Disclaimer. I don't own the characters. There is no more gain than the writing practice that is done here

Chapter 16: Coming home - An interview - A decision - The news - Friends traveling during spring break.

Jack, Judy, Chandler, and the kids came home. The farewell was emotional, but Judy had high hopes for her, in her suitcase she kept Ross's resume, …

The children at home found that Santa Claus had passed by and had left a bicycle for each of them, and they were happy. They went back to school and Chandler took his job.

Judy handed Ross's resume to her new friend.

The days passed for all the friends.

Richard felt that Monica was getting further and further away from him, with the excuse of her classes at the Academy she stayed to practice after class hours and came home late and tired. The magic of the first months together had begun to fade for a while.

Rachel, she was hopeful that Ross would get the job in Honolulu, she felt that they need a change, she too was being overwhelmed by Manhattan, the traffic, the crowd in the streets, and by the video photos of Chandler and the parents of Ross there seemed everything calmer, more brother. On the other hand, the change scared her a little, going from a big city that covered every whim she imagined, to a smaller and less cosmopolitan one. But she was attracted to the change anyway.

In Honolulu, everyone continued quietly, the children at school and with their therapy sessions, the grandparents playing golf, bridge and making more and more friends. And Chandler working and taking care of his children all his free time. On Saturdays he and the kids would go to the beach until the afternoon to surf. Every afternoon the three of them would go riding their bikes on the beach, and Chandler tried to stick to the premise of hanging out with each of the kids separately at least once a week.

The first week of February Ross receives a call from the Honolulu Museum of Natural Sciences because they wanted to have an interview with him the following week. Ross got nervous, he didn't know what to say, he wanted to consult with Rachel, but he was so confused that the only thing he could do was accept the interview.

When he got home and told Rachel this she was happy, he was surprised by his wife's reaction, he thought she would doubt like him….

"Honey, this is wonderful news" Rachel jumped "you can't miss this opportunity…. You asked for permission from the University to be absent for a week, tell your mother and get the ticket"

"But Rach, I thought we would think about it carefully…"

"Baby, there's nothing to think about, you're not really deciding anything now, you're just going to an interview, when they offer you the job there we think about what to do."

"Rach, are you sure…. It scares me a bit... You know I'm not one for changes... we would have to move and there is Ben"

"Ross, Ben is starting college, he's going to make his way, and if we really do move to Hawaii he may as well come visit us, maybe even be interested in studying there."

"Love, you're going too far" Ross told her with a worried face.

"Yeah! Ross, we're going to Hawaii! Rachel yelled laughing.

Ross called his mother and also talked to Chandler who convinced him to go to the interview.

When Ross arrived in Honolulu he really liked the city, the landscapes, and fell in love with the place where Chandler's house was.

He settled in one of the side houses, but he was with his parents, the children and his brother Chandler all day.

During that week they did four different interviews, each lasting several hours, so he returned home exhausted from the tension, but when he entered the house he relaxed, the view was so incredible.

He calls Rachel every day to tell her how his interviews had gone, but also to describe the place and her feelings.

Rachel hadn't heard such an energetic and enthusiastic Ross, which raised Rachel's hopes even more.

Ross had asked her to be completely confidential about his stay in the city for the interviews, he didn't know how everything was going to turn out.

When he returned to NY he was very excited and he passed that euphoria on to Rachel and the children.

Two weeks passed and Ross had no news, which had him a little bummed.

But the first days of March he received a call from the Museum informing him that they had hired him, that the documents with the conditions would be sent to him by mail so that he could read them and if he agreed to sign them, and they also told him that they needed him to It will start on the first business day of April.

Ross was overwhelmed, and before talking to Rachel, who would jump with enthusiasm and think nothing of it, he called Chandler to help him figure out what to do.

"After telling him the news, he was greeted with a "Great! On Chandler's part, Ross told him how overwhelmed he was, "how am I going to do it, I'll have to move in less than a month, what will I do with my family, my house, his life, friend, I'm scared…"

"Ross, I've already been through that and I was also afraid, let's think…. at least you have to come here at least a week before your job starts, and that week coincides with the kids' spring break."

