Chapter Two

Andre dragged the larger sleeping bag onto the tarp in the garage, laying it next to the two tents waiting to be loaded into the truck. Behind him, his seven-year old sister Sydney brought him little things from the house to add to the stash. Daryl had told him they could wait another hour to pack the car, but he had the time and figured he'd get a jump on it to give Daryl less to do. His stepdad was a strong guy for an old dude. That didn't mean he needed to be lifting and hauling things when Andre could do it for him.

It surprised him that Daryl hadn't caught up to him and tried to help out anyway. The last Andre had seen of him was ten minutes ago when Daryl had mumbled something about going to grab his boots and jacket. He hadn't returned so Andre just kept packing things up as planned.

"Dre, where's my sleepin' bag? It's got monsters on it." Sydney had followed him out and seemed very upset not to see her stuff with everyone else's.

"I know what your sleeping bag looks like, Squirrel. Is it already in the truck?" Sydney crawled into the backseat of their mother's SUV and looked around the back before crawling back out. "It's not back here," her worried little voice reported.

Smirking, he reached for her and pulled her against his leg. "Maybe that means we'll have to leave you outside so you can sleep in the trees with the rest of the squirrels." That made her smile. "Come on, let's go look in the spare room for it." She walked ahead of him inside.

Andre checked the time on the kitchen clock before following Sydney into the spare room. His other sister, Marietta, was excited to get to the camping part of the trip, and Sydney just wanted to be out doing something. He couldn't wait to get going so he could spend the afternoon working on the old car he, Daryl and Daryl's brother Merle were fixing up. If he had to spend a whole three days away from his girlfriend Alyssa, he wanted to make sure he'd get some kind of reward for it. That was a long time of not getting to make out with her or chill with her on the phone. Not that it'd be bad hanging out with his family. They all liked camping and Daryl usually found things for them to do that weren't too lame. And although his sisters could be total pains a lot of the time, he would miss the little brats when he left for a month to travel with his dad.

A lot of his friends were curious about his family situation, always asking questions and trying to figure out his business. He lived part-time with his bachelor dad who had a sweet condo and a string of hot, young girlfriends coming in and out of the picture. Then he went back to the chaos of his mom and stepdad's place that had him dealing with little sisters and trips out to the sticks to get his hands dirty working on cars with his stepdad.

He didn't really know what to say to his friends who talked about how weird his life seemed to them. It had always made sense to him, like getting the best of both worlds.

Alyssa thought he was crazy for not living full time with his dad where he had his own room and a sweet entertainment center with the latest game consoles and movie library; no one interrupted him at his dad's place or regulated what he did, really. He usually had the run of the apartment while his dad worked and did his thing. When Alyssa would visit him there, they never had to worry about getting walked in on. The full-time activity of his mom's house meant Syd and Etta would bug them non-stop, and one of his parents could often be found lurking around. And his mom and Daryl were way stricter than his dad: no tablets or headsets at the dinner table, enforcing bed times and curfews. It got on his nerves a lot. He mostly minded them and got decent grades so he thought sixteen was old enough for them to let some of that go.

Yet he continued to spend his time alternating between the two households. It felt nice to be so chill at his dad's place, and he and his dad were really cool with each other. But there would always be something to his connection with his mom—it was like he needed to stay close to her. And his stepdad and sisters, too.

There wasn't a time when he didn't remember Daryl being around, that's how long his mom's man had been in the picture. He didn't get it when he was younger, but now he understood a little why they used to get so many stares when they went out together. His mom and Daryl weren't exactly the kind of couple you expected to see out and about. Daryl was as redneck as they came, so country and more comfortable out in the woods than in the suburbs. And people considered his mom to be a classy lady with her law firm job and cultured tastes. It really was kinda crazy that they ever started dating, much less got married and had kids. But ten years later, they were still kicking—and still as lovey-dovey as always. At least they weren't real showy about it, kissing or making out in front of him. The little things were what he noticed more: the way Daryl always stayed up when his mom worked late, making sure he had dinner waiting and offering to clean up afterwards. And there was the way his mom packed them all up in the car to go spend the weekends with Daryl at the garage. His stepdad hated being away from all of them when he had to be out overseeing things when his brother couldn't be trusted to do it.

In Andre's mind, his mom controlled everything that went on in the family. No one questioned who was in charge. But Daryl could get her acting like a straight fool when he put his mind to it, have her giggling and flirting like the girls at his school. And when Daryl thought no one was looking, he would stare at his mom like he'd won the lottery. That's probably why he'd always been cool with Daryl—the man clearly adored his mom, and that's what he wanted for her. Andre would never admit it, but he liked seeing them like that. Although his mom and dad got along well enough, he couldn't imagine anyone better suited for his mom than Daryl.

His mom and Daryl had their problems sometimes too, like when there'd been a fire at the garage and it took a few months to fix it all up again. Etta wasn't even a year old then. They wouldn't exactly fight like on TV but there had been some really chilly, awkward nights at the dinner table. Then the garage finally got renovated, they'd gone away for a long weekend alone, and things were mostly fine after that.

