Aloha! Well, I'm back from my sunny spring break in Hawaii and I came up with this for Chapter 8. I know it's a little shorter than all the other ones of mine, but I hope it's still good and you all enjoy it. I finished this at, well basically 4am so I appologize for any large, gramical errors. Please let me know if there are any bad ones.
And have you all seen the Vacation with Derek trailer? If not, go find it on youtube. I don't think it's going to have to much Dasey in it, but we're going to have to make do with what we got. Besides, there are probably hundreds of stories and compositions that can be written about the Venturi family on holidays.
Disclaimer: If I owned this lovely show, Vacation with Derek would turn out a lot different and Mike would have kept his adorable long hair.
In all honesty, Emily would say her day had been going pretty well. The flight from Ontario to Alberta went smoothly. The woman she was seated next to had a small, baby girl that Emily got to hold and coo over almost the entire trip there. It also was nice that the cute steward delivering cookies and drinks flashed a brilliant smile when he got to her and as he handed her the diet soda, his fingers brushed hers and he winked.
Emily grinned back at him, sipping her drink and following him with her eyes as he pushed the cart forward, down the small aisle.
The landing, which was always the worst for her, went exceptionally smooth and when she saw the seatbelt sign flicker off, she quickly slipped out of her seat, grabbing her carry-on suitcase from the overhead compartment. The woman with the baby also had a bag in the cubicle, and Emily grabbed that too, and placed it next to her.
As everyone crowded off the plane, the steward, who she now realized was called Ian, handed her a thin slip of paper.
"Just in case you need a tour guide or something while you're in the area." He gave her a breezy smile and she felt her stomach flip.
The interview with the scientists went by fast. Emily had managed to get more than enough information for the article and when she called Jane back to report how it went, her boss was...oddly enough, not eating.
"So it's still alright if I take the next few days off. Spend the time here and visit a few...old friends?"
"Of course Emily. It's your days off. Oh, but dear, do remember to finish writing the article and send me a copy, will you?"
Emily rolled her eyes. "Yes Jane."
"And if you're in the area..." She trailed off and the sounds of papers shuffling filled Emily's ear.
"Found it!" Jane bellowed and Emily jumped, nearly dropping her cell phone.
"Okay. Now dear, if you are anywhere near... Sergio's Delights please stop in and grab me a box of his Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. I have the address here somewhere..." There was sounds of more paper, then the keyboard keys clacking and finally some heavy beeping, which obviously meant someone was paging the large woman.
"Sorry, Emily, but Bess is calling for me and I can't keep her waiting. She is my personal secretary, you know."
"Yes," Emily sighed. "I know who she is Jane."
"Good, good. This is all good...but there's something...oh right, the address! Well honey I guess if you want it that bad I'll have Bess send it to your phone. She's better at that texting anyways. I don't know how her fingers can hit each of the buttons without hitting any other ones." She sounded amazed by this and Emily rolled her eyes once again. The woman's fingers were the sizes of sausages, and the keys were the sizes for people with...well...small fingers. No wonder she found it extremely difficult.
"No Jane. It was you who wanted me to-"
"Glad I could help, honey!"
Jane hung up and Emily, as much as she detested her boss's annoying habits and ways, couldn't find it in herself to be upset. The day was just going too well and it wouldn't pay to spoil it.
Grabbing the rental's keys out of her bag, she opened her car and climbed inside. It was still early morning and she hadn't eaten since the cookies on the plane. Placing the key in the ignition, Emily pulled out of the parking lot of the science building and headed downtown for a quick breakfast, before she made her way to Calgary.
---
The blue Honda flew down the interstate. Emily had her sunglasses on and the windows rolled down as she breathed in the warm spring air that seemed to finally be flowing throughout Canada. There was a large map spread over the dashboard and Emily's bag was on the passenger seat. A coffee cup, half empty was residing in the cup holder and every time she hit a particularly bumpy spot on the road, she glanced down, praying nothing would have spilt or slopped over. The last thing she needed was to be paying extra because of a mess.
