The Aislin Chronicles
Part XLI
A/n: Yeah, I know, it's been awhile. You don't have to remind me. But softball and school are over and I get to sleep again. And write, of course. But I should warn you: I will be traveling a lot this summer and will only be home in a few day increments over the summer. I have no idea how much I'll write/read/update, so just be heads up.
11-3-03
3:49 PM
I had a very productive math class today. Not only did I feel quite confident whilst taking my math quiz (my Ian is quite the teacher), but I also have figured out the secret of Jack Bristow. Now, prepare yourself, for this may come as a shock:
Jack is a super hero.
I know you're probably like, "Huh?" Well perhaps not considering your are a book of bound paper, but anyway, I believe that I have come to this profound discovery. Just consider it. He's always off somewhere- I mean, he says he's "at work," but how do we know that for sure? He travels a lot. That could also mean something. Plus, he's very secretive about his personal life. He conceals his true self rather often.
3:42 PM
Wow, that last one there sounded kind of deep.
To sum it all up, there's just not much we know about the man. And I would like to think he's a super hero. Hmm. Actually. Now that I think about it… He may be borderline evil villain. Jack kind of seems like the type who would have a secret lair and have minions that carry out his dirty work. And I think I've already established (in the weird workings of my head) that he indeed has minions. And. Dirty work.
Villain or hero, I'm having trouble coming up with a cool name for him. This Super Jack, I mean. Oh come on, you didn't actually think I really thought Jack was a Super hero. Maybe if this were some whacked up fiction story. No. This is my life, and I'm fairly certain this is as real as it gets. However, that being said, I want my fictional Super Jack to have a mega sweet name. Not something lame and obvious like Batman or Spider-man, but something cooler, like The Hulk. It's even cooler if you say it in a deep grumbly voice.
The best that I could come up with by Spanish sixth hour was Ultra Sauce Man, but I'm not gonna lie, that's pretty awful. I would cry if I were a super heroine and someone named me Ultra Sauce Man. Er. Woman. Whatever. That name has to go.
Well, now that I've stated my desire for Jack to be a super hero I think I'll go do my social studies homework.
11-5-03
6:17 PM
Well, Dad finally gave Mom the talk. You know. The one where he was supposed to vaguely hint at maternity leave. He kind of, um, didn't do it so subtly. In fact, I'm fairly certain she was screaming at him for ten minutes straight about how she's fine and can work and how he has no idea what she's going through and blah blah blah. Dad took it like a man, though. I was very proud of him.
Still, Mom had to rest after her spiel. I think that proves Dad's point. If I know Mom, she'll ponder it all night, apologize to Vaughn for yelling at him and tell him that he's right and wants what's best for her and the baby. Her back has been aching her and she's been getting sleepy again.
I wish she knew it was a girl. I don't know what this has to do with anything I've just said, but I still wish she knew. I think it would be fun to talk to her about having a sister and stuff, and names, and I don't know. It's just something I think she should know.
By the way, I'm still working on Jack's super hero/villain name.
11-6-03
4:41 PM
I think Dad won yesterday. Mom was home before I was, already draped over the couch asleep when I came in through the front door. She must have come home early for work. I've tried to be as quiet as possible, I want to let her sleep, but already I've made the dog bark a few times and dropped my calculator on the wood floor. Oh well. What can I say? I'm clumsy. Oh shoot, parent teacher conferences are next week… I better not have to do half of my math homework in the first five minutes of class again. I need to be on Mrs. Schlesinger's good side.
11-9-03
2:24 PM
Dad disappeared around noon today, just kind of randomly. I was going to ask Sydney—whoops, that was a slip—Mom, where he went, but she was resting on the couch again and I didn't want to bother her. By the way, yesterday was her last day at work because she is officially going on maternity leave. She fought really hard against it, but when Dad was pushing it, and Jack was pushing it, and Dixon and Weiss were pushing it, I think she just decided to succumb to it. Actually, I think her reasoning behind it was more like, well, if I do it they'll be happier, even though she really wants to stop working.
But this was supposed to be a story about Dad, wasn't it? Right, so he was elsewhere, and then around 1:30 he came back. With a puppy! He's another bulldog, and he's about a year old and pretty decently house-trained. He was abused though, which is really sad, and he gets scared with you hold things up like the remote control. But he's so adorable. We named him Chester. He's mostly brown and white, but he's got some black on his chest and face.
I played with him for thirty minutes straight, but he tired me out. Donovan was kind of wary at first, but I think he's slowly adjusting. Chester bounces around his feet and Donovan just stares at him like 'what are you doing?' I'm so excited. I love puppies! Mom knew about this too! And she might of told me where Dad was going had she not been sleeping. Ah, I don't care. He was a good surprise.
