Chapter 2
Planning
After lunch, Abby hosted a planning period with the herd to figure out what she would do for the next week.
"Okay," Abby said, "There are a few essential activities that happen every year. There's the weekly knitting project with Wammawink and my mom. There's the annual braiding of Uncle Durpleton's mane. Uncle Zulius and I always write a skit together to perform on Fridays.
Auntie Glendale always thinks of something random to do with me. Uncle Ched and I vent about the undesirable situations during our childhoods, which mine is almost over. Of course, there's my birthday party next week. Finally, I should find something to do with my new cousin Stabby and our new friends Horse and Rider."
"I'll pass," Rider said, "I don't think we'd have anything in common that we'd enjoy doing together."
"You never know," Abby said, "Uncle Ched and I also work on a comedy routine to perform on Fridays after my skit with Uncle Zulius."
"Cool," Rider said, "but I'm good."
"Suit yourself," Abby said, "Now, the Friday performances won't happen until the week after my birthday because today's Friday, and my birthday is also on Friday. On the bright side, that gives us extra time to rehearse. So, to best utilize that time, I think I should start my activities with Ched and Zulius first. Now, do we want to do full-day or half-day intervals?"
"Well," Wammawink said, "Usually the knitting is full-day."
"However," Sharon said, "I think the other activities can be half-day."
"Alright," Abby said, "In that case, Zulius will have tomorrow morning, and Ched will have tomorrow afternoon. After tomorrow, I will have a daily hour-long rehearsal with each of them in the evening and a longer half-day rehearsal once a week."
"Sounds good," Zulius said.
"That works," Ched agreed.
"Alright," Abby said, "Well, Auntie Glendale always makes it hard to plan because we always do something random. No one can predict when the impulse to do the random thing with me will occur. To make up for this, Sundays will be left open to remedy if Auntie Glendale's random activity interrupts something I'm doing with someone else."
"I'm here for the chaos," Glendale said.
"Auntie Glendale," Abby said, "You are the chaos. I know Wammawink prefers Wednesdays, and so do I because I love the alliteration. Wammawink Wednesdays. Fridays are always dress rehearsals for the skit and comedy act, so that leaves Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for Horse, Durpleton, and Stabby."
"Each of them getting a day to themselves or having multiple sessions a week would be unfair," Ched said.
"True," Abby said, "I guess we can leave some time slots remaining and decide what we want to do on the spot. We should start Durpleton's hair braiding in the morning just in case it takes a little longer than we expect it to. Do you want Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday?"
"Monday," Durpleton said, "And Stabby can take Tuesday afternoon."
"Alright," Abby said, "Horse, I guess that means you get Thursday. Morning or Afternoon?"
"Afternoon," Horse said, "I'm not a morning person."
"Cool," Abby said, "Now that we're done with planning, that gives me the rest of the day to be creative."
"Wait," Wammawink said, "What do you plan on doing with Horse and Stabby during their allotted time?"
"Well," Abby said, "I have some experience playing with cousins from my dad's family. I have a card game Stabby might enjoy, I have sidewalk chalk we can draw with…"
"Sidewalk chalk?" Horse asked, "but there's grass everywhere here."
"Baby girl," Wammawink said, "One of Abby's magical talents is being able to conjure canvases of all kinds."
"And a canvas can be anything," Abby said, "Stabby might also have fun fingerpainting with me. I have watercolors and acrylics. I don't care much for oil paints."
"I think drawing with the sidewalk chalk would be fun," Stabby said.
"Cool," Abby said, "I think of a lot of things to draw with them. Horse can choose an activity to do with me. I want to see what she might come up with."
"Awesome," Horse said, "I have a great get-to-know-you activity you will just love,"
"Awesome," Abby said, "Well, I guess I'll spend the rest of the day drawing characters for a new story I'm working on."
Abby grabbed her sketchpad, drawing pencils, and colored pencils and started to draw colorful centaurs with big eyes. She looked forward to getting to know the newest members of the herd.
