Chapter 7
Friday was the day that they'd all be going over to Sam's house for dinner. Sam was a bit nervous the night before about the whole thing, but at the same time she was excited to have everyone meet her family. They all knew Jesse, and Jesse knew them too. Sam's parents only met Freddy since he lived a couple houses away from hers. The person Sam was the most nervous about her parents meeting was Dewey. Dewey was a little eccentric, but in time I'm sure her parents would realize he's just a big kid at heart.
"Hey Sam." Summer said. Their English teacher had given them study hall time while she corrected their papers. "What time should we be over at your house for dinner?" she asked.
"I think my mom said about 7, if that's good for you guys." Sam said.
Summer nodded and focused on her planner. "Sure, sounds good." She penciled it in her planner, and told herself to remind everyone that afternoon.
"Cool." Sam agreed.
"So, what time are we meeting at Sam's?" Zack asked. A group of students rushed by them to get home early. It was Friday and everyone wanted to head home for the weekend. They were on the second floor deciding when they'd meet at Sam's house.
"Sam said about 7:00, if that's cool for you guys." Summer said.
Tomika and Katie nodded. "Okay, sounds great." Tomika said. "Summer, you driving again?" she asked. Summer, Tomika, and Katie discussed when Summer would pick them up. In the meantime, Freddy wanted to ask Sam something.
"So Sam, do you want us to come early to help you guys set up?" he asked. "I mean, if it'd be okay with your mom." Since both Freddy and Zack lived on her street, they could easily just walk over earlier to help them out.
"Okay. I'm sure my mom would like the help." She told them.
"Great, so we'll be there like," Zack paused to think. "6:30 okay?" he asked.
Sam nodded and said, "Sounds good."
They all walked down to the first floor to head home. Zack, Freddy and Sam walked home together since they all lived on the same street. They all talked about their week and how it went. Since it was Sam's first week of school, she had a lot to say. She said that things were going great at Horace Green. She did still miss California and the people she met there. But she missed Hawaii even more. Although there were a few things here that she didn't find back home. A nice school, interesting teachers and classes, along with awesome new friends. And a boy who couldn't stop thinking of her.
When Sam got home her mom had already started dinner. Her mom was making oven-baked chicken for dinner. Sam started to help her mom mix the salad when Jesse got home.
"Hey Jess, c'mon and help." Sam called from the kitchen.
He put his bag down and guessed she was calling him from the kitchen. "Help with what?" he asked, walking in to see both his mom and sister preparing dinner. "You really want me to help make food that people are gonna consume?" he asked, half joking and half serious.
"Well, we'll just make sure you eat what you make." Sam smirked.
"Sam." Her mom said to her in a motherly tone, meaning to stop bothering her brother. "Jesse, get the mashed potatoes ready." Mrs. Morton said to him.
Jesse looked very disappointed. "Man, why don't they have white sticky rice here?" he asked.
"Yeah, you know how hard it was to get used to the California rice they had there. Man, I miss the Japanese sticky rice." Sam commented.
"Well, every place has different kinds of food. So we just need to learn to adapt." Mrs. Morton said. It was about 6:00 and Mr. Morton came home early from work.
"Mmm." He said, smelling the food. "Smells good in here." He said and kissed Mrs. Morton.
She called to her mom. "Mom, remember, Freddy and Zack are comin' over in half an hour okay." Sam reminded her mom.
"I know, you've told me 4 times already." Mrs. Morton said.
"Isn't Freddy that boy you've been spending some time with?" Mr. Morton asked.
"Yeah, he's Sam's boyfriend." Jesse said in an annoying younger brother voice.
Surprised to what she heard, she raised her eyebrows. "Boyfriend?" Mrs. Morton asked surprised, as Mr. Morton's eyes grew larger.
