June 25th
Well, my friends have been here for just less than a week. My world hasn't crashed to the ground. No one is shocked that my life isn't exactly what I've been portraying. Except for Mary Anne. She's not shocked, just... hurt.
Sweet Mary Anne knows how to be so cold when we're fighting. Now, she hasn't been giving me the silent treatment, I think because she IS on vacation, and she's TRYING to have a good time. And fighting with me isn't part of a good time.
We're not really fighting. Just not speaking on regular terms.
Yesterday was Carol's family reunion. A lot of her family live up north, but some of them flew in from Maine, Colorado, and Texas for this. This is why they only have the family reunions every five years.
I've never been to a family reunion before. Dad's family all live nearby so I see them routinely, and Mom's family is so tiny that our family reunion could take place in my living room.
Carol's family is huge. I had no idea of this going into it, so I asked Dad if Mary Anne could come along. Considering that we had no idea what it was going to be like, and, in a very far off way, Mary Anne was family. She's my family anyway.
Dad was reluctant, but he agreed when Carol pointed out that we had no idea if anyone my age would be there. She hadn't seen most of her relatives since the last reunion. She hadn't seen her parents or one of her sister's since she and Dad got married. (Her other sister lives in Maine, I think it was, and her brother lives in Iowa. They're all spread out, so Carol was really looking forward to this.)
So Mary Anne came along with us (In the pollute-mobile) and we drove an hour and a half up north. I got introduced to a lot of people, and I introduced Mary Anne to a lot of people, and they were all really sweet.
We met Lena, Carol's niece (my step-cousin, I guess), who's twelve and is really cool. She was the one introducing us to people, and we spent most of the day with her. Mary Anne and I both exchanged email addresses with her.
The food was great. The three bean salad was to die for. Mary Anne said that BBQ ribs were fantastic, but I just took her word on it. (Ew.)
We got home late and Claudia was the only one there. She left a note saying that everyone else was spending the night at Sunny's.
The next morning, Mary Anne and I grilled Claudia about her date with Rico.
"It was... fun," Claudia admitted, blushing.
"Fun? Just fun?" I asked.
"We had a great time. We went to the movies, and it was horrible, so ended up leaving early and we went out to eat and we never ran out of things to talk about. We talked about music and art, and movies. It was so wonderful."
She seemed a lot more excited by the time she finished telling us. I grinned at her.
"You two totally kissed."
Claud was still blushing, but she grinned too. "Totally."
I'm really happy for Claud. It sounds like Stacey and Kristy are back.
Later the 25th
Mary Anne is so infuriating!
We're having a great time putting Gracie down for her nap. The easiest way to soften Mary Anne - get babies involved. We picked out a cute sleeper, and all of this. It was fun. Then... I don't know what happened.
Mary Anne was leaning over Gracie's crib. "You know, sometimes I wish I had a baby."
I raised my eyebrows. "Remember the egg project?"
"Oh, yeah, that. Well, it wouldn't be with Logan. he's going to have to find someone more patient than me to raise kids with. He was so overprotective. And that's coming from me."
"Good luck, Logan," I said.
Mary Anne smiled. "I know that I wouldn't, and it's not practical, between school and all, but I'd like a baby."
"That's just the hormones talking," I commented. "You know, from when girls were married at twelve to forty year old guys. It's part of women to want babies, even from a young age."
"So you're an expert on teen pregnancy now? I guess high school does that to you."
I blinked. I had no idea where she was coming from. "What?"
"I mean, being in the high school building for one extra year would make teen pregnancy an everyday part of your life, wouldn't it? Because you obviously know so much more than us."
"Mary Anne, you're taking this the wrong way!" I said, trying to keep my voice down.
"Am I? Or maybe I'm, but I've just been keeping from you what I understand!" She stormed out of the room. Luckily Gracie slept through the whole thing.
Looking back on it, what Mary Anne said there made no sense whatsoever. But I know what she meant. I can't figure her out. We're fine one moment, and yelling at each other the next. We haven't fought like this since Mom and Richard first got married.
Is Mary Anne jealous of me? Because I live a more "adult" lifestyle? Mary Anne has always desired to be sophisticated and adult. Is that why she's acting this way? Or is still because I kept things from her?
I still sort of want to be mad at Ducky for telling her, but how can you be mad at Ducky? It's not like he knew. It's not like I told everyone that there were things we can't tell my friends. If it was that bad, I would have just not invited them at all.
Speaking of Ducky, it turned out that Kristy and Stacey (and Sunny) spent the night at his house. The Sunny's house cover was for Dad's sake.
"Ducky came out to Sunny last night," Stacey said.
"What?" I stared at her.
"He's bi or gay or something. Either way, I told you he wasn't straight."
"That's sort of weird." But I didn't mean about Ducky. Not exactly.
Stacey gave me a strange look. "You're not homophobic, are you, Dawn? Because you're the last person in the world I would have ever thought-"
"No! That's not what I meant. I mean that it's weird you have to cover staying at Ducky's when, even to people who don't know him, he's harmless to a girl."
"His house isn't though. His brother kept hitting on me until I told him that I was fourteen. That shut him up."
I laughed. I've never met Ducky's brother, but Maggie and Sunny have. Cute (like Ducky), but creepy. (Unlike Ducky)
It's late. I think I'm going to go to bed. I wish I could figure out this Mary Anne thing. I wish she would just tell me what the deal was. And I wish I could stop feeling like crap because she's probably right.