Note: Sorry for the slight delay on the update! I had my wisdom teeth cut out a couple of days ago. There was something I was going to say to you all, but of course I can't remember what it was anymore, it'll come back to me sometime. Anyway, here's part 3!
The next morning, I woke up to my cell phone ringing and didn't bother looking at the caller ID before answering.
"Hello?" I said sleepily, then cleared my throat so that my voice would sound better.
"Hey Josie, this is Robb and I've got some news for you." Robb said and immediately I got nervous. He continued after I didn't say anything, "Well, I'm sorry to say that you're going to have to deal with GHI team for some time now."
When he started that statement, I was so scared that I didn't get the spot, but was grinning broadly by the time he finished speaking. "Oh my God! Thank you so much!" I exclaimed, making Robb laugh.
"You're quite welcome. I assure you that you'll be a great addition to the team. Your method of investigation is excellent and your debunking skills are absolutely amazing." Robb said after he laughed. "Now, we leave next week for France, but we're arriving a few days early. We'll be in Versailles, but we don't have anyone that could find things for us to do while we're there so I was wondering if you would be interested in doing that. And of course if need be, you may just have to translate some stuff for the rest of us."
"Sure, I'd love to! Just tell me where we're staying, if you know, and I'll get right on it!" I said excitedly.
"I'm glad you're excited about it. We'll be staying at Trianon Palace in the Classic Garden View Rooms, so of course the Garden of Versailles is a must see, but anything you can find close to there, in Paris particularly, would be fine." Robb said.
"Okay. I'll get to that as soon as I can." I said, smiling.
"All right, thanks and I'll see you next week." Robb said and we hung up.
I was so excited about the position, but I had to think of my teaching job, so I solemnly called the school and told them about my new opportunity and everyone was excited for me. I decided I would go clean out my office the next day because I was too excited to do something that would make me sad.
Later that day I got a call from the TAPS office and wasn't completely sure who it was.
"Hello?" I said a cradled my phone between my ear and my shoulder because I was in the middle of folding some clothes I had just washed.
"Hey Josie, it's Jason. Robb's just told me the news and you have no idea how happy I am for you, and everyone else is too." Jason said and I smiled.
"Thanks Jay. I'm excited to be in the TAPS family on such a larger scale." I said.
"It's going to be an amazing experience, trust me. Now, tonight we're all grilling at my place, GHI included, and since you're now a part of GHI you are more than welcome to come, though of course we all know that Grant and I would've invited you to come either way." Jason said.
"Sweet, you know I'll be there!" I said enthusiastically.
"All right, I'll see you later then." Jason said and we hung up. Me and Jason never said bye over the phone for some reason, even when texting, it's just not something we did.
That night, I was one of the first ones to get to Jason's house, so of course I was the one that had to help with the grilling. All five of the kids were very excited to see me and wanted me to join them in their pool, but they knew Jason wanted me to help him and didn't argue when he said that I couldn't. As everyone started arriving at Jason's, I got a very wide range of hugs from Steve's tackle hugs to Brandy's soft embrace that made me genuinely smile. Oh, and when I say tackle hug, I mean that literally Steve ran up to me and pick me up off the ground by a couple of feet at least, but, as always, I was laughing very hard by the time Steve put me down. After we all finished eating, me, Brandy, and Kris sat with Jason's wife, Kristen, for a little while (after changing into our bikinis) while the guys did what they did best, goof off. After a little while, Kristen had to go put the younger children to bed so we all decided to hang out in the pool.
"Hey Josie, have you started any research for Paris and Versailles yet?" Robb said as everyone was just leaning against the side of the pool.
"I have." I said, proud of how much of a nerd I am.
"Good. Me and the rest of the team were talking earlier and I think we've all agreed on going to a very nice, though expensive, restaurant one night and going to a local place for lunch one day if you can find any and if you could find out about two night clubs we can all decide on one to check out if we want. I'll leave museums and sight-seeing up to whatever you find interesting." Robb said.
"I can do that. And don't worry, I've been to France enough to know what not to do." I said, laughing.
"We don't doubt that. When was the last time you went to France?" Barry said from beside me.
"Last summer actually. And Grant and Jay even went with me." I said, smiling.
"Yeah, and don't worry, she knows how to find fun things to do." Grant said.
"That's good to know. It's always nice to have someone that's familiar with the area. That's why we like going to Ireland so much." Robb said.
Suddenly, someone pulled on my leg and I went under the water unexpectedly. When I got back to the surface, everyone was laughing, Steve the most, so I knew he was the culprit,
"Oh you're gonna get it Gonsalves." I said, laughing, and went after him. He tried to swim away from me, but I was too fast and caught up with him quickly (I was the state champion three years in a row for swimming in high school). I jumped on Steve's back and we ended up at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. When we got back to the surface, we started splashing water in each other's faces, which made everyone laugh. Once it was clear that we had both swallowed enough chlorinated water, Jason decided to separate us, though he was laughing at us too.
"Do you and Steve always act like little kids around each other?" Joe said as everyone fell into their own small conversations.
"Pretty much. He's very much like an older brother to me, and so is Tango even though he's not that much older than me. Steve just teases me and stuff a lot more than Tango does." I said.
"What about us?" I heard Tango said from behind me.
"I said you're two of the most horrible people I have ever laid eyes on." I said jokingly and with a fake British accent.
"Oi, you're not British, you have no right to do the accent." Steve said, copying me.
"Well then you don't have any right to say 'oi'. But I do because I'm not fully American." I said.
"But you were born here, weren't you?" Tango said.
"Actually, no. I was born just outside of Salzburg, Austria." I said, uncrossing my arms.
"Austria?" Joe, Steve, and Tango said at the same time.
"Yeah, my parents moved there after they got married. We moved here when I was about eight months old, at least that's what I've been told." I said.
"How did we not know you were born in Austria?" Steve said, referring to himself and Tango.
"How should I know? Jason and Grant know." I said, shrugging my shoulders slightly.
"Who else knows? I believe we are a little hurt because we didn't know." Tango said dramatically, making me laugh.
"I don't know. I think I told Kris and I'm pretty sure Dustin knows too, but I think that's it. Don't feel left out, most of the GHI team doesn't know either. Yet." I said.
Soon we all had to leave because it was getting late so I got a hug from everyone again. While saying bye to everyone, Barry told me that he would help me with my research of things to do and places to go to while the was in Paris (Versailles, Paris, it's all the same to them) and I was very happy that I wouldn't have to do it all alone and we decided to meet at the public library the next morning. When I got home, I decided that I could wait until morning for a shower and immediately fell asleep.
Well? What'd you think? Reviews would be lovely! I'll try to get part 4 up soon, but it'll probaby be after the July 4th weekend, so maybe Tuesday or Wednesday unless I can put something together before tomorrow. Thanks for reading though! :)