The Aislin Chronicles

Part XXVI

A/n: They call me Speedy Gonzales. Really, they do. I think this is the fastest I've ever posted for this fic. I bet it's because of those cookies, I still have a lot of them. I wonder if the longer they last, the faster I'll write. Perhaps I will have to make more when I eat them all. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

6-30-03

10:26 AM

Okay, my hand is rested as am I, so therefore I shall write about my adventures with Jessica L. Silko on the eve of Friday and morn of Saturday. Ahem. So she came over on Friday night after dinner, and of course she was gushing about Adam. Naturally, I gushed back about Ian. Then we gushed about the baby situation, since we are now free to gush. We made fun of Krissy and Kathleen and Star Wars, even though I have nothing against the films.

She kept going on about this July fourth thing, though, like it was some big deal. I'm told that I'm going to her house that day, for some big barbeque party. Maybe it's her birthday and I forgot what date it was? No, because then she would be bragging about how she was finally turning thirteen, and she wasn't, nor do I forget dates such as birthdays. It was July fourth this, July fourth that, actually, I think she kept calling it the Fourth of July like she was all proper, or like it was Cinco de Mayo or something. Crazy kid. Oh, and not only am I going to her house that day, but the whole family is invited. Not that my whole family is huge or anything. But yeah.

Whatever. I'm all for a barbeque at Jess's house, no matter the date or the reason. But come to think of it, when is Jess and Krissy's birthday? I don't know. And what about Kathleen? Dee? Fini? Adam? Apparently Danny's birthday was like a month ago, he just never said anything and he didn't have a party because he's weird like that. Next year we definitely have to arrange something for him.

Enough about birthdays, what else did Jess and I do? Ah, I can't remember. Oh well. I'm still reeling from the fact that we have the house. We're going to start moving in some time during July. I can't wait.

I don't have much to say, since I can't all remember details of my night with Jess. We stayed up pretty late, I was kind of in a sleep deprived daze, you know, where you're still awake but feel like you're dreaming. Oh, that reminds me, I had this dream last night that I was at school, and I had to walk home for some reason, but I was walking to the new house, not the apartment where I actually live. Anyway, so I went outside to start walking and I ran into Lisa who was in my gym class and we started to talk about how she was walking home too, except she lived in completely the opposite direction, but whatever. So suddenly instead of walking home I started to ride this broken tricycle that only had two wheels (the front one and one back one) and the sky got really gray like it was going to rain, and then I saw Dad's car in front of me, so I started yelling and waving my arms like crazy to see if he would give me a ride, but he didn't hear me so I chased his car down all the way home (which was now Kathleen's house? Go figure.) and I ran in through the front door as Dad was pulling into the garage and Mom was reading on the couch and I told her how I was calling for Dad and he didn't hear me when I woke up.

Hm. That whole thing was pointless and unnecessary. Oh well. Too late to take it back. I need a big bowl of Cheerios now. Later gator.

7-1-03

8:44 PM

Man, do I feel like an idiot. At dinner I remembered how Jess invited us to their house for the barbeque on July fourth, and Dad and Mom were like, okay, that sounds like fun, blah, blah, blah. I was all confused though. Did they not want to know why we were going? 'Cause I sure as heck did. So then I went off about what the heck July fourth was, and what was so special about it? Why was it the 'Fourth of July' oooh wow it's so different than all the other days in which we say them normally like July fourth.

Dad nearly fell out of his chair laughing so hard at me. Sydney laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes. And I was just clueless as ever and ranting like mad. Bloody idiot. Finally, when their laughter had subsided enough to allow comprehensive speech, Dad said, "Aislin, the Fourth of July is America's Independence Day. It's a national holiday. There are fireworks and stuff."

Oh.

Well how am I supposed to know that? I've only lived in this country for what… like eight months and (really, eight months?) I didn't even know what Martin Luther King day was, let alone who, so why should I know America's day of independence? It's not like any Americans know Ireland's independence day (December the sixth, 1921, that is).

Jeez. National holidays. Any other dates I should be aware of? Because I think now is as good a time as any! Ay caramba.

8:51 PM

Anyway!

Now that I've calmed down from my embarrassing act of being an ignorant idiot, I shall be attending the Silko's Fourth of July barbeque with my parents. And now that I know there will be fireworks, that will be pretty exciting. I'm a fan of fireworks. They're pretty fun.

8:56 PM

Hey, I remembered something else about my night with Jess! She gave me the dates for when I'm going on vacation with her to Canada. We're going during the last two weeks of July, so hopefully we can move into the house before then. I'd hate to leave and then stick all the moving responsibilities with Dad and Mom. Then again… Maybe I do.

Haha, no, that would be mean. I have to be there to arrange how I want my room set up. It's very important, you know.

But yes. Canada. Jess. End of July. She told Mom that her parents would be in contact with them about details, because you know Mom and Dad, detail oriented. It's like, their job. Literally.

