Chapter six
Non magic camping
"Why can't I go?" Chris whined as his aunt dragged him to the bus stop, Wyatt already there. "This is your punishment for hitting little Henry yesterday," Prue reminded him for the billionth time. Chris crossed his arms and sulked the rest of the way to the bus stop. Prue decided to wait with the boys… to ensure Chris got on the bus. "This is not fair," he mumbled. He stomped a foot on the ground which had no effect on Prue's mind. "Take it up with your parents," she said. "After school," she added, just to be safe. "Come on, Chris. Cheer up. Today is the last day and then we will have all summer to have fun," Wyatt stated. Chris simply rolled his eyes in response. "Chris, don't even pretend you're mad about missing Henry's birthday party. You only want to go because it would mean you get to skip school," Prue stated. She saw right through the kid. "That's not true," Chris argued. "Oh no? When was the last time you even played with him?" Chris opened his mouth to answer but then closed it as he couldn't even remember the last time he played with his little cousin. Prue looked down the street and saw the big yellow bus coming towards them. "There, the bus is here. Now no more arguing and at least try to have a good day." Chris shook his head and looked away from his aunt. Prue sighed and gave Wyatt a quick hug as the bus came to a stop and opened its doors. Wyatt went on first and Chris didn't budge. "Chris." No response. Prue smiled at the bus driver and asked for a minute. She leaned towards the kid to whisper in his ear. "If you don't get on that damn bus right now you will be spending the entire summer in summer school. Day and night." Chris had a quick change of mind and mounted the bus. Prue stayed to watch the bus doors close and the bus roll away, disappearing around the corner.
It was the last day of the school year and it was also Henry Junior's third birthday. Mrs. Grace (Henry's daycare teacher) had offered to throw him a party in class. Since Victor had come down with flu and Billie was starting a summer job, and Darryl and Sheila were both busy, and Paige had heard nothing from her father in days, it seemed this idea was the better plan for celebrating the child's birthday. His sisters and most of his cousins would be in attendance as well as his parents, his aunts, and his uncles. Wyatt had been given permission to miss the last day of school to attend the party but he had refused the invitation as he wanted to be at school, and Chris was being punished for hitting his cousin the day before.
"Good morning! Happy birthday," Mrs. Grace said as little Henry entered the classroom. His sisters, Melinda and PJ ran past him to go play while Parker was hiding behind her father and Payton was in her father's arms. "Thank you," said Henry Junior. Mrs. Grace smiled and noticed the little toddler hiding. "Who's this little angel?" She asked. Coop looked down at his daughter and smiled, he pushed her forwards. "This is my daughter Parker, PJ's little sister." "Oh, hello." Parker waved to her shyly. "Will she be joining my class in the fall?" Mrs. Grace asked Coop, he nodded in response. Parker spotted her big sister and ran over to her, and Payton started throwing a little fit because she wanted to be put down. So, Andy let her down but held onto her hand to keep her from running off as he wanted to keep an eye on her. Prue arrived a few minutes later. When she did, Mrs. Grace smiled and got all the kids' attention. Everyone sat down on the carpet in-front of a chair that belonged to Mrs. Grace.
"Good morning, children," Mrs. Grace greeted.
"Good morning, Mrs. Grace," the kids replied.
"Today we are going to have a very fun day. We are having a party today because it's Henry's birthday. Can you all say happy birthday to Henry?"
"Happy birthday, Henry!"
Mrs. Grace revealed some garbage bags and unturned them upside down to release many colourful balloons. The children cheered and got up, they started kicking around the balloons or throwing them up in the air. Payton tried to kick one but ended up tripping and falling over the balloon. She thought this was hilarious and started laughing. Parker was more interested in carrying around a single pink balloon which Tamora kept trying to take away from her insisting it was the only pink balloon which wasn't true. PJ accidentally popped a green one and screamed. She then started to cry and ran over to her father for comfort. She refused to play with the balloons after this, and it had scared a few other kids as well.
