morning Uncle Tyler," I said to him.
He looked up like he was surprised someone had talked to him, "Happy Birthday Skye," he said. He sometimes got my mother and I confused. He never really seemed to be paying attention when I talked to him. It was as if he was always thinking about something else. He would stare into space and say something absentmindedly. It was kind of creepy sometimes.
Roberta made waffles with whip cream and strawberries, my favourite. My mother calmed down long enough to let me eat breakfast without having a flash blinding me every five seconds.
"Okay, we have to get going," Mom said when everyone was done eating.
"Can I come?" Colin asked eagerly.
"No, honey, this is Hope's day remember?" Mom said.
"We are going to wrap her presents while they are gone," Daddy reminded him. This is what we did every year. One person got the birthday guy or girl out of the house while the others wrapped their presents. It was our routine.
Mom and I got into the car and drove us into town. We went to Greg's house first to pick him up. I wondered how Mom had got him to agree to go shopping with us.
"Can you go get him Hun?" she asked when we were stopped in front of his house. She would avoid going into their house every chance she got. She didn't like to have too much extra contact with Uncle Anthony and Aunt Erin. I never really knew why she didn't like them very much.
I was about to ring to doorbell when Greg stepped out. I heard someone yell in the back round.
"Why can't you just get rid of it? It has been almost twenty years!" I heard Erin scream.
Greg shut the door quickly before I could hear anything else.
"What was that about?" I asked him.
"Oh just another of their many fights," he said but he didn't look at me when he said it. He seemed embarrassed that I had heard his parents fighting so I didn't push it.
"Good morning Greg, how are you?" Mom asked when we got in the car.
"Fine, and you?" he said.
"Great, we are going to have so much fun today, I know it!" she said happily. I wanted to remind her that all we were doing was getting some streamers and a couple cases of pop, but I kept my mouth shut. She didn't get this excited very often and I didn't want to ruin it for her. Despite how protective and sometimes annoying she could be, I still loved her.
We shopped all morning. We even drove an hour to the city to get the cake and a few different kinds of decorations that they didn't have in Duncan. I begged my mother not to go to the city. It really wasn't that important to me to have a certain kind of balloons. But she insisted on it, so we had to go.
Greg and I walked around in the mall for a while by ourselves. I noticed a few girls look at him and whisper to eachother. They would keep glancing back and then they would giggle. I knew he was good looking. A lot of girls at our school had huge crushes on him. Even my best friend, Carly, had been in love with him since the eighth grade. Some girls even tried to be friends with me to get closer to him. He was pretty shy at school and hadn't had very many girlfriends.
"All the girls love you," I would tease him.
"No they don't," he would say and his face would turn bright red. He was so modest. He never believed that anyone liked him.
He wasn't the most popular guy at school because he was shy and liked to keep to himself, but then again I wasn't the most popular girl at school either. We hung out together at school a lot. We were pretty close for cousins.
"Those girls over there are staring at you," I told him, smiling. I already knew he would refuse to look over there and ignore me while his face got redder and redder. But he didn't do that. He turned away from the book he was looking at and turned to the girls. He actually smiled at them.
"Greg!" I said, surprised, "What just happened?" he never smiled at girls, unless it was me or he was just meeting someone. He was so shy, he didn't like to put himself out in the open like he had just done.
"I thought I might want to bring a date to the party since you'll have Jason there," he said not looking at me. Jason Carter was my almost boyfriend. We had gone out together a couple of times and I was really starting to like him. His father owned the only grocery store in town.
"So you thought you'd pick up some girl at the mall?" I said.
"No, I already have someone to bring, I just wanted to smile at them," he said. He turned to me and looked into my eyes as if he was looking for my approval. I stood there staring at him for a minute and then I turned away. I felt a tiny pang out jealousy in my stomach. I knew I had no right to be jealous. Greg was my cousin and I already had a boyfriend.
"Who?" I asked as casually as I could.
"Carly," he said.
I turned back to him, "What? She didn't tell me!" I cried. Greg was full of surprises today. I didn't even know he liked Carly. He usually told me everything.
"I just called her this morning," he said. He smiled a little, "You told me she liked me,"
"Yeah but, I didn't think you would just go and call her up," I said.
"Well I did and she was already going to the party of course but now I'm going to pick her up before I come over," he smiled, showing off his perfectly white teeth and the dimple in his left cheek that always showed when he smiled. "That's.that's great," I said, trying to sound happy for him.
He didn't seem to notice my half-hearted smile.
We left the mall and I sat silently in the front beside Mom. We took Greg home and then went back to the house to do the decorating.
"Jason and Carly called while you were gone," Rachel told me when I got in carrying three huge bags full of chips.
"Okay thanks Rachel," I said. I set the bags down and went upstairs to call them back.
"Hello?" Carly picked up on the second ring.
"So, I heard you had a date for the big party," I said.
"Hope!" she said, "Yeah, Greg told you?" she didn't sound surprised that I knew before she told me. She knew how close Greg and I were.