2:30 PM
Uh-oh. I think Donny's had enough. He just collapsed in my room after walking through the door. But wait, Chester followed him up. Haha. Oooh he's so cute. We need to fatten him up like Donovan, though. Shouldn't be too hard. I'm going to take the puppy and leave Donovan alone. Poor dog, I think he's had his personal bubble violated enough for one day.
11-11-03
12:11 AM
Whoa! Check out all the elevens. Half day today, which is totally sweet. Jess is over right now, and we're not doing much of anything. We might go catch a movie later with Ian and Adam. Mostly, I think we plan to chill. We need to make plans for the half day on Thursday. I love half days! Aw, Mom just made us some lemonade, how nice of her! She picks me up from school now that she's home. It's nice. She must be bored all day long at home, she always looks to happy to see me when she comes to get me. I think she's mostly just happy to be out of the house. Whatever. I don't mind.
Okay, Jess is having way too much fun imitating the puppy. I may have to stop her before she goes too far and starts to bark. That reminds me, I haven't seen Donovan all day. Coincidence? I wonder.
7:49 PM
Today was so much fun! We decided that we wanted to see Elf, so we met the guys there, and Kathleen, and Dee, Fini, Danny, and a whole bunch of kids from our school, although they just happened to be there. We didn't invite the whole school. Well, I at least didn't. I can't speak for Jess, though, because that's crazy enough that she might have actually done it. I think the theater employees were really confused as to why all of us weren't in school.
But oh man, Elf is hilarious! Will Ferrell is only about the funniest person ever, although Ian is a close second. My cheeks hurt so bad from laughing all afternoon, I swear. I told Ian that he would have to come over and meet my new doggy. I think he's coming over on Thursday. That ought to be fun.
But now I think I should talk about dinner. We had a nice discussion about baby names for the first time. I'm hoping Mom will start hankering to know the gender. Anyway…
We were kind of quiet for the first few minutes, mostly because Mom was chowing down and Dad and I still watch her in awe. She's like a tank the way she just plows through meals. I think I must have zoned off as I nibbled on my vegetables (ugh, I so should not have had all that popcorn at the movies, not to mention the slushie I shared with Jess. The frozen cherry goodness is so tempting!), because suddenly Mom said, "You know, Vaughn, I've been thinking all day, and we should probably start talking baby names." Dad nodded as he drank from his glass of milk. "I want us to name him or her together."
There was a moment of silence, like they were both thinking of names, but they didn't want to say them to each other for some reason or another. I thought I should say something. "I was named after my great-great-great-grandma, who lived through the potato blight." Actually, I said it much less eloquently that that. I got the number of greats wrong, first, and then I had to count on my fingers, and then for some reason I couldn't spit out the words "potato blight." It was such a hot mess, as Danny is always saying. "And I think my middle name was Mum's best friend growing up."
Mom got this look on her face like I was this adorable little, I don't know, thing, and then she turned the puppy eyes on Dad. "I want the name to mean something."
"You mean names," Dad reminded her. "You still don't know the gender."
"Yeah, Mom. This would be so much easier if you knew."
She looked at me. "Why?"
I actually had no idea. It really wouldn't be that much easier, it would only be one less name. I was just trying to convince her otherwise. "I, uh, um. Never mind." Damn. That was retarded. After that, I think I pretty much just asked them if people could come over on the next half day. Boring stuff. Oh crap, I have a Spanish quiz tomorrow. Yo necesito estudiar!
11-15-03
12:01 PM
I was just about to start this off with "busy week" but it really wasn't that busy. Thursday really wasn't much of a day: me, Jess, Krissy, Kathleen, Ian, and Adam all sat around the backyard doing pretty much nothing but talking. We thought about playing truth and dare but decided we were all to lazy. Mom made cookies for us, though. She's getting so random like that. Seriously, she must be so bored in the house all by herself.
Then on Friday I spent the night at Jess's. Oh but before that Francie called and was talking to Mom for a while. She's going to throw her a baby shower next weekend. Apparently she's been planning it for some time, I just never knew about it. But whatever. Hey, you know what? I bet Francie would love organizing it more if she had a better theme. As in, like, color. Like a gender specific color. I should tell Mom that, maybe I can guilt trip her into it. I have these moments with Dad when we know Mom's not around where we make a little shape with our hands to indicate a small size (not like my sister's a crack baby or anything, just that's how small we pretend she is, I guess), and whisper, "little girl." It's really cute. He gets this happy little smirk on his face, and I just want Mom to get like that too.
Hmm. Jess's was fun, as usual. Her family cracks me up. There's just so many of them! Ay dios mio. I think I'm going to go take Chester on a walk. Maybe Donovan too, if he'll let me.
A/n: yeah, I know it's short, but I really wanted to post before I went on vacation. Please review!