A few weeks later, Finn got a letter from Ohio State. He made it to the waiting list, which meant it was still a possibility he could go, as long as someone who was accepted declined and went somewhere else. It wasn't what we were hoping for, but it was better than a rejection. At least this was a possibility. Kurt and Blaine started searching online for apartments in New York City. They were trying to find the halfway point between their two schools and then they could commute. I tried suggesting that they board in the dorms for the first year, just to get the full college experience, but that idea was shot down almost immediately. They were going to New York to be together, they certainly weren't going to live on opposite sides of the city.
Late one night, Carol and I were discussing getting the boys ready for college. All three would be leaving at the end of August, which meant we really didn't have much time left with them home. Finn would be home most weekends, since his school was close enough, but Kurt and Blaine would be a plane ride away.
"I think we need to go on a family trip and have some quality bonding time with our boys." Carol suggested. It was a pretty good idea, although getting the whole family to agree on one place would prove to be a challenge.
"I guess we could discuss it with the boys and see where they want to go. We could have a family meeting and vote on it." I replied.
So that's how we ended up sitting around the kitchen table with five people shouting different things at once. Finally I slammed my hands down on the table and shouted "Shut Up!" Silence rang through the house. Maybe this trip wasn't the best idea we've had.
"One at a time, we will go around the table and suggest a place. There will be no interrupting. You can speak when it is your turn, and only then. You can only speak when you are holding the 'talking cookie'." I said as I picked up a cookie from the plate Carol had put out.
"What the hell is a talking cookie?" Kurt said.
"Language!" Carol shouted at him before I could respond.
"This cookie will be our talking cookie. We will pass it around the table and whoever is holding it can speak. Then you will pass it to the next person. Finn, you can go first since you are the next after me if we go clockwise."
"Ok, I want to go the Cedar Point. It's close and has great roller coasters."
"That's just stupid Finn" Kurt said.
"Kurt! You don't have the talking cookie, you can't talk!" Finn shouted while wildly waving the cookie in the air over his head.
"Thank you for your suggestion Finn, why don't you pass the cookie to Blaine." Carol said diplomatically to try and stop the talking cookie battle before it picked up any more steam. Finn handed the cookie to Blaine who looked at it confused.
"Blaine, you can make a trip suggestion now that you are holding the cookie. That's how it works." I tried to explain.
"No, I get how the cookie works. Why I'm confused about is how Finn took a bite out of the cookie without any of us noticing…" He said as he held up the cookie with a bite taken out of it.
"Ignore it and just continue."
"Fine… I think we should go to Hogwarts!"
Kurt beat me to responding to him. "Hogwarts is fictional. You can't go there Blaine."
"Yes you can! We can go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando! And we could all get wands and butterbeer and wizard hats!" He finished, extremely excited.
This time Carol responded.
"Ok Blaine sweetie, we'll add it to the list of suggestions to vote on. Don't get too excited just yet. And I really can't imagine Burt wearing a wizard hat or carrying a wand around an amusement park. Let's move on to Kurt. Why don't you pass him the cookie?"
Kurt grabbed the cookie from Blaine's hand as soon as he offered it. He clearly had a lot to say.
"First of all, Finn, Cedar Point is closed right now. It's winter. They don't open until the spring. Why would anyone go on an outdoor roller coaster when it's snowing? And Blaine, give it a rest, we know you're obsessed with Harry Potter. Yes, he's adorable, but that's not a good enough reason for you to drag the whole family there. If we went to Orlando, we'd probably end up going to Disney, since we all know Disney movies are way better than Harry Potter. And why is there only a quarter of the talking cookie left?"
All of this was said very quickly, in true Kurt fashion.
"I got hungry… and Finn ate a part of it too!" Blaine said, trying to defend himself.
"OK Kurt, just make your suggestion and move on." I said, trying to keep the peace.
"I think we should all go to a spa. It would be…"
"I don't want to go to a spa!" Finn interjected.
Once again, Carol and I had to stop a fight from breaking out.
"Finn, you can't talk when you don't have the talking cookie."