An old Britney Spears song, from back when Emily was a teenager, filled the car. Keeping one hand on the wheel and her eyes on the traffic around her, Emily fumbled in her purse until she clutched her cell phone. It could only be one person.
"I'm driving right now, Helena."
"Doesn't mean you can't talk and drive."
"That's dangerous."
"So? You're a talented girl, you can do both. I have faith in you."
Emily checked her mirrors before speeding up to pass a delivery truck.
"What do you need?"
Helena made a tsking sound. "No need to sound so snappy. I called to see how your flight was. Do you finally see what a good, caring friend I am? Don't answer that. But do tell how the flight was. Any cute boys catch your eye?"
Emily felt herself smile. "One. This steward named Ian. He even gave me his number."
Helena squealed. "That's fantastic Em! See, what did I tell you? This whole trip would be good for you. I told you that and I was right. You found a guy who makes decent money and is interested in you. Win!"
"Should I call him?"
"Yes! Well, not right now. You're driving and that's no time to set up a date."
"Helena." Emily said, cursing under her breath as a man on a Harley cut in front of her.
"Plus, you're going to go see Derek and Casey Venturi. Leave Ian out of the picture until this is all settled."
And right then, Emily felt the familiar nerves settle in her stomach.
"This is a mistake." She told her friend.
"What? Emily, what are you talking about? This is what you wanted to find out. This is what you made me go all Nancy Drew for just to figure out all the answers. This is not a mistake- you're going through with it."
"I should have just let it drop. Why did I cling on to this? Why am I so clingy?" Emily moaned, closing her eyes.
"Emily!" Helena's voice cut her ramble. "Watch the road and listen." Sometimes Helena knew her too well.
This is an experience that is going to make you stronger. You need to do this, I need you to do this, and so do they. You are doing this. Just think of the experience like...a pimple. There is beauty and smooth skin behind the painful mark, you just need to use the right steps and it will heal. No scar, no harm."
Emily was quiet for a second. "That was one of the most twisted ways I have ever heard you explain something."
"I have many talents." Helena said proudly.
"What in the entire world, made you think of that?"
Helena sighed. "Jane assigned me to the Acne Angel part again for this month. I've been doing research on different types of cleansers and scrubs. It's been in my mind all day. I could give you the ratio's for clogged pores in woman under thirty and over if you wanted."
Emily made a face. "Ugh. No thanks."
Helena's voice dropped lower and took a more serious tone.
"Emily...she made me make a pie chart."
"Jane did?" That was a shocker.
"Well, not technically. Bess is pushing the idea of going over everything with all the staff and having a big annual meeting so everyone can review it instead of just the few people. We all need to document and colour code all of our notes and findings. God, you are so lucky you aren't here right now."
"I wish I was anywhere but here doing anything but this. I am never letting you talk me into sending any emails like that ever again."
"I didn't think they would say it was okay! I didn't even think they'd reply back."
Emily groaned and Helena made an irritated sound. There were other voices then, talking to her friend on the other line.
"I'm sorry Em but I have to go. It's time for the meeting. Now please, try to keep a levelled head and make sure you eat some sort of salad before you go see them. I've always found that calmed my stomach before I did any big sports event."
"Alright. Thanks." Emily exhaled, but it sounded a little shaky.
"This is the right thing to do and I know you'll handle this well. Bye Em."
"Talk to you later."
She closed her phone and held it in her hand. The buildings of Calgary were looming in the distance, the sun shining off their windows and creating some interesting patterns of light. She was a big girl, she could handle this. I mean, what was she so nervous about anyways?
---
After a quick lunch at McDonalds (she did have a salad like Helena suggested, but she figured she might as well get some chicken nuggets too) and a stop at that tacky dessert shop Jane insisted upon, Emily was headed out of the city.