Westcott elementary school was having a party too. Normally, it was only for the last two classes of the last day but this year it was all day. Tables had been placed with bowls of different snacks and drinks. The third grade class entered the gym and Darryl Junior found a seat on the floor. The fourth and fifth graders were already seated on the gym floor. Wyatt entered the gym alongside the other second-graders and looked around. Darryl waved at him and Wyatt happily joined him. The boys fist bumped to greet each other. Wyatt noticed when Chris's class came in and gave him a wave, a wave Chris completely ignored. Wyatt was a tad offended but knew Chris was just in a bad mood because he had been sent to school instead of being allowed to go to the preschool party. Once the two kindergarten classes had entered the gym and had found their spots on the floor, Principal George got up onto the small stage and asked for everyone's attention. "Before we begin the party, I have a few awards to give out. Then Mrs. Dahlia will hand you your year books over at that table. After that, you can start having fun. "The reward for hard work goes to Chris Halliwell" George announced. Chris got on the stage and received his award. He felt very proud of himself. The rest of the rewards were given out. Then music started and the children lined up to get their yearbooks.
"Here I am," Chris said. He was looking through his year book with Wyatt and had found himself on his class's page. "They used your full name," Wyatt noticed. Chris looked at his name that was written next to his picture and shrugged. It didn't bother him that they had written "Christopher" instead of "Chris." He then looked over to the next page and started pointing out Wyatt's friends. "Here you are," Chris said, pointing to Wyatt's picture. Around them, kids were laughing, talking, running around, munching on the snack, spilling their juice. A few of the older kids were dancing with their girlfriend/boyfriends. Kennedi and Dakota came up to Wyatt and Chris and asked them to dance. Wyatt agreed and he and Dakota found room and started dancing to the music, while Chris danced with Kennedi to be polite.
At the preschool it came time for the preschool graduation as the other parents started to arrive. Mrs. Grace brought all of her graduating kids into the bathroom and helped them put on their little blue graduation gowns. She cried a little on the inside over how adorable the children were in their little gowns and knew they would melt the heart of every parent here. She brought them out and had them line up beside the carpet. The other children sat on the carpet as did the parents. She played some grad music on a little radio. A little boy with brown hair was the first to graduate. Then a little boy with red hair, and then one with blond hair, and then another with blond hair. "Melinda Halliwell!" Piper almost started to cry and Leo smiled warmly as their little girl walked forward and received a hug from Mrs. Grace. Melinda smiled proudly and then ran over to her parents and sat on her dad's lap. "PJ Halliwell!" Phoebe did cry and so did Coop as their little baby walked toward her teacher and received her hug. PJ ran over to her dad throwing herself into his arms for a hug, almost knocking her sister off his lap. She sat down on his lap with her sister and her mother kissed the top of her head. Three little girls and one little boy then graduated. "Kat Mitchell!" Henry and Paige both watched happily, hiding their emotions, as their daughter received her hug from her teacher. Kat walked over to her parents and sat next to her mother who had Henry on her lap. "Tamora Mitchell!" Tamora walked up to her teacher and received her hug and then went over to her family and sat down next to her father.
An hour later and it was time to say goodbye. Melinda wrapped her arms around her teacher's waist. "Bye, Melinda. Have fun in kindergarten." Melinda nodded and took her father's hand. He led her away with Piper following behind. PJ surprised her parents when she too gave her teacher a hug. PJ was normally so shy. "Bye, sweetie. I hope you enjoy kindergarten." PJ nodded and took her sister's hand. "Bye, Parker. I look forward to having you in my class." Parker smiled and the girls walked away with their parents. Mrs. Grace looked at the twins. "Bye girls. Good luck in kindergarten." She gave them a hug as she thought in her head "yeah, good luck to your teacher." She looked at little Henry and said, "and I'll see you in September. Have a good summer." Henry nodded but didn't want a hug.
On the way home, Henry Junior saw a graveyard and said, "other mommy lives there." Paige teared up and Henry felt sadness settle in his chest. Paige turned in her seat to look at her son. "Not that graveyard, honey. Would you like to visit your mommy?" Little Henry nodded and Paige turned her body to look at her husband. He read her expression and nodded. He drove them to the correct graveyard and occupied the twins while Paige brought Henry to his biological mother's grave. A few tears leaked from Paige's brown eyes as she watched her son examine his mother's gravestone. "Her name was Kristina. She was very pretty. You look like her a lot," Paige whispered to her son. She told him this every time he came to visit his mom but he was so young he never remembered her name. Henry sat down and just looked at the gravestone. Paige couldn't start to guess what was going through his little mind right now. Surely, he was too young to really understand what death meant and he definitely didn't know how his mother had died, and he knew nothing about his biological father, and didn't remember having met his maternal grandparents. He understood it as Paige wasn't his only mom but didn't quite understand he had a birth mom and an adoptive mom, mostly because he hadn't yet been told he was adopted. He knew Paige was his mom but that he had another mom and that his real mom lived here because she was dead but didn't understand what dead meant exactly, only that he couldn't see his mom and she couldn't talk back to him. Paige and Henry would explain it to him when he was old enough to understand.
