In this chapter, we look into the lives of some of the other characters (specifically, the Nielsen family and Jordan McKessie). Enjoy the chapter!
It was later in the evening when Taylor walked downstairs to the living room and saw her sister typing away on her laptop. Taylor announced her presence by gently clearing her throat, causing Jordan to look up.
"Hey." Taylor smiled softly.
"Hey." Jordan smiled back with tired eyes. "Shouldn't you be in bed? You have school tomorrow."
"I know. I just wanted to say goodnight because I know you'll have class by the time I get back tomorrow." Taylor explained, walking over to lean down and rest on the frame of the couch. "What are you up to?"
Jordan looked at her laptop screen. "Um…." she hummed, gently rubbing her eyes. "I have a paper due tomorrow so I'm just adding the finishing touches. I'm also looking over a project proposal that one of Dad's employees sent in."
"You're in on that whole process now?" Taylor asked, looking at her sister.
"Yep." Jordan answered, scrolling down the document. "Indeed I am."
"That's great, congratulations." Taylor said, impressed. "What's this one about?"
"I believe it's a flying toaster." Jordan answered with slow nods.
"Oh."
"Uh-huh."
"Do you um...Do you think it will make it?" Taylor asked, trying to hide her amused tone.
"Oh, not in the slightest." Jordan replied with a laugh. "It doesn't seem safe at all. Though a vast majority of people enjoy the idea of breakfast in bed, the model could use some work."
"From the looks of it, it's basically being held up by a metallic version of one of those spinners that you see on top of those rainbow hats." Taylor scrunched up her nose in doubt of the design.
Jordan looked up to give her a fond smile, "Propeller hat, hon."
"Whatever you say." Taylor laughed. "Night JJ, love you. Good luck with your paper, and the propeller toaster."
"Night Tay, love you too." Jordan laughed with her. "Sweet dreams." She said as Taylor walked to the staircase. Jordan slightly frowned to herself and thought for a moment.
"Hey, Tay?" Jordan called quietly.
"Yeah?" Taylor replied, turning to look at her curiously.
"...Do you think that I'm meant to take over the company? Honestly?" She asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"I'm just curious."
Taylor thought for a moment. "Well, you've been training for it for practically your entire life." She replied. "Why wouldn't you be?"
Jordan gave a light shrug and answered, "I don't know."
Taylor looked at her older sister with a curious and slightly concerned look in her eyes. "Is there...something you want to talk about?" She asked.
"No, I'm good." Jordan said with a warm smile. "Just checking."
Taylor smiled back and said, "You'll be great. I know you will. You're you."
Jordan nodded. "Thanks, sis."
"Of course. Night." Taylor waved.
"Night…" Jordan waved back before going back to her work. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours before Jordan had completed her tasks. When she knew she was done for the night, Jordan checked the time on a nearby wall clock. It was 10 PM. Jordan sighed, gently rubbing her temples before shutting her laptop. Then, she stood and picked up her heels from earlier, going upstairs. Though she soon entered her room and put her laptop down, Jordan was not checking in for the night quite yet. She had an errand to run.
Jordan went to her closet and knelt down to replace her heels for a pair simple black sneakers on her shoe rack. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her.
"Night, baby girl." Diana said softly, pecking her forehead. Jordan flinched, giving a tiny squeak.
"Mom!" She whined. "Don't do that!"
Diana laughed. "Sorry, honey." she smiled. "Your class ends at 5:15 tomorrow right?" Jordan nodded. "Alright, I'll see you then. Remember that it's movie night okay? We start at 8. Night, dear. I love you!"
"Okay, mom. Night, love you too!" Jordan smiled as she left the room. She finished tying her shoes and stood up, walking to retrieve her purse from her window seat across the room. Once she grabbed it, Jordan blinked when she realized that she was missing an item that she needed to leave. She looked underneath one of the seat's pillows before groaning quietly and closing her eyes. "Oh no...I'm gone for a week and I forget where I put it. Great." she sighed to herself. Her eyes caught her desk, and she sighed again with relief. "Oh, there it is." She walked over and picked up a thick textbook.
Tyler walked in to say goodnight but stopped when he saw his daughter still dressed with her purse over her shoulder. "Hi, honey. Where are you going?" he asked.
Jordan smiled. "Hi, Daddy." She gave him a hug. "Nick needs me to drop off his textbook. He left it in the library before we left last Friday." she rolled her eyes.
"That's Nick for you." Tyler smirked.
"Don't I know it." Jordan smirked back.