The address Marissa had emailed her was for a road out of town about twenty minutes. It still seemed to Emily like it was a nice neighbourhood, although the houses weren't nearly as close. Pulling out of the heavy traffic, she turned down a paved road that lead off into the trees.
She drove in silence for a short while, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly she thought her knuckles would break through the skin. Her palms were sweaty and the nervous flipping in her stomach was going full force. It got to the point where she regretted ordering those nuggets.
But before she could do anything, a big stone sign with the words Sunny Side Spot carved into it was off to the side of the road. What looked like flower beds, but you couldn't tell because of the snow still lingering on the ground, were all around the large rock and some sort of solar light was in front of it, so even at night you could still read what it said.
This was the place.
The houses she past were well spaced with plenty of trees in between them. In fact it was around every two minutes driving before she would see one and all were spaced on each side of the road so well it had to be some sort of project.
They were huge, well, not mansion in L.A. huge, but they were good sized houses that looked very newly made. Some had large porches that wrapped around the entire house; some had hot tubs. One even looked to have an ice rink with boards and a wrap around net as well, but there were pine trees around it, so it was hard to tell. Either way, this was a ridiculously nice neighbourhood.
The directions said it was about ten minutes down and then there was a long driveway on the right hand side. Plus there was some sort of sign by the road that said Venturi. Emily slowed her car down, looking at the piece of paper she had printed off. She should have reached it by now.
"I probably missed it." Getting ready to turn around, her eyes caught the large wooden sign that was just peaking around the next corner. She edged the vehicle a little closer.
Venturi
---
When she had finally opened the car door and walked up the stone steps to the door, she was already feeling anxious. It was stupid and probably immature in one thousand ways, but she tugged at her shirt and ran a finger under her lips, checking for lipstick marks. Her hair was probably a mess and she cursed herself for not bringing a headband or a ponytail. Something to tie it back.
She knocked on the door.
It swung open.
And Emily was smacked in the face by a yellow happy face, helium balloon.
"Olivia! What did I tell you about that thing?" A voice yelled from somewhere inside the house.
Emily looked down to see a small little girl. Her hair was done up in two braids and she smiled a missing teeth smile. The deadly balloon was tied to her wrist and she was fiddling with the string.
"I'm sorry."
Emily smiled down at her. "It's not a problem. I mean, it's not every day you get greeted by a happy face."
The little girl giggled and Emily was reminded of Marti. All the times she would come over to her house and play with Dimi, she always acted like that. A little younger and more childish than she actually was. She pulled the door open more and ushered Emily inside.
She barely had a chance to look around before Casey came out of a room to Emily's right. She looked a lot like how Emily remembered her. Wavy brown hair and blue eyes, with a top notch dancing figure that she always felt sort of envious about in high school. Casey was tall and slim while she was short and curvy. She looked good. You would never know, if you saw her on the street, that she was the mother of three and was almost forty.
"Emily, hi." Casey nodded towards her and Emily couldn't help but notice her voice sounded a little wary too. This wasn't going to be easy for either of them. "I'm sorry about all of this. Wednesday is our shopping day and we were just putting everything away. They were giving these out at the store and Olivia has been abusing it ever since." She shot a strong look towards her youngest.
"If you don't stop whacking things and people inside this house, I'm going to go tie that balloon up in one of those trees out there and let Nate use it as a shooting target."
Olivia pushed her lower lip out into a pout. "But Mom," She whined and Casey shook her head.
"None of that. Now go put it in your room and leave it in there."
Olivia looked like she very much wanted to argue that request, but when Casey motioned to the trees outside; she huffed and trudged up the wooden stairwell.
Marissa came around the corner carrying a pineapple. "What do you want me to do with this Mom?"
Casey turned around, giving her eldest a tired smile. "I'll be there in a second." She turned back towards Emily and motioned to the room off to the left.
"That's the living room. If you wouldn't mind waiting in there for a few minutes so we can put all the groceries away..." Casey trailed off.
"No problem."