7-3-04

3:32 PM

Dad told me yesterday that Weiss had planned to spend the fourth of July with us, so then I called Jess to ask her if Weiss could come with us to the party, because let's face it, Weiss is somewhat like family. He's like that weird uncle everyone has. She said it was fine, sure he could come. Then she told me I could invite anybody I wanted to. And then she gasped, said something about it being really really okay that Weiss was coming, and hung up on me.

I hate when she gets ideas and doesn't tell me. Ugh. I should have called her back and asked, but instead I dwelled on the fact that I could ask anybody to come, so indeed, I called Ian. It was really good to talk to him, and he said he would love to come and hang out on the fourth, but unfortunately he was leaving for vacation with his family today and couldn't be there. I was really sad, but I understand. He said he would be gone for three whole weeks. That means I'll be in Canada when he gets back. Sigh. I won't see him again until August. August. That's a whole month away.

I just might cry.

No, I won't. But I'd threaten to, as I just did above.

I'm such a loser. Make me stop thinking about boys. Boys are silly. Boys are hot, and nice to kiss, but silly.

3:37 PM

August?

Hmph.

7-5-03

12:09 PM

Slept in later than usual this morning. I was surprised to find Mom and Dad sitting on the couch, reading the paper, idly chatting with one another, being cute, as usual, but I had forgotten they have today off.

Well, yesterday was a blast and a half. Literally if you count the fireworks. But seriously, Weiss came to our house in the afternoon and then we arrived together at the Silko's around three. There were tons of people there. Friends from school, Jess's siblings' friends, friends of their parents, probably neighbors too. It was a major bash.

We met Jess in the living room, talking with some blonde woman about Mom and Dad's age. She introduced us to her, it was her aunt Melody, and then she whisked me away to the backyard (Jess, not Aunt Melody) and finally told me her plan. She wanted to hook Aunt Melody up with Weiss, she said their personalities would be perfect for each other.

"What? She's dateless, likes magic tricks, and does a really bad Irish accent?"

Jess didn't care much for that comment. But since later on I saw Weiss and her still talking, well, maybe Jess had a point.

Mom and Dad were talking with Jess's parents, Kathleen's parents, everyone else's parents who they had yet to meet. I hung out with a rather large group of us eighth graders, too large to name everyone, but among us were the Silko twins, Kathleen, Dee and Fini who I hadn't seen much of all summer, Adam, Chris, even Danny came. The barbeque was really good, us eighth graders claimed the trampoline to eat, and we all sat in a circle around the edge holding our plates and praying our cups of soda wouldn't spill (most inevitably did). Mine didn't. I'm quite proud. I have a feeling it was because I was the only Sprite of the group. Everyone else was drinking Coke and Mountain Dew, but I'm a Sprite girl at heart and that's what I chose. Jess is a Mountain Dew drinker, are you at all surprised? No wonder she's so energetic.

We started a game of capture the flag, including all the kids, of all ages, from fourth grade boys to college freshman (Roxy is going to college, who is going to drive us around?). My team won, by the way. Kathleen is one fast little devil. I don't know who found the flag, though, it wasn't her, someone told her where it was. It was hidden in the tire swing I think. We hid ours in the exhaust pipe of someone's car, which was a pretty clever spot if you ask me (Dad's idea, not mine, I'll give him the credit).

I pretty much stayed clear of the enemy lines, and I moseyed around the driveway. I tagged out a few people and sent them to jail, but, well, I'm not sure I should be terribly proud that I'm faster than a bunch of ten-year-olds. It's only because my legs are longer.

By then it started to get a little dark, so everyone gathered in the backyard and Adam's brother Matt set off some fireworks, like the kind you buy in the store. A few of them were illegal I think, but who really cares. Those were the best ones to watch. I spotted Mom first and headed over to her to watch them, and of course I found Dad lurking nearby. Over by the tire swing I noticed a Mr. Eric Weiss still talking and laughing away with Miss Melody. Silko? No, I think it's Jess's mom's sister, so that wouldn't be her last name. Whatever, that doesn't matter.

It kept getting darker and darker, and then right after we finished yelling at Matt for setting off the smoke bomb the real fireworks started. I guess Jess's house is near this park where a lot of people go to watch the city fireworks, and you can see them clearly from her house, which is awesome.

It was a really good show. A lot of people went to lie down in the grass. Jess and Adam, Krissy and Chris watched lying on the trampoline. Fini and Dee and Danny and the others were scattered about the place, some with their parents, or just in clumps of teenagers here and there. Roxy and Matt were tucked away in the back door leading into the garage and making out. Aunt Melody was sitting in the tire swing and Weiss was behind her with his hands on her shoulders (a good sign). Kathleen walked out of the house and had this look on her face like, 'Well how the heck did I miss the start of this?' and wandered over to Dee and Fini. And me? I sat next to my dad, who was in between me and Mom. He had his arm around her, but I suppose he had his arm around me too, so I felt special.