It was the next day now and it was during breakfast. Wyatt and Chris were excited because magic camp was opening for the summer soon. Melinda, PJ, and the twins were going as well and they were talking about how excited they were. Then… Chris made the mistake of telling Henry Junior he would get to go this year because he was finally old enough. (You had to be at least three-years-old to go.) "I get to go? Yay!" Piper looked over at Henry's parents and gave them an apologetic look. "Henry, honey." Henry Junior looked over at his mom. "I'm sorry, baby but you can't go." Henry's face dropped. "Why not?" He asked. "Well, Honey, magic camp is only for magical kids, and you are mortal like daddy so you're not allowed to go to magic camp," Paige explained as gently as she could. Henry Junior was about to start crying but then Coop came up with a brilliant idea. "Let's all go camping this weekend! Mortal camping." He looked around at the other adults, and little Henry now had hope in his eyes instead of tears. "I'm free," Prue said. "I can have someone cover for me," said Piper. "Now that school's out I'm free," Leo chimed in. "I have someone I can switch shifts with," Paige stated. "And I have the whole weekend off," said Henry. "Great," said Coop. "What do you think, honey?" Paige asked her son. "Let's do it," little Henry replied enthusiastically.
On Saturday morning the children had a quick breakfast before getting ready for the trip. Their suitcases and bags had already been packed but they still needed to be bathed, get dressed, and brush their hair and teeth. Wyatt and Chris had decided to take showers the night before and so they were clean. Wyatt didn't want to bring his nice clothes camping, so he was actually borrowing some of his brother's clothes. This morning, he put on his brother's plain brown t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts while Chris decided on a plain grey- t-shirt and dark-brown shorts. Melinda's hair was finally long enough to be tied up and she asked her mom to tie it into a ponytail, and she dressed herself in a light-blue t-shirt that had a rainbow design on the front, and a pair of grey leggings that only went down to her knees. Payton was wearing a white t-shirt that said |this is what spoiled looks like" in different colours. She also had on a jean skirt. Tamora was wearing a pink shirt with purple shorts. Kat was wearing a purple shirt that went with the shorts Tamora was wearing, and pink shorts that went with the shirt Tamora was wearing. Their hair was too short to be tied. P.J. had her brown hair loose and was wearing a long yellow summer dress that had daisies all over it. Parker was wearing a lagoon blue t-shirt and jean shorts that had a small red rose at the bottom the left side. Her hair was in two ponytails on the sides. Henry Jr. was wearing an orange shirt that had a Tigger design on it and grey shorts.
When the cars were loaded up and everyone was ready, the family drove to the camping ground. It was not a long trip. When they arrived the children played on their camp spot while the adults attempted to set up the tents. "How on earth do you do this?" Coop said confused and slightly frustrated as he looked at the instructions. "Don't look at me," Phoebe remarked. "Need some help?" a familiar voice asked. "Darry? What are you doing here?" Paige stupidly asked. "Um.. you know…camping...like you guys." Paige let out a forceful laugh out of embarrassment. "Anyways, I'll get Sheila and the boys, we'll help you set up," Darryl offered and walked away.
"I'm such an idiot, why else would they be here," Paige stated and smacked her forehead with her hand.
Darryl returned shortly accompanied by Sheila and their sons Mikey and Darryl junior. The four of them easily helped the Halliwells/Mitchells set up their tents. Coop felt like an idiot not being able to put up a stupid tent. "Thanks guys," Piper thanked. "No problem, why don't you all come to our camp spot tonight, we're having smores and singing songs," Sheila invited. "Are you sure, we don't want to intrude," Phoebe stated. "Yeah of course, we've got a whole week to spend family time," Sheila insisted. "Alright then, that sounds like fun," Phoebe agreed. "Great, come by at eight, camp spot nine," Darryl informed.
Darryl and his family walked away. Prue, her sisters and their husbands put away their bags and suitcases in their tents. There were six tents, one for Andy, Prue and one year old Payton, one for Piper and Leo, one for Phoebe, Coop and almost two year old Parker, and one for Paige and Henry. Also one for Wyatt, Chris and little Henry, and one for Melinda, the twins and P.J. Prue had made a small cradle in her tent for baby Payton.