Casey still stood there, and Emily didn't know whether to head off towards the living room or just stand there. Casey opened her mouth, looking like she was about to say something but then she must have changed her mind and decided on something else. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"No thanks."
There was a pregnant pause.
"Okay then. I'll be back in a few..." Casey motioned to behind her and started to back up, looking confused.
"Alright."
And then Emily turned, and headed off towards the living room. It was a quaint room with nicely painted walls and sleek new furniture. A flat screen TV stood off in one corner and a couple couches and recliners were faced around it.
Emily sat down on the long couch, facing the television with the big window behind her. The sun was still shining down outside and she tried to take this as a good omen. It was fairly quiet in the house except for the sound of cupboards opening and closing and the quiet murmur as Casey and Marissa chatted with each other.
The walls were covered with pictures and photos and other things that had some memorabilia. A Calgary Flames jersey was hanging above the TV.
There was a picture that was taken on a beach somewhere. Marissa and Nathan looked to be around five and six and they were busy making a sandcastle. Olivia was lying on her stomach a little ways away from them, her little baby face was pointed towards her siblings as she watched them.
The next one was of Casey and Marissa, both wearing slinky dancing dresses as they smiled at the camera. Casey's arm was wrapped around Marissa's shoulders as her daughter held a bouquet of roses and had a metal around her neck. A dancing competition no doubt.
The next one made Emily's heart clench in a weird way. There was Derek, the older Derek standing in the middle of a hockey rink in his NHL jersey and hockey gear. His hear was all matted down from sweat and he looked exhausted but happy. There were people filling the stands and flowers covered the ice. Next to him was Casey, his arm was wrapped around her waist and they were both leaning against each other. All the kids stood around them and they all had huge smiles on their faces with pride in their eyes.
Then, there was the last one. Casey stood in a beautiful white dress, her hair done up so some ringlets fell down around her face. Derek stood next to her in a black tux, his hair was shorter than she remembered seeing in high school, but it still had that messy look to it that she knew he worked on it to get it that way.
The couple was looking at each other leaning in just close enough to kiss, so close, before the photographer snapped the photograph. Now they were stuck in that moment, that happy moment plastered on the wall of their living room for visitors to look at.
"All done." Casey announced as she came into the room. She sat down on the love seat that was facing Emily. It was quiet for a moment and Emily watched as Casey straightened her skirt after sitting down, obviously trying to figure out some way to start a conversation.
"So, how have you been?" She came out with, at last.
Emily shrugged. "Good, I guess. Work's been a pain; I haven't had a break in the longest time so it's nice to get away from it all."
"Where do you work?" Casey asked curiously.
"I'm sort of...well an editor I guess for Blush and Things. That's why I'm in Alberta originally, there is some sort of mineral found and it could be the cure for dry skin or something."
Casey bent down and began shifting through a small stack of magazines sitting on the coffee table. She pulled out a fairly thin, pink one. The October's edition of Blush and Things.
"You write in this?"
Emily nodded, taking it from her hands and flipping to page twenty two.
"I wrote that article, yes."
Casey looked at it once more, eyes scanning the page, before she closed it and slipped it back in the stack. "I had no idea you worked for this magazine. Well, I knew you did some sort of job in that field because you met Mar in an editors party."
"Yeah. It's no big job but it pays fairly well after a couple of years. It's been good."
It was quiet again. Emily looked around the room, feeling even more like a fool. This was solving a lot. Finally her eyes landed on the dancing picture of her and Marissa.
"Is that a dancing competition?"
Casey looked at the picture and smiled. "Yes. Marissa's first big competition. She placed silver in the whole province. We were all very proud of her."
"So what do you do?"
"Well," Casey began. "I opened a small ballet studio with a friend before I had Nathan. I couldn't do any teaching because I got pregnant soon afterwards, but I kept up the bills and files. Anyways, eventually we got a lot more students and had to open up additional classes. And after a while, we bought a larger building and redid it into a high class studio and we've been there ever since."