"No, he's not." Sam said sternly, looking from Jesse, then to her parents. "He's not." She repeated. Even though she told them that he wasn't her boyfriend, she thought of what it'd be like if he was. She knew she liked him, enough that she'd want him to be her boyfriend. But she didn't want to think of something that may not come true. Mr. Morton went upstairs to clean up and get ready for dinner. Jesse did the same after he finished helping Sam and their mom.
It was just after 6:30 when the doorbell rang. Everyone in the Morton house heard the doorbell and they all headed towards the front door to meet Sam's friends. Jesse got there first and opened the door. He greeted both Freddy and Zack with a "Hey" and slapped their hands. He welcomed them in as the rest of the family came together.
"Hey guys." Sam said, greeting both of them. Mr. Morton fixed his tie, and Mrs. Morton stood by his side and smiled at Sam's friends. "Guys, this is my mom and dad. And you know Jesse." Sam said.
"Mom, you know Freddy." She said as Freddy and Mrs. Morton smiled at each other.
"Hi Mrs. M." Freddy said to her.
"Nice to see you again." She said.
"Dad." Sam said to call her dad's attention. "This is Freddy and Zack." She said as both her friends shook her dad's hand.
"Hi Mr. Morton." Zack said, shaking Mr. Morton's hand after Freddy.
Mr. Morton smiled to the both of them. "Nice to meet you both. So what instruments do you boys play?" he asked them.
"Oh, I play the electric guitar." Zack told him proudly.
"And I'm on drums." Freddy told him, pulling his drums sticks out from his belt where he stuck them. "I take my sticks everywhere." Freddy said, only noticing after he said it how weird it sounded.
Mrs. Morton started to walk towards the kitchen to grab everyone's attention. "Well, let's get to setting that table. They should be here in a while, so we have last minute things to do." She said. Jesse took Freddy and Zack's jackets and hung them up. Sam led them to their backyard and Mr. Morton followed behind them. Since their dinning room table wouldn't hold more than 6 people, they put their two picnic tables together so they could fit everyone in one area. Sam and Jesse went to grab the plates and utensils and met everyone else outside.
"Here guys." Jesse said, putting down the forks on the table. Sam placed all 11 plates down on the table. "I still gotta go get the napkins and cups." He said, turning around to head back into the house.
Freddy started to follow him. "I'll help." He said. Freddy came back in a little bit and started to put the napkins around what plates were already set by Sam. Zack took the forks and put them on the napkins. As it got closer to 7, they started to bring out the food to put it on the tables. Jesse lifted his head up when he thought he heard a car stop in front of their house.
"I think someone's here." He said, hoping someone would be listening to him.
Mrs. Morton dusted off her hands and said, "Okay then, lets get everything together." They all double checked the tables to see if everything was ready and one by one went back into the house. The doorbell rang and everyone took in a deep breath.
"I'll get it." Sam said, walking in front of everyone to answer the door. She opened the door and saw Dewey standing next to Lawrence. "Hi guys." She said to them. "Come in." she slapped Lawrence's hand as he walked past her and high fived Dewey's. She closed the door behind her and turned around to see her parents. "Mom, Dad, Jesse this is Dewey." She told them. Dewey immediately went to shake their hands. "He started the band a couple years back."
"Nice to finally meet the parents of a very talented young lady." Dewey said.
"Well, it's nice to meet you too, Dewey." Mrs. Morton said.
"Zack Attack!" Dewey said excitedly as he gave Zack a knuckle punch. "Spazzy!" he said to Freddy. "Lookin' good man!" he said, smiling. He winked at Freddy and nudged him with his elbow, jerking his head to Sam. Freddy just turned away as both Dewey and Zack let out a laugh. Mr. and Mrs. Morton watched Dewey talk with the boys and they could tell that they were a tight group of friends.
Sam put her hand on Lawrence's shoulder and directed her parents attention to her. "And this is Lawrence." Lawrence gave them a small bow then went to greet her family. He shook Mr. and Mrs. Morton's hands and slapped Jesse's hand.