"So what do you want to do first?" Prue asked the children.
"Swimming," the kids all shouted at once.
Since everyone already had their bathing suits under their clothes, they instantly followed the trail and found the beach. As the adults laid out their towels on the sand, the children ran for the water. Piper decided to relax on her towel while the others went in the water. She had the camera and used the zoom button to video tape her family in the water. "We meet again," Sheila said as she and Darryl laid out their towels beside Piper. "Are you following us?" Piper teased. "I was wondering the same thing," Darryl teased back.
In the water, Prue, Phoebe and Paige were racing each other. Henry was teaching little Henry how to swim. Coop and Andy were holding Parker and Payton while walking through the water slowly. The others were enjoying a game of Marco Polo. "Marco," PJ called out with her eyes closed. "Polao," the others called out. PJ followed the closest sounding Polao and waved her arms around. She accidently hit her father in the face and was lucky to miss Parker. "Oops, sorry daddy," PJ apologized. "It's alright, just be careful not to hit a stranger," Coop warned. PJ called out Marco again and followed Melinda's voice. P.J. waved her arm forward and touched Melinda`s elbow. "Melinda's Marco" PJ called out to inform the others. Melinda closed her eyes and the game continued. About an hour later everyone was washed out. So they dried themselves off, got dressed and headed back to their camp spot.
In order to cook super Piper needed to set a fire to the fire pit. However it hadn't occurred to them to bring a lighter. Their many attempts at a fire failed. "I can help with that," Tamora offered. "Well okay, the coast is clear, go ahead firefly," Paige agreed. Tamora waved her hands towards the fire pit and set a fire using her power. Piper then began to cook the meal. While Piper did this the others played go fish. "Do you have any twos?" Melinda asked Wyatt. "Yes I do," Wyatt answered and handed Melinda his two. Melinda added it to her large pile of pairs. She was on a major winning streak. Then Phoebe's empathy power kicked in. "Hey you're sensing all our cards you little sneak," Phoebe suddenly said. "Uh man busted," Melinda said. "She admits to her crime," Chris shouted out playfully.
Shortly after supper was served, by the time everyone had finished eating it was almost time for Darryl and Sheila's campfire. Once the kids were in warm Pajamas, the family took their folding chairs and walked to Darryl and Sheila's camping spot. When they arrived the fire had already been started. The family set up their chairs around the fire pit, this Darryl and his family had already done. Once everyone was seated, Darryl taught them how to make smores. The adults made a couple and handed them to the kids. Only Wyatt was considered old enough to make them himself, well him and Darryl's sons. As they ate them, everyone laughed as they told stories. "So then the toaster exploded and there was Jam everywhere," Wyatt shared about his recent battle with the toaster. "That happened to me once, and dad threatened to put me in jail for it," Mikey recalled. "He was so scared, I found him hiding in the laundry hamper," Darryl said, laughing his head off. Being a pre-teen this must have embarrassed Mikey. After a few more stories it was late so the Halliwells went back to their camp site and crawled into their tents.
It was only at the break of dawn when the children woke their parents up. Coop did a head count and good news was nobody had orbed or beamed out, all the kids were there. While Piper prepared their breakfast of sandwiches, the others played a round of go fish. "Okay adults help yourselves," Piper instructed when everyone was seated at the three pick nick tables. While the adults served themselves Piper served the children. After breakfast the family got dressed. Then they got their Frisbee and everyone formed a circle. Henry quickly explained what to do. Andy decided to take Payton and Parker for a walk since they were too young to play. Paige started and threw the Frisbee to Wyatt who caught it and threw it to Melinda. Melinda missed and ran down the path chasing after it. Once it landed she picked it up and ran back and got back in the circle. Melinda threw the Frisbee to Coop who threw it to Prue. Prue threw it to Leo who was not paying attention. It smacked him in the face and everyone laughed.
"Get your head in the game," Prue teased as Leo picked up the Frisbee.
