Chapter One:
"There! There she is!" I heard one of my brothers, David Michael, exclaimed the second I stepped out of the terminal. The inward smile that I had been planning to hold in suddenly burst forward and I rushed toward the young man with dark, curly hair and deep brown eyes. The little boy that I had baby-sat for so many times. The little boy I had started the Baby-sitters' Club for. A whole rush of emotions and memories flooded me and I started to cry. Yes, in public. But they were tears of happiness and not misery.
No sooner had David Michael embraced me, Charlie and Sam, my two older brothers, tackled me. I almost couldn't breathe and had to tell them to hold back. They stepped back only a few inches before my stepsiblings, Karen and Andrew, attacked me from behind. I gasped for air but grinned so hard my face ached.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. I didn't know I was going to need my body guards here." I laughed and turned to face them. I almost didn't recognize the two. Karen, now in her early twenties, looked gorgeous. Her curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks paired with her bright blue eyes made her look like a doll, or maybe one of those angels that you put on the top of Christmas trees. And Andrew...well, he definitely looked different. I wouldn't have been able to tell that he and Karen were brother and sister. He had dyed his hair jet black, gotten sea green contacts and had a piercing in his eyebrow, bottom lip, in both ears and was dressed all in black.
"What in the world happened to you, Andrew?!" Despite how intimidating he looked, I couldn't help it. The old loudmouth slipped out. His tough demeanor suddenly disappeared and he laughed fondly.
"Do I look that bad? I thought I was just making a statement." He replied nonchalantly.
"It's just such a change from the little boy I knew..." I said, curiosity making me touch the ring on his eyebrow. "It's different."
Karen smiled and rolled her eyes. "Andy's just going through his rebellious, punk stage." She glared at him through half-closed eyes. "Don't let him fool you, underneath all the tough-guy clothes lies a computer geek and probably the future valedictorian at the University at Stamford."
I was speechless, there was so much going around me I was having trouble taking it all in. On my left were Charlie, Sam and David Michael talking to each other and making comments about how I turned out. And on my right were Karen and Andrew who were just now getting into a heated argument.
"Andrew, how old are you now?" I asked, completely out of context.
Andrew didn't look a bit fazed, only answered, "Nineteen."
"Sorry. I just...I'm so overwhelmed right now, I don't think I can... I think I need to sit down."
"Kristy! You're back!" a slightly more girlish voice piped up from behind me. "I knew you would be! But everyone sent me to buy these flowers for you!"
I parted the small crowd around me and saw a girl about seventeen-years-old, with sleek, black hair, black almond shaped eyes and a tan that most women pay through the nose to get.
"Oh my... Emily Michelle?!" I exclaimed. Oh my Lord. Now I was really light-headed.
"Kristy, you're not going to cry, are you?" Charlie asked, smirking at me.
"No, but I think I'm going to faint from all these surprises...seeing everybody after so long..." I felt a lump catch in my throat. "Pictures just aren't enough sometimes..."
Karen smiled sympathetically. "Let's get you seated somewhere." She took my arm and looked sharply at Andrew. "Andy, you and David Michael go to the carousel to get Kristy's bags." Andrew gave her an incredulous "are-you-bossing-me-around look" but shrugged and he and David Michael left to do as she said. I smiled, suddenly brought down a tad at seeing that Karen, even fifteen years later, was still the one contender I had for bossiness.
My brothers and sisters led me to a bench and sat me down so I could catch my breath.
"Here." Charlie said, handing me a bottle of water. "Maybe we shouldn't have all come to airport. It's a lot to handle."
I shook my head vigourously. "It's a lot. But I'm glad you're all here. I'd better get used to all the surprises. I know I'll be shocked to see how everyone else turned out."
After an hour at the airport, I was finally in the passenger's seat of Charlie's SUV and staring breathlessly out the window at all the scenery passing by.
"How is everyone doing?" I wanted to know. I was dying for everything that had happened while I was away. It was like reading a book and getting to the point where everything was building up to an exciting conclusion. "I want to know everything!"
Charlie laughed. "Well, everyone has their own story to tell." He paused. "I met a girl. Sam's met a girl. David Michael has been playing the field, so to speak. Karen has a boyfriend in business and Andrew isn't looking for any kind of relationship."
I scowled. "I wasn't talking about relationship-wise. How about something interesting?"
