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January 6th, 2028 9 am Evanston, Illinois
"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD!" I heard the next morning as two bodies jumped on the bed.
"Go away." I said burying my head deeper in my covers and turning on my stomach.
"No way; we've got too much to do today." I heard Meghan's voice tell me as the covers were pulled off of my warm body.
"Come on you guys. I got to bed late last night." I complained as they laughed.
"Your mom told us to come up and wake you up." Chelsea told me as I managed to sit up in my bed.
"What do we have to do today?" I asked the two girls while falling back into bed.
"We need you to tell us about Albuquerque and get us caught up on what happened over your break." Meghan told me.
"You got me up at 9 just for this?" I asked eyeing the two girls.
"Yes but we couldn't wait until noon when you woke up." Chelsea told me.
"I'll give you a five second head start." I said as both of them scrambled out of my room.
I grinned before jumping back into bed and covering me back up with the covers. I had just started dozing when I heard my door open again.
"You're not going back to sleep that easily. Come on Tess Alexis let's go." Chelsea told me whining.
"If you're going to whine, I'm not going anywhere." I told the girl grinning.
"If I stop whining will you get a move on?" Chelsea asked me as I thought it over.
"It's nice and warm under here and really cold out there. Where do you think I would rather be?" I asked the two of them.
"I think you would rather be out here with us. We're going to have fun today." Meghan told me grinning.
"Oh what kind of fun are we talking about?" I asked the two grinning girls.
"We can't tell you silly. You have to come see for yourself." Chelsea told me.
"Does it include a party?" I asked them smiling.
"It might; you're going to have to get out of your bed to find out." Meghan told me.
"Since it might include a party, I'll come. Give me ten minutes and I'll be downstairs." I told them as they gave me a look.
"You promise?" Chelsea asked me as I rolled my blue eyes at the two of them.
"If I'm not downstairs in 10 minutes, you can do whatever torture method you decide on me." I told them.
"Ten minutes, Tess Alexis!" Meghan warned as I grinned at the two of them.
I sat in my bed for the next 6 minutes and just thought about how cool of friends I had. After 6 minutes passed, I got up and put on jeans and a long sleeve shirt before putting on an East Evanston Basketball hoodie. I pulled my dark brown hair up into a pony tail before slipping on my slip on tennis shoes. I looked in the mirror quickly before going to stand at the top of the stairs.
"You have one minute, Tess Alexis." I heard Meghan yell as I laughed at her.
"I'm almost done." I yelled back before walking back into my room to grab my rings and a necklace.
I ran downstairs and saw my mom, dad, Chelsea, and Meghan sitting in the living room all waiting for me to come down. I leaned against the doorway and grinned at them.
"Wow the princess finally comes down from her chambers." Meghan told me sarcastically.
"Yeah I did; we ready to get this party started?" I asked the two girls.
"Let's go." Chelsea told me quickly as I pushed myself off of the doorway.
"I've got my cell phone so if you need anything, let me know." I told my mom and dad.
"Guys you do know its 9:15 in the morning?" Dad asked us as we all looked at each other.
"We know and we'll be good." Meghan quickly said as the three of us laughed.
"You better be. We don't want to hear that you three committed a crime of some sort." Mom told us.
"We'll be good." Chelsea said as I quickly shook my head in agreement with Chelsea's statement.
"Have fun girls." Dad told us as we opened the front door and walked out.
"So where we heading first?" I asked the girls as we got into Chelsea's 2026 silver Camry.
"It's a surprise. You're just going to have to chill out in the backseat while we go." Meghan told me grinning.
"Let's get this show on the road." I told them twirling my finger in the air.
I relaxed in the backseat as the girls drove me to an unknown place. I rolled my eyes as they started singing random songs.
"Where are we going?" I asked them as we pulled into the high school and parked.
"Now you know. Are you coming with or are you going to stay here in the car?" Meghan asked me.
"I'm coming with you guys. I'm not staying out here." I told them quickly as we got out of the car and headed up towards the entrance of the high school.
I followed the girls through our high school until they stopped in front of the gym. We opened the door and walked in. There was a basketball sitting in the middle of the gym. I ran over to it and picked it up, dribbled it a little before throwing it up in the hoop.
"Why are we here? I know we're not here just to play ball." I asked them.
"We figured you might want to talk about your time in Albuquerque. And we figured there would be no better place to do it than here." Chelsea told me.
