Thanks to all of you who read the last chapter. Also big thanks to monkeybaby, jlmayer, ki4pak, and peace486 for your reviews to the last chapter. To anyone else wondering in the last chapter Derrek says he'd been trying to get her fired for six weeks but she had only been waitressing for a week, this is possible because before she had been a waitress she had been a busser for about two and a half months so he had plenty of time to try to get her fired.
What followed felt like the longest six weeks of Anna's life; no computer, no phone, and no control over the remote. That meant there were a lot of cartoons and very few action shows. Granted there was barely anything new on since it was summer but she was missing the reruns. Thankfully Linda kicked them out of the house for three hours every afternoon so she got to have a little fun in the yard with the boys and wasn't bored watching cartoons. The Sunday before her punishment was up she sat down in the living room with Nicky after Mass. "How's the internet?" Anna asked.
"Oh you know, changes every day. Someone new doing something stupid to get themselves in the headlines, and so many cute videos. Do you know how many times I've wanted to send you something but I can't because I know you won't see it? I mean I still tag you but I can't bring it up," Nicky answered.
"I check my phone every time I get to work to find that I have, as of yesterday close to a hundred text messages and close to 50 missed calls. Becky said she called my phone yesterday and the voice mailbox was full."
"Either you have more friends than I do or they call more often."
"I haven't been able to check them in five weeks. Dad checks it every night and says if it goes down, he'll know I've been on it. I can only have it to call him and mom to or from work. Friends have to wait."
"Seems a little harsh."
"Yeah, I won't get caught lying to them again."
"I'm sure that's not what you mean," Frank said from the doorway.
"Of course not. Did my dad ever lie to you?" Anna asked.
"Of course he did. So did your aunt Erin. Part of being a teenager but they learned their lesson every time."
"Happen more than once?"
"Dinner," Frank said instead of answering her question.
"That's a yes," Anna said to Nicky. Nicky smirked as she looked at Anna. Anna looked at her and rolled her eyes.
When Anna finally got her phone back, a quarter of the messages were from her friends expressing their displeasure that she had been grounded. A few of them sent further texts asking what for but after a week or two the only texts coming in were from were from her uncle Jimmy, Sofie, and Beth. The last being videos to watch. The same was true of her social media notifications. Mostly all were cute videos and posts her friends thought she'd love to see.
"What are you up to, Anna?" Jack asked as he plopped down on the couch next to her nearly a week later.
"Looking at cars," Anna answered.
"Why? Mom and Dad aren't going to get you one for your birthday. If anything, Mom will get a new car and you'll get hers."
"Unless I can buy the car myself and just have them sign the papers."
"You think that'll work?"
"Worth a shot? Right?" Anna asked.
"If you say so," Jack answered, "but get a cool one. My friends will be so jealous if you drop us off every day in a cool car."
"I'll consider it." Anna spent the next handful of days looking for the most awesome car ever. Finally she landed on three and printed out the information to sit down with her parents. "So I've been doing some searching and my birthday is next weekend. I was thinking that one of the things I want for my birthday is a car," Anna explained.
Her parents' faces fell but she didn't let that deter her. "I'm sorry, Anna, but another car just isn't in the cards for us right now. Maybe if you can save up enough over the year it'll be more affordable next year," Linda explained.
"That's the thing, Mom, I have saved up enough. From working at the diner and babysitting I've saved up more than enough. There's these three cares. I want to go look at them. An '04 Honda, a '99 Pontiac, and an '02 Toyota. Please? All three are less than $4000 and if I can get them to include tax and title in that price, I'll have plenty if anything needs to be fixed. I can even ask Uncle Jamie to come with so I'll know what I'm getting myself into with the repairs. Please?"
"There's also the license plate fee and the insurance as well as gas money every week," Linda said. Anna thought it over and looked from her mom to her dad. He was watching her carefully and she knew he was waiting for her to come up with a response.
"I'll still be working at the diner so there's gas money and plates are just once a year, right?" Anna asked. Danny nodded. "And maybe we can work out some sort of deal where I can pay half the insurance unless ... B's or better and I pay half the rate but I bring home anything less and I foot the full bill?" Anna suggested.
"Let your mom and I talk it over; we'll get back to you," Danny said.
"Okay," Anna said. She laid the printed sheets on the table and went to find her brothers. She found them racing cars in their room. She watched them for a while, a small smile playing on her face. It was great to see such innocence and carefree spirits in such a dark world. Soon they were being called for dinner but it wasn't until the end of dinner that Linda finally told her she could go look at cars.