Charlie laughed again. "You were never really one for romance." No. I wasn't. "And unless you call the stock market interesting, I don't think you'd want to hear about my life."
I bit my bottom lip. "Ooh, sorry Charlie. I love you, but I've had enough about stocks and bonds to last me for the rest of my life." I paused. "Where were mom and Watson? And what about Samantha?" Samantha was my youngest sister. Mom and Watson had her when I was about sixteen. I hadn't seen much of anybody over the years but I knew the least about Samantha.
"Well, they really wanted to come to the airport and all, but they had to stay back at home. Samantha's a little sick. Watson went to the pharmacist to pick her up some medicine."
Stoneybrook had changed. At least to me. There were no drastic changes. The trees that lined all the streets were the same, just older. And most of the buildings in town were still there, plus a couple of new ones. What really got me was the crowd that was hanging around. I knew all of them. They were the charges that I used to baby-sit for but it looked like they had stepped out of a time warp and were all grown up. I wanted to say a quick "hello" to each of them but I really wanted to be home most of all so I decided it could wait.
While I endured the agonizing wait of returning home, Emily Michelle and Karen filled me in on everything of value that was going on. Karen had graduated from Stoneybrook University with a major in journalism. She was working as a clerk in the local paper and was gradually going to work at being a reporter. Emily Michelle was just graduating from Stoneybrook High School and she was in the top ten of her class. She was being shy about it when Karen burst out and told me that she was third from the top.
"She would have been at least salutatorian if she had taken one more Advanced Class this past year."
Emily Michelle rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Karen. You're such an interventionist."
Karen tapped me on the shoulder. "You see the way she tells me I'm bossy? I'm surprised that she isn't the Vale."
I smiled at them, thinking about how much of myself I saw in Karen and how their relationship was the way ours had been.
"You're all very successful sounding to me." I replied.
Sam interjected. "Well, they had a lot to live up to."
I turned around in my seat. "What about you, Sam? And you, David Michael? What are you two up to?"
Sam looked out the window. "I have my own restaurant."
David Michael looked up proudly from his seat in the back. "I'm a writer! For the college sports teams."
Something inside me twinged. Sam owned a restaurant... And David Michael wrote about sports. I had just been sharply reminded of my real father. The one who had abandoned us to start a career as a sports writer but then changed his mind and became a chef in his new wife's restaurant. The feeling of uneasiness past and I was able to think slightly better of Patrick and Zoey. But no way was I going to ask about them when Charlie had already tensed up when Sam told what he did. There was probably no way that he could know how our father and stepmother were doing.
Bradford Court, Burnt Hill Road, Fawcett Avenue, McClelland Lane... I almost let out a scream as we came onto our street.
"My God, it hasn't changed one bit!" I said, smiling so hard my cheeks were screaming at me.
Charlie seemed amused but continued driving without a word.
"Does it really look the same, Kristy?" Karen asked happily. "Does it really?"
"Everything!" I exclaimed, practically pressing my face against the window.
I spotted our house from five other houses away. I started fidgeting in my seat and I swear Charlie slowed down just to irritate me.
"Hurry, Charlie!" Emily Michelle cheered. "Hurry up, I'll bet they're all-"
"What was that?" I asked, turning sharply in my seat, a joyful gleam in my eye. I may have been gone for fifteen years but I still knew when a kid was hiding something from me. You can take the girl out of the baby-sitter role but you can't take the baby-sitter out of the girl.
Emily Michelle sat back and looked solemnly. "I don't know what you're talking about." But the corner of her lips tilted up slightly.
"Charlie," I said, looking squarely at him. "is someone really sick? Or are you hiding something from me?"
Charlie rolled his eyes. "Kristy, you've always been so paranoid."
Despite his flippant attitude, I barely allowed him to pull into the driveway and make a complete stop before I bolted out of the car and ran for the house. I didn't care how immature I looked flying out of the car and scrambling up the driveway and yanking at the doorknob.
"Kristy, wait!" Karen shrieked, giving me just the tip-off I needed to know that there was something going on.
I threw open the door and stepped into the house. I had intended to just burst in and run threw the house demanding what was going on, a grin plastered on my face. Instead, I was frozen to the floor, my feet firmly established and not willing to budge. I looked around at the foyer with all its polished furnishings and hanging plants. The late-afternoon sunlight was shining through the windows that lined the door on both sides, giving the room an ethereal glow. I looked to the left automatically, expecting to see messy lines of dirty tennis shoes and rain boots but instead saw a Collie statuette embossed with chrome and a brand new full-length mirror.