Nick- or Nicholas- Kamrin was a guy in a few of Jordan's courses that she tutored for part time. He was quite reckless. He fell asleep in class, procrastinated on his homework until the last minute, was a super flirt, snuck into places, and held the craziest parties. He was pretty well-known around campus. However, when his parents threatened to cut him off if his grades didn't improve, of course he decided to buckle down (somewhat). He pleaded with the most intelligent girl in his class (Jordan Timberley McKessie) to help him understand the course content, and she agreed. She had been his tutor for a few months, and they got along fairly well, even though they were polar opposites.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Tyler asked.
"Well, apparently there's some barbeque tonight at the boys' dorm? Trinity and Trish will be there and they want me to say hi before I go. It would depend on the length of our conversation. I'd say….an hour at most?" Jordan guessed.
"Alright then." Tyler smiled. "I know you'll make good choices. Try to turn off the alarm quickly when you come in? I'm going to bed. Love you."
"Sure thing, Dad." Jordan nodded. "Night, love you too." He held out his fist for a fist bump and Jordan accepted the gesture. Tyler went off to bed and Jordan went to the garage to take her car over to the university.
XxxxxxxxX
"Kelsi, Luke, there's a call for you in the office!" Rose called downstairs to the siblings, who were watching television together. They paused their show and made their way to the upstairs office. When they got there, Luke and Kelsi smiled at the face they saw in the warm glow of the computer screen.
"Hi Dad." They greeted the man their mother had previously been video chatting with.
"Hey, you guys!" Michael Nielsen smiled. "How has everything been?"
"Good!" They answered in unison.
Michael Nielsen and Julia Cross were in the military. The two were currently stationed overseas in Afghanistan and hadn't seen their families in about a year. They both tried to call their families at least once a week. Monday was typically 'call day' in the Nielsen-Cross home. In fact, at Evan and Jason's house, Jason was currently speaking to his mother as well. Call day was the best way to begin the week.
"So, how do you guys want to do this? Do you want to take turns while you're both in the room or just talk separately?" He asked. Luke and Kelsi looked at each other.
"Do you want to talk separately?" Luke asked his sister.
"I'd be fine with that." Kelsi nodded. "Can I go first though? I have school in the morning."
"Sure." Luke nodded. He turned and gave Michael a single wave, "I'll see you in a little, Dad."
"Okay, see you soon." Michael said with a thumbs up. Once he left, Michael gave his daughter a smirk.
"First things first, kiddo." He said. "Why did I see you hobble in here on crutches?"
"Mom didn't tell you?" Kelsi blinked in surprise.
"Well, she told me that you injured yourself but I can't remember the details. She said you broke your leg?" He asked.
"I twisted my ankle, actually." Kelsi answered. "It wasn't fun."
"It doesn't look fun." Michael replied. "How did it happen?"
"Logically, I fell down the bus stairs when I came home from camp." Kelsi explained. "Illogically, I was a casualty of Troy's birthday curse."
"Birthday curse?" Her father raised an eyebrow. "What birthday curse?"
"Well, it was Troy's birthday on the day we came home so the gang made him a birthday cupcake with a candle. When it was time for him to make a wish, he wished that from this year on out that we lead pleasant lives. However, he said the wish out loud. Everyone knows you don't say your wishes out loud." Kelsi said with a playful sigh.
"Oh yeah, definitely." Michael agreed.
"So right after that, when I got off the bus, I coincidentally slipped and twisted my ankle. Some of the others think that the wish might have had something to do with it." Kelsi explained.
"Hm. That is a strange coincidence." Michael admitted. "However, I don't think there's much to that theory. What about you?"
"I don't either." Kelsi laughed.
"Well that's good." Michael laughed with her. "So, besides your fall...how was camp?"
Kelsi gave her father a warm smile. "It was awesome."
XxxxxxxxX
When Jordan entered the party house for the night (one of the campus Fraternity houses), she quickly felt overwhelmed by the amount of people attending. How would she find Nick to give him his book, or anyone she knew for that matter? Then she heard:
"Is that Jojo?!"
Jordan could hear the smile in the person's voice before they- she- walked up. Her name was Trinity Clark, and like Jordan, she was also African American (although on the lighter side). Trinity was an absolute sweetheart and one of Jordan's two closest friends. She and Jordan weren't too different from one another in personality. Trinity was quieter (although she had her moments), slim, studious, had long dark brown hair, and was pretty responsible as well.
"Hey, you!" Trinity laughed, giving Jordan a side hug. "Come to return Nick's book?"
