Chapter 4
The next morning, Ericka woke up she walked downstairs and saw Glen, Matt and Jeff sitting at the table eating breakfast.
" Good Morning sleepy head" Matt said as he saw her walk down. " Want some Breakfast?"
" Morning, yeah sure" She said as she sat down at the table next to Matt
Glen placed a plate in front of Ericka. It had eggs, bacon, sausage and toast.
" Wow, thanks, you guys really go all out for breakfast huh?' Ericka said as she started eating.
Glen shook his head and smiled at his grand daughter
Ericka continued to eat her breakfast
" Hey Matt, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" Jeff asked his brother
" Yeah sure" Matt replied as he stood up to walk outside with Jeff.
" Whats up bro,?" Matt asked
" What we talked about last night, taking Ericka with us, don't you think we should tell Vince about her and then ask if its alright if she come along?" Jeff sighed as he looked at his brother
" and how do you even know she wants to go on the road?"
" I'll talk to her and Vince," Matt said.
Ericka watched as Matt and Jeff talked outside, she had a hard time thinking of Matt as her dad, it was just hard. She ate as she watched them talk.
She got up as she finished her breakfast and put her plate in the sink. She washed it and put it in the strainer. Matt and Jeff walked through the door.
" Hey, how would my favorite niece like to go with her favorite uncle and go shopping. I have to get some hair dye and Matt has to make some phone calls for work.
He gave me his credit card" Jeff sang the last part and watched Ericka's eyes light up.
" Yeah, he did?" Ericka asked
"Yep and he told me you can get whatever you want no limit." Jeff said as he waved the card and then handed it to Ericka.
" alright, let me get ready give me like 20 minutes" Ericka said as she ran upstairs.
Ericka walked downstairs a half an hour later. She had on her favorite pair of jeans and a black v neck shirt that had silver writing on it that said My Guitar is Better than YOURS!
She was wearing Black and white checkered Hurley slip on shoes. And she had a green purse hanging from her shoulder that said Rock and Roll! on it. She had on a pair of Skull earrings and a silver charm necklace.
" All right Rockstar, ready to go?" Jeff said playfully as he looked at his niece.
" Yep all set" Ericka said and they walked out the door.
" So where are we going first?" Ericka asked as they drove away from the Hardy house.
" Where do you want to go? What do you want to get?"
" clothes, the mall?"
" clothes? Are you serious? My brother gives you his credit card that has no limit, and all you want is clothes? What about something exciting? Something extreme? He knows me, he knows we are going to go over board. So we had better come up something good.! What did you do for fun back at home?"
Ericka thought about it, and sullen look overcame her face. " I used to play guitar, and I listened to music, but I had to pawn off all my stuff to get a plane ticket to come here. So I have nothing anymore."
" Now that is a start," Jeff said as he got off the interstate. Ericka's eyes lit up when she saw the large building with a neon guitar on the front of it.
" Guitar Center, The best place around to get any type of Musical instrument." Jeff said as they walked into the store.
She looked around. There were a few different rooms. There was a room that had drums in it, a room with Electric guitars, a room with bass guitars, and a room with acoustic guitars, and then another room that was split, it had deejay equipment, and lighting and stuff, then on the other side there were keyboards.
" So, What kind of guitar do you play?" Jeff asked.
" I have played both, I grew up playing Acoustic, but I really got into electric. So I like them both."
" Both huh? Alright, pick out your favorites and then get an amp. Jeff laughed. This was awesome.
After an hour and a half, and a few thousand dollars later. They left with two guitar, two cases a half stack Crate Amp, two guitar straps, extra strings, and a pack of picks. Ericka looked at all the stuff as they loaded it in the car. Wow she thought, they had spent a lot of money. And this was only the first store.
They went to store after store, after store. They finally headed back to the Hardy home, several hours later. They had bought clothes, hair dye, accessories, a new Apple Ibook to replace the one she had pawned off in Australia, a new stereo, cd's, a new Ipod. Plus the guitars and stuff they had bought earlier. They had bought so much stuff but it was great.
The car slowed to a stop. They were at a completely different house, a huge house out in the country, but had Matt's truck was parked in the driveway
" is this where Matt lives?" Ericka asked, following Jeff and getting out of the car.
" Yep this is your new home, come on, lets go get Matt to show you your room, and then help us put all this stuff in it" Jeff said as he faced his niece
Ericka looked at Jeff and then embraced him in a hug.
" Thanks Jeff, for not asking questions and just being a friend" Ericka said as she gave him a squeeze and then let go
They walked up to the house and opened the door.
" Hey bro, we're here, and we need help unloading the truck" Jeff looked around the living room for his brother. " He must be out back, I'll call his cell" Jeff told Ericka as he walked back out on the porch.
Ericka went into the living room and looked around. She walked up to the mantel and couldn't believe what she saw. She looked at the photo in the middle and immediately recognized it. Her mom had had one just like it in a photo album. It was of Ericka. Ericka gasped. She couldn't believe that he had this after all this time.
" That was taken on the day you were born," Ericka jumped at the sound of Matt's voice. " your Grandfather, Harold took that picture. Me and your mom were so happy there." Matt smiled as he looked down at the picture.
Ericka looked at the rest the pictures. There were ones of her parents together after graduation. There were ones of her 1st birthday and a lot of pictures with her mom, her and Keith. She looked at Matt with tears in her eyes " how did you get this?"
" Every time your mom sent a picture to your grandparents, your grandma would copy it for me and then it would find a place on my mantle." Matt answered her.
Jeff walked in the front door. " dude there you are, why aren't you answering your cell?"
" Sorry Jeff, my phone is upstairs in Ericka's room, I was decorating it, trying, I had to have some help, sorry Ericka, you left this in your room this morning, so I thought I would get some people you know to help me fix your room." Just as Matt said that, Her two best friends, Megs and Chelsea walked through the door.
" Oh my god, I can't believe you are here!" She ran over to them and hugged them. Then looked at Matt, and walked over to him. " Thanks Dad, thanks for bringing my friends here, I really needed some familiar faces."