"But I do!" He said as he held up a small piece of the cookie that he broke off earlier. I heard Blaine mumble something along the lines of he should have kept his piece of the cookie instead of eating it. Kurt got out of his seat and practically jumped across the table to grab the piece of cookie that Finn was holding. Finn was using one arm to push Kurt away while holding his other arm out with the piece of cookie. By now the two of them were wrestling on the floor. Considering Kurt's hatred of sports, he could certainly hold his own in a fight. I looked at Blaine who was staring at the two of them in shock.
"Care to help? You get Kurt, I'll get Finn."
We went over to the two of them and tried to break them up. Blaine went to wrap his arms around Kurt's middle to pull him off Finn, but lost his balance and fell into the growing wrestling match. Rather than have the same thing happen to me, I grabbed Blaine's arm and pulled him up from the pile.
"Let's just leave them. They'll get tired eventually." Carol added while checking Blaine over to make sure he was OK.
Ten minutes later, Finn and Kurt were lying side by side on the floor panting. The piece of cookie was now spread all over the kitchen floor in a hundred different crumbs. Kurt's usually immaculate hair was wild and out of place.
"Are you two idiots finished?" I asked. Kurt nodded his head without getting off the floor. He looked up at Blaine, whose hair was just as out of place as his own.
"What happened to you Blaine?" He asked.
"I tried to pull you off of Finn, and you two pulled me into the fight."
"I don't think so. I would have remembered if you were in that fight." Kurt replied, followed by Finn adding in his own comment about not seeing Blaine either.
"Are you kidding? Neither of you realized I was there? I'm pretty sure one of you tried to bite me!" Blaine shouted.
Once everyone was settled back at the table, Carol started us going again.
"Ok, new talking cookie. You need the majority of it to be able to talk. And no eating the cookie. So far we have suggestions for Cedar Point, Harry Potter World and a spa. I hate to admit it, but Kurt was right. Finn, we can't go to Cedar Point this time of the year. Would you like to suggest a different idea?" After another minute of thinking about it and passing the cookie over, Finn suggested New York. "Ok, those are all good suggestions. I don't care where we go, as long as we get to spend time together as a family."
"Way to make us all look bad…" Kurt said under his breath. But not quiet enough. Carol heard.
"You certainly don't need any help!"
I grabbed the cookie and tried to get my suggestion in before everyone left the table angry.
"I think we should all go camping! It's the ultimate bonding experience; all of us sharing a tent out in the wilderness. Wouldn't that just be great?"
I was met with silence. Not even Carol was smiling. I guess they weren't as excited about it as I was. Carol finally spoke after a minute of everyone glaring at one another.
"Ok, we've had a few interesting ideas. Finn, New York was a good idea, but you boys may be going in a few months with glee club if you win the next competition. And we all know you are going to win. Blaine, Florida is a nice idea, but it's a little far for a long weekend trip. Maybe in the summer when we have a whole week off it'll be a good idea. Kurt, I'm sure you and I would both enjoy a spa, but I don't think anyone else would. Burt, honey, as Kurt said before, it's the middle of winter. Do you really think camping in a tent would be a good idea? I think we should all come up with another suggestion and meet up again in an hour." So we split off, everyone going to their own rooms. When I walked upstairs, past the boys' rooms, I heard laptops and computers starting up. I guess they would be more prepared this time around.
I walked back to the living room to talk to Carol.
"How about you and I don't make any suggestions, but we be the deciding factor on which of the boys' ideas we decided to go with." She said. I guess that could work. I'm sure at least one of them will come up with a tolerable suggestion.
An hour later, we were sitting around the kitchen table, this time with pizza.
"We will not be having a talking cookie this time. Nor will we have a talking pizza or anything else. You will each talk in turn, and not interrupt the others. If you do, you are disqualified and we will not even consider your suggestion. Deal?" I said. All three boys nodded their heads. "Ok, Finn, you're up again. What have you got for us?"
Finn stood up, shuffled the papers he brought with him and cleared his throat.
"I believe I have found the ideal family vacation! We should go on a tour of the world's biggest things, all located in Ohio! There's the world's biggest apple basket, the world's biggest rubber stamp, the world's longest bar and the world's largest Amish community!" He finished with an excited look on his face. He really thought this was the best idea ever.