"Yep." Jordan smiled, holding it up. "And only to give him the book back. Looking around, I don't regret not ditching this party. It's so loud."
"Right?" Trinity agreed. "It's still fun though. I know parties were never your thing though, so I won't stop you."
"Trinity, you're kidding." The two girls turned to acknowledge the newcomer in the conversation, Patricia. Patricia- or Trish, was Jordan and Trinity's other best friend. Trish was a curvy blonde who often wore her hair medium length hair in curls, a fishtail braid, or a high ponytail. Trish was the wild one in the group. She loved to live her life to the fullest and was always trying to get her friends to do the same. She took pride in being the fun one.
"What?" Trinity smirked at her friend's comment.
"You're letting her get away?" Trish whined playfully, placing her head on Trinity's shoulder.
"She just got back from her New York trip." Trinity pointed out. "Plus, we know these parties aren't really her thing."
"Yeah, Trish." Nick said, walking up to them. "You know Jordan's not down for that kind of fun." He said with a teasing smirk.
Jordan pointed at him and looked at Trish. "He gets it." Trish sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. Jordan passed Nicholas his missing item. "Here's your book, by the way."
He sent her a charming smile. "Thanks, doll."
"Mhm." She rolled her eyes at him playfully. He could be such a flirt. If Jordan was being honest with herself, she found him attractive. She would even admit that she had a small crush on him. They'd flirt every now and then, but nothing was serious.
"You sure you can't stay awhile?" Nick asked. "Relax, dance, have a drink? Word going around is that this is going to be one of the best parties of the year." Before Jordan could respond, Trish spoke.
"She doesn't care. Relaxing isn't really her thing. She probably needs to get back home and file paperwork for daddy or something." Trish said.
Jordan blinked at her, her previous smile changing to one of confusion, showing that she was slightly offended. "What does that mean?"
"Well...just that. I mean...don't you like, live for that company?" She replied with slight hesitation.
"I don't, actually." Jordan replied with a sarcastic smile.
"I didn't mean it like that." Trish began.
"Jordan, what Trish is trying to say it that parties were never really your thing." Trinity spoke up. "And that's okay!" She quickly added. "It's just-"
"You never did anything fun in high school." Trish mumbled. "It was always school and McKessie Enterprises for you. You didn't do parties or go out with anyone much. You only hung out with us. Even then, you were always Miss. Perfect little schoolgirl."
"You really seem to want to turn this conversation into a fight Patricia." Smiling Trinity sang under her breath.
"It's true?" Trish defended herself. "No offense JJ, I'm not trying to call you out or anything, it's just that you're….kind of socially dead."
"Socially dead." Jordan repeated in mock awe. Trinity groaned quietly at Trish as Jordan spoke, putting her head in her hand.
"Wait, no, not socially dead-" Trish began.
"No no, it's fine. You know what? I am kind of stressed from the trip." Jordan lightly tapped Nick. "Nick, I think I will have a drink. Could you grab me one?"
"Coming right up." He grinned, walking to the kitchen to retrieve it.
"Thank you." She smiled.
Trinity crossed her arms. "Jordan, you wouldn't."
"I just did." Jordan replied.
"She's going to drink that one beer, and head home." Trish said to Trinity. "We're lucky if she stays here to drink it." Nick came back at that moment and handed Jordan her drink.
"Then it must be your lucky day." Jordan smirked and took a swig.
Trish didn't seem to believe her. "I bet you twenty- no- fifty dollars that you'll chicken out and go home within two hours."
Jordan held out her hand, her smirk never leaving her face. "You have yourself a deal." They shook hands.
"Alright then." Trish smirked. "Let's party McKessie." Nick and Trinity cheered. Jordan laughed and they went to continue participating in the party.
XxxxxxxxX
"You're up." Kelsi told Luke with a smile as she left the home's office.
"Thanks." Luke said, giving her a fist bump. "Night Kel."
"Night Lukey." She sang, walking down the hall to her bedroom. Luke walked into the office and took his seat in front of the computer.
"Hey." He greeted Michael with a smile.
"Hey." Michael smiled back. "How was your week?"
"Good." Luke replied, nodding his head. "I was kinda busy with a project so it flew by kind of quickly."
"I heard." Michael nodded with an arch of his eyebrow. "Big project?"
"Medium sized project, big work." Luke clarified.
"Hm….okay." His father nodded. "You think McKessie will go for it?"
"I think he'll love it." Luke grinned. "I can't wait to show him."
"That's great!" Michael nodded. "Now, Luke." He began seriously, "You know that you don't need to impress him, right?"
"Yeah, of course." Luke nodded quickly.