"There is one condition though," Linda told Anna.
"Name it," Anna said, knowing it couldn't be that bad.
"Your dad and Jamie have to go with you. At the same time."
Anna's jaw dropped open. She stared at her mom for a moment then took a deep breath and slowly let it out. It wasn't often they had the same day off other than Sundays and even then one of them typically had to work that day, either before or after Sunday dinner. "If that's what it takes. Oh um ... do you think Grampa would mind having my birthday dinner on Sunday instead of Saturday? I know it's tradition and all, but my friends are throwing me a surprise Sweet 16 at Beth's Moms' place on Saturday."
"We always have birthday parties on Saturday," Linda said.
"I know, but Becky and Jim and Sofie won't be back from vacay until Saturday, so they couldn't do it on Friday."
"If it's supposed to be a surprise, how do you already know about it?" Sean asked.
"Because my friend Derrek has a really big mouth," Anna answered.
"There are going to be guys at this party too?" Danny asked.
"Yes, as well as Beth's mom, dad, and grandmother. Please? It's my party, kinda have to be there," Anna begged using her best puppy dog pout.
"Call your grandfather, make sure it's okay with him," Linda said.
"So I can go? If it's alright with him?" Anna asked.
Linda nodded. Anna moved to stand up. "After dinner."
"I'm done," Anna said.
"Wait for your brothers to finish," Linda said. When the boys tried to claim they were done too, her look silenced them. It took another ten minutes before Linda finally let them up from the table. Before Anna could race off for her room to call her grandfather and uncle, she realized she had one more question.
"Uh, Dad," Anna said.
"Yeah, kiddo?" Danny answered.
"When's your next day off?" Anna asked nervously.
"Saturday."
"As in two days from now?" Danny nodded. "Do you have any plans?"
"Not at the moment."
"Will you come look at cars with me on Saturday then?"
"Sure, I guess we can look," Danny said smirking.
"With the possibility of buying me one?" Anna asked.
"I never said we'd buy you a car," Danny said in disbelief.
"That's not what I was asking," Anna answered. "I'm asking you to go with me and Uncle Jamie so that if I do find a car I like, that I want to buy, you can sign the papers. I maybe almost 16 but according to New York state law, I can't enter into a contract and that's what buying a car is. Still need a legal guardian for that."
"You'd rather I not be there?" Danny asked.
"I didn't say that," Anna answered, looking away from her dad. She really hoped he wasn't getting angry with her or disappointed.
"Might as well have. You'd rather just share this experience with you uncle and face it, if Joe were here you wouldn't have asked us at all, at least not until he made you."
"That's not true," Anna said, her throat tight. She stared hard at her plate but could tell that Jack and Sean were trying to make themselves as small as possible. Even her mom didn't look like she wanted to be in on this conversation. Finally she admitted, "I want my dad to be there but only if he wants to be there."
Danny scrutinized his daughter and then glanced at him wife who was watching him with a look on her face. He sighed. "Okay, go call your uncle and see if he has the weekend off too." Anna put her plate in the kitchen then raced upstairs and called Jamie who picked up on the third ring.
"How's my favorite uncle?" Anna asked brightly.
"I'm going to quit reminding you how low the bar is set on that and from now on just go with: what can I do for you?" Jamie said.
"What'cha doing on Saturday?" Anna asked.
"No plans as of yet and your birthday is next Saturday not this one. No early birthday presents this year."
"I don't expect one. Not exactly. How would you like to help your favorite niece find a car?"
"Anna," Jamie scolded. "You know I don't like that word. I love you and Nicky equally and don't play favorites."
"Okay, but you know more about cars than I do, maybe more than I ever could and you know people so you'll know what kind of deal I'll be getting. On top of that, if I just take Dad it'll be a waste of a trip because it'll just end up in a big, old fight," Anna explained.
"And Linda said you couldn't go unless I went with?"
"Uhhhh ... that too. Please?" she begged.
"Okay," Jamie agreed, "what time?"
"After breakfast? You come by here for coffee and we can go then?"
"Okay, I'll see you then."
"You're amazing, Uncle Jamie."
"I'll take that as a thank you. You're welcome."
"Thank you." Anna hung up with her uncle then called her grandfather's cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail which she found weird. He never ignored her calls unless he was in a meeting but with it being so late, it was very rare that he was in a meeting. Anna sighed and waited ten minutes before trying again. When he didn't pick up this time she called the office number knowing that if he was at home, he would have answered it or at least texted her to call him on the home phone.
