DECEMBER

Christmas break finally arrived for Michaela and with it a sudden surge of work for Joseph so that it was only during his lunch hour on Christmas Eve that he finally made it to the supermarket to buy the standard turkey and trimmings for Christmas dinner. He and Michaela had agreed to keep the celebration small but given that they had been too busy to celebrate Thanksgiving, it was their first real holiday on their own and he wanted to make it extra special. Thus he was to be found in the frozen food aisle debating the attributes of two particularly grim looking birds when his cell phone rang.

"Hi Dad," began Michaela excitedly, cutting off the professional spiel he always ran through just in case it was a patient on the line.

"Mrs Cooper rang. She's asked Sully and his mom over for Christmas dinner and wants to know if we can go too. Can we Dad, please?"

"Well, I dunno," mumbled Joseph uncertainly, his brow furrowing, "Are you sure she doesn't mind?"

"Yep," assured Michaela with a giggle, "she said she's making enough food to feed an army so if we're coming, it would be a good idea to skip breakfast."

Joseph glanced down at the complicated diagram on the front of the packaging in his hand that seemed to be demonstrating the right way to stuff said birds, and made a quick decision.

"Ok," he agreed, "ring her back and tell her we'll be there. I'm in the supermarket so I'll get some wine for the table."

"Don't forget the crackers," added Michaela, "and another packet of those chocolate Santas for the tree. Some of them got a bit lost in the decorating process."

"Stop eating the decorations, Mike," laughed Joseph, "at least not til I get home. I want to have fair pickings."

"Ok, Ok," sighed Michaela and he could almost hear her eyes rolling.

"And don't be a pain for Mrs Baker," he added, chucking the miserable turkeys back into the freezer, "I'll be home at six and I don't want any more complaints about how she needs to double her angina medication every time she babysits you."

"Uh huh," said Michaela, her tone suspiciously distracted, "See you later."

FEBRUARY

Christmas day and the New Year past uneventfully enough for the Quinn family and a new occasion appeared on the horizon: Michaela's thirteenth birthday. Joseph had been wracking his brains for a great way to celebrate his daughter's special day and after a whole week of stealthily scouring the internet for ideas, moping around when said search proved unfruitful and even resorting to picking Sully's brain, he had finally decided to just come out and ask her what she wanted to do. It was with this aim in mind that he drove carefully along the snow filled roads towards the Cooper residence.

Since the Christmas holidays, Michaela had persuaded him to let Mrs Cooper watch her after school, namely because Sully went there most days after school til his mum finished work and because she couldn't bear the boredom of Mrs Baker's company. Joseph had eventually agreed under the pretence that Mrs Cooper was infinitely cheaper than her competition but in all honesty, he wasn't sure Mrs Baker's heart could tolerate the exuberant nature of his daughter for much longer.

The lights were on and the aroma of dinner cooking wafted through the front door which had opened as soon as he had turned off the ignition.

"Hey, Brian," he said, bending down to be on eye level with the blond haired toddler, "does your mum know you can open the door like that?"

"Brian!" came a furious cry from the kitchen and in an instant, Charlotte Cooper had appeared in the hallway behind them.

"Guess not," chuckled Joseph as Charlotte scooped up her son and gently swatted his rear end exclaiming, "How many times have I told you not to open the door!"

"Sorry Joseph," she added, turning towards him as her fury began to ebb away, "Michaela's out in the garage with the boys. Come on in, I'll go get her."

This last no longer evoked the expression of great surprise it once had and Joseph swiftly made himself comfortable in a large chair in the front room whilst he waited for Michaela.

Picking her up after her first afternoon with the Coopers though had been a different matter. He had been horrified to learn that his daughter had spent the last two hours in close proximity to potentially dangerous tools, sheets of metal and axle grease, the last of which he knew from experience would be an absolute nightmare to wash out of her clothes. Michaela, however, when she had appeared, her clothes demonstrably free from any trace of viscous fluid, had explained the curious circumstances. Her attempts to befriend Colleen, Charlotte's only daughter who was only a few months younger than she was, had been met with overt hostility. Several besotted glances at Sully over the kitchen table whilst Michaela had been explaining the technicalities of balancing fractions had been enough to trigger her suspicions and a few well phrased questions had confirmed her conclusion: Colleen had a crush on Sully and was desperately jealous of Michaela.