"Good suggestion Finn, let's move on to Blaine and once we've heard all three ideas, we can vote." Finn sat back down, clearly a little upset that we weren't all praising him for being a genius and the best trip planner ever. Blaine stood up and cleared his throat. He didn't have any papers, unlike Finn.
"I was thinking about the camping suggestion. I think it would be a lot of fun and would totally be possible, as long as we stay in a cabin instead of a tent. Cabins have heat, separate rooms, electricity and indoor plumbing. We could still spend time outside and build a campfire, but we wouldn't all get frost bite." He finished and sat down. He must have really wanted to get on my good side, because normally, we would never have suggested something that Kurt would have been so against.
Kurt huffed and stood up. He walked around the table, handing out packets to each person.
"Contrary to what everyone else thinks, I have found the best family vacation spot of all time. The Mall of America! It's gigantic; it has tons of stores, a hotel, an amusement park, a spa and even an aquarium. It's fun for the whole family! There's information in your packets specialized to each of your interests. Thank you." With that, Kurt sat down again.
"Why don't we all think about the suggestions while we eat our pizza, then we can put it to a vote and decide." I said, even though I already knew what I was going to vote for. Everyone grumbled about having to wait, but the pizza disappeared quickly, probably just to get to the vote as quickly as possible. Once everything was cleaned up, we all sat back down at the table, waiting expectantly. I decided to start us off.
"OK, I will go first. I am going to vote for Blaine's idea, of camping in cabins. I think it would be a great chance to bond and spend quality time together." I finished, looking to Blaine, who was now sitting next to me.
"I'm going to stick with my idea and not change my vote. I think it would be fun."
Kurt was up next. He was glaring grumpily at Blaine, clearly ticked off that Blaine wasn't voting for his idea, meaning Kurt probably wouldn't be getting his way. This usually doesn't sit well with him. He spoke up, but was clearly mad.
"Well, I'm not changing my vote." He said simply, looking to Carol on his other side. She looked torn. I knew what she was thinking. She wanted to vote along with me, but she clearly also really wanted to go on a shopping trip with her personal stylist, Kurt.
"I'm going to vote for Kurt's suggestion. I think it would be fun. And it has an amusement park, which was Finn's first suggestion." She said, always trying to keep the peace.
We all turned to Finn. He was the final vote. I don't think he realized that yet, that the decision was ultimately up to him.
"Can I still vote for my idea?" He asked, with a dumbstruck look on his face. Carol sighed and tried to explain it to him.
"Sorry Sweetie, but since there are only five people voting, and two ideas have two votes each, you need to vote for one of them."
"So, I get to decide?"
"Yes, that's what it's come down to." Carol replied, while Kurt mumbled "unfortunately" under his breath.
"YES! Ok, what will you two give me if I vote for your idea?" He asked, directed right at Kurt and Blaine. Kurt, who was a little more used to Finn's antics was quicker than Blaine to respond.
"I'll do your chores for the next month!"
Just as Finn was about to agree, his phone beeped with a new text message. He read it and quickly said "I'm voting for Blaine's idea!" Then he sat down again and stared intently at the tabletop.
I looked over to see Blaine smirking and slipping his phone back into his pocket. If I chose to be a responsible father, I would figure out what type of blackmail Blaine had on Finn. But since I wanted to go camping, I could wait till we made the arrangements, that way we could still go camping. If I investigated too much, Finn may change his vote and I'd have to go spend a long weekend at a big mall.
The next day, after some research, I reserved a cabin (with electricity and plumbing) for the weekend after next. The boys had Monday and Tuesday off of school, so we would leave Friday night and get in 4 full days.
A/N: Up next: camping!
I just finished writing the next chapter and I had trouble containing my laughter.
For those of you wondering, I plan to continue this story up until graduation. After that, I may write a sequel if I have enough ideas, or else a new story all together. Thanks to the many people sticking with this story! Virtual/digital talking cookies for anyone who reviews! (Disclaimer: There are no actual cookies!)
:)