Alex walked into the hotel room that she would be sharing with her siblings and threw her stuff down on the bed closest to the window. It had already seemed like a long trip and they hadn't even been in Tampa for a day. Her mother kept forgetting things and they almost missed their plane, Jason and Jasmine had been arguing none stop and her father was stressed out over this big meeting had this afternoon. To top things off, she had to entertain the twins this afternoon while her mom had lunch with some old friend and went shopping and Mr. Paine in meetings. She flipped thru the channels on the TV, nothing was on. Jason came into the room and slammed the door in Jasmine's face, "I hate girls!"
Alex glanced at him, "That's not true. You don't seem to hate Jenny Mason."
Jason glared at her as Jasmine came storming into the room, "When is mom going to be home?!? I'm going to tell on you Jason!"
"Like I care." He replied.
Alex had had enough. "Do you guys want to go visit someone?"
"Who?" they both asked and then glared at each other
"Nick. He has a brother and a sister who are twins, and I think they are you're age."
"Really? That's cool. Let's go." Jason said
"Okay, but put your swim suits on."
"Why?"
"Because if they aren't home then we'll come back and swim in the pool. It will save us a trip."
"Oh, okay."
Alex then realized she had made a mistake. She had to sit and listen to them both argue over you got the bathroom first. She finally said she would get the bathroom first and hoped that they would be like this all day long.
Alex and the twins went down stairs, left a note for their parents at the front desk and went to get into the rental car. The twins started to fight on who got to be in the front, and Alex told them both to get in the back.
Her dad had gotten a convertible and she had thought that maybe he wasn't that old after all, that or going thru a mid-life crisis. She was hoping it wasn't the latter, but then he had told her that the car was for her and the twins. Alex thought that was really cool. She had to stop and get gas and the twins started to fight again saying that they had no room. Alex told Jason to get in the front and leave his sister alone, re-assuring Jasmine that she could ride up front on the way back.
Once she had gotten gas she dug thru her bag to get Nick's address, once she found it they were off. Alex kept hoping that this wasn't going to turn out to be a mistake.
******************
20 minutes later they pulled up to a big gate that closed of the entrance to a pretty big house. Alex hit the button on the intercom and waited for someone to answer. In a minute she heard Aaron's voice, "Hello?"
"Hi Aaron, its Alex. How's it going?
"Hi Alex, Nick's not here right now."
"That's okay, I brought somebody for you to meet."
"Really? Who?"
"Well, let us in and you'll find out."
"Okay, hold on a minute."
The gate slowly opened and Alex drove up the driveway and stopped in front of the house. She was climbing out of the car when Aaron came out the front door. Alex had never seen him in person, but was surprised to find that he looked like a miniature Nick.
"Hey Alex." Aaron said walking up to the car
"How did you know I was Alex? She could be Alex." She said smiling pointing at her sister
"Nick has a couple of pictures of you in his room."
Alex laughed, "That could give it away. Aaron this is my brother Jason and my sister Jasmine."
Aaron smiled and said Hi and so did the twins.
"Nick should be back in a minute."
"Okay."
"C'mon in, you can meet my mom."
Alex and the twins followed him into the house. They walked thru several rooms before they got to the kitchen. It had a beautiful view of the backyard and past that, the ocean. A blond women was standing near the stove and turned as they entered, "Mom, this is Alex. She came by to see Nick, and I told her he would be back in a minute."
Mrs. Carter smiled, "Well, hello Alex. I was beginning to think we would never meet you."
Alex smiled and introduced her siblings.
"Feel free to wait for Nick if you'd like. He ran to the store for me but should be back in a few minutes."
"Hey! You want to see my iguanas?" Aaron asked. Their last conversation had been about his pets and now he wanted to show them to her.
"Sure." Alex and the twins followed him out to the backyard.
"My sisters are out her somewhere." Aaron said looking around. "Angel!! Leslie!! Where are you?"
"We're over here!" came two voices from around the corner
"WE HAVE COMPANY!!" Aaron screamed back, with that 2 girls came running around the corner. "Hi" they both said as they ran up to their brother and the 3 people they didn't know.
"This is Alex, and her brother and sister Jason and Jasmine. Their twins just like us Angel."
The oldest that Alex assumed was Leslie said, "Oh, you’re Alex. Nick talks about you a lot."
"Yeah, she talks about him a lot to." Jason said rolling his eyes.
"Jasmine, you want to come play with us?" Leslie asked
Jasmine was a little shy and looked at her sister before saying, "okay."
The 3 girls disappeared and Aaron took Jason and Alex to see his iguanas
******************
Mrs. Carter watched out the window as Alex and the twins played with her children. She smiled, Nick was right, she is very unique. she thought to herself and smiled as she watched them run after Alex and dogpile on top of her. Then she saw her oldest son walk around the corner and stop as he watched the scene before him.
*****************
Nick drove up and wondered who the red convertible belonged to. He got out of his truck, grabbed the sack of groceries and started in the house. He stopped when he heard someone laugh. He knew that laugh, but surely not..he thought as he made his way around the house.
********************
The kids had decided that they would play hide and go seek, but the backward version where 1 person hides and everyone else has to find them. It was Alex's turn and she was hiding and trying to be quiet as she heard Jasmine and Angel looking for her. Once they were gone she decided to run for base. She was just about to run when she heard Jason yell, "There she is, DOGPILE!!" Alex was then clobbered by four 12 year olds. She laughed, "okay, I think you've got me, you can get off me now." Alex got up off the ground and looked up to see Nick.
*****************
Mrs. Carter watched with interest on what happened when Alex saw her son. Something, or maybe the look on both of their faces made her smile. She decided then that she would have to get to know Alex, because it was evident in her sons face how much he loved her.
******************
Nick looked at her for a minute before walking in the back door to deposit the sack of groceries. "Thanks honey." Mrs. Cater said as her son handed her the sack.
"No problem, How long has she been here?"
"Not long, they've been having fun though. Aaron and Angel seem to like her brother and sister. Leslie said she liked them, she said Alex was really nice."
"I didn't know Leslie was here."
"She's gone now, but she was played with them for a little while before she had to go."
"Oh." was all Nick said as he walked out the door.
