AN: Thank you to those who have continued to read this story. Like I said, I very much apologize for my reclusiveness. I wanted to do a Thanksgiving chapter since we're only a few days away from it. To the few who still read this story, it's very much appreciated. A shoutout to Hugh Takinamee and Applause2014 for their continued support and reviews for this story. It's because of people like that is why I came back to start writing these again.

Chapter 16: Thanksgiving

November 29th, 2012
11:55 A.M.
My House-Backyard

"Mother, may I ask, why are there so many chairs laid out at the table when there's only two of us?" I asked her very curiously.

"Well Dawn, you know all those friends that you have, well I had a talk with their parents and I invited them to come over and eat dinner with us, I just don't like seeing you upset, and I just thought that you would like to spend as much time with your friends as you could." my mother said to me as she was setting plates up on the table.

"Oh really? Well, who exactly is coming?"

"Well, Mike and Zoey's families are coming, I believe your friends Cameron, B, and Ella along with their families, and I think that your boyfriend Joe and his mother are coming as well." I nearly dropped some of the plates that I had in my hand as she said that.

"Wait, did you just say that Joe is coming over?"

"Yes, have you two not settled your differences?" she asked me very curiously.

"Oh no…mother, do you mind if I do something really fast, I apologize, but it's very serious." I said to her.

"Well, alright Dawn, just hurry up, the guests should be arriving very soon." she said as I handed her the remaining plates. After I did that, I hurried to my room to check my tea leaves. I quickly read them to have an idea of how this would go. I dropped the glass with the tea leaves onto the ground after I had read what they said.

"This is not going to be pleasant." I said to myself. After I said this, the doorbell rang.

"Dawn, would you be a dear and get the door?" my mother said to me.

"Yes mother." I made my way from the stairs to the door. As I opened the door, I could see that it was Zoey and Mike, along with their parents. I had already seen Zoey's parents, but this was the first time that I had seen Mike's parents. Mike looked just like his dad, but I could see parts of his mother in him (like the color of his eyes, and from what I could tell from her aura, his sense of compassion for others).

"Hello everyone." I said to them.

"Hey Dawn! We brought over some food for Thanksgiving, where should we put it?" asked Zoey.

"You can put it on the table in the back." I said to her. They started to make their way towards the backyard after I said that. Before I could start making my way to the backyard, more people started to show up.

"Hello Cameron." I said to him. Cameron and his mother showed up, and I could tell from looking at her why Cameron grew up the way he did. His mother looked like she truly cared for her, maybe a little bit too much.

"Hey Dawn, where should I put this food?" asked Cameron.

"In the backyard, we're holding Thanksgiving there." I said to him.

"What, outside? Are you sure it's safe for Cammie Bear?" asked his mother.

"Mom, don't call me that, especially around friends." said a very embarrassed Cameron.

"Nonsense, you don't seem to have a problem with it when I call you that at home." she said. I started to giggle a little after Cameron had said that, but I started to feel bad that he was getting embarrassed so much, so I directed his mother to the backyard.

"Thanks Dawn." said Cameron. I smiled as he made his way towards the backyard. I then noticed that there were even more guests arriving. B had arrived with his parents, and Ella had arrived with her mother (who looked just like her, and also acted just like her as well). I was so happy to see that all my friends had arrived until,

"Hello Dawn." said Joe right behind me. I turned around to see that it was Joe and his mother at the door.

"Oh…why hello Joe, Ms. Alana." I said very awkwardly to them.

"Why hello Dawn, I was wondering where I might be able to put this food that I made for the occasion." said Ms. Alana.

"You may put them in the backyard." I said to her. She smiled and started to make her way to the backyard, leaving just Joe and I at the front door.

"Joe, I need to ask, have you had any time to think about what I had told you about a week and a half ago. I pray that you have." I said to him.

"Yeah, I thought about it, and I am still very angry with you about it. I thought I was someone that you could trust to tell anything to. Not telling me this has obviously not boded well with me. Look, just stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours." he said to me very sternly. He then started to make his way to the backyard after he said this. I stood alone at the door, angered at Joe and myself for what had been happening between us for this week and a half.

"What am I going to do?" I said to myself.

"Dawn! It's almost time to start!" my mother called. I started to run to the backyard so that we could begin.

Backyard
1:00 P.M.

"Well then, I just want to say to every one of you who were able to make it to this, thank you. I know that this must be different to something that you're used to, but I want to say that I did this for my daughter Dawn. I don't know if all of you know, but we have been celebrating the holidays such as this without her father due to…circumstances that I don't wish to disclose at the moment, and we also found out some news that'll affect our staying here…" said my mother. As she was saying this,

"What news did you guys find out, if you don't mind me asking?" asked Mrs. Campbell (Zoey's mother).

"Well…if you must know, I have been offered a new position at the museum that they are opening back in Ontario, it's a higher paying job and we really need the money to help Dawn get back into the college of her choice, so I accepted it."

"Doesn't that mean that you'll have to move?" asked Mr. Campbell.

"Yes it does." Everyone gasped after hearing that (except my friends and Joe) and people started to protest against this.

"Oh, why you can't possibly move, I've only known you for about an hour, but you already seem like such a nice person!" said Ms. Michaud (Ella's mother).

"Why thank you Ms."

"It's Elsa, Elsa Michaud."

"Thank you Elsa, but…like I said, it's for the money…and since my husband is…no longer here, it's hard for us to make enough money to support our family. So that's why I'm doing it."

