CHAPTER 3: TRINI
"KIMMY!"
"Aisha!"
"Kim!"
"TRINI!"
"Hi Kim!"
"Hey Cassie!"
"Hey girl!"
"Tanya!"
"Hi Kim!"
"Kat! You look…" Kimberly stepped back from hugging Kat and looked her up and down. "Amazing. You had a baby four weeks ago…" she added incredulously. "You look awesome, girl!"
"Back at you, pinky," Kat said.
"Ballerina," Aisha said idly.
"Gymnast," Cassie added.
"Tao Kwan Do," Trini said, casually inspecting her fingernails. "I did Tao Kwan Do and even I never lost the baby weight as fast as you two."
"I led dance classes four times a week," Tanya added.
"Alright, alright," Kimberly said, laughing with everyone else. "So where's my baby—awww!" her voice raised a few pitches and she started talking in a baby voice when she saw baby Cara Scott, being held by Ashley Hammond. "Look at her little pterodactyl t-shirt!"
"Yeah, she's already spit up on the T-rex shirt. Don't tell Jason."
"Spit up on it, huh?" Cassie asked, picking up a tiny red t-shirt from the changing table between two fingers. It was covered in a bright orange stain. "What exactly are you feeding your children?"
"Oh, you know," Kat said innocently. "Orange soda."
The room of women erupted with laughter.
"You spilled Fanta on Jason's shirt?" Aisha asked.
"Um, no, the baby spit up on it," Kat repeated as if it were obvious.
As the laughter continued, Tanya turned to the recently arrived Kimberly. "So, Kimmy, who's your pick to go all the way in the NBA this season?"
"Aww," Kimberly complained. "We're doing this again?"
"Honey," Aisha said patronizingly. "We can't do this with the guys, so we need girls to do it with. You don't have to care, just pick a team and we can have some friendly competition every few weeks."
"Remind me again why we can't do this with the guys…" Kimberly grumbled.
"Because they don't take us seriously," Tanya supplied.
"Because they don't like when our team wins," Kat added.
"Because they don't like when we get competitive," Cassie said.
"Because they're in denial when we know more about a sport than they do," Ashley added.
"Because they don't like when we use math to figure out probability and odds and then our teams do better than theirs," Trini spoke up.
"Alright, alright," Kimberly said, laughing with them. "So we have our own betting pool because boys, well, suck."
"So…Kimmy…" Tanya repeated after the laughter died down again. "Who's your pick to go all the way in the NBA this season?"
"Um, alright," Kimberly said, bringing her eyebrows together in deep concentration. "The…Packers?"
"Wrong sport," Tanya said cheerfully.
"Ah, Yankees?"
"Wrong again! And you're moving east. Think west coast."
"Fighting Irish?"
"You're getting colder." Aisha deadpanned. "Much colder."
"The LA…" Aisha prompted.
"…Galaxy?"
"Seriously?" Cassie asked incredulously. "We say pick a basketball team in L.A. and you name a soccer club?"
"Oh shut up. What about…The…Heat?"
Ashley did a little dance from the rocking chair. "Ding, ding, ding!"
Kimberly perked up in her chair. "Really? Yes! Put me down for the…Heat…The Miami Heat…" she trailed off. "Hey…I lived in Florida-The Heat are from Miami!" She turned to Aisha and Tanya. "They're not in L.A.! Or west. Unless you're in Africa…"
"And all they've got there are soccer teams," Cassie said to no one in particular.
"I was trying to get you to go for the Lakers," Aisha said, shaking her head as if she was disappointed. "It's a family tradition. Don't know why, as we are from Africa. Where we also play cricket, thank you very much!" she added with faux loftiness to Cassie.
"Good to know," Kimberly said seriously. "So Ashley," she turned to the former yellow ranger. "I didn't know you like basketball."
"I don't," she replied happily. "And I'm not even from a foreign country, I'm from a foreign planet."
"Sure, rub it in some more, alien girl," Kim said, though she laughed with everyone else.
"Just kidding," Ashley said, moving to cautiously stand up. "We've had this conversation every time someone else got here, you're the fourth one. And for your troubles," she gingerly moved to pass off Cara. "You get a baby."
"Ooh yay," Kim said quietly as she cradled the small bundle. "Hi little baby Cara. Remind me and next weekend we'll go shopping and Aunt Kimmy will get you matching high tops for that adorable shirt."
"They make baby-sized high tops with pterodactyls on them?"
"No, they make pink baby-sized high tops that sparkle. And the best part is," she added to Cara, switching effortlessly to baby voice. "You don't have any sisters so you can wear them all ya want."
"Mom!" a voice came from just down the hallway.
"Now there's something I haven't heard in seven years," Trini muttered. "My son whining for me…it's kind of refreshing…"
"Mom…" Joseph Cranston said again as he came in the room. "Can we go now?"
"Joey, we just got here an hour ago," Trini said sympathetically. "Whatever it is...Cope."
"But mom…" he tried whining again.
"No." Trini said firmly. "She's a girl. Get used to them. They make up fifty-one percent of the world's homo sapiens population."
Kim leaned closer to Cassie. "Angel is still following him around, huh?"
"Like a puppy," Cassie confirmed. "So, Joe," she said, switching gears as addressing Joseph. "Who's your take to be NBA Champions this year?"
Joseph blinked at her. "NB-what? Oh, basketball. I don't know…I'm going to go with the Sixers this year."
"This year?" Tanya commented. "We let boys in the pot now? Wait, we've let boys in the pot before?"
"Who do you think invented the pot?" Cassie said. "The guys won't let poor Joseph in their betting pool anymore. Poor baby." Joseph rolled his eyes again as he allowed Cassie to hug him.
Trini made a face at him as if to say 'That's what you get for cheating.'
"Right, so," Joseph said, finally managing to pull away. "Who did everyone else pick?"
"Kim just took the Heat," Aisha supplied. "Tanya has the Bulls, Cassie guesses the Nets, Kat doesn't care so we gave her the Wizards."
"Ouch," Joseph commented.
"Ashley gets the 76ers, your mom wants the Magic, and what are you again?
"LA Clippers," he provided.
"Right. And me, as long as my Lakers do okay, I'm happy," Aisha finished.
"May the odds be ever in your favor," Joseph replied dryly, sending the room into laughter as he rolled his eyes and stalked out in a way that only a twelve year-old could.
Trini pulled her phone out of her pocket as Ashley looked on. "What are you doing?"
Through her laughter, Trini said, "My kids are the inspiration for most of my Facebook statuses!"
Trini Cranston:
My 9 year-old is talking about the odds of The Lakers winning the championship next season, and instead of quoting a math book on statistics, he quotes Effie Trinket.
Tanya Sloan-Park, Aisha DeSantos, and 14 others like this
Tanya Sloan-Park commented: Joseph truly IS a genius ;-)
Rocky DeSantos commented: May the odds be ever in Kobe's favor.
Adam Park commented: Kobe's a douche.
Rocky DeSantos commented: You're a douche.
Adam Park commented: says ape man
Rocky DeSantos commented: zip it frog boy
Trini Cranston commented: Not on my status, boys
Tanya Sloan-Park commented: welcome to MY life
Aisha DeSantos commented: Amen, cousin.
TJ Johnson commented: Tanya, are you aware your husband has taught your son how to hop like a frog?
Tanya Sloan-Park commented: actually he picked up on the frog thing himself…