"What do you play Lawrence?" Mr. Morton asked him.
"I play the keyboard." Lawrence answered politely.
"Oh yeah, Lawrence can tear it up on keyboard!" Zack said, giving Lawrence a little nudge on his shoulder.
Freddy looked at Dewey. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.
"They're probably be here in a while." Dewey answered. "You know girls, they always take a long time to get ready." Dewey said, teasing Sam.
"Haha, very funny." She said, shaking her head at the boys. "C'mon, let's go wait in the living room." Everyone took a seat on a chair or couch, or they settled down on the floor. Mrs. Morton started to talk a little with Dewey about their band and how he formed it. Of course Zack, Freddy and Lawrence told Sam's parents about the funny story of how Dewey pretended to be their teacher. Throughout the story both Mr. and Mrs. Morton laughed constantly. Jesse couldn't keep still from all the laughing he was doing.
"Ah man, that's how you guys became a band?" Sam asked, still laughing from hearing the background story. "Wow, that's…" she paused to calm down. "That's some way of making a band Dewey." She told him.
"Well hey, I had to do something." He said. "But it worked didn't it? Besides, they got some days off from school, we played a kick ass show, and I totally got to be the star of the show, like it should've been from the beginning!" he exclaimed, raising his right hand in a first into the air.
"Oh so not true!" Zack said.
"Yeah right!" Freddy exclaimed as all 3 boys protested to what Dewey said.
Lawrence moved to the edge of his seat. "Dewey, you were not the star of the show!" he told them.
"Zack was the star!" Freddy said, pointing to him with both hands.
"Yeah, everyone loved him." Lawrence added.
"Well what can I say," Zack looked at his fingernails. "I've got the talent, the skills, and the looks." He said smiling, as pretended to dust his shoulder off. Everyone started laughing, including Zack himself. Soon after the doorbell rang and Sam got up from her seat.
"I'll get it." She said, as everyone followed her to the door. She opened the door and saw Tomika, Summer, and Katie standing in back of them. "Hey guys, come on in."
"Hey Sam." Summer said, stepping inside first.
Tomika followed after her. "Thanks Sam." Katie was the last in and said hi to Sam as well. Sam closed the door and made her way in front of the group of girls. "Mom, dad, this is Summer, Tomika, and Katie." One by one they greeted and shook Sam's parents hands. "And you guys know Jesse from school." Sam added.
"It's great to meet you girls." Mr. Morton said.
"Sam's told us lots about you girls already." Mrs. Morton smiled at all of them. The girls made some small talk with each other along with the boys when Jesse started to get a little antsy.
Jesse started to fidget before bringing dinner up. "Can we eat yet?" he asked, annoyed that it was taking so long to have dinner.
"Sure." Mrs. Morton said, giving in. "Come on, we're having dinner out in the backyard, if that's okay." She said, leading the whole group through the house.
"Backyard, cool." Katie said, walking along side Lawrence and Zack.
Summer noticed a photo of Sam as they walked through the living room. "Aww, you looked so cute when you were younger." Summer said, drawing everyone's attention to that picture.
"Okay, food time, not picture time." Sam said, moving to block the picture.
"Face it Sam, we're in your house." Tomika said. "We're bound to see kid pictures of you and hear embarrassing stories." She laughed.
"I can help with that." Jesse yelled from the front of the group.
Sam's eyes widened as she said, "No you won't!" Everyone laughed it off and continued through the living room and into the kitchen. Sam was the last one following her mom. Freddy waited for her so he could walk with her.
"Well this is it." Sam said to him, giving him a half smile.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine." Freddy reassured her. Freddy took Sam's hand, hoping she wouldn't pull it away. She didn't and smiled at him. Zack turned around quickly to see where Freddy was and saw the two of them holding hands.
"Old Freddy Jones' at work." He smiled and shook his head. Everyone made their way out into their backyard, with Sam and Freddy last to come out. Just before Sam and Freddy stepped out of the house, they squeezed each other's hand, hoping that this dinner would go okay.