"He did, congratulations," I said laughing.
"Thank you!" she gushed, "I'm so excited,"
I really was happy for Carly even if I was disappointed at the same time. She had been my best friends since grade six when she moved with her mother to Duncan. On the first day of school I saw her on the jungle gym on the playground. She was all by herself and she looked sad. I had never been shy about talking to new people so I went over to her. We had been best friends ever since.
We talked for a couple more minutes until my mother called up for me to come down and help her with the decorations.
"I gotta go and decorate, but I'll see you tonight," I said and hung up. I sat on my bed for a minute and stared at the picture of Greg and I on the dock. We were thirteen years old and ready to go fishing. We both had our overalls and t-shirts on. Daddy had taken the picture before our annual fishing trip. After that year we had stopped going.
Sometimes I wished I could go back to being so careless. I wanted to be able to just let life go by as it may. As I got older, I became more uptight. Why is it that when you get older there is more to worry about? Why couldn't we just hold on to that carefree attitude that came with being a kid?
I used to love decorating with my mother. I wished that I still loved spending so much time with her, but it seemed like every year, my birthday party got bigger. It was like she thought the only way she could keep me under her thumb was to throw me a big party. She wanted me to feel obligated to stay with her forever. What was she so worried about? Where did she think I would go? My mother had so many secrets and I longed to find out what they were.
Too bad I didn't know then that I still had some of that childish naivety that I thought I had lost. Learning my mother's secrets wouldn't help me. It would only make things more complicated.
The morning of my birthday party, Mom woke me up at 8:00am. I grumbled and pulled the blankets back over my head.
"C'mon sleepy head, get up!" she cried excitedly. She was always like this when I had birthday parties. She always went way overboard on special occasions. Ever since I was seven and I had my first real birthday party she had woken me up early and we would go out and buy all our decorations and everything we needed. We'd spend the whole day preparing for the big event.
It was like she thought if she had a party for me then I wouldn't go out and leave her. She was always afraid I would leave her.
"No, Mom, I'm tired," I mumbled into the pillow.
She grabbed my bedspread and ripped it off me. She had turned the lights on and pulled up the blinds. I groaned and curled up in a ball.
"Get up! Get up!" she said, "We're going to pick up Greg to help us!"
I opened my eyes slowly to get used to the light.
"C'mon Hope, we don't have much time!" she said. She nudged me on the shoulder.
"Fine, I'm getting up, just leave me alone," I grumbled.
"Okay, hurry up!" she said happily. She cheerfulness this early in the morning was really irritating. I was not a morning person. I never knew where that came from either. Dad, Mom and Colin were always up before eight, even on the weekends. I liked to take my time dragging myself out of bed so it wasn't such a shock.
I got out of bed a couple of minutes later and showered. I put on a sweatshirt and jeans and went downstairs. I was sure that our cook Roberta would have something special for me for my birthday. Roberta had been working for us ever since my mother moved here a few years before I was born.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" everyone screamed as I walked into the dining room. My mother snapped a couple of pictures.
"Mom, please, I'll get enough of that tonight," I said frowning for every picture she took.
"Just humour her," Daddy said as he gave me a hug.
Our maid and my mother's best friend, Rachel and her husband Wesley were sitting at the table already laughing at my mother.
Rachel had been working for us just as long as Roberta had and when she married Wesley he became our unofficial butler and chauffeur. I loved them both like family, since I had grown up with them.
Tyler was sitting in his usual chair. He was staring at the middle of the table with a strange smile on his face.
"Good morning Uncle Tyler," I said to him.
He looked up like he was surprised someone had talked to him, "Happy Birthday Skye," he said. He sometimes got my mother and I confused. He never really seemed to be paying attention when I talked to him. It was as if he was always thinking about something else. He would stare into space and say something absentmindedly. It was kind of creepy sometimes.
Roberta made waffles with whip cream and strawberries, my favourite. My mother calmed down long enough to let me eat breakfast without having a flash blinding me every five seconds.
"Okay, we have to get going," Mom said when everyone was done eating.
"Can I come?" Colin asked eagerly.
"No, honey, this is Hope's day remember?" Mom said.
"We are going to wrap her presents while they are gone," Daddy reminded him. This is what we did every year. One person got the birthday guy or girl out of the house while the others wrapped their presents. It was our routine.
Mom and I got into the car and drove us into town. We went to Greg's house first to pick him up. I wondered how Mom had got him to agree to go shopping with us.
"Can you go get him Hun?" she asked when we were stopped in front of his house. She would avoid going into their house every chance she got. She didn't like to have too much extra contact with Uncle Anthony and Aunt Erin. I never really knew why she didn't like them very much.
I was about to ring to doorbell when Greg stepped out. I heard someone yell in the back round.
"Why can't you just get rid of it? It has been almost twenty years!" I heard Erin scream.
Greg shut the door quickly before I could hear anything else.
"What was that about?" I asked him.