"Yeah..." Ross said, still not getting where Chandler wanted to go.

"Well," Chandler continued, "that week the four of you travel to Honolulu, you know the place, Emma and Martin can see the school and get closer to what their future life will be like, and you'll feel accompanied by them"

"Yeah …. But after what does Rachel and the kids do?" Ross asked.

"The three of them return to NY until Emma and Martin finish the school year in mid-June, this gives Rachel enough time to disassemble the house, send the things she wants to move here, and put the house up for sale. In June you will look for them and that's it "

"But where are we going to live…"

"Ross, you're not thinking, you're going to live here, in one of the side houses, the perfect one for you, you already saw it, with three bedrooms, they're going to fit in perfectly until they find a house. Even you can go looking to have something in sight for when they arrive"

"Chandler, man, you make it easy…"

"It's easy, talk to Rachel, I'm sure she'll agree to the plan"

When Ross got home that night he told Rachel the news and Chandler's plan.

Rachel was overjoyed, she called the children who told them the news, the trip in a few days, the transfer, the kids were surprised an anxious, although at one point Emma said that she was going to miss her friends.

"Daughter, I'm sure with your character you'll soon be part of a new gang..." and Rachel gave her daughter a big hug. Martin, on the other hand, was fascinated with the possibility of learning to surf like his cousin.

When Rachel told Phoebe about this she went crazy, that night she talked to Mikel and used all his weapons to convince him. The next day she calls Rachel to tell her that the four of them are also coming for spring break week.

Meanwhile in Paris the relationship between Monica and Richard had deteriorated enough.

Monica had missed every extracurricular course there was to show up late at night to avoid Richard.

In turn, Richard had obtained the representation of some ophthalmology devices that he had to promote in France, so once or twice a week he had to travel to cities in the interior for a couple of days, which greatly relieved Monica.

During the weeks that had elapsed since Christmas, Rachel had spoken several times with Monica, but Monica had not told her anything about the state of her relationship with Richard, or rather her non-relationship with Richard.

But Rachel hadn't told Monica anything about Ross's trip, either, and the interviews. But the way events had precipitated, it was necessary to bring her up to date on her news, she didn't want to leave her out of it.

Rachel called Monica, and after the usual small talk, told her about Judy and the résumé, the surprise when Ross was called in for an interview, Ross's trip to Honolulu, and the positive response from the Museum that he was hired and was due to start the studies first days of April.

Monica was speechless, and finally she asked, "but you guys are going to live in Honolulu, when? Where are they going to live? And your house?

Rachel explained, "Look, the kids and I are going to travel with Ross as soon as spring break starts, we'll stay those days and then Ross stays there and I go back with the kids to NY until they finish the school year, and during that I take advantage of the time to dismantle the house and put it up for sale"

Monica's stomach dropped, her hands trembled, even she was reluctant to assimilate the magnitude of what her friend was telling her "Rach, you and Ross and the kids are going to live in Honolulu... . so suddenly…"

"Not so suddenly Mon, when your mom raised the possibility after Thanksgiving, we started to think about it, I more seriously than Ross, you know he doesn't like changes, but when he travel for interviews it's over convince, I think if they hadn't hired him we would both have been disappointed"

"And where are they going to live..." Monica asked again

"For now, until we sell this house and buy another one over there, we'll live in one of the Chandler side houses, which Ross told me is beautiful and we fit in perfectly."

"And what's going to happen to Ben…" Monica said with concern.

"Mon, Ben is starting college soon, anyway, he can come as much as he wants, he could even study at the University of Honolulu…. in fact, now he doesn't come so much on weekends since he always has plans with his friends."

"In the end everyone is going to Honolulu…. behind Chandler…"

"Monica, we're not after Chandler, maybe Ross is after your parents…" and Rachel laughed.

"In the end, only Phoebe stays in NY…" Monica said sighing and trying to calm down.

"Well Mon, I wouldn't be so sure, now the four of them are also traveling with us to Honolulu, and from what I notice in Phoebe she is quite enthusiastic about following us" "Of course it's easier for them, with the fortune that Mike inherited, it can move wherever they want and set up their bar in any city, and they don't need to sell their house to buy another one" "I think Phoebe is up to something with this"

"I mean, everyone would be moving to Honolulu...and they leave me alone...they leave me behind..." Monica said with a reproachful tone.