"Okay everyone, find somewhere to sit." Mr. Morton said, sitting at one end of a picnic table. They put both picnic tables together so it looked like a big long picnic table. Mrs. Morton sat next to her husband, Jesse sat across from his dad at the end of the table on the opposite side. Dewey wanted to make a good impression on Sam's parents, so he sat next to Jesse. On one side of the table, from left to right sat Mr. Morton, Mrs. Morton, Summer, who sat next to Zack, with Freddy at the end. Opposite from Mr. Morton was Jesse, then followed Dewey, Katie, Lawrence, Tomika, and last on the end was Sam. Jesse led everyone in prayer before they started to eat.
"Amen." They all said and lifted their heads up.
Mrs. Morton picked up one plate of the oven chicken she made. "Okay you guys, eat up." She said, taking 2 pieces for her plate and putting 3 on Mr. Morton's plate. She passed the plate to Summer as Freddy passed around the other plate from his side of the table. They passed around the chicken with practically nothing left in either dish, most of the salad and mashed potatoes were gone along with the other food that they had to eat.
"So, lets hear more about this band." Mr. Morton said, taking a break from his chicken.
"Yes, of course." Dewey said, sounding like a business man. "I guess you'd call us a…" he wasn't quite sure how to put it.
"Rock band." Summer said, looking at Dewey.
Dewey nodded his head and said, "Yes, a rock band, thank you Summer." He said as Summer nodded back.
"What kinds of music groups influence your music?" Mrs. Morton asked.
"Our influence is mostly around the classic rock time." He told them, placing his hands on the table. "Music like Hendrix, Zeppelin, Styx, music around that time." While Dewey spoke with Sam's parents, Zack kept on smiling to Freddy.
"Somethin' wrong dude?" Freddy asked, taking a sip from his cup.
"No man, nothing's wrong." He answered, chuckling to himself. Freddy tried not to pay attention to Zack as he listened to what Tomika and Sam were talking about to each other.
"So Summer asked if we could like, write some songs." Tomika suggested.
Sam turned to her in shock. "You mean, write the songs we'd sing?" she asked. Tomika nodded as Sam's eyes widened. "Seriously?" She asked, then turning towards Summer.
"Yeah, it's not that hard." Summer said, although she didn't actually know what it was like since she never did write a song before.
"Pssh, not hard?" Tomika said. "Summer, you've been sittin' on the side lines too long."
"It's really that hard?" Sam said, nervous about hearing more.
"Let's just say it takes a long time to get all the words right." She answered.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine." Freddy reassured Sam in a comforting tone. He heard Zack laughing again and nudged him in his side. Zack started to cough since he was swallowing a piece of lettuce when Freddy nudged him.
"Not cool man." He coughed. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at him. Zack was famous for having things like this happen to him, especially with Freddy. Zack and Freddy were such good friends they loved torturing each other, and this was one of Freddy's way of doing that to Zack. Zack gulped down his juice, trying to clear his throat.
"Here, I'll go get you some water instead." Sam said, getting up from her seat. She stood up and took Zack's cup and went back in the kitchen.
"Where you going Sam?" her dad asked.
Sam quickly walked by them and told them, "Zack needs water." She said as her dad nodded.
"Are you okay Zack?" Mrs. Morton asked, being the mother that she was.
"Oh yeah, I'm okay." He said, letting out one last cough. "I'm good." He reassured her.
"Okay." She said. Everyone chuckled to themselves because they knew why Freddy did that.
"Man, I know my laughing at you wasn't cool, but that was beyond not cool." Zack said to Freddy, rubbing his throat. Freddy continued to laugh until he finally calmed down to talk to Zack.
"Then why'd you laugh at me?" he asked him.