"NYPD Commissioner's office, this is Detective Baker, how can I help you?" Baker's voice came over the line.
"Detective Abbey this is Anna," Anna said.
"What can I do for you, honey?" Baker answered.
"What are you still doing there? It's nearly 7:30, my grandpa pulling a late night again or is he just being mean to you and making you stay?"
"Just finishing up some paperwork, first week back from Maternity leave. What's going on?"
"Is my grampa still there?" Anna asked. Since Baker was still working on paperwork and trying to get the office back under control and probably back to her standards after a few months off, there was a chance that her grandfather was already on his way home and Baker was alone in the office. "I tried calling his cell but it went to voicemail, maybe I'm just being impatient. It's not really that important and it can wait if he's super busy."
"Yes, he's here. He didn't say anything about holding his calls so I'll see what he's up to. Hold the line, I'll go check." Before Anna could say anything, she heard hold music and had no choice but to wait on the phone until the detective came back. "Anna," Baker said when she did return, "he's on the phone with Nicky. He'll get back to you as soon as he can."
"Of course it would be Nicky," Anna muttered to herself. "Thank you, Detective, later." She hung up and opened her computer. It was nearly 20 minutes later when Frank called her back. When he did he apologized for not getting to her sooner. "It's okay, Grampa, really. I wanted to talk to you about my birthday next weekend," Anna pacified.
"Your mom and I were just talking about that. You know you've left it kinda late. However we'll do our best to give you anything you want. It's your Sweet 16; it should be special no matter the cost or what favors I have to pull to set it up last minute."
"No favors. Not for the party. What I'd really like though is to go on the Annual Reagan Camping Trip."
"You know it's the Annual Reagan Manly Men Camp Trip. You are not a man."
"Stupid traditions, it's not fair."
"You know you don't really want to go, you just don't like being left out."
"That's true," Anna answered shrugging.
"On our last trip with Joe, he tried to convince us to skip a year."
"Why?"
"Because his oldest niece, my oldest grandkid would turn 13 that year and would be old enough to go. He didn't want you to feel left out. He told me that Nicky wouldn't care, she hates camping, but you would want to prove you're just as good as the boys," Frank said. Anna could hear the smirk in his voice. That's exactly what Anna would have done. She would have fought it for two weeks leading up to the camp out. However she wasn't sure it would have worked unless she had convinced Joe and Jamie both.
"When I was 13 you went camping anyway."
"We did not," Frank told her. "It was tough on all of us. The first year without Joe. We decided to honor him in a different way. You remember," he prompted.
Frank waited and after a few moments it came to Anna. "You rented a boat and we went fishing. Jack and Sean both came down with the flu so Aunt Erin stayed with Mom; Uncle Jack took Nicky to a winter carnival. You, me, Pops, Dad, and Uncle Jamie fished for three days. The only one who caught anything was me on Sunday and that was hypothermia. Mom wouldn't let me out of the house for two weeks after that. Teaches us to go fishing in the Atlantic in January."
"That's right. I don't think I've ever seen your mom that angry at your dad."
"Fine. If you won't let me go camping, then can we at least celebrate my birthday on Sunday instead of Saturday? Everyone will be over for dinner anyway and we can still have meat and potatoes."
"Your birthday is on Saturday."
"And my friends want to throw me a party on my birthday. Come on, Grampa, it's one day, it's my birthday, you said anything I wanted, and it'll stop me from asking about the camping trip again." The best way to get whatever she wanted was ask for something impossible first and then go for the kinda out there so it wouldn't seem quite as bad as it would if it was the first thing offered.
"You really want meat and potatoes for your birthday. Out of all the things you could ask for, you want that?"
"Burgers and fries," Anna said. It went silent on the other end. "Please?"
"It is your birthday. Are you sure you don't want some kind of big party?"
"I'm sure," Anna rushed out, smiling.
"So what kind of present can I get you? Something other than our camping trip."
"I need a new ball glove. It doesn't have to be top of the line or anything but a good one would be nice. Sports Tech put out a glove a few months ago called Line Drive. The boys' tuition is going up for this year and by the time Mom and Dad could afford it, I won't have time to break it in for the season."
"Anything else? Cleats, batting glove?"
"Nope, just the ball glove and if Pops asks, that new Cassandra Thomas book."
"Okay, I'll see you on Sunday, sweetheart," Frank said.
"Bye, love you, Grampa," Anna answered. They hung up and Anna surfed the internet for a while longer before going to bed.