"Okay...because your mother tells me that you didn't notice her come in this evening." Michael continued. "I just want to make sure you're not hyperfocusing on it."
"I'm not, I promise." Luke smiled.
"Okay then." Michael returned it. "That's all I needed to know." Luke nodded.
"Anyway, how was your week?" He asked.
"Great." Michael said cheerfully. "Not nearly as busy as the last. I miss you guys though."
"When are you coming home? Luke asked.
"Eh...a few more months." Michael responded, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll have to check up on that. I'll let you know as soon as I can."
"Okay." Luke nodded. "How's Aunt Julia?"
"She's good. Still on the phone with Jason." He chuckled. "I think she missed the call last time due to being summoned."
"Ah, I see. That makes sense." Luke chuckled.
"Well, it's time for me to turn in." Michael sighed. "I'm sorry our time was kind of short...was there anything else you wanted to discuss? Your project maybe?"
"I think I'm good." Luke said. "I can update you next week after I tweak a few things?"
"Sure! That sounds great." Michael nodded and smiled at his son. "Can't wait to hear about it."
"Awesome." Luke grinned. "Okay, night dad."
"Night son." Michael replied. "Oh! Luke?" He called softly before Luke hung up.
"Yes sir?" Luke looked up at him.
"Remember, you're an amazing young man." He said.
Luke smiled. "I know. Thanks, Dad."
XxxxxxxxX
About three hours later, it was 1 in the morning. The party was coming to a close and people were starting to head home. Jordan and Nick however, sat by the pool in the back of the frat house talking. At the moment, they were calming themselves down after laughing at a story that Jordan had told.
"So, what made you decide to be the owner of McKessie Enterprises?" Nick questioned.
"Hm…" Jordan hummed, taking yet another sip of her drink from the red solo cup she held. This time, she was having a strawberry vodka. Jordan liked fruitier drinks as opposed to the more bitter ones. She felt light-hearted and warm (perhaps even a bit sleepy). "Well, when I was little, about five I believe, my parents and I were outside of the company building in New York one afternoon. My mom had brought me with her to have lunch with my dad before he had another meeting. We kind of had a picnic on one of the benches. He was telling me how he thought I would like the next client because she had invented a digital toybox. It was like a dispenser of sorts. A child could program their toys into it, drop it in the box, and when they wanted it again, they could press a few buttons on an interactive screen and boom! There it was. I of course, wanted to see this immediately."
"Of course." Nick said with wide eyes and a nod. "That sounds awesome!"
"It was!" She nodded in agreement. "It was set up like a library on the inside. Different sides had different sizes...it seemed so complex yet so simple. In the pictures that my dad showed me, it looked like a regular toy box. Well, a toy box with programming similar to a scanner, at least I couldn't wait to see it. So my dad said that he would take me with him after lunch to see how it worked. The creator- I think her name was started with a P….anyway, she was lovely. Her invention was fantastic and I was just...floored. The fact that she had imagined something and brought it to life to share with the world left me in awe. I then realized that my dad did the same thing. That was his business. Although, he usually looked over the inventions and worked with their inventors to perfect and eventually market them."
"That's pretty cool." Nick admitted.
"He offered to teach me on the way home since I wouldn't stop talking about it. It's been my dream ever since." She smiled at him.
"That's a pretty cool story." Nick commented. "Did you ever have other dreams?" He asked.
Jordan shook her head, her dark brown curls swishing with the motion. "No." She replied.
"What?" Nick said in disbelief. "Come on. You're joking."
"I'm not!" Jordan laughed with another head shake.
"Not one dream." Nick repeated. Another head shake. "Okay well, I had other dreams. For example, when I was in first grade, I told my teacher that I wanted to be the ice cream man."
"The ice cream man." Jordan repeated, her brown eyes lighting up with amusement.
"Yep. I had zero understanding of profit back then and I thought that I would just have a jolly old time eating the ice cream out of my truck for free." Nick chuckled at the memory.
"That sounds...unhealthy." Jordan commented with a giggle.
"Right?" Nick grinned. "But it was my first dream. Didn't you tell your kindergarten or first grade teacher what you wanted to be? Like an astronaut? Or a doctor?"
"Of course I did. Everyone does." Jordan smirked.
"Okay, so what did you answer for that?" Nick asked.
Jordan smiled, looking at the water. "When I was in first grade, I told my teacher that when I grew up, I was going to be the next CEO of McKessie Enterprises. One of the boys in my class said that I couldn't own a company because I was a girl. I responded that I could and that I would because A.) I was much smarter than him, so I knew I would have the skills to qualify, and B.) because my daddy owned the company and he promised that he would train me for the position. I was a total ladyboss."