Ahead of me was the newly waxed hallway, which was empty except for the artwork on the walls, all new to me. It wasn't like a stranger's house but it felt different somehow.
I heard breathless laughter from behind me and my siblings all rushed in. They stopped laughing when they saw my serious countenance.
"Something wrong, Slugger?" Sam asked, tilting his head to one side.
I shook my head and smiled sadly. "Nothing. I'm just feeling tired all of a sudden."
"Jet-lag?" Emily Michelle asked.
Again, I shook my head. "Just...an overpowering sense of nostalgia."
David Michael smiled and gave me a hug, rubbing my shoulders vigourously. "Well, you're home now. After a little while, that feeling will go away and you can disappear into suburban obscurity."
I smiled faintly at that and walked with him down the hallway. "I want to see mom and Watson."
"That's do-able." He said slowly. "But don't you miss everyone else?"
"Wha--?" I was in the middle of the word when David Michael veered me to the left, into the living room and down the stairs.
"SURPRISE!!!" Came a chorus of voices that nearly blew me away.
My mouth dropped even wider and my eyes broadened until they were the size of dinner plates and then a flash from a camera blinded me. I blinked several times before the spots obscuring my vision cleared but when they did, I could see all the familiar faces. On the opposite side of the room stood mom and Watson, side-by-side with a young girl in-between them; there was also an enormous cake in the shape of a baseball with some inscription in icing. Spread out through the room was all my friends. Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, Dawn Schafer, Abby and Anna Stevenson. There were also my friends' parents in attendance, sitting on the couches.
"Oh my..." I was speechless. An ailment I had never been afflicted with many times in my life.
"WELCOME BACK, KRISTY!" my friends shouted in unison and then broke their poses to rush toward me and give me six simultaneous bear hugs. I had been deprived of so much oxygen today that it was a wonder I was still conscious after they had mauled me.
"You look fantastic!" Mary Anne gushed.
"You're in a dress." Claudia gasped.
"What is this designer-Neiman Marcus?" Stacey inquired.
"Great last game you had, Thomas!" was Abby's compliment.
"You were great, Kristy." Anna said subtlety. "We were all so proud."
My head spun as I tried to answer them all.
"Thank you, Mary Anne. Claudia, I consider this a business suit. It's by Vivian Tamm, Stace and it was an awesome game for me." I brushed the wrinkles out of my suit and rubbed my cheeks to soothe the aching muscles.
"Aw, look guys, we're making her blush!" Dawn choked out in a laugh.
The girls cooed teasingly and I looked away, still smiling so hard my face would be frozen for all eternity.
"Welcome home, sweetheart." My mom said, stepping up to me, her arms outstretched. Without thinking, I tumbled into her arms and squeezed her so hard that I could hear her breath get sucked out of her lungs.
"I'm so happy to be home." I whispered, my nose stinging. "I missed you all so much."
"Well, we're glad to have you back." She said, stepping back. There were slight strands of gray mixed in with her brown hair and fine lines here and there on her face but they only made her look more distinguished to me.
"I love you, mom." I said, tears springing from the corners of my eyes. I gave her another enormous hug before Watson stepped up.
"I always knew you'd do something great, Kristy." He spoke.
"Oh, Watson." I mumbled as I gave him a hug as well.
Watson pulled away and looked behind him to where the young girl was standing. This had to be Samantha. She had my mom's mouth and nose and ears but had Watson's eyes and pre-baldness hair.
"Samantha?" I asked, stepping towards her.
She nodded shyly and I pulled her into my arms. "Hey there, kid. We meet at last."
"I have all of your pictures from your career." She informed me. "We keep a scrapbook-dozens of them!"
I just laughed at her enthusiasm. "Well, hopefully we'll get to know each other as sisters now that I'm not a sports star anymore."
"I wouldn't say that." Samantha said smiling. "You'll be a star around here for quite awhile."
"Well, thank you." I said. I gestured to David Michael, Sam, Charlie, Emily Michelle, Karen and Andrew who were still standing in the doorway to the room. "They told me you were sick today."
Samantha shrugged. "They lie a lot." She leaned over to me. "But I get them back."
