CHAPTER 2: 'Twas a Long Night

I was right. Last night was a long night.

Dinner with the Heffleys went well but it was so boring. Only the adults were chatting and having fun. While Mrs. Heffley was eating, she was giving my mom a virtual tour of the city, drawing maps on air. My dad was talking to Mr. Heffley about his job opportunity. It seems like they'll be work buddies very soon. I don't know how, but their conversation led to civil wars and stuff like that.

I was silently eating my food. I didn't really talk that much because there's really nothing to talk about. Manny, the toddler, was just chewing, spitting, and playing with his food while his brother, Greg, was looking at him with disgust. Rodrick ate a lot like he hadn't eaten for months, but when we all finished (and our parents were still chatting), I noticed that he was trying to avoid falling asleep 'cause his eyes were already dozing off. I covered my mouth with my hand and let out a silent laugh.

After a few minutes of awkward silence among the "young people", Greg decided to start a conversation.

"So… April, where do you live?" he asked me.

"Two houses away from yours," I tried to answer as friendly as I can.

"Cool. Um, well, do you like video games?"

"Not really."

"Oh, okay…" he replied, looking down at his empty plate.

"But I do play them sometimes… when I'm in the mood to."

His face lit up at my words. "Great! Could I invite you over sometime so we could play?"

"Sure. Why not?" I answered and smiled.

He smiled back. Beside him, I saw Rodrick rolling his eyes and smirking at the flow of our conversation. He pushed back his chair, took his plate, and walked off to the kitchen.

How rude.

"Rodrick, where are you going?" Mrs. Heffley seemed to be annoyed at the sudden actions of her eldest son.

Rodrick came out of the kitchen with his hands behind him. He gave a fake smile and tried to act polite. "Will you excuse me? I have to go to my room and fix something."

"Sure Rodrick. Be back as soon as you've finished," his mom replied with a smile.

I couldn't believe the adults bought it. Wasn't it obvious that he was faking and being sarcastic?

"Thank you, mother," with that, he bowed, nodded to my parents, and walked towards the stairs.

"Wow, your son is very polite!" my mom said to Mrs. Heffley with a delighted grin on her face.

Seriously, what's the definition of respectful and polite these days?

We went back home at around 10pm. As I've expected, Rodrick never went back downstairs.

I didn't finish unpacking last night. So I continued it today. It's past 11am and my dad already went to work.

"April! Come down here for a while please," my mom called from downstairs.

I ran downstairs and saw my mom dressed, with her bag over her shoulder.

"I'm going out today, April. I'm just gonna roam around the town and maybe find a job or something. There's food on the table, okay?"

"Sure mom. Take care!"

With that, she gave a motherly kiss, waved goodbye, and walked out the door.

Speaking of lunch… I am getting kinda hungry. So I went to the dining table to see the food mom was talking about. I got a drink from our fridge, and then started to eat.

After eating, I washed the plates, then went back to my room.

As I continued unpacking, I couldn't help but reminisce the moments back at our old home and when I was hanging out with my best friends… I terribly miss them.

It was about 4pm when I finally finished. I was bored so I went downstairs to the living room to watch TV.

I switched the channels til I found a movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. My favorite! I was on time because it just started. So I just watched this for the rest of the afternoon.

The movie was almost over when the door opened and I saw my mom coming in.

"Hey mom, what's up?" I went to her and she gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I got a part-time job at one of the offices nearby!"

"Wow. That's great! Congrats mom!"

"Yeah. And guess what I got for you."

"What is it?"

"I got you a summer job at the country club!"

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah! We need to earn money and you've got to find more friends."

"But Mom-"

"It's okay, sweetheart. You'll start on the 5th, and you'll have so much fun, I swear."

"Fine," I sighed and went to my room. Could this week get any worse?