Once they got bored of this game, they switched to badminton. It turned out the entire family sucked at this game, no one managed to hit the birdie, and the children couldn't even serve properly. After a few attempts they gave up and played soccer instead. Coop and Henry were team captain so they got to pick their teammates. "I Pick Prue, Phoebe, Leo, PJ, Chris and Wyatt," Coop picked. "I'll take Piper, Paige, Melinda, Tamora, Kat and Henry," Henry picked. The family got into two groups. Wyatt and Melinda were the goalies. Henry placed the ball in the middle of the two teams and the game began. Coop got the ball but it was soon stolen by Chris you made close to goal when Phoebe came and kicked it to P.J. who kicked it so hard it flew into the air and knocked Wyatt down when it hit his stomach. Leo healed his stomach and told P.J. to kick less hard. They counted it as a point anyways and the ball was put back in the middle of the two teams. This time Piper got the ball but it was stolen right away by Paige. "Hey we're one the same team!" Piper shouted at her. "I know," Paige shouted back. Paige ran all the way to the goal and kicked the ball, Wyatt caught it before it went into the goal. When Henry's team got to 21 points the game ended and his team won. Then Phoebe made lunch while the others played freeze tag. Andy got back with the babies just as Phoebe finished serving lunch.
"You're late, sit down and I'll make an exception this time," Phoebe teased as she prepared two more sandwiches.
Phoebe gave the two sandwiches to Andy and Parker, and gave Payton some ham and turkey. After lunch Andy brought the whole family out on the walk he had just returned from with the babies. However they didn't make it all the way because the kids were complaining about sore feet and Andy had a charge to take care of. Andy orbed out and the others went back to their camp. When they got back it was mid- afternoon. The kids didn't want to go swimming again because their feet were sore. So the family played candy land instead. That didn't go well because Payton orbed the cards around to help her mother win. This reminded them of when Chris did the same thing to help Wyatt beat their grandfather at this game… which Victor had told them about.
The kids felt fine at that point but they decided they wanted to go to the little park instead of swimming. At the camp park there was a swing set, playground, a seesaw, a slide and a Dolphin Spring Ride. Phoebe placed Parker on the spring ride and helped her rock it back and forth. Prue pushed Payton in the baby swing. Piper was in charge of recording, the girls were taking turns on the slide, little Henry was on the playground, the boys were on the swings and the others were relaxing on a bench.
"Hey no cutting in line!" Tamora snapped at a little girl who cut in-front of them to go on the slide. The little girl didn't listen so Tamora pushed her hard down the slide. The little girl ended up following up the side of the slide and started crying. Paige and a woman ran up to them. "Tamora what's gotten into you, you know better than to push people," Paige scolded her daughter. "I'm so sorry…Elise?" Paige said in surprise. "Paige, hi," the woman said as she picked up the crying little girl. "Oh my gosh, this is Alyssa. I'm so sorry about Tamora pushing her. "My sister's out of town so I thought I'd take her camping for the weekend," Elise replied. "Oh well again I'm sorry about Tamora pushing her, she has a short temper," Paige apologized. "It's alright she's fine, I saw it coming, she doesn't share very well at times," Elise said. "Tamora, say you're sorry," Paige ordered. "I'm sorry," Tamora apologized. "Okay Alyssa say you're sorry for not sharing the slide," Elise ordered. "Sorry," Alyssa apologized. "Okay are you ready to play nice and share?" Elise asked Alyssa. Alyssa nodded so the adults left them to play. Elise joined the family and they caught up with each other while the children played.
"So Alyssa. She must be going into kindergarten this fall?" Phoebe asked.
"Yes, Westcott Elementary in September? Your girls are the same age as Alyssa are they not? Are they going to Westcott too?"
"Yes, they are," Phoebe replied.
"Wyatt and Chris attend there as well, third and second grade this fall," Leo added.
"Wyatt's already in the third grade, time does go fast," Elise remarked.
"Did you get the invitation to Parker's birthday party next month?" Phoebe asked.
"Yes, I found it on my desk, I can't wait, I can't believe she's already going to be two," Elise said.
"You can bring Alyssa if you want and your sister, it's not going to be a big party since Parker doesn't have any friends yet," Coop invited.
"Alright I'll talk to my sister about it, she's been wanting to have Alyssa start making friends," Elise accepted.
A while later the family went back to camp, it was supper time. Tamora set another fire and Paige made the meal. After super Andy came back and the family watched the sunset. Afterwards they all crawled into their tents and fell asleep. For the last day the family started with swimming then went to the park. At noon they had lunch and the children played tag while the adults packed everything up. It turned out taking the tents down was just as hard as putting them up, "Just forget it bags... car" Paige orbed the bags to the car. After orbing all their belongings into the car, Paige casted a spell to take down the tents. After packing them up in the cars the kids got in and the family drove home. It had been a fun family weekend, and it had been a good experience for the kids. Most importantly it made Henry happy and made him know he was important to the family.
