Chapter 5: Arrival Of Ze Unmentionable Cousin

Ren: Steven's family living room, Sacramento: 12:05am: 9 June

Donnie had gone out again, but the rest of us were sitting anxiously in the living room, wide awake. Gordo and his friends were supposed to get a taxi out to our house after their flight arrived, and the airport wasn't too far away.

"I hope he brought the recipe." My mom muttered, breaking the silence of the room, "You did remind him, right Ren?"

I glared at her, and didn't answer.

"Eileen, you should forget about the chicken, then maybe your sister would forget about you and what happened with the chicken." Said my dad, calmly.

She took a deep breath then said, "Steve, you don't understand this."

"I do too. Chicken has caused a huge rift in your family."

"Mom, dad, don't talk about the chicken, please." I pleaded. An argument was about to occur, and again, it would be over chicken. Causing a rift in our own family this time.

"I could go for some chicken right now." Louis added, inappropriately. He was good for that.

Then the doorbell rang, and I was thankful. We saw four silhouettes through the glass, and all looked at one another to try and determine who should answer it, forgetting the chicken momentarily.

"I'll get it!" Louis yelled.

"No, you won't!" I protested quickly because that was just a bad idea, and made a dash for the door myself. He was motivational like that. I made sure my clothes looked ok, and tried to look composed. White buttoned shirt, and jeans were clean, everything looked fine, but I was slightly nervous. I smiled widely and opened the door, "Hi!"

The oldest male among the group looked up at me slightly because I was a good bit taller than he, and he smiled back, "Ren?"

I nodded, but tried not to be too eager, "Come in."

The four entered, and then stood by the door, holding their bags, rather unsure of what to do, as most people in the same situation would be.

"My older brother Donnie isn't here right now, but that's Louis," I pointed, "And there's my mom and dad."

My mother and Louis both nodded, but in completely different manners. No eye contact was made by my mother, but Louis looked the two girls over, while my dad got up and shook everyone's hand more enthusiastically than needed, "You can all call me Steve, or Mr. Stevens. It's good to see you, David-err…Gordo."

"You too…" Gordo said a little unsurely, and ruffling his own curly hair, which was similar to Louis', "These are my friends." He turned to a dark-haired girl with baggy pants on, "This is Miranda Sanchez, and this is Lizzie McGuire," He nodded to the blonde girl to the other side of him, and the both smiled politely. "There's her little brother Matt."

Louis eyed the young blood, and grinned, completely shifting his attention, "Going into the tenth grade, huh?"

"Yep." Matt responded, seeming interested in what he had to say.

"I have a little buddy named Beans, who's the same age as you." He stood, "Come on up to my room, you can crash in there, and we can talk business."

A mischievous smile crossed the boy's face. He was somewhat attractive, a little on the puny side, but I'd date him if he were older and I actually dated people. He had straight, light-brown messy hair, and a nice face, but was about to be corrupted by my brother, so there was no hope. I watched them go up the stairs, and sighed, then turned to the others, "All three of you can sleep in my room on the floor, or if you'd rather not, we have a few couches."

"Your room is fine, I guess." Lizzie mumbled, "I'm really tired. I'd sleep anywhere."

"Follow me." I said, leading the way.

"Nice to meet you…again, I guess…Mr. and Mrs. Stevens." Gordo said politely, being the last one in the line behind the two girls and myself. They said the same thing afterward.

"You can put your things down anywhere you want," I told them as they entered my room, soon regretting that I said it, "I'll get some blankets and pillows for you."

"I guess we'll get to know each other better tomorrow…or later today, rather." Gordo said, sleepily, sitting down on my bed, rubbing his face.

"Yeah." I heard Lizzie and Miranda talking as they put their bags down, and I listened out of curiosity.

"I wonder what Kate's doing…" Lizzie said with a yawn.

"Why do you care?"

"I don't know…I was just wondering."

"Who's Kate?" I asked, dropping three pillows on the floor by my bed on the side I didn't get out of in the morning. I was being nosy.

The blonde opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, and the other girl spoke instead, "She's a complete bitch, and Lizzie's too nice of a person to just forget she exists."

"She's not that bad." Gordo argued, but quickly shifted the subject, "Ren, where's the bathroom?"

"Go out the door take a left, and it's the first door on the left."

He grabbed his toothbrush from his bag, and exited, followed by Miranda with a change of clothes. This left Lizzie and I alone, "So…" I began, "Lizzie…"

She looked up and smiled, but said nothing.

This was awkward. What does one say to their cousin's friend who is in their room that they've never met before? She seemed nice enough, but really, what does one say? I could bring up one of the few things I knew about her, "What's with this Kate girl?"

She shrugged, and took off her shirt, nonchalantly, "I just wonder what's going on with her once in a while because we used to be friends."

"Oh," It just became a little more awkward. I got into my bed and wondered how her little brother was doing with my little brother. They were being quiet, and that wasn't necessarily a good thing, "Is your brother-"

"Aggravating, yes. Yours?"

"Yes."

"Great…my parents said I couldn't come unless I brought him with me. I don't know why." She yawned again, and pulled a tank top on, "Totally ruins my graduation trip…"

"Louis is generally harmless, but I don't know what he'll do since he's found someone new, and will probably have some interesting input from him."

She forced a little laugh, and seemed in thought about something else, as she took off her bra and threw it down. They were all very unorganized, and I would have to rearrange everything later. The girl began to take her pants off and turned so she wasn't facing me, "Did Gordo tell you about us?"

"Us…as in?" I was a little unsure, he'd told me a lot of different things. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, and she started to put on a pair of shorts.

"Me and him."

"Oh…briefly."

She sat on the floor where she was and looked around my room, "Am I stupid?"

"I don't know. I guess it depends on the people. You should meet my friend Tawny, she's been best friends with my brother forever, and they date on and off. She gives advice to everyone around here too…for a small fee." Tawny wouldn't charge her because she was cute. I could tell that already, but it was probably better not to say anything revolving around such things as Tawny's sexual preferences with a stranger. She could find out on her own.

She sighed and Gordo walked back in. He was very chipper, "Tomorrow…later today…can we go around to random places of interest so I can film them? There might be some good places for me to do a few little movies. Do you know anyone that likes to act cus that would be great?"

"There's Tawny, and you need to meet my friend Ruby. I guess we can do that."

"Yay!" He said grinning.

Lizzie got up and playfully messed up his hair as she walked out, "Dork."

Maybe she still liked him, and was ready to do something about it. She might've just seemed off because she was shy. I didn't know. I was no good at reading people, and never had been. As far as I knew, it might not be either of those, and probably wasn't.