disclaimer
: I only own the characters I've made up. You know who they
are.
a/n
- I am SO sorry about all the typos I make! Even when I read the
chappie's 2-3 times before posting, there are still typos. I'm so bad
at it sometimes my friends call me the 'Typo Queen'. So there. I have
a liable excuse..coughnotreallycough, but whatever. lol. So
please excuse
me.
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The next morning Anna woke up, her body half-off Ricky's bed. She looked up, he was snoring softly, the slightest bit of drool escaping the corner of his red pouty lips. This made Anna giggle, so hard in fact, she fell off the bed completely and landed with a very loud 'THUMP' on the hardwood floors.
"Owwwww," Anna moaned, rubbing her head. Ricky heard her and bolted up-right, leaning over the egde of the bed.
"Anna, you okay?" he asked, his voice full of concern. Anna blinked and rubbed her head once more.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," she nodded, looking at him. His crazy blonde hair had fallen in his reddening face.
"Okay, that's good," he breathed a sigh of relief, his face growing more red.
Anna laughed. "Ricky, sit up, all the blood is rushing to your head," she instructed. He sat up and used both hands to brush his hair away from his face. It stuck up in all directions, it was a hilarious sight.
"I knew there was a reason I felt funny." he murmured, shaking his head.
"Yeah, that'll do that to ya." Anna said, getting up off the floor and sitting on the corner of his bed. She looked out the picture-window, it had snown over night. Everything was sparkly white and coated in snows. The evergreen trees looked like green ice cream cones that had been dipped in white chocolate(this those chocolate-dipped cones Dairy Queen). It was really pretty. Ricky noticed her looking outside.
"OOOOH! Pretty!" he flew to the window and stared at the ground. Anna collapsed in laughter. 'It was so typical of him', Anna thought. She got up off the bed and went over to sit beside him in the alcove.
"So what are we going to do today?" she asked, shifting around 'til she was sitting, cross-legged, facing him. His gaze rose from the sparkly snow to Anna's face.
"I dunno, what do you wanna do? We're on christmas vacation for another week."
Anna thought for a minute. "Omigosh! I got it!"
"What?" Ricky asked.
Anna's excited grin disappeared for a minute, "Go see what's up with Elizabeth." the excited grin returned. "THEN GO SLEDDING!"
Ricky raised an eyebrow. Sledding? How old were they, 6? No. They were 15 & 16. He was about to protest, but then something about Anna's enthusiam stopped him. It was so hard to say no to her when she got all hyper and excited. "Yeah, sure," he grinned. "But I suggest you go get dressed so we can get an early start, okay?"
Anna nodded feverently. "Yes, yes of course," she grabbed a few articled of clothing and then went into Ricky's bathroom. Quickly, Anna dressed in her light-pink t-shirt from garage that could be stretched down over her bottom, and a pair of light jeans. She left her hair down and pulled on some socks. She pulled the t-shirt down so it covered half her butt, then knocked on the door. "Ricky? You ready?" she called.
"Yep, I am. Come on out now if you are done." he replied.
Anna threw open the door and walked out. Ricky had changed into a bright red medium-sized t-shirt (that was slightly too big for him), and a pair of baggy dark-rinse jeans, and some DC's. "So do you want to get going now? Or do you want to eat first?"
Anna put her hands on her hips. "Hmm...I don't think I could handle food right now. But if you want to you can eat. I'll wait for you."
"Okay, let's go downstairs." Ricky said.
"Yup. Let's go." Anna slung her duffle bag over her shoulder as they walked through the door and down the stairs into the brightly lit kitchen.
"Hey mum, what's for breakfast?" Ricky called as they walked in.
"Mum isn't here." Kalie, who was at the table, said flatly.
Ricky's eyes bulged. "What do you mean, NOT HERE!"
Kalie looked up at her brother and Anna with a bored expression on her face. "It's, like, 12:00. Mum goes to the gym every morning at like, 11:00. She was going to wake you guys up, but she was in too much of a hurry."
"...and she left you here alone!" he asked.
"No, I was just about to go wake you guys up." Kalie said with a yawn.
Ricky gave up and walked over to fridge, motioning for Anna to take a seat. "You sure you don't want anything, Ann?" he asked, turnnig around.
Anna nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. Thanks anyways." she smiled.
Kalie raised an eyebrow and let out a snort. Ricky shot her a look before turning back to the fridge. "Geez." Kalie muttered, slowly munching on her cereal.
Ricky returned to the table with a bowl of Cap'N Crunch and a glass of milk. He reached for the counter and grabbed a second glass. "Here, Anna, at least drink something to get you through the morning."
Reluctantly Anna took the glass and drank it down. "There," she said, wiping the milk moustache away that had formed on her upper lip."All done!"
"I'd swear you've had practice." Ricky chuckled, taking her glass and placing it back on the counter. Anna grinned.
"How'd ya know?" she asked.