"'Cause I saw you and Sam hold hands back in the kitchen." He said teasingly. Freddy's eyes grew and cheeks began to turn a light pink. "Don't think I didn't see you wait for Sam back there." Zack told him. Zack began to smile when he noticed Sam opening the door to come back outside.
"Okay, so maybe I did. No big deal." Freddy said quickly before Sam returned to the table.
"Here Zack, hope you're better." Sam said handing Zack a full cup of water.
Zack reached his hand out to take the cup. "Thanks Sam." He said, then took a big a few sips from his cup.
"Yeah, Sam was telling me that you two are rock and roll kind of people huh?" Dewey said, smiling to Sam's parents.
"How'd I know that'd be brought up?" Mr. Morton said, smiling himself. "I do admit, I was a bit of a Zeppelin fan, heck I was a fan of 'em all!" he exclaimed.
"You too mom?" Jesse asked. He'd believe his dad was totally a rock out kind of person but not his mom.
Dewey turned to Mrs. Morton. "Yeah Mrs. M, I bet you were!" he said happily.
Mrs. Morton began to blush and smile. "Okay, you caught me!" she finally said. "I did have a thing for Robert Plant." She blushed even more.
"Ohhhh." Dewey said biting his lips.
"I knew it! I knew you did!" Mr. Morton exclaimed. Everyone started to laugh as Sam put her hand over her eyes, embarrassed of her two parents.
"This is what I didn't plan." Sam said with her head hanging down.
"Don't worry, all parents do this kinda stuff." Freddy said, putting his hand on her free hand that was on the table. Sam felt his hand on hers and removed her hand from her eyes. She smiled at Freddy, taking in his concern for her.
Zack cleared his throat, noticing what Freddy and Sam were doing. "So, this is some good chicken Mrs. M." Zack said, directing his comment to the other end of the table. Freddy removed his hand from Sam's and blushed.
"Why thank you Zack." Mrs. Morton smiled. "But Sam did help me with it when she got home." She commented.
"Sam is quite a chef herself." Mr. Morton added.
"Nah, not really." Sam admitted. She did like to cook and bake, but she didn't see herself as a cook. And neither did Jesse.
"Yeah, she can make stuff." Jesse said. "If you count toasting toast and making cereal." He smirked.
She snapped her head towards Jesse. "This coming from the boy who only can warm up left overs in the microwave." She said to him. Everyone could definitely see the brother-sister love/hate between the two of them.
"Man, she got you good." Dewey said, patting Jesse's shoulder.
"And it's bread, not toast." Sam corrected him. They all continued to eat dinner. More food was passed around the table along with several trips back into the kitchen to get more punch for everyone. Sam's parents talked with Dewey and Summer about the different things they'd be doing in the band. Mr. and Mrs. Morton was very interested in what the band did and what Sam would be doing to help as well. Katie, Lawrence and Zack talked a lot about school and the different classes they had. Lawrence excelled in all of his classes, which didn't help Zack in his case. Tomika and Freddy told Sam more about the song writing she'd be doing, and the different kinds of things they had to remember about writing songs. Soon after they got out the desert which was Dutch Apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
"A very traditionally American desert." Mr. Morton said as he passed out plates of the pie and ice cream. Jesse and Sam went around the tables collecting the rest of the dinner plates to make room for the deserts. Dewey helped Mrs. Morton go to the other side of the table to pass out the desert while Summer and Zack helped take in the rest of the pies and ice cream.
"This was a wonderful night." Dewey said, leading the group out to their cars. "I had such a good time getting to know you both." He said, smiling at Mr. and Mrs. Morton.
"Well we loved your company Dewey." Mrs. Morton said.
Mr. Morton tilted his head towards Dewey. "Ya know, you do remind me of a younger version of me." He declared. "Very in control of things, living his life as it comes." He said, speaking as if he was a dare devil.
"Oh I'm sure you were a wild one Mr. M." Dewey said. Jesse noticed Dewey's van and saw some pictures from the windows.
