Day with the Children
[America] [Illinois]
It was a peaceful morning in the Prairie Sate. Rebecca- Illinois- was sitting in her office diligently doing her paperwork just like any other day.
"Miss. Jones, you have a call on line one." Her secretary informed, peaking her head into the office.
"Thank you Nina." Rebecca said.
She picked up the phone and gave a formal, "This is Rebecca Jones."
"Ilini!" She heard her younger sister Michigan chirp, "What are you doing?"
"What do you want Lynelle?" Rebecca asked, annoyance clear in her voice. "I'm busy."
"Jeez, how rude." Lynelle grumbled, "Anyways, I just thought I'd give you a heads up and tell ya dad's in the area. He's going around visiting everyone."
"Lovely." Rebecca muttered, "Thanks Lynelle."
She hung up before Lynelle could say anymore. She didn't hate her little sister- just found her extremely annoying. Out of the Midwest states she'd rather talk to Indiana- he was always (somewhat) sensible (though if she could bomb his college Purdue she would).
Maybe dad won't come, maybe he'll go say hi to Indi first. She thought, getting back to her paper work.
This hope was squashed two hours later.
"Ilini!" America shouted, rushing into the office. "How are you?"
"H-hey dad." She greeted, forcing a smile.
Any other day would have been fine but today she had more paperwork then usual. The governor, Patrick Joseph, had dump three stacks of paper on her desk then walked out saying he was going on a vacation.
"Ilini we should go out to eat!" Alfred grinned, "We have some catching up to do!"
"Dad, I have work to do." Rebecca said, "Maybe another day?"
"Nope! Hey, how about we get some Chicago style pizza and go to Six Flags!"
"Six Flags is all the way up in Gurnee! That's almost an hour car ride from here!" Rebecca protested, "Fine, if we must go some where lets go to Navy Pier."
Navy Pier was just a couple blocks from her office building and since it was a warm spring morning it wouldn't be a bad walk.
"But it's so nice today." Alfred whined, "Six Flags would be so much cooler! I mean we could go on the Super Man, the Batman, the Dragster-"
"The Dragster isn't here dad, it's in Ohio." Rebecca snapped, still a little sore that Ohio had one of the fastest rides. Six Flags Great America was just as fun as Cider Point even if it didn't have the Dragster- wasn't it?
"Oh really? I forgot that Timothy had it." Alfred shrugged, "Oh well let's go!"
Rebecca found herself dragged out of her office and into a car she assumed was her father's. She glared out the window the whole way to Gurnee. All she could think about was the mound of work on her desk. When they arrived in Gurnee they stopped at Salutos to eat some Chicago Style Pizza- Rebecca had to admit that she had cravings for this amazing pizza place sometimes.
"Alright, let's go have some fun!" Alfred shouted.
"Dad, are you sure you won't puke? You did just ate five whole pizzas…"
"Ilini, I've eaten more hamburgers then that, I think I'll be fine."
He had a point there.
Rebecca found herself inside the amusement park in no time and she watched her father smile childishly at the attractions.
"Which one first, Ilini?" Alfred asked loudly.
Rebecca shrugged, "You pick."
Sometimes she felt like she was the parent and he was the child.
I think I know how Delaware feels now. He's usually the one the cleans up after dad's messes since he's the oldest state. She thought.
Rebecca followed her dad as he started running through the crowed of people.
"Lets go on the Superman first!" Alfred said, pointing up to the large red rollercoaster.
They stood in line for a good hour before going on the 30 second ride.
"Your hairs a mess." Alfred commented, smoothing out her brown hair.
Before Rebecca could slapped his hand away she heard a voice behind her say, "How lame is this place?"
"I know that voice…" Rebecca growled.
She turned around and saw her older brother Timothy- also known as Ohio.
"What are you doing here?" Rebecca glared, her usual calm demeanor slipping away from her.
"Timmy!" Alfred grinned, bringing his son into a headlock.
"Hey dad." Timothy greeted, pulling away from his father. "Why are you here in this dump? Why not Ceider Point?"
"I think both are fun places! Plus I get to visit Ilini!" Alfred replied, hopping up and down. He was itching to get on more rides. "You can join us if you want Timmy."
"Why are you here?" Rebecca asked.
"I heard dad was here so I was saving him from your boring state." Timothy replied.
"Excuse me? Boring! I have flipping Chicago, the largest library, built the first skyscraper, and won the Stanley Cup last year! What do you have? Absolute nothing!" Rebecca fumed.
"Guess who has a Big 10 college? Yeah that's right I do, Ohio State University!"
"Guess what? I have two Big Ten colleges! Northwestern and the University of Illinois!"
"Well-"
"Hey!" Alfred shouted, butting in.
His children's argument had attracted a lot of unwanted attention and odd stared.
"Dad, tell her since I'm older that I'm a better state then her!" Timothy said, crossing his arms.
Alfred shifted his gaze between his children. This is the part he hated; he hated having to choose between his states because there was no way he could say that one was better then the other. They were all equal in his eyes.
"Ohio."
Timothy looked at his father curiously- Alfred never called him anything but Timmy. "Yeah, dad?"
"Go home."
It was out of character for him to be so blunt but he had come to spend the day with Rebecca, not be put in the middle of a heated argument.
"I'll come visit you soon, Timmy." Alfred said.
Timothy blinked, wondering if his hyper-active father seriously just told he him to home. "B-but- fine. Bye dad."
He turned and gave Rebecca a dirty look, "Illinois."
"Deuces." Rebecca said.
When Timothy was gone Rebecca turned to her father.
"Dad, are you okay?" She asked.
Alfred grinned at her, "Of course, I just didn't want to be put in the middle of the fight. You're both equal in my eyes so there is no way I could say that one of you is better."
Rebecca smiled and took her dad by the hand, "Come on, lets go on some more rides."
"Yay!"
Maybe she would enjoy spending the rest of the day with her father.
[Extended Ending]
"B-but, Ilini!"
SLAM
Alfred pouted and walked down the porch to his car. That was the last time he mentioned anything about the Green Bay Packers in front of Rebecca.
Author Corner:
~I had fun writing this one XD partly because I was visualizing the places (if you live in Illinois or you are visiting in Gurnee I suggest you go to Salutos- AMAZING PIZZA!)
~Next will be: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, and then probably New Mexico