"I think we'll get along just fine."
I brushed my hair away from my face and turned around to greet the rest of my surprise guests. It didn't seem like they would ever stop asking questions. It was like being interviewed by several different magazines that all wanted to know numerous unrelated topics. The adults wanted details of how I handled business when I was on the road so much. I told them that it didn't matter now that I was retired but when I was still playing I had a bunch of assistance who took charge of those matters. My brothers tossed in questions about the perks I received and new endorsement offers that were coming in the mail even before I arrived. My friends all wanted to know the glamour. I laughed and told them that there wasn't much "glamour" in my life. It had all been like one enormous dream. Every picture taken, every interview executed, every game played was... unreal.
We did eventually get around to discussing the others. I wanted to know about them just as much as they wanted to know about me. Aside from my family, every one else seemed to be doing great. Mary Anne was a counselor at the Stoneybrook Middle School (Yay! Our old stomping ground!); she also did a lot of volunteer work for community functions. Dawn was a veterinarian at the Stoneybrook Vet Centre. She was always up for animal rights and anything that concerned the environment and all living things. Abby had moved back to Manhattan and was a coach for oh, ALL the sports in the local high school. She bragged (so she says) about me endlessly to her students; telling them she taught me everything I know and that she would get them all autographed paraphernalia for free (I did so willingly because I was half-dead from jet lag). Anna was accepted to play the violin with the Boston Philharmonic. Stacey and Claudia had set up a clothing store that was slowly working its way to becoming a chain. They hinted ever so subtly that if they just had a celebrity promoter their foot would be in the door. I blatantly told them that I'd do whatever I could.
I don't remember much about what else happened that night or what my friends and I talked about. I just remember feeling so... light and happy. I was overjoyed at seeing my friends again. Several times I wanted to cry from how good it felt but I held back.
Soon though, too soon, it became dark and people had to leave. I wanted so badly for everyone to stay. For all my friends to spend the night just like old times but I knew that it wouldn't be possible. We weren't thirteen anymore. We weren't in high school either. We just weren't kids any longer. They all had their own homes to go to. So I just said good bye to each as they left and sat headed upstairs.
"There! There she is!" I heard one of my brothers, David Michael, exclaimed the second I stepped out of the terminal. The inward smile that I had been planning to hold in suddenly burst forward and I rushed toward the young man with dark, curly hair and deep brown eyes. The little boy that I had baby-sat for so many times. The little boy I had started the Baby-sitters' Club for. A whole rush of emotions and memories flooded me and I started to cry. Yes, in public. But they were tears of happiness and not misery.
No sooner had David Michael embraced me, Charlie and Sam, my two older brothers, tackled me. I almost couldn't breathe and had to tell them to hold back. They stepped back only a few inches before my stepsiblings, Karen and Andrew, attacked me from behind. I gasped for air but grinned so hard my face ached.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. I didn't know I was going to need my body guards here." I laughed and turned to face them. I almost didn't recognize the two. Karen, now in her early twenties, looked gorgeous. Her curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks paired with her bright blue eyes made her look like a doll, or maybe one of those angels that you put on the top of Christmas trees. And Andrew...well, he definitely looked different. I wouldn't have been able to tell that he and Karen were brother and sister. He had dyed his hair jet black, gotten sea green contacts and had a piercing in his eyebrow, bottom lip, in both ears and was dressed all in black.
"What in the world happened to you, Andrew?!" Despite how intimidating he looked, I couldn't help it. The old loudmouth slipped out. His tough demeanor suddenly disappeared and he laughed fondly.
"Do I look that bad? I thought I was just making a statement." He replied nonchalantly.
"It's just such a change from the little boy I knew..." I said, curiosity making me touch the ring on his eyebrow. "It's different."
Karen smiled and rolled her eyes. "Andy's just going through his rebellious, punk stage." She glared at him through half-closed eyes. "Don't let him fool you, underneath all the tough-guy clothes lies a computer geek and probably the future valedictorian at the University at Stamford."
I was speechless, there was so much going around me I was having trouble taking it all in. On my left were Charlie, Sam and David Michael talking to each other and making comments about how I turned out. And on my right were Karen and Andrew who were just now getting into a heated argument.
"Andrew, how old are you now?" I asked, completely out of context.
Andrew didn't look a bit fazed, only answered, "Nineteen."