"Oh just another of their many fights," he said but he didn't look at me when he said it. He seemed embarrassed that I had heard his parents fighting so I didn't push it.
"Good morning Greg, how are you?" Mom asked when we got in the car.
"Fine, and you?" he said.
"Great, we are going to have so much fun today, I know it!" she said happily. I wanted to remind her that all we were doing was getting some streamers and a couple cases of pop, but I kept my mouth shut. She didn't get this excited very often and I didn't want to ruin it for her. Despite how protective and sometimes annoying she could be, I still loved her.
We shopped all morning. We even drove an hour to the city to get the cake and a few different kinds of decorations that they didn't have in Duncan. I begged my mother not to go to the city. It really wasn't that important to me to have a certain kind of balloons. But she insisted on it, so we had to go.
Greg and I walked around in the mall for a while by ourselves. I noticed a few girls look at him and whisper to eachother. They would keep glancing back and then they would giggle. I knew he was good looking. A lot of girls at our school had huge crushes on him. Even my best friend, Carly, had been in love with him since the eighth grade. Some girls even tried to be friends with me to get closer to him. He was pretty shy at school and hadn't had very many girlfriends.
"All the girls love you," I would tease him.
"No they don't," he would say and his face would turn bright red. He was so modest. He never believed that anyone liked him.
He wasn't the most popular guy at school because he was shy and liked to keep to himself, but then again I wasn't the most popular girl at school either. We hung out together at school a lot. We were pretty close for cousins.
"Those girls over there are staring at you," I told him, smiling. I already knew he would refuse to look over there and ignore me while his face got redder and redder. But he didn't do that. He turned away from the book he was looking at and turned to the girls. He actually smiled at them.
"Greg!" I said, surprised, "What just happened?" he never smiled at girls, unless it was me or he was just meeting someone. He was so shy, he didn't like to put himself out in the open like he had just done.
"I thought I might want to bring a date to the party since you'll have Jason there," he said not looking at me. Jason Carter was my almost boyfriend. We had gone out together a couple of times and I was really starting to like him. His father owned the only grocery store in town.
"So you thought you'd pick up some girl at the mall?" I said.
"No, I already have someone to bring, I just wanted to smile at them," he said. He turned to me and looked into my eyes as if he was looking for my approval. I stood there staring at him for a minute and then I turned away. I felt a tiny pang out jealousy in my stomach. I knew I had no right to be jealous. Greg was my cousin and I already had a boyfriend.
"Who?" I asked as casually as I could.
"Carly," he said.
I turned back to him, "What? She didn't tell me!" I cried. Greg was full of surprises today. I didn't even know he liked Carly. He usually told me everything.
"I just called her this morning," he said. He smiled a little, "You told me she liked me,"
"Yeah but, I didn't think you would just go and call her up," I said.
"Well I did and she was already going to the party of course but now I'm going to pick her up before I come over," he smiled, showing off his perfectly white teeth and the dimple in his left cheek that always showed when he smiled. "That's.that's great," I said, trying to sound happy for him.
He didn't seem to notice my half-hearted smile.
We left the mall and I sat silently in the front beside Mom. We took Greg home and then went back to the house to do the decorating.
"Jason and Carly called while you were gone," Rachel told me when I got in carrying three huge bags full of chips.
"Okay thanks Rachel," I said. I set the bags down and went upstairs to call them back.
"Hello?" Carly picked up on the second ring.
"So, I heard you had a date for the big party," I said.
"Hope!" she said, "Yeah, Greg told you?" she didn't sound surprised that I knew before she told me. She knew how close Greg and I were.
"He did, congratulations," I said laughing.
"Thank you!" she gushed, "I'm so excited,"
I really was happy for Carly even if I was disappointed at the same time. She had been my best friends since grade six when she moved with her mother to Duncan. On the first day of school I saw her on the jungle gym on the playground. She was all by herself and she looked sad. I had never been shy about talking to new people so I went over to her. We had been best friends ever since.
We talked for a couple more minutes until my mother called up for me to come down and help her with the decorations.
"I gotta go and decorate, but I'll see you tonight," I said and hung up. I sat on my bed for a minute and stared at the picture of Greg and I on the dock. We were thirteen years old and ready to go fishing. We both had our overalls and t-shirts on. Daddy had taken the picture before our annual fishing trip. After that year we had stopped going.
Sometimes I wished I could go back to being so careless. I wanted to be able to just let life go by as it may. As I got older, I became more uptight. Why is it that when you get older there is more to worry about? Why couldn't we just hold on to that carefree attitude that came with being a kid?
I used to love decorating with my mother. I wished that I still loved spending so much time with her, but it seemed like every year, my birthday party got bigger. It was like she thought the only way she could keep me under her thumb was to throw me a big party. She wanted me to feel obligated to stay with her forever. What was she so worried about? Where did she think I would go? My mother had so many secrets and I longed to find out what they were.
Too bad I didn't know then that I still had some of that childish naivety that I thought I had lost. Learning my mother's secrets wouldn't help me. It would only make things more complicated.