"Wow." Nick commented, laughing at her reasons. "You told him."
"Uh-huh." She said sassily.
The two sat in peaceful silence for a moment after their laughter died down.
After a moment, Nick spoke again. "Notice how you said 'was going' instead of 'wanted'." He suddenly pointed out, taking a swig of his beer.
Jordan tensed slightly. "Does that matter?"
"Kind of, yeah." Nick nodded, turning his head to look at her. "Because even then, you just went with your first dream. You never explored anything else."
"Why would I need to?" Jordan asked.
"I don't know. I just feel like you should have had a solid reason to choose that as your destiny." Nick replied. "I mean, yeah, you liked the toy box. Who wouldn't? That sounds sick. But...to choose your career goal off of it from such a young age?"
"It was what I decided to do." Jordan said, frowning slightly and looking at the pool again as she took another sip of her vodka.
"Yeah, but was it all your decision?" Nick asked.
"Yes." Jordan deadpanned, turning to look Nick in his eyes.
"Okay...now tell me why." Nick said.
Jordan scoffed. "I...It just was!" She laughed in disbelief.
"That's not a defendable reason!" Nick pointed at her with a smile.
"It's reason enough for me." Jordan shook her head.
"Are you sure about that?" Nick asked. Jordan opened her mouth the say 'yes' but she...couldn't. Well, didn't. "You're not sure, are you?" Nick stated more than asked. "Well, this is college. Before you graduate with a degree in business and a minor in mechanical engineering, I think the time to decide on a change would be now. What do you want, Jordan?"
Before Jordan could answer, the patio door opened and Trish came over stand to beside the two students.
"Well Jo…I stand corrected." She said, pulling a $50 bill out of her pocket and handing it to Jordan. "You stayed and partied for over two hours. I'm impressed."
"Oh!" Jordan blinked, taking it from her. "Thanks, T. I forgot we even made that bet." She admitted with a laugh.
"I did too for a moment." Trish confessed, laughing as well. "I had fun with you tonight. I wish we could do it more often."
"Yeah, you're pretty cool outside of class. " Nick smiled.
"I'm cool in class too?" She teased.
"Eh, I like you more out here." Nick teased back. "I agree with Trish. I'd like to see you around more often. You should swing by again."
Jordan looked down at her prize, blushing ever so slightly. "Maybe I will." She decided. "I had fun too."
Trish grinned. "Really?"
"When's the next one?" Jordan smiled back.
"My place, next Wednesday at 8?" She offered.
"I was gonna offer the movies this Friday." Nick raised his hand. "They have thriller night at 7 that evening."
"Let's do both." Jordan shrugged.
Nick and Trish grinned. "Awesome!" they cheered.
"I'll let Trin know." Trish smiled. "Need a ride home?"
"Whoa. None of you should be driving." Nick pointed at her with a serious look.
"Also, I drove, remember?" Jordan added in.
"Oh yeah..." Trish whispered, looking off.
"Let's just go back to your dorm then." Jordan offered. "I'll text my mom, 'cause I'm not going home like this. I'll just say that we had a movie night. We'll tell Trinity the plan on the way there." She stood up.
"Alright." Trish nodded. "Thanks for inviting us, Nick. See you Friday." She waved.
"Thanks for coming." He smiled as they began to go inside. "Hey, Kess?" Jordan turned around before she could enter the glass door.
"Hm?" She hummed in response.
"Think about what I said." He said.
Jordan nodded. "Okay. Have a nice night, Nick." She waved. He saluted her back in response before she went inside. As she made her way to the front door, Jordan sent her mother a text on her whereabouts.
To Diana McKessie (Mom 3):
Had a movie night with the girls. Trinity insisted that we watch Harry Potter again, so I'm staying in their dorm tonight. I'll be home after classes tomorrow before movie night. Love you, night mama 3
After the text sent, Jordan flipped her phone shut and sighed. She needed to get some sleep.
"Ready to go?" She heard Trish say. Jordan turned and smiled at a yawning Trinity beside her.
"Yeah, let's go."
Well, that was a look into the characters nightly activities and subplots. ^^ Thanks for reading my nightly activities after a long week of college lol. Feel free to comment below, it would make my day. Or...night. Lol.
Also, here's a Fun Fact:
Nick's first dream to be the ice cream man? That was my first dream. I wanted to be the ice cream man and get free ice cream every day.
Lol, thanks for reading everyone!