Okay, well guys I got some good news. The ammo shortage is finally starting to die down around here. So I'm stocking up a bit. Hopefully by next weekend, I'll be able to go zero my AR. Also some have been messaging me asking if I'm going to be recalled in the army because of all the tension in the middle east. And bro I don't know. But if I had to guess, definitely no. Do you know how many times I was told I was deploying over every little thing that happened in the world? Too many times.
I mean shit, the only way I see that happening is if another surge happened like in 2006. Either way I ain't worried at all. I'm too focused on living my best life right now.
"Ugh, I hate you guys so much." Harriet said as she was laying on the grass outside of Jem's house.
"Geez, it wasn't that bad." Marrow said as she glared.
"Easy for you to say! You weren't stuck in the back! And you all kept trying to steal my snacks!" Harriet didn't understand why she was getting shit canned all the time.
While she was still enjoying her vacation here along with the rest of her teammates. She couldn't help but feel that all the minor inconveniences she had been through since she had gotten here were all just a coincidence. It was like the world was out to get her! It may not have been a big deal to be in the back of a van having to hold it in and wait for a gas station, but they were driving for HOURS before they found one. It was total bullshit!
"Oh don't be such a baby." Elm said as she was comfortably stretching her legs.
"Easy for you to say Sasquatch! You were sitting in the front the whole time!" Harriet was slowly calming down as the blades of grass slowly tickled her.
"You're not really angry with us, you're just hungry." Clover said as she grumbled.
"Maybe, but theres more to my anger than hunger." She said as she glared at Elm's retreating self.
She turned to see Jem and Winter quickly rushed to the motorhome with Nala skipping happily outside the truck.
"Whats gotten into you?"
"Oh nothing! I just asked Daddy and Winter a question, and next thing you know they both got really red and had to get out of the truck." She said as she seemed awfully proud of herself.
"Oh? What did you ask?" Elm asked as she didn't know what got them so flustered.
"Oh, Miss Winter asked Dad out on a date, so I asked if she was going to be my new mom!"
That got all of the Ace ops attention.
"Uhm, could you clarify that statement?" Clover felt like he was hearing things.
"Oh! Well Winter asked him if he wanted to go on a date, and he agreed! So I got happy because that means I get a mom too right?" Nala said as they all felt awkward as hell.
"Oh fuck, thats the worst thing ever, getting too close to a woman too fast to the point her kid meets you, and then if the relationship fails, that kid misses you! Jem is screwed!" Marrow thought as that was the most reasonable response to what they just heard.
"...She asked HIM out? Jeez, Schnee's must have low standards for dating." Harriet thought as she couldn't believe it.
"Huh, and all this time I was certain he was a homosexual." Clover thought as Jem seemed to be awfully flirty with him since he had been here.
But then he remembered he was infantry, and then it all made sense.
"...Nope..." Vine wasn't even going to entertain the idea.
"Well, uhm, this is awkward." Elm thought as she couldn't help but feel like this was going to change the course of history, but she found it adorable.
Meanwhile in the trailer
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" Jem was currently punching his punching bag desperately trying to keep his heart from melting.
Nala's cute little stare, with those big kitten eyes, and just full of hope that she would get a mother too was making him having to punch stuff to feel manly again. It was too adorable!
Winter however was in the living room area of the trailer and was blushing INTENSELY from what she just heard.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no, I completely forgot he adopted Nala! I should have waited til we were alone to ask him! What if this doesn't go well?! I can't hurt that little girl like that." Winter was feeling anxious over her decision, and she couldn't help but worry about it.
Jem only became a parent a day or two ago, but she had forgotten about the cardinal rule of dating single parents. You see, if you were going to date a single parent. It was best that you didn't meet their children right away. This may sound odd, but there was a reason behind it. Imagine you meet the kid right away, and they get attached for you, then for some reason out of the blue, you have a nasty breakup with their mother or father. But during that time you formed a strong bond with them, that kid would have to deal with losing someone they thought could be a future father or mother for them, and that would hurt them like hell. It would also hurt the possible step parent, because nothing sucks more than getting close to someone you would happily be a parent to, only for a failed relationship to make it so you would never see them again.
Dating a single parent was hard, it was not impossible, but there were certain things you had to be mindful of.
Winter couldn't help but worry. But it didn't mean that she was going to back down. She never backed down from anything in her life, so they would just have to deal with the cards that were dealt. She took a deep calming breath as she laid down on the couch trying to think of their next move.