I had my head laying against his shoulder because Sydney once advised me on how comfy it was, and I indeed found it comfy. I randomly remembered Father always had a good shoulder to nap on, I mean when I was like three and he would hold me and I'd just nod off because little kids do that. Dad and Father, good sleeping shoulders. I'm pretty sure that if fireworks weren't so loud and booming that Sydney would have fallen asleep on him. I could have too had I been tired.

When the fireworks ended everyone clapped, and then people said their good-byes to each other and slowly dispersed. Weiss approached us as we stood up, shoving something into his pocket while Aunt Melody went into the house. I was the only one who saw. "Got her number?" I asked with my eyebrow raised, an amused grin on my face.

"Oh yeah," he winked at me. It made me laugh.

Then we walked out to the car with the Moorlands. Kathleen's parents said something about congratulations on the house and stuff, and I remembered to tell Kathleen I was moving into her neighborhood. She's pretty excited, as am I.

When we got home, Sydney pretty much went to bed, and Weiss stayed for a little while but headed home, and Dad and I still had quite a bit of energy so we started playing cards. Actually, we've been doing that a lot recently, playing cards after Sydney goes to bed, she has no idea. It tends to be a different game every night. Friday Night Poker, Tuesday Black Jack, Saturday Spit, I think you get the idea. I'm learning to play Cribbage. I had heard of it but never played or seen a Cribbage board (let along knew Cribbage needed a board). But I'm slowly getting the idea of it. You have to count to thirty-one, then add things up to fifteens, get runs, it is sort of complicated. Dad tends to skunk me every time. But hey, it's better than the double skunk the first time.

Cribbage makes me think of cabbage, which makes me hungry. Not for cabbage, but cabbage makes me think of food, so… Yeah. Lunch time.

1:21 PM

Oh dear, interesting conversation at lunch.

I had just finished making my sandwich when Sydney came into the kitchen (where Dad was as well) and leaned against the counter. "I'm getting fat," she sighed.

I glanced at Dad and then back to her. "You look exactly the same."

"No, nooo, look." She stepped away from the counter, turned sideways, and lifted her shirt a few inches. "See, below my belly button?" I didn't. "It didn't stick out that like before."

Still looked pretty flat to me, but I'm not Sydney so I guess I wouldn't know. I was like, "Sure, Mom." and went to eating my sandwich.

"No, really, it didn't! Aislin!" She was like, almost whining, like she was so devastated that I didn't believe her. I just looked at Dad because I didn't know what to do, and he shrugged. Thanks Dad, so much for your help. "I'm serious!"

Finally I just played along. "Okay, I believe you. But you aren't fat, you're pregnant." Then she turned around, grumbled something, and sauntered back to the bedroom. I took another bite of my sandwich, shifted my gaze to Dad and asked, "What was all that about?" But it sounded more like, "Wha wa aw tha abow?"

Dad seemed to understand. "Mood swings," he sighed, patting my shoulder as he exited the kitchen. "She's going to be a lot of fun for the next couple months."

I hate when he uses sarcasm and makes it sound peachy. "Great," I added back with just as much sarcasm, perhaps more. After all, I am a teenager, sarcasm is my specialty. "Is she still puking every morning?" I asked out of curiosity.

He sat down at the table with a calendar in front of him. "No, not so much. And when she doesn't she eats breakfast like she'll never eat again."

I found that humorous, but I held in a laugh. I finished my sandwich and asked him what he was doing with the calendar. He said figuring out a date when we would start moving in. Since I'm leaving for vacation on July twentieth, we're starting the move on July eleventh and will spend the week getting settled in and stuff. Luckily we only have to move stuff, we won't have to paint. We already know that Dad is not going to let Mom move anything heavier than like a pillow, we probably need some help. He said he volunteered Weiss, though he's not yet aware of it, and Mr. Moorland offered to help, so that's good. Dad trailed off in thought for a moment, I'm sure he was thinking about Jack. So I mentioned his name, and Dad quickly said 'maybe.' Haha.

1:39 PM
Wow, July eleventh, not too far away. That's so cool. It will be a pain to pack up everything, and unpack everything, but really more fun to unpack because it will be in a new house in new rooms and ahhhh. I think I want the bedroom on the left side, by the stairs, have the bathroom next door. And have the other bigger room across from me. Mom and Dad will obviously take the master bedroom down the hall, and probably have Syd-n-Vaughn junior started out in the small bedroom that's right next to them. I can't wait to have a backyard. And a big porch. And, wow, can we move in right now? I'll find a bunch of boxes and start shoving stuff in.

1:42 PM

Hahahahaha!

Dad just came in here, asking me if I wanted to go get boxes with him. Yes, yes I do! The sooner we get packed, the sooner we can move, and the sooner we can have that baby. Well, not really, but it will feel like it. Off to get the boxes!

A/n: I wub this chapter. I don't know why, but I do. I hope all you lovely readers (and reviewers ;)) wubbed it too. Next part is totally wub-worthy, by the way. I hope to have it up soon as well. Please review!