"Sorry. I just...I'm so overwhelmed right now, I don't think I can... I think I need to sit down."
"Kristy! You're back!" a slightly more girlish voice piped up from behind me. "I knew you would be! But everyone sent me to buy these flowers for you!"
I parted the small crowd around me and saw a girl about seventeen-years-old, with sleek, black hair, black almond shaped eyes and a tan that most women pay through the nose to get.
"Oh my... Emily Michelle?!" I exclaimed. Oh my Lord. Now I was really light-headed.
"Kristy, you're not going to cry, are you?" Charlie asked, smirking at me.
"No, but I think I'm going to faint from all these surprises...seeing everybody after so long..." I felt a lump catch in my throat. "Pictures just aren't enough sometimes..."
Karen smiled sympathetically. "Let's get you seated somewhere." She took my arm and looked sharply at Andrew. "Andy, you and David Michael go to the carousel to get Kristy's bags." Andrew gave her an incredulous "are-you-bossing-me-around look" but shrugged and he and David Michael left to do as she said. I smiled, suddenly brought down a tad at seeing that Karen, even fifteen years later, was still the one contender I had for bossiness.
My brothers and sisters led me to a bench and sat me down so I could catch my breath.
"Here." Charlie said, handing me a bottle of water. "Maybe we shouldn't have all come to airport. It's a lot to handle."
I shook my head vigourously. "It's a lot. But I'm glad you're all here. I'd better get used to all the surprises. I know I'll be shocked to see how everyone else turned out."
After an hour at the airport, I was finally in the passenger's seat of Charlie's SUV and staring breathlessly out the window at all the scenery passing by.
"How is everyone doing?" I wanted to know. I was dying for everything that had happened while I was away. It was like reading a book and getting to the point where everything was building up to an exciting conclusion. "I want to know everything!"
Charlie laughed. "Well, everyone has their own story to tell." He paused. "I met a girl. Sam's met a girl. David Michael has been playing the field, so to speak. Karen has a boyfriend in business and Andrew isn't looking for any kind of relationship."
I scowled. "I wasn't talking about relationship-wise. How about something interesting?"
Charlie laughed again. "You were never really one for romance." No. I wasn't. "And unless you call the stock market interesting, I don't think you'd want to hear about my life."
I bit my bottom lip. "Ooh, sorry Charlie. I love you, but I've had enough about stocks and bonds to last me for the rest of my life." I paused. "Where were mom and Watson? And what about Samantha?" Samantha was my youngest sister. Mom and Watson had her when I was about sixteen. I hadn't seen much of anybody over the years but I knew the least about Samantha.
"Well, they really wanted to come to the airport and all, but they had to stay back at home. Samantha's a little sick. Watson went to the pharmacist to pick her up some medicine."
Stoneybrook had changed. At least to me. There were no drastic changes. The trees that lined all the streets were the same, just older. And most of the buildings in town were still there, plus a couple of new ones. What really got me was the crowd that was hanging around. I knew all of them. They were the charges that I used to baby-sit for but it looked like they had stepped out of a time warp and were all grown up. I wanted to say a quick "hello" to each of them but I really wanted to be home most of all so I decided it could wait.
While I endured the agonizing wait of returning home, Emily Michelle and Karen filled me in on everything of value that was going on. Karen had graduated from Stoneybrook University with a major in journalism. She was working as a clerk in the local paper and was gradually going to work at being a reporter. Emily Michelle was just graduating from Stoneybrook High School and she was in the top ten of her class. She was being shy about it when Karen burst out and told me that she was third from the top.
"She would have been at least salutatorian if she had taken one more Advanced Class this past year."
Emily Michelle rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Karen. You're such an interventionist."
Karen tapped me on the shoulder. "You see the way she tells me I'm bossy? I'm surprised that she isn't the Vale."
I smiled at them, thinking about how much of myself I saw in Karen and how their relationship was the way ours had been.
"You're all very successful sounding to me." I replied.
Sam interjected. "Well, they had a lot to live up to."
I turned around in my seat. "What about you, Sam? And you, David Michael? What are you two up to?"
Sam looked out the window. "I have my own restaurant."
David Michael looked up proudly from his seat in the back. "I'm a writer! For the college sports teams."