"Mon, you're in Paris, in your happy place, you're with Richard, you're not alone" Rachel replied somewhat annoyed.

"Okay, okay…. I hope you have a good time; we'll talk when you get back from vacation."

Monica cut the conversation off feeling sad, upset, angry at her friends, disappointed that they were leaving her out of the gang she felt she had created. And to make matters worse, she was not in her place happy with it ...it had all been a fantasy, and she wanted to get out of it.

The next few days were so full of preparations that Rachel hadn't had time to talk to Phoebe, but on the flight to Honolulu Rachel told Phoebe about the conversation with Monica and her final angry reaction that Mon had cut her off.

"Rachel, when Monica decided to go to Paris, I don't think she stopped to think about what she was leaving behind, she was blinded, she took it for granted that we would all stay motionless, waiting for her, she believed that when she returned, if she ever did, everything would stay the same, since she was considered the glue of the gang... I'm sure she thinks we sided with Chandler, but it's not like that, at least not on my part, I want to continue with my gang, the only family I ever had, and each for one reason or another has decided to keep the gang together, and maybe now without even trying Chandler became our glue, it's obvious we want to stay together, anywhere on earth, we're family, and we're sticking together."

"Monica left the gang, we just keep her together," Rachel mused.

"Exactly," Phoebe replied.

Back at Chandler's house, each family settled into each of the side cabins. Rachel and Phoebe were in awe of how beautiful and comfortable they were, and how landscaped they were.

Rachel, Ross and the kids went to see the school where their cousins went and they loved it. Wasting no time, since they didn't have much, they went to the real estate agency Chandler knew, but the houses for sale were generally more expensive than theirs in NY, and this worried them a lot, especially Ross, because not even with the with the help of their parents, they would be able to buy a house with the comforts of their own, since the real estate market in Honolulu was more expensive.

That night Ross didn't sleep, but neither did Chandler, he wanted to help Ross and Rachel, and while he was thinking about how to solve the problem, as a good creative man he had HIS BRILLIANT IDEA.

The next day, after breakfast, the kids went down to the beach and Chandler told Ross and Rachel and their in-laws that he needed to talk to them, since he had found the solution. and he began;

"Listen, the side cabin that you are now occupying, which you know is the one to the right of the one we are in, has a lot of land on the right side and, like the three houses, there is a lot of land when you enter where the huge garden"

"Well, it occurred to me, if we subdivide the land, that part remains in their name, and they enlarge the house according to the comforts they need, perfectly on the low level they could add a bedroom, an office and a complete bathroom, and Upstairs they could add another bedroom and another bathroom. We would have to go see the architect who made the improvements and he can draw up a plan, I don't think it would be a difficult job or take a long time."

"You. they would live next door to us, but in their own house, they would remodel it to their liking, and I am sure they would have plenty of money left over from the sale of the house"

"But Chandler, it's your land, your house land," Ross told him.

"Friend, we'll fix the land, it doesn't matter, the important thing is that they have a beautiful house, in the perfect place, and if they decide, by the time Rachel returns in June the house could already be finished" "If you want, I'll call and to the architect."

"Chandler, you can't give us the land…!

"Ross, I learned throughout my life that money is not the most important thing, the important thing is friends who are family, I'm going to charge you $100 for the land and we're done"

"But Chandler..." He started talking to Rachel with tears in his eyes. Jack and Judy also looked touched by the generosity of their surrogate son.

"Rach, there is nothing to talk about regarding the land, if the idea seems good to you, you have to get to work" "Shall I call the architect?"

"Yeah sure..." Ross and Rachel said in unison and gave each other a big hug.

"Friend" exclaimed Ross "I have no words to thank you..."

"Ross, you have nothing to be thankful for, take it as pure selfishness on my part to have them all close, like at the beginning, apartment's 19 and 20"

Jack and Judy were elated to think that their grandchildren and their children, since they considered Chandler just another child, would be living so close together.

They all laughed and hugged again.

The week of the school break flew by, between projects, plans and decisions for the future.