A lot of his friends had parents who hated each other or divorced or were just plain weird. But he felt lucky that all three of his parents were pretty chill.

In the spare room, he and Sydney poked around in the closet and under the bed but her sleeping bag never turned up. Usually, they kept all that stuff in here or wrapped in the bins in the garage, so it didn't make sense for it to be missing.

"Hey, Squirrel, go ask Mom where your sleeping bag is." Maybe Sydney had had a sleepover or something and she'd move it. "I'm gonna go put the other stuff in the truck."

She hopped over one of the backpacks and the cooler they still needed to move and then took off around the corner and up the stairs. He chuckled and went back in the garage.

Another thing that had Andre looking forward to getting on the road was that Daryl had promised him he could work on the one job they had lined up for the day. Daryl had taught him everything he knew about cars, and it helped him figure out that he wanted to study engineering when he graduated.

Daryl's brother Merle had eventually taught him a lot too. At first, Daryl and his mom tried to shield him from the man. No one can really keep Merle under wraps if he didn't want to be though. Andre had been so little when he'd first met him but he remembered not liking Merle for a long time. Right after Etta had been born, he heard Merle saying something stupid—he didn't even remember what. But the younger version of him had gone off on the man, kicking him in the shin and threatening to beat him up for being mean to his mom.

After that, Merle had started treating him better, with more respect—and things changed between Merle and his mom. They'd probably never like each other, but they got along well enough these days.

And Andre eventually learned how to get along with the man too, enough to get Merle to teach him what he knew about motorcycles and such. It seemed worth it to keep the peace for Daryl's sake even if he'd always be wary. No matter what kind of front Merle put up for Sydney and Etta, Andre couldn't forget the time when their uncle had had the roughest of edges.

It took a little bit of effort but Andre got both tents and one of the coolers into his mom's truck. He'd leave some of the other stuff for Daryl so that he wouldn't feel like he hadn't helped. Hearing footsteps behind him, he took one last look across the garage for anything else they needed to gather.

"Did you find the sleeping bag yet?" Etta asked. Andre turned around to see both his sisters standing in the doorway, Sydney looking very put out and Etta carrying two backpacks—one for her and one for her sister.

"Why are you asking me? I sent Sydney to ask Mom." He looked at the little girl who shrugged.

"She and Papa are in the bathroom getting ready, and she said to ask Etta. But Etta doesn't know so Mama has to come find it."

Andre rolled his eyes. Yeah, it was cool that his mom and his stepdad got along but Daryl had been up and prepped for hours so he had a good idea of what they might be up to while they were supposed to be "getting ready". It was gross. Cute, but gross.

"I'm gonna go get Mama," Sydney said.

Etta scoffed. "Ny-ny, why don't you know where your sleeping bag is?"

"You don't know where it is either so shut up."

"You shut up. Why should I know where your sleeping bag is? I only need to know where mine is."

Sydney crossed her arms and scowled at her sister. "You're such a know-it-all about the camping trip so you should know this too."

Andre trotted over to the doorway and separated the two. They could be such brats sometimes. It would end up being a painful weekend if they all started it off bickering.

"Both of you shut up because it's not helping us find it any faster. Ny-ny, help Etta put the backpacks in the truck, you know the one she re-packed for you." He flashed a warning to the older sister too. "And since you did help Daryl plan this thing, you really should have known that Sydney's sleeping bag was MIA. Besides, you don't remember half the bratty things you did when you were seven so ease up on her. I'll go get Mom."

It'd be good for the girls to bury the hatchet and work together but he'd really decided to intervene to protect his little sisters. Who knows what the poor girls would walk into if they went looking for their parents. What kind of big brother would he be if he didn't save everyone the trauma of seeing them in a compromising position? He grinned at the idea of interrupting a make-out session in the house instead of him always getting busted. Then he frowned thinking about how terrible it would be once Etta and Sydney started dating.

Andre trudged up the stairs hoping that his parents would be out of the bathroom, save him the trouble of barging in on them. But when he walked into their room, the bathroom door was still closed, although he couldn't hear anything happening on the other side. Thankfully. Sighing, he knocked on the door.

The tell-tale sign of hurried shuffling let him know that he'd been right on the money about what they were up to in there. He and Alyssa did the same thing enough times for him to recognize it when he heard it. Ugh, he so didn't want to deal with this.

Finally, his mother opened the door looking as normal as ever. It was a rare sight to catch her off her game. But Daryl had retreated into the closet, out of sight. They could have played that off if he hadn't heard them rushing away from each other five seconds before.

"Uh, we still can't find Sydney's sleeping bag. So if you two are done in here, maybe you want to come lend a hand. We're gonna run late if you don't get it together." He rolled his eyes and backed out of the room. "And you guys are totally gross by the way." Skipping down the stairs, he shook his head but then laughed at how juvenile his parents could be sometimes.

They really were cute, but also definitely gross.

TBC...