Noah and Cody had been moed into their new home for a little over a week, and after taking time to themselves to move in everything they had bought over the past few weeks, they were inviting Bethany, Joshua, and the kids, as well as Trent and Nicole, over for one last hurrah before everyone started school. They were pacing around the house, showing off all the finishing touches from the last day. Nicole had been staying with the two in their guest room, while Trent bounced between the guest room with Nicole, his mom's house, and his dad's house while getting his things ready for university.
"Well, that's about it." Cody said.
"Your shared office space looks really nice." Nicole said.
"Thanks. Eventually we're going to have it painted, but it's fine the way it is for now." Cody said.
"So, you two are leaving for school tonight?" Noah asked as he looked over to Nicole and Trent.
"Yep. Check-in is tomorrow." Trent said. "Thanks again for letting me crash here last night, by the way. I can't take another night at my mom's."
"Tell me again why you two aren't going to be in the same apartment again?" Noah asked. "You've been dating for almost a year now."
"Well, we want to, and we're ready to, but first-year students have to stay in the dorms and get a meal plan." Nicole explained. "Just another way for universities to get our money."
"We're going to get an apartment together after next year, though." Trent told the two.
"I'm in the apartment-style dorms this year, but I had to get a roommate this time." Nicole said.
"Have you talked to her yet?" Cody asked.
"A little bit, but we don't seem to have anything in common."
"However she ends up being, a roommate will be good for you. You'll get out of your shell." Noah told her.
"I'm not in a shell. I'm just an introvert who carefully chooses who she spends her time with." She said as she defended herself. Trent put his arm around Nicole and kissed her cheek, then looked over to Noah and Cody as she smiled. The doorbell rang as Noah was about to weigh in, and Cody ran to get it. Bethany, Joshua, Spencer, and Hannah were behind the door, as expected.
"Cody!" Hannah said. Cody went to her level to give her a hug. "I miss you!"
"Aw, we've only been gone a week." Cody said to her as he got up.
"It feels like forever!" She exaggerated. Noah, Nicole, and Trent walked over to say hello, with Spencer and Hannah running to Noah first.
"Uncle Noah!" Spencer exclaimed. "Your house is so cool!"
"Thanks, kid." Noah said. "There's even a room for you and Hannah to sleepover at when you're tired of hearing your new baby sister cry." Bethany laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Will you take the crying newborn, too?" She joked. The kids were already decked in their swimsuits and were holding their towels and goggles. Van Doggo began to run up to the kids and licked their ankles, and they went on the floor to pet him.
"Mommy, I want a dog." Hannah said to Bethany.
"Now is not a good time, sweetie. I am not going to be having a new baby and a dog running around the house." She said sternly. She began to pace around the living room and looked around their new house. "Wow, you two did a great job of dectorating. How many rooms is it again?"
"Three bedrooms, two and a half bath." Noah said. "We've got our guest bedroom, a home office for the both of us, and our bedroom."
"And that bathroom is where?" She asked. Joshua began to chuckle.
"You just went to the bathroom before we left the house." He mentioned to her.
"I swear this baby is sitting on my bladder on purpose."
"The bathroom's two doors to the left." Cody said.
"Great." As Bethany hurried to the bathroom, Joshua began to admire the photos on the wall, and pointed to a family photo Noah had recreated in his own style.
"This is a really nice one." Noah and Nicole were sitting together besides their other siblings and their parents. The photo was taken around Christmas time when everyone had come home for the holidays.
"Nicole convinced me to take some of my old paintings out of storage, and some of mom and dad's things." Joshua rubbed Noah's shoulder.
"Well, I'm proud of you. This is a big step for you." While he looked over to more family photos, he turned around to Trent. "Trent, you have to see this." He motioned for Trent to join them, and pointed to an old Halloween photo of the twins. Nicole was dressed as Marnie from Halloweentown, in her iconic witch costume from Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge, while Noah was dressed up as Harry Potter.
"Is that-" Nicole began to cut him off as she hurried to his side to look at the photo they were viewing.
"Marnie from Halloweentown, yes." She said proudly. "I'm not going to apologize for my love of Halloweentown."
"I remember babysitting you after school and it was all you wanted to watch."
"It's still all she wants to watch. We watched it on the bus at least three times on those tiny screens our tour bus had." Trent giggled.
"Hey, it's a good movie." She said in her defense. The kids, who were now outside, banged on the glass door at the patio.
"AUNT NICOLE! Uncle Noah!" Hannah said from outside. Both of them were in their bathing suits and already wet from the pool. "We're waiting for you!" The kids walked back to the pool and the five of them began to walk outside, with Joshua going over to the grill. Cody took off his shirt and jumped into the pool.
"Cannonball!" He screamed. The kids began to scream, as they were getting wet from his jump. Noah and Trent followed suit and began to take their shirts off as they walked into the pool, while Nicole took her sundress off to walk into the pool with her bathing suit that was underneath. As Noah met up with Cody in the middle of the pool, they looked towards each other as the kids hovered to Trent and Nicole.
"I told you a house was the best choice for us." Noah said. He remembered the beginning of their house-hunting when Cody had worried the space would be too big for them.
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"I always am." Hannah floated over to Noah and Cody in her ring float.
"Do you want to play a game with us?" She asked.
"Sure, what are you playing?" Cody asked.
"Marco Polo!" She exclaimed. "They taught it to us at camp. Aaand… you're it!" She tapped Cody's shoulder as she began to waddle backward from him. "You have to close your eyes and count to ten!" Cody began to chuckle as Noah swam away from him, and he closed his eyes.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… ten!" He kept his eyes closed as he began to pace around the pool. "Marco!"