Ricky shrugged."I guessed."
The three of them sat there in silence for a few moments. When Ricky was about done his breakfast when the door clicked opened and his mum stepped inside. "Phew! That's a cold one!" she exclaimed, kicking off her boots. The three kids looked up from the table.
"Hey, mum," Ricky said as he got up and set his bowl in the sink. "Anna and I were just about to go out. I don't know when I'll be back, but I'll call if I need anything, okay?"
Anna rose from the table and stood beside him. "Yeah, okay." his mother replied. "Just don't be too late, dear." They both agreed before stepping into the foyer to get dressed to brave the cold winds. Anna pulled on her pink bomber jacket, boots, and a borrowed pair of Ricky's gloves. Ricky yanked on a heavy winter jacket, some gloves, and a pair of his father's old work boots. Once they were both ready Anna opened the door slowly. A bitter snow blizzard whipped their faces as they stepped outside.
"This sucks. I hate blizzards, but we still totally have to go sledding! It's my favorite." she beamed.
"Uh, okay, sure, but what will we use for sleds?" Ricky asked, taking Anna's duffle bag from her.
"Oh, don't worry about that. Jase, Bri, and I have tons of stuff we can use! We used to go sledding every day that there was snow on the ground when we were younger." Anna explained.
"Oh okay." Ricky shrugged as he opened the door to Anna's house and they stepped inside.
Once they had all their winter clothes off they walked down the hall to the kitchen, where they heard Anna's mother and father talking. "Mum! Dad! How's Elizabeth?" she asked.
Anna's father stepped forward. "Anna, at first we didn't know what would happen to her, but then when the doctor got here, we found out that that baby food we fed her yesterday for supper gave her food poisoning!"
Anna tilted her head. "Are you serious?" she asked.
Her parents nodded. "Yeah, but at least it wasn't as bad as it could've been." Anna sighed and turned to Ricky, shaking her head.
"Well that's good," she began. "hey, mum, is it okay if we go sledding?" Anna asked.
Sophia raised her head up from behind the paper. "Look out the window, baby." she said.
Anna and Ricky ran to the living room and looked out the picture window. Their jaws dropped. The blizzard had gotten so bad that they couldn't even see the house across the street.
"Whoa." Ricky breathed.
"Whoa," Anna agreed. "I guess we won't be going sledding, do you wanna go downstairs and find something else to do?"
Ricky shrugged. "Sure, that's cool." he followed Anna back through the house, through the kitchen, and down the stairs leading to the basement. It was freezing down there, so Anna grabbed an old sweatshirt of Jason's off the couch and pulled it on.
"Brrrr." she shivered, looking up at Ricky. He chuckled and rubbed his hands up and down her arms.
"You're really cold aren't you?" he asked, titling his chin and smirking at her.
Anna looked at him. "Yeah, it's like the freakin' arctic down here!" she complained.
Ricky let go of her and walked over and crouched beside the old woodstove, in the corner, that hadn't been used in years. "Do you guys use this anymore?" he asked. Anna walked over and stood beside him.
Anna scratched her chin. "Uhm, we haven't in a while." she said, leaning over to inspect it.
"Do you wanna clean it so it can be used?" Ricky asked, standing up.
"Are you serious?" Anna asked, raising both eyebrows in surprise.
"Yeah, I mean, it gives us something to do, since we're both so bored, and when we're done we could try and light a fire in it." he suggested. Anna stood there, looking thoughtfully at the stove. She shrugged.
"Sure, cool. I'll be right back." Anna dashed upstairs and grabbed two pairs of sweatpants from Jason's room, and an extra sweatshirt. She told her parents what was going on, and took a scrub brush, garbage bag, and dust pan from the kitchen and went back downstairs.
"What's that for?" Ricky asked, stepping forward and taking some stuff from her arms.
"Well if we're going to clean it we should have old clothes on so we don't get dirty." she explained, pulling on the sweatpants over her jeans. Ricky shrugged and followed suit, pulling the sweatshirt over his head and stepping into the sweatpants. Anna pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail and got down and opened the stove door. Right away this huge cloud of ashes hit her in the face.
Ricky burst out laughing when she turned around. Anna glared at him.
"It isn't that funny." she protested.
He shook his head. "Yes it is, you have ash on the tip of your nose. It's like Rudolph gone awry!" he howled with laughter.
Anna dove at him, wrestling him to the ground. "Nooo it's not!" she laughed so hard she cryed. Ricky flipped her around so she was pinned to the ground.
"Yes it is!" he exclaimed, tickling her.
Anna was howling in laughter as she writhed to escape. Her hair came out of the ponytail, making her laugh even harder, "Let me go!"
Ricky kept tickling her a while longer before finally letting her up. "That was fun." he laughed.
Anna dipped her hand into a tiny pile of ash that lay on the floor and gently hit him on the nose,"There. Now we're even!" she squealed.