Something inside me twinged. Sam owned a restaurant... And David Michael wrote about sports. I had just been sharply reminded of my real father. The one who had abandoned us to start a career as a sports writer but then changed his mind and became a chef in his new wife's restaurant. The feeling of uneasiness past and I was able to think slightly better of Patrick and Zoey. But no way was I going to ask about them when Charlie had already tensed up when Sam told what he did. There was probably no way that he could know how our father and stepmother were doing.
Bradford Court, Burnt Hill Road, Fawcett Avenue, McClelland Lane... I almost let out a scream as we came onto our street.
"My God, it hasn't changed one bit!" I said, smiling so hard my cheeks were screaming at me.
Charlie seemed amused but continued driving without a word.
"Does it really look the same, Kristy?" Karen asked happily. "Does it really?"
"Everything!" I exclaimed, practically pressing my face against the window.
I spotted our house from five other houses away. I started fidgeting in my seat and I swear Charlie slowed down just to irritate me.
"Hurry, Charlie!" Emily Michelle cheered. "Hurry up, I'll bet they're all-"
"What was that?" I asked, turning sharply in my seat, a joyful gleam in my eye. I may have been gone for fifteen years but I still knew when a kid was hiding something from me. You can take the girl out of the baby-sitter role but you can't take the baby-sitter out of the girl.
Emily Michelle sat back and looked solemnly. "I don't know what you're talking about." But the corner of her lips tilted up slightly.
"Charlie," I said, looking squarely at him. "is someone really sick? Or are you hiding something from me?"
Charlie rolled his eyes. "Kristy, you've always been so paranoid."
Despite his flippant attitude, I barely allowed him to pull into the driveway and make a complete stop before I bolted out of the car and ran for the house. I didn't care how immature I looked flying out of the car and scrambling up the driveway and yanking at the doorknob.
"Kristy, wait!" Karen shrieked, giving me just the tip-off I needed to know that there was something going on.
I threw open the door and stepped into the house. I had intended to just burst in and run threw the house demanding what was going on, a grin plastered on my face. Instead, I was frozen to the floor, my feet firmly established and not willing to budge. I looked around at the foyer with all its polished furnishings and hanging plants. The late-afternoon sunlight was shining through the windows that lined the door on both sides, giving the room an ethereal glow. I looked to the left automatically, expecting to see messy lines of dirty tennis shoes and rain boots but instead saw a Collie statuette embossed with chrome and a brand new full-length mirror.
Ahead of me was the newly waxed hallway, which was empty except for the artwork on the walls, all new to me. It wasn't like a stranger's house but it felt different somehow.
I heard breathless laughter from behind me and my siblings all rushed in. They stopped laughing when they saw my serious countenance.
"Something wrong, Slugger?" Sam asked, tilting his head to one side.
I shook my head and smiled sadly. "Nothing. I'm just feeling tired all of a sudden."
"Jet-lag?" Emily Michelle asked.
Again, I shook my head. "Just...an overpowering sense of nostalgia."
David Michael smiled and gave me a hug, rubbing my shoulders vigourously. "Well, you're home now. After a little while, that feeling will go away and you can disappear into suburban obscurity."
I smiled faintly at that and walked with him down the hallway. "I want to see mom and Watson."
"That's do-able." He said slowly. "But don't you miss everyone else?"
"Wha--?" I was in the middle of the word when David Michael veered me to the left, into the living room and down the stairs.
"SURPRISE!!!" Came a chorus of voices that nearly blew me away.
My mouth dropped even wider and my eyes broadened until they were the size of dinner plates and then a flash from a camera blinded me. I blinked several times before the spots obscuring my vision cleared but when they did, I could see all the familiar faces. On the opposite side of the room stood mom and Watson, side-by-side with a young girl in-between them; there was also an enormous cake in the shape of a baseball with some inscription in icing. Spread out through the room was all my friends. Mary Anne Spier, Claudia Kishi, Stacey McGill, Dawn Schafer, Abby and Anna Stevenson. There were also my friends' parents in attendance, sitting on the couches.
"Oh my..." I was speechless. An ailment I had never been afflicted with many times in my life.
"WELCOME BACK, KRISTY!" my friends shouted in unison and then broke their poses to rush toward me and give me six simultaneous bear hugs. I had been deprived of so much oxygen today that it was a wonder I was still conscious after they had mauled me.
"You look fantastic!" Mary Anne gushed.