"Polo!" Everyone said.
"Marco!"
"Polo!" Cody had gotten close to touching Spencer on the shoulder, but he saved himself by swimming away from Cody, which made him touch the edge of the pool instead.
"Can't catch me!" Spencer said. Cody began to go towards Spencer's voice, but he kept escaping his grasp. This went on for a few minutes until Cody finally bumped into Trent. He opened his eyes to see he found him.
"It's your turn, Trent!" Spencer exclaimed.
"All right, here I go!" The kids, Nicole, Joshua, and Noah began to spread out in the pool as Trent counted backward from ten.
"Marco!"
"Polo!"
"Marco!"
"Polo!" Trent had gotten closer to Nicole, who tried to swim away, but eventually got caught by Trent. He opened his eyes to see he got Nicole, and he picked her up and spun her around, which made the two of them laugh.
"He got you, Aunt Nicole!" Spencer giggled.
"Now you're it!" Hannah said. Joshua began to walk over to everyone.
"I'm grilling hamburgers and hot dogs, who wants what?" He asked.
"Hamburger!" Hannah and Spencer said together.
"Hot dog, please." Bethany said as she was sunbathing with a book in her hand.
"Hot dog." Noah said.
"Hamburger." Trent said.
"Hamburger." Nicole said.
"Hot dog." Cody said.
"All right, four hamburgers, three hot dogs." The kids kept playing with Nicole, Trent, Cody and Noah as Joshua started up the grill, with Nicole counting backwards from ten and the kids giggling trying to find a good hiding spot in the pool.
As the day turned to night, everyone stood outside helping Nicole and Trent pack the rest of their things into Trent's SUV. Hannah and Spencer stood beside Bethany, who looked sad to see them go.
"We're going to miss you so much, Aunt Nicole." Hannah said to her with a frown on her face.
"You were gone all summer and now you're leaving again." Spencer added.
"Hey, don't worry. I'll still be able to video chat with you guys and call. I promise." Nicole said to them as she knelt down and gave both of them a hug. She stood up and looked at Noah, and thought about her comfort level of leaving him this year compared to last year. Last year, Noah was shutting everyone out while having frequent panic attacks, and had been pushing his feelings from the last four years deep, deep down. He had spent the last year working through his issues, finding his true self again, and also found love in Cody. She felt more confident that she could leave Noah behind without worrying too much about him, and that he had all the right resources to help himself.
"I'm really proud of you, Noah." She said sincerely. "I'll miss you. And have a great time back in school."
"I'm just a phone call away." Noah told her. "It feels weird that we're not driving up there together."
"A lot can change in a year." She said with a wink. She began to give him a big, long hug, then went over to Cody to give him a hug.
"Goodbye, Cody. It was awesome spending time with you this summer."
"Same here." She walked up to Bethany and Joshua, and gave both of them a big, long hug.
"I will be sure to come home for the baby shower." She said to Bethany. "And thank you so much, Joshua, if this year was the last year that I spent in your house. You took Noah and I in after mom and dad died and I am so grateful for you."
"I mean, you're welcome, but it's not like you'll never see me again." He chuckled.
"I'm just feeling sentimental is all." She said. She looked over to Trent. "You ready?"
"Yep. Let's do this." He walked over to Cody and Noah and gave both boys a hug.
"See you guys soon." He said to them. He shook Joshua's hand and gave a hug to Bethany. He walked over to the kids, who gave him a quick hug and goodbye as well.
"We'll miss you, Trent." They said together.
"I'll miss you guys, too, I'll see you at fall break though, okay?" He said to them as they smiled.
"Okay!" Hannah said. Trent and Nicole went into the SUV and buckled up, and Trent began to reverse out of the driveway and out of the neighborhood. They stood outside watching until they were out of sight, and then Bethany and Joshua looked over to the kids.
"Are you ready to go home?" Bethany asked.
"No! I want to stay with Uncle Noah and Cody!" Hannah said. She looked over to Noah. "Can we sleepover?" Bethany shut this down before Noah could respond.
"Tomorrow is your meet the teachers day at school, we have to be up early!" The kids groaned and tipped their heads back dramatically. "Now say goodbye and thank you to uncle Noah and Cody for having us over."
"Thank you uncle Noah!" Spenccer exclaimed. "Thank you Cody!"
"Yeah, thank you uncle Noah! Thank you Cody!" Hannah echoed. "Your pool was so much fun! I wish we had a pool!"
"Don't worry, we're just ten minutes away. You can come over whenever your parents say it's okay." He said to them.
"You promise?" Hannah asked.
"I promise."
"I still have to come over for your piano lessons, so don't worry! We'll still be around!" Cody said to the kids. Hannah smiled as she and Spencer piled back into the car, and Bethany rolled her car window down as Joshua started the ignition.
"We miss you and you're both welcome back to the house anytime. Especially if you want to babysit the kids." Bethany waved out to Noah and Cody as they reversed out of the driveway. Once they were out of sight, the two boys walked into the house and headed over to the couch. Noah snuggled onto Cody as he turned the TV on and the two were quiet for a little bit until Cody spoke up.
"Are you all right?" As Nicole approaches her third year of school, Noah would normally spend this time upset, but with almost a year of therapy under him, he's become comfortable with her leaving. He looked over to Cody and smiled.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." He smiled as he kissed Cody, then snuggled closer to him. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Cody asked.
"Exactly. Pure silence."