Emily smiled, because that sounded like the future she would have thought of for Casey. It was so typical.
"So Marissa followed in her Moms footsteps?"
Casey gave a small smile. "I guess so. She teaches some of the little, beginner classes' afterschool too."
"She's impressive." Emily said.
"They all are." Casey agreed.
"What about Derek?"
The question came out a lot sooner than Emily had planned for it to, and even Casey looked a little stunned.
"What do you mean?" She fiddled with the wedding ring on her left hand and Emily tried not to stare at the massive rock on her finger.
"Well, you and Derek..."
"Oh." Was all Casey said.
She was silent for a while and Emily felt like a bitch for even mentioning him.
"I don't know what you want me to say Emily." She finally said. "Yes, I love him. I married him and started a life and family with him."
"No, I mean..." Emily floundered, trying to find the right words. "I just was...wanting...just why?"
"Why?" Casey questioned.
"Why, after all those years of you putting up with him in high school, of hating him and all he stood for. Why did you go after him?"
"I never really went after him." She spoke quietly. "I didn't hate him, but I did hate what he did in high school, yes. But it was...university is a different world. I didn't know anyone else and I was far away from my Mom and Lizzie and all my other friends and family. Life was complicated and confusing. School wasn't what I thought it would be at first, and that scared me. I didn't have a clue who else to turn too, so I sort of stuck to Derek. We became good friends, all through out that summer before school started- at the lake on the big vacation Mom and George brought us on. When school started, it was sort of inevitable, really. We knew something was happening, we could feel it and then one day we sort of just...collided."
Emily blinked.
"And you've been together ever since?"
Casey shook her head, laughing. "Oh no. I hated it at first. I felt like I was slowly sinking into quicksand and I was perfectly capable of getting myself out if I tried hard enough. I struggled against him and the whole thing he wanted with me and he fought me until finally after three, almost four months of silly teasing and ridiculous strong headed, stubbornness, I sort of gave up fighting him and just accepted that he wasn't going to let me get out of the sand. I had to stop struggling because it was somehow only pulling me in deeper. It was time to just suck it up and live with it."
Emily laughed in spite of herself and eventually, Casey joined in and it almost felt like old times, back in high school when they would have a girl's night full of chick flicks and cookie dough ice cream.
"That is so you and Derek." She wiped tears from around her eyes. "You fought him on it? Really?"
"I still fight him on it. He thinks it's because of him we are where we are today. I don't agree with him."
They chuckled some more and Emily felt herself relaxing. Casey hadn't changed all that much and neither had she. They still had that easy friendship that just worked. It made her feel sad that all of this had disappeared and gone over the years and been neglected.
And then a car door slammed somewhere outside. Emily turned, glancing out the window as Derek and Nathan climbed out of a shiny black truck. They were talking about something because all of a sudden Derek laughed his loud, boisterous laugh and bent down, scooping up some snow and playfully tossing it at his son. Nate laughed and ducked as it his Dad's car.
They both had hockey bags over their shoulders and were making their way over to the house. Emily felt a wave of panic.
The door opened and the laughter and voices filled the house. They dropped their stuff in the entrance way and took off their coats. Emily listened to the sounds of zippers unzipping and boots being stamped.
Nathan must have been done first because he zipped into the living room, kissed Casey's cheek and told her a brief hello before darting out again and running up the stairs.
Then Derek walked into the room with his back to Emily, still shaking his head and chuckling to himself.
"You won't believe what that little runt did at practice today." He bent down to kiss her and Emily swallowed, looking at the floor. What a way to make an entrance.
"Um," Casey mumbled as Derek pulled back a little. "Derek..." He slowly stopped kissing her jaw and turned around.
"Well...um...Hi, Derek." Emily gave a weak little wave.
Well we all know Derek can be a little oblivious to some things. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. There should be about two more to come. Have a wonderful Easter everyone!
God Bless!
xoxoTaraxoxo