Ricky shook his head with laughter, "Fine, but we better getting cleaning if we ever want to be warm."
Anna nodded seriously and they got to work. Almost an hour later they had scrubbed the stove top to bottom, cleaned out the ashes, and Jason had a gotten a fire going for them. Anna whipped off the sweatshirt and sweatpants, back in her normal clothes. Ricky did the same and they sat down on the couch. She leaned up against him and flicked the TV on. They sat there, just like that, for a little bit. Just as they were about to get up and go play with the Game Cube Brianna bounded down the stairs. "Ricky! Your mum just came to the door, you have a phone call back at home."
Ricky groaned and got up. Anna pouted. "I'll call you later, okay?" he promised. Anna nodded and walked him to the door.
"Bye!" she waved, almost falling from the door-frame into the snow.
"Bye!" he waved back, before disappearing into the next yard.
Anna watched until she was sure he was inside before shutting the door and going to take a shower. After her shower she went back into her room, toweled off, and pulled on the same jeans she had on earlier, with her new vintage 'Cookie-Monster' t-shirt. Tiredly, Anna walked over to her desk and sat down on the stool and pulled out the laptop. She logged on and searched her contacts list. Ricky wasn't on. Sighing, Anna logged off and waltzed downstairs into the kitchen. Brianna, Jason, and Mari were sitting around the table.
"Hey." she mumbled, blindly reaching into the cubboard and pulling out a blue plastic cup, she filled it with water and went to take a seat next to Jason.
"Hey 'bella, what's up. Where's Ricky?" he asked.
Anna turned to face him. "Not much, he went home, he had a phone call." she said simply.
Jason made the 'O' shape with his mouth and picked up his sandwich, slowly taking a bite. Anna rolled her eyes. Jason could be pretty dumb for someone who was in his first year of University.
The four of them sat there in silence, eating or drinking what they had in front of them. Their parents had gone out, leaving them to babysit Elizabeth. A faint cry was heard coming from upstairs. None of the supposed ''adults'' got up (Jason, Mari - 19, Brianna - 21), so Anna went to check on her. She padded down the carpeted hall to the nursery, and opened the door. "Hewwo wizzie! How's mwy fwavorite wittle gwirl ever!" Anna cooed as she picked her up and began to bounce the baby up and down on her hip.
Elizabeth let out a loud screech and began to wail. Anna was taken aback a bit, so she called for backup. "Someone come help me, she's being difficult!" she hollered out the door. Someone got up from the table, and Anna was surprised to see Mari appear in the doorway.
"Hey, Anna." she smiled warmly.
"Uh, hey. Could you go grab the diapers? I can't take a hand off of her or she wiggle out." Mari laughed and grabbed a pack of diapers, taking one out. Anna laid Elizabeth on the changing table, and began to change her. Mari handed her anything she needed, all while holding Elizabeth's little legs down, to prevent Anna getting kicked in the face. Once they finished the two girls attempted to dress the baby in a cute little sailor's dress. After that they put her into these cute little matching baby booties and Mari picked her up and walked down the stairs, Anna close on her heels.
"How'd it go?" Jason asked, looking up as they came back in.
"We survived, let's put it that way." Mari smiled, tucking a long lock of shiney black hair behind her ear.
Anna smiled at Mari. When Jason first started dating her Anna thought Mari was just another stupid flakey rich chick, but now she had changed her opinion. Slightly. Anna wasn't one to go easy on rich people very often. As she contemplated the situation Anna drifted to sleep, right at the kitchen table. No one bothered to wake her, they had all had very bad experiences from trying to wake her up. Let's put it this way; they still have the teeth mark scares on their hands and/or arms. So, when Ricky came to the door, no one even bothered to wake her up, they just let him in, and then sat and watched her sleep.
To Anna it felt like she had been asleep a few minutes, but in reality it had been about 2 hours. After slowly waking up she raised her head to see Brianna, Jason, Ricky, and Mari staring at her from around the table. "Whoa, whoa how long have I been out?" she stammered.
" 'Bout 2 hours or so." Jason yawned. Anna looked at Ricky.
"Hey!" she said, sitting up straight and running her fingers through her hair. Her siblings and Mari smirked at each other before getting up and leaving the table. Anna watchen them leave.
"Hey." he smiled back.
"What's up?" she asked.
"I have great news!" he exclaimed.
Anna raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I have a friend from camp coming to visit me for a bit." he explained.
Anna smiled. "That's awesome! When's he coming?"
"Erm," Ricky began, awkwardly rubbing his neck. "Tomorrow."
Anna frowned. Ricky had asked her to go see a movie tomorrow. "Oh, okay, that's okay." she said, her voice un-sure.
Ricky sighed a sigh of relief. "Okay, cool. He's a cool guy, you'll like him."
Anna smiled weakly. "Awesome."
Ricky glanced at the clock. "Oh, damn. I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay, sure. Bye." she nodded as he went out the back door.