"Hey Dewey, can I check out your ride?" Jesse asked.
"Sure little man, check it out." Dewey said, tossing Jesse his car keys. Katie, Tomika said goodnight to Sam's parents and walked over to Summer's car. Zack walked them to her car to wait with the girls.
"Whoa, this is awesome!" Jesse exclaimed, looking into his van. "Can I go in?" he turned around to ask Dewey.
"Sure, if you can handle all that's inside!" Dewey said jokingly.
Mr. Morton moved his head to see inside Dewey's van. "Hey Dewey can I have a look too?" he asked, sounding like a little kid.
"Knock yourself out man." He said, patting Mr. Morton's shoulder as he walked by.
"Boys and their cars." Mrs. Morton shook her head and smiled.
"Thank you Mrs. Morton for dinner." Lawrence thanked her.
"Oh no problem Lawrence. You guys are all welcomed here anytime." She said, speaking to the whole group. Summer and the girls heard her from their car and they called back to her.
"Thanks Mrs. M!" Tomika said loud enough for her to hear.
"We'll be sure to come back!" Katie teased.
"Ah mom you shouldn't have said that?" Sam smiled. She turned to Freddy who was standing next to her.
"It turned out pretty good didn't it?" Freddy said.
Sam nodded in agreement. "It did, better than I expected." She answered. "I think my mom and dad really like Dewey." She said as they both turned to look at Dewey.
"And this was the picture I got of Sabbath when they came in town for concert." Dewey told Jesse and Mr. Morton. Sam and Freddy heard them and smiled and shook their heads.
"Thanks for coming early to help. It was nice of you and Zack." Sam told him. "I think things will go pretty good from now on." She said.
"Yeah, the band will be better with you in it." He said.
Sam chuckled to herself and smiled. "I hope so." She said.
"We gotta go Sam." Summer said, halfway in the driver's seat. "I'll see you guys later." She called out. She got in the car and drove off to drop both Tomika and Katie off at home.
"Well, I better take Lawrence home too." Dewey said after showing Jesse and Dewey his van. "I'll tell ya what, next time I come around this part of town I'll let you guys test drive it so you can hear the sound system I put in." he told them as they got out of the car.
"Really?" Jesse asked. "Cool!"
Mr. Morton looked excited himself. "That'd be awesome!" he said, slapping Dewey's hand.
"It'll blow your mind!" Dewey laughed. He and Lawrence both got into the van and drove off.
"We better get going too." Zack said, walking back towards Sam's house. "Saturday morning cartoons man, I gotta get up early." Zack joked.
"Okay, I'm comin'." He said to him. He turned back towards Sam's parents.
"Thanks again for dinner, it was great." Freddy said. Mr. and Mrs. Morton smiled.
"No problem Freddy." Mr. Morton told him. "It was great having you two here." He said.
Mr. and Mrs. Morton began to turn around to go back inside. "Goodnight boys, we'll see you two later." She told them and waved them goodnight.
"See ya Jess." Zack said from across the lawn.
"Night Zack. See ya Freddy." Jesse said, following his parents.
"Bye Jesse." Freddy said to him. He turned to Sam and smiled. "I'm glad everything went okay." He told her.
"Me too." She said. It was getting cold and Zack started to complain.
"C'mon Freddy!" Zack said, already in front of the next house. Freddy turned around to see Zack and gave in.
"Okay, I'm comin'." He said. "Goodnight Sam." He said turning around to see her.
"Bye Freddy." She said and they both turned around to go back to their own houses.
Sam really did think that everyone had a good time. Her parents seemed to like Dewey; from his great knowledge of classic rock music to his quirky tendencies which made him a great person to know. She hoped that her future with the band would go okay, and that she'd do okay as a singer. She went to bed with no trouble at all. She simply just thought of how good these next few months would be. She looked forward to her first official band practice tomorrow, hopefully it'd be the start of a great adventure.