Jem walked out of the training shed and back into the motorhome as he sat down next to Winter.
"Well, I guess its safe to say neither of us were expecting that." He said as she nodded.
"It was a shock."
"But, I also do think we owe it to her and ourselves to give this a shot, right?" He asked as she nodded.
"Well, we certainly can't cancel the date now." Winter said as Jem nodded his head in agreement.
"Well, I've never been too fond of the standard movie and dinner date, or at the very least I like to have the dinner first before the movie, since you can't get to know each other when the films playing." Winter was in agreement with Jem on that.
"So what were you thinking?" She asked as he pulled out a piece of paper.
"Well, theres a pretty good bike trail and nature reserve an hour from here, how about a bike ride and a picnic?" He asked as she nodded.
"Sounds like fun to me." That actually sounded decent.
"Perfect." He said as she suddenly thought of something.
"You're not going to rent one of those stupid two seater bikes you see in cheesy old romantic movies are you?" She couldn't stand those.
"Oh hell no." He couldn't stand those either.
"What about Nala?" Winter asked as Jem smiled.
"Don't worry, once Mom finds out she has a granddaughter right now, Nala is going to be spending the whole day with her being spoiled rotten." Jem laughed as Winter giggled.
"She wasn't before? They did turn your old room into a bedroom for her." Winter brought up how Jem's parents already treated her like a granddaughter.
"Yeah but that's just their usual hospitality, trust me, we're about to see a whole other level of spoiled." Jem knew how his parents were around kids.
They were always bugging him and his siblings for grandchildren. But his sister was probably going to be alone forever, his brother wasn't interested, and Jem for the longest time was only focusing on the gym. His parents were worried they would be more likely to have another child than a grandchild. So Nala was the closest thing they had now.
"Actually, look out the window right now." Jem said as both took a look.
Only to see Jem's dad spinning Nala around in the air and throwing her up and catching her.
"...Dang, your dad is surprisingly strong for his age."
"Old man strength is a thing." He said as he noticed his mom came over with a ton of cookies, in all shapes, sizes, and flavors.
He was actually jealous. Mom never gave him a whole platter of assorted cookies. He remembered one time he stuck his hand into the cookie jar without permission and he got his hand slapped.
"Wait a fucking minute! Did my dad just give her a hundred bucks?!" Jem saw that Nala was now holding a crisp Ben franklin.
"...He gave me 50 cents in allowance when I was a kid and said I was lucky to get that!" Jem pouted a little.
"Well, its only obvious grandparents spoil their grandkid more than their actual kid. I don't know why you're surprised." Winter may not have had a normal family, but even she knew that.
"Five bucks says when she turns 16 he's gonna get her a brand new car too." Jem laughed a little but also rubbed his head in annoyance.
"What was your first car?"
"I had an old beat up Lebaron that was sitting in a junkyard for years...but I did love that car, I was happy to have something that worked." Jem felt a little nostalgic.
He missed that old car. Sadly it was now sitting outside in the backyard, a shell of its former self.
"Are you crying?" Winter asked as Jem shook his head.
"No, I just got something in my eye." He wiped his tears away.
"...Did you seriously just cry over your first car?"
"Hey, that car got me through so may road trips when I was in high school, its only natural you form an attachment." Any man who didn't feel any sense of love for his first car wasn't human.
"Well, seems like shes going to be busy with them for awhile." Winter had to admit, it was cute to see Nala playing with her new grandparents.
"Yeah, so what do you want to do?" He asked as Winter looked outside.
"Well its getting relatively late, how about for now, we just make some tea up and put some tv on?" Winter suggested as Jem nodded.
"Sure, sounds like a nice relaxing night." He said as Winter put the kettle on.
"What you gonna put on?" She asked as she prepared the tea bags.
"I'm going to just press down on the scroll button, and whatever it lands on is what we'll watch." He said as Winter liked that idea.
"If I'm lucky, it will be something romantic to help set the pace." It didn't take long for the kettle to boil, and she poured the two cups of tea.
She waited for them to steep, she took hers out, but she left Jems in. For some reason, he preferred to keep the tea bag in the cup when he drank it. She didn't know why he preferred it that way.
She walked over to the couch and saw that he still had his finger on the scroll button.
"Please be something romantic, please be something romantic." She watched as Jem let his finger off the button.
"WACO"
"DAMN IT!" That was the exact opposite of romantic!
She was hoping for something like a romantic comedy.
Instead she gets a drama based on a true story.
Great.