"I do want to talk about it but I need some more time to figure things out." I admitted to them.
"Why don't you tell us about the people you met out there?" Meghan asked me as I smiled at her.
"I wish you guys would have told me before we left; I've got pictures at home of all of them." I told them smiling.
"You can show us pictures later. Just tell us about the people you met." Chelsea told me.
"Ok who should I start with? I met all of my parents' friends. The four guys went in and bought a restaurant together called the East Towne bar. It was supposed to be Ryan, Troy, Chad, Zeke, and Jason all together but only the four guys went into together. They all married their high school loves except for Ryan who met his wife two months after Troy died. She told me her view after Troy had died." I told them taking a deep breath.
"Did you find your parents' family?" Meghan asked me.
"I've got another set of grandparents, two more uncles, three more aunts, and two new cousins. My grandfather played at East high where Troy and the rest of their friends went. Basketball was a big part of my father and grandfather's lives. They weren't surprised when I showed up and had natural raw talent." I told the smiling.
"How did they react when you first introduced yourself?" Chelsea asked me.
"They were very closed-lip. They didn't believe me at first when I told them I was their best friends' daughter. It took me a couple of days to get them to warm up to me. But once I did, I learned a bunch about my parents from them." I told them leaning back into the bleachers a little.
"Did you meet your birth mom at all while you were out there?" Meghan asked me as I looked at the two.
"I did get to meet her. She showed up yesterday and we got to talk. Everyone kept tell me that I was almost identical to Gabi and Troy but I didn't really believe it until she came walking up to me and I instantly recognized her. We got to talking and she told me a lot more about my past." I told them as they both nodded.
"Are you happy about what you found out?" Chelsea asked me as I thought about it for a minute.
"I don't know if what I found out is good yet. That will probably take a couple of days to settle in." I told them.
We stayed silent for a minute before my cell phone broke the silence of the gym. I looked at the caller ID before grinning and flipping open my phone.
"What can I do for you?" I asked the person on the other end as the girls looked at me.
"Well you can pack up and come back to Albuquerque." Chad's voice said over the phone.
"Hold on a minute." I told him before switching to speaker phone.
"Are you still there Tess?" Chad asked me as I laughed a little.
"Sorry I had to turn you on speaker. What's happening?" I asked him as the girls looked at me strangely.
"Albuquerque is boring without you. You need to come back." Chad told me jokingly.
"I'm sorry high school is calling. You know how that was." I told him grinning.
"Yeah unfortunately I do. How's being home?" Chad asked me as I looked around the gym.
"It's good. I'm hanging out with Chelsea and Meghan currently. We're back in the gym talking." I told him.
"That's good. If you need anything, call us all right?" Chad asked me as I smiled.
"I will. Tell everyone I say hello and I'll call you guys later." I told him as we said our last goodbyes before hanging up.
"Was that one of Troy's friends?" Chelsea asked me as I smiled.
"That was Chad. He and I played two on two against Jason and Zeke. We won but he took me to show me Troy's grave site. He was Troy's best friend." I told them.
"He sounds like a cool person." Meghan told me as I smiled.
"He was. When we go out there for Spring Break, he offered for us to stay at his house." I told them.
"Wait us? What do you mean us?" Chelsea asked me as I grinned at them.
"For Spring Break, I'm going back out to Albuquerque. And I'm inviting you two to come along with me instead of going down to the coast. I want to show you my family's past." I told them.
"Do you really mean that? We'll have to talk to our parents but they'll probably say yes." Meghan told me grinning.
"I hope they do say yes. We'll probably stay at my grandparents' house. Troy's parents; they're really cool. I made sure they were all right with having three teenage girls in the house and they said it wasn't a problem since they survived all three of their girls being teenagers at once." I told them laughing.
"That's really cool. It seems you found out everything you were looking for." Chelsea told me.
"We'll see. How about we play some basketball before we continue on this journey?" I asked them picking up the ball and throwing it between my hands.
"That sounds good. Let's go DeVries!" Meghan told me as we all stood up and walked to the court.
I smiled before taking the court. This was the life I had made for myself and I had to decide how to incorporate the life I had found in New Mexico. It was going to take time and a lot of patience from friends and family alike.
There you guys go!!! This chapter is a little awkward and I'm sorry for that. Feedback would be most appreciated!!!!