"You're in a dress." Claudia gasped.
"What is this designer-Neiman Marcus?" Stacey inquired.
"Great last game you had, Thomas!" was Abby's compliment.
"You were great, Kristy." Anna said subtlety. "We were all so proud."
My head spun as I tried to answer them all.
"Thank you, Mary Anne. Claudia, I consider this a business suit. It's by Vivian Tamm, Stace and it was an awesome game for me." I brushed the wrinkles out of my suit and rubbed my cheeks to soothe the aching muscles.
"Aw, look guys, we're making her blush!" Dawn choked out in a laugh.
The girls cooed teasingly and I looked away, still smiling so hard my face would be frozen for all eternity.
"Welcome home, sweetheart." My mom said, stepping up to me, her arms outstretched. Without thinking, I tumbled into her arms and squeezed her so hard that I could hear her breath get sucked out of her lungs.
"I'm so happy to be home." I whispered, my nose stinging. "I missed you all so much."
"Well, we're glad to have you back." She said, stepping back. There were slight strands of gray mixed in with her brown hair and fine lines here and there on her face but they only made her look more distinguished to me.
"I love you, mom." I said, tears springing from the corners of my eyes. I gave her another enormous hug before Watson stepped up.
"I always knew you'd do something great, Kristy." He spoke.
"Oh, Watson." I mumbled as I gave him a hug as well.
Watson pulled away and looked behind him to where the young girl was standing. This had to be Samantha. She had my mom's mouth and nose and ears but had Watson's eyes and pre-baldness hair.
"Samantha?" I asked, stepping towards her.
She nodded shyly and I pulled her into my arms. "Hey there, kid. We meet at last."
"I have all of your pictures from your career." She informed me. "We keep a scrapbook-dozens of them!"
I just laughed at her enthusiasm. "Well, hopefully we'll get to know each other as sisters now that I'm not a sports star anymore."
"I wouldn't say that." Samantha said smiling. "You'll be a star around here for quite awhile."
"Well, thank you." I said. I gestured to David Michael, Sam, Charlie, Emily Michelle, Karen and Andrew who were still standing in the doorway to the room. "They told me you were sick today."
Samantha shrugged. "They lie a lot." She leaned over to me. "But I get them back."
"I think we'll get along just fine."
I brushed my hair away from my face and turned around to greet the rest of my surprise guests. It didn't seem like they would ever stop asking questions. It was like being interviewed by several different magazines that all wanted to know numerous unrelated topics. The adults wanted details of how I handled business when I was on the road so much. I told them that it didn't matter now that I was retired but when I was still playing I had a bunch of assistance who took charge of those matters. My brothers tossed in questions about the perks I received and new endorsement offers that were coming in the mail even before I arrived. My friends all wanted to know the glamour. I laughed and told them that there wasn't much "glamour" in my life. It had all been like one enormous dream. Every picture taken, every interview executed, every game played was... unreal.
We did eventually get around to discussing the others. I wanted to know about them just as much as they wanted to know about me. Aside from my family, every one else seemed to be doing great. Mary Anne was a counselor at the Stoneybrook Middle School (Yay! Our old stomping ground!); she also did a lot of volunteer work for community functions. Dawn was a veterinarian at the Stoneybrook Vet Centre. She was always up for animal rights and anything that concerned the environment and all living things. Abby had moved back to Manhattan and was a coach for oh, ALL the sports in the local high school. She bragged (so she says) about me endlessly to her students; telling them she taught me everything I know and that she would get them all autographed paraphernalia for free (I did so willingly because I was half-dead from jet lag). Anna was accepted to play the violin with the Boston Philharmonic. Stacey and Claudia had set up a clothing store that was slowly working its way to becoming a chain. They hinted ever so subtly that if they just had a celebrity promoter their foot would be in the door. I blatantly told them that I'd do whatever I could.
I don't remember much about what else happened that night or what my friends and I talked about. I just remember feeling so... light and happy. I was overjoyed at seeing my friends again. Several times I wanted to cry from how good it felt but I held back.
Soon though, too soon, it became dark and people had to leave. I wanted so badly for everyone to stay. For all my friends to spend the night just like old times but I knew that it wouldn't be possible. We weren't thirteen anymore. We weren't in high school either. We just weren't kids any longer. They all had their own homes to go to. So I just said good bye to each as they left and sat headed upstairs.