"Well, if you needed the money, you could've asked, I mean, I think all of us would be willing to give you some if you so desperately needed it." said Ms. Smith (Cameron's Mother)

"Yeah, I mean, we have some money left over that we'd be more than willing to give to you if you really needed it." said Mr. Pelletier (Mike's Father).

"Look, I appreciate the generosity that everyone is showing me, but I have already made up my mind, I am taking this job, now if you do not mind, I wish to continue this speech before we eat." Everyone was quiet after my mother had said that.

"Now…as I was saying, I am doing this primarily for Dawn. She has been having a hard time with everything that's been going on lately with the move and just the fact that it's been two years since her father passed away, I thought that bringing us together for this one moment would be good for her."

"Mother, if I may…could I say a word or two?" I said.

"Why of course Dawn." She sat down after she had said this. I stood up after she did this.

"Thank you mother, hello everyone. You all know me as Dawn, but that's not important at the moment. I just want to say to everyone personally that I am thankful that you all could show up. I know that sometimes I might be rather difficult to deal with, but for everyone to be here…it really means a lot to me."

"Well Dawn, I don't think that any of us would miss this for the world." said Zoey. I smiled a little after she said this, but when I caught a glimpse of Joe and seeing him looking down at the table; avoiding eye contact with me, it made me slightly upset. I gave a sigh and continued my speech.

"Every one of my friends here deserve a thanks. To Zoey and Mike, seeing you two and the joy that you have when you are together, is very much a reassuring sign for me. You two are some of the people I trust the most out of everyone I've ever met. Cameron, you are quite possibly one of the most intelligent people I've ever had the chance to meet. Reading your aura, I can sense that you'll have a very bright future. That also goes for you B. You're quiet, but your aura speaks louder than any words that could be spoken. Ella, you have the brightest aura out of everyone here, I am very thankful to have met someone who is as positive and caring as you are." I said. They all cracked a smile after hearing me say this (Zoey and Ella teared up along with smiling).

"Lastly, but certainly not least, to my boyfriend Joe. Joe, I know that I'm not exactly the greatest girlfriend that's ever been on Mother Nature's Earth, and I know that you are still angry with me. There is no use denying it, I can read your aura from here and it tells me that you are still angry. I know you're angry with me not telling you about me moving, but you must understand that I was not ready to tell you, because I didn't want you to worry…" I said. I was going to continue, but then Joe stood up.

"Dawn, look I'm still angry and…"

"How can you still be angry after she just said all that? How insensitive can you be!?" yelled Zoey. She then grabbed some mashed potatoes with her hand and threw it at Joe. The mashed potatoes hit him in the face. I could feel what was going to happen next after seeing the faces that Zoey and Joe were making at each other.

"Did you just…"

"Yeah I did. What're you going to do about it?" Joe then reached into the stuffing bowl, and threw it at Zoey. It hit her in the face as well.

"Hey! Don't you throw stuffing at my girlfriend!" yelled Mike. He then grabbed the bowl of green beans and started to throw some at Joe. He missed and hit Ms. Alana.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" said Mike. This started quite possibly the largest food fight on Thanksgiving ever, because once this happened, everyone started to get out of their chairs and started to throw food at each other out of anger.

15 minutes later

I looked across the table to see that all of the food was ruined. Everything from the green beans to the turkey itself was on the ground after this major food fight that everyone got involved in. I would've been upset had it not been for the feeling that I felt inside. It wasn't anger because the food was ruined, but I was actually happy. Happy to see that everyone had been brought together and was able to take out their anger and now seemed fine.

"Hey…I'm sorry that…you know…throwing food at you. I was just angry you know?" said Zoey to Joe.

"Yeah…I'm sorry that I retaliated. And to you Mike as well, I apologize." said Joe.

"Yeah, but you have to admit though, this was the most fun I've had at Thanksgiving ever, and I think everyone can agree with me on that." said Mike. Everyone then started to laugh after hearing that. I cracked a smile after seeing this. I could also see while everyone was laughing, that Joe started to walk up towards me.

"Hey Dawn…I think we should talk…alone preferably."

"I agree, let's go inside while everyone is preoccupied with this…event that took place." I said to him. We both started to make our way into my house.

"Dawn…I think that Zoey was right about me being insensitive. I mean, I don't know, I guess that I was so focused on being angry, that I didn't put any time in making amends for what I said then we wouldn't have had…that happen." he said as he pointed outside.

"I think that everybody needed that. It was a way to vent out all of the anger that we all felt, I must admit, I was relatively angry…I just didn't show it. And I could tell that you weren't the only one there who was slightly agitated, I know that Zoey was very much. We all needed this." After I said this, he leaned in and kissed me on the lips.

"I'm sorry Dawn."

"I'm sorry too Joe." As we said this, all of my friends were outside looking at what had just happened.

"Oh, that's so sweet! I'm glad to see that you guys have made up!" said Ella.

"I should've guessed that everyone would eavesdrop on us." I said to them.

"We just came by to say that we're still going to eat what's left. There's a little left, so we're going to make the most of it." said Cameron. We both obliged and started to make our way back to the table.

"Hello again mother, I'm happy to say that both Joe and I have made up." I told her.

"I'm so glad to hear that. You really seemed upset about what had been going on lately between you two." she said to me.

"I'm so happy to see that everyone is so happy! I just feel like…singing!" said Ms. Michaud. As she finished saying this, she began to sing while everyone tried to get their food. I must admit, out of all the Thanksgivings I had been a part of, this one was certainly the most eventful out of all of them.

AN: I just want to say that, again I thank everyone who still enjoys reading this story. I personally want to say to everyone that I hope that you all have a good Thanksgiving when Thursday hits. Thanks to everyone who has shown me continued support for this story.