Despite Michaela's continued assurances that she and Sully were best friends and nothing more, Joseph had been concerned about the effect such open rivalry would have on his daughter. He needn't have worried. Michaela viewed the entire subject with great amusement and as she narrated the conversation she had had with an unsuspecting Sully over lunch the following day, complete with a despicably accurate representation of Sully's utterly stunned and slightly bemused expression, he couldn't help joining in her laughter.

Since then Michaela had steered clear of Colleen Cooper, secretly confessing to her father that she wasn't entirely sure she'd able to control the urge to punch her whenever she looked at Sully with such doe-like eyes. She had opted instead to join the boys out in the garage where a large heap of sheets proved to be the perfect spot to read undisturbed whilst Sully chatted away to Colleen's older brother, Matthew, as he continued to painstakingly renovate his latest set of wheels. Though she vowed to Joseph that she'd keep away from all objects pointy and shiny, Michaela couldn't suppress her curious nature for long. Thus one morning when the car had refused to start and Joseph had retreated in doors to call the mechanic, he had been completely gobsmacked to find, on his return, Michaela half buried under the hood of the Jeep, poking at various bits of metal with the air of a professional. In response to her cry of "Try it now," he had rolled his eyes dramatically but when she had persisted in her request, he had decided to humour her and dutifully turned the key. The shock of hearing the sudden growl as the engine restarted had nearly knocked him out and as Michaela had climbed grinning into the back seat, he had merely continued to gape at her until his cell phone rang again: it was the mechanic.

"So," began Joseph, standing up from the table and grabbing their dinner plates, "what did you want to do for your birthday? I managed to book this Saturday off."

Michaela didn't reply and instead gazed longingly at the last few bites of apple pie hovering five feet away that she suddenly felt she could squeeze in after all. Joseph chuckled and placed her plate back before her.

"Thanks," giggled Michaela, grabbing her spoon again, "it is, by some miracle, really good."

"Hey!" exclaimed Joseph, swotting her with a dish cloth, "I may not be Martha Stewart but I'm definitely way better than your mum!"

"I know," replied Michaela, meeting his gaze cheekily, "I'm still alive."

"Beef casserole," murmured Joseph solemnly and as he caught his daughter's eyes, her expression as she too remembered the disastrous dish was enough to have the two of them rolling around in fits of irrepressible laughter.

"You never said," mused Joseph ten minutes later when they had calmed down enough to start the washing up, "what do you want to do on Saturday?"

"Well," replied Michaela thoughtfully, "there's a new adventure playground opened up about a half hour away. I saw the ad on TV."

"Mike," interjected Joseph, pointing towards the icy window with a soapy knife, "it's freezing outside! You'll get welded to the climbing frame in five minutes flat!"

"It's inside Dad," explained Michaela, rolling her eyes at his dramatics.

"Ok," conceded Joseph, secretly relieved that she hadn't asked for a shopping day at the mall though of course he'd have agreed to that too if it made her happy. It was comforting to know however, that there was a chance he wouldn't be fighting the urge to run and hide the whole day.

"Adventure park it is. So who do you wanna invite?"

Michaela merely shrugged and continued to dry the plate in her hand. Joseph grinned as he read her silent response. Sometimes she was far too easy to please for her own good.

"Well how about I ask Charlotte to bring Brian and Colleen along so I can have some adult company whilst you and Sully run riot" suggested Joseph with a chuckle.

"Plus it'd make me look slightly less pathetic," added Michaela with a small smile, grabbing the clean glass carefully from her father's hands.

"Shoot," replied Joseph with an expression of mock surprise, "you have unwittingly unearthed my master plan."

"I'm nothing if not thorough," retorted Michaela, nudging him playfully. Unfortunately this instantly loosened his grip on the large baking pan he had been scrubbing and as one, father and daughter leapt back with a cry as a shower of soapy suds hurtled towards them.