It's a one in one billion chance that all five of the former Pretty Committee would end up with their middle school crushes, but somehow it happened. My mom married her middle school crush and high school sweetheart in the same year that her best friends did then a year to two years later they all gave birth to wonderful children. Here we are seventeen years later; but this story isn't about me, Alli Harrington, my twin brother, Matthew Harrington, or any of the other teenagers (Callie and Colin Fisher, Nadia Hotz, Aaron Plovert, and Dani and Dune Hurley) its about my parents...all ten of them.
Massie Block (Harrington) always had to do everything first, so it's no surprise her and Derrick were the first to get married in January 1993 and the first to give birth September of 1994. The wedding was understated, as my mommy went by the less is more rule. Purple lined the walls, filled the vases, and was the color of the bridesmaid dresses. Crystals shined in the most ornate patterns, and Derrick and his groomsmen added touches of red to the wedding. Bridesmaids were complicated, so I have been told, because you had four best friends. My mommy had the genius idea of pulling names from a hat, and she pulled Kristen. My birth? Easy, exactly by the book. And you aren't the best if you aren't the biggest, so it only seems right she had twins, Matthew and Alli. Mommy stayed home with us, and still does; but is involved in a vast amount of charity work. Derrick went to law school after the wedding and became one of the top lawyers in the Westchester area. Massie had it all; the perfect family.
Next to be married was Dylan and Chris (more commonly referred to as Plovert). The hopeless romantic she was, Dylan wed on February 14th, 1993 to the perfect man. Red roses and glass vases added an extra touch to the wedding with Claire serving as maid of honor.. Not wanting to upstage her alpha, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Aaron, on Halloween night of 1994. Of course, Dylan took over her moms show and became the queen of talk shows. Plovert became a successful business man and they lived happily ever after. Exactly like she wanted.
Soon to follow in her best friends' footsteps was the sweet and innocent Claire Lyons. Cam was the icing to her cupcake, the whip cream to her frappacino, the cherry to her sundae, the sugar to her iced tea. They were married outdoors on a unusually warm March afternoon in 1993, a perfect day for a perfect couple. Their perfect day was filled with yellow and orange, lilies and daises were the flowers of choice at this wedding while Massie stood by Claire's side as her maid of honor.. Of course, Claire knew not to surrender to her alpha and gave birth to two wonderful babies on December 5, less than two months after Dylan, a little girl named Callie and her twin brother Colin. Claire and Cam opened a very successful photography studio, in which Plovert handled the business aspects. Claire's life was all she could ask for, and more.
Luckily Alicia grew out of only wanting to be Massie's beta and was more than thrilled to be the fourth to marry her wonderful husband, Josh Hotz, on a nice summer day with her best friend Dylan serving the honorary roll of maid of honor (in 1993). The wedding was the most extravagant, filled with Ralph Lauren, or so I have heard. Alicia rang in the new year of 1995 with a newborn baby girl, Nadia Hotz, born on January 1st. She was a perfect copy of he mother and became a child model at the age of four months. Alicia is a homemaker, with an occasional modeling job with Nadia. Josh took over a very prestigious law firm along with his best friend Derrick.
The final bachelorette's singles days ended in September of the same year of her friends marriages when Kristen Gregory and Kemp Hurley became Mr. and Mrs. Hurley at a small ceremony on a Friday night. Various shades of green filled the small church with Alicia standing as maid of honor, the ideal ceremony for a simple Kristen. Dani and Dune, named after Kristin's friend who was victim of a horrible shark attack when he was 15, were born on a lovely February day in 1995, a little more than a month after little Nadia. Kristin became a teacher and soccer coach at her former high school, Westchester Academy while Kemp worked as an HR manager at a local production agency.
My mommy and daddy thought to build a neighborhood for all of the PC and their families. In December of 1993, the five couples moved into their new homes right in time for Christmas. Now we all live within a walking distance of each other in our own gated community (more like a cul-de-sac), its heaven. But like I said, this story isn't all about us teenagers. It is about my parents, all of them, and the struggles they faced in order to become the happy extended family they are.
The year of 1984; the year my mommy, Mama C., M.A., Dylie, and Krissy were about to start eighth grade is where this story starts. The year my daddy, Papa C, Padre J, CP, and Kempie fell in like with their future wives; that's where it all begins!