“Yay! Home sweet home!” I shouted as I got off the bus in D.C. “Who wants to come to my house? I can’t wait to see my parents!”
“I’m definitely coming!” Ani said, and Chris agreed.
“Anyone else? You guys can stay downtown if ya want.”
“We’ll come,” everyone except JC said.
“JC, you coming?” Justin asked.
“No, I’m meeting someone special in an hour,” he replied.
‘Someone special?’ I thought to myself. ‘I knew that what Ani said couldn’t be true!’
“Oh well! Let’s go!” We took off everything from the bus, since this would be the last time on there for a while. I put all the pictures I had taped up in several boxes, and after I got everything, I brought it up to the hotel room I was sharing with Ani for the night. After everyone put their stuff away, we climbed into two limos, and we soon arrived at my house.
“Wow, nice house!” Lance commented.
“Thanks! Just wait until you see the back!” I said. My house sat on about 50 acres, and it was great for running around.
“Laura!” my mom yelled running down the steps.
“Mom! I missed you! How are you? I love you so much!” I said as she enveloped me in her arms.
“Chris! Ani! How are you?” my mom asked giving them a hug.
“Where’s dad?” I asked.
“I think he’s on Midnight somewhere. We weren’t sure when you were coming, and he needed exercise.
“Ouhh! Can we go too? You have enough for all of us!” Ani begged.
“Sure, come on, I’ll show you our backyard.” I led them through the house since it was the quickest way to the backyard. A dog barked and ran up to me when we got out back.
“Maggie! I love you too!” I said as my dog gave me a million kisses. She then ran to Chris and Ani, and sniffed around everyone else.
“Wow, it’s gorgeous back here!” Joey said.
In the backyard, the first thing you can see is the large pool, hot tub, and jacuzzi area. Beyond that is a large studio/shed, where I practice when I’m home, and where we keep the motor bikes, sports equipment, and other stuff.
“Come on, there is one more thing that I wanna show you!” I said as I began racing towards a path in the woods. By the time the first person caught up to me, I was already on the other side of the fence, petting Sunshine. I looked around, and saw Lance’s eyes light up.
“Come on in everyone. We have plenty of horses for everyone. Lemme go get the horses ready,” I said.
“Can I come with you?” Lance asked.
“Sure. Ani, can ya feed the horses out here some apples and carrots? Here’s the brush for Sunshine,” I said, throwing it to Chris.
“How many horses do you have?” Lance asked once we were in the barn.
“We have twenty,” I told him.
“Do you race them?” he asked.
“No, we don’t believe in racing horses. We all just love horses. We have five people who take care of them because none of us are around that much.”
“So, which should we take out?”
“Well, Sunshine is mine, but the best ones for riders who aren’t totally experienced are Pumpkin, Shadow, Boxer, Midnight Rider, Stranger, Mya, Liz, Patch, Socks, Chocolate, Chestnut, and Princess. Which one do you want to ride?”
“I’ll take Shadow,” Lance said pointing to a gorgeous black mare.
“Okay, can you help me saddle them up?”
“Of course,” he replied.
We set of the task, and got it down fairly quickly.
“Okay! Everyone stand by a horse, but make sure you’re not standing directly behind your horse. If anyone needs any help, just ask.” Ani needed a little help since her favorite horse was a lot taller than her. I hopped on Sunshine and had her start slowly so everyone could get used to the pace.
“My dad usually rides on this path, so let’s go this way,” I said.
“Where does it go?” Justin asked.
“It leads to the lake that is on our property.”
We rode for half an hour, and I spotted Midnight tied to a tree.
“Laura, is that you?”
“Dad!” I said as I finished tying Sunshine to the tree, and jumped into his arms.
“Hey sweetie, I’m so happy you’re home!” my dad said. I gave my dad another huge bear hug, and introduced him to everyone.
“You’re taking good care of her, right Chris?” my dad asked.
“Yes, sir!” Chris replied.
“You goofball! How many times have I told you that you can call me Michael,” my dad laughed.
“Sorry sir,” Chris replied, and all of us laughed. My dad used to be in the navy, and when we were little, Chris was scared of my dad’s 6’3 build.
“Anyways, I know that your mom was planning on cooking you all a delicious dinner tonight, so if you want to have time for a swim, we better head back now!” my father said.
We all got back on our horses and rode to the house. We left the horses to run around in the pasture, because Rick was there to watch over them. Everyone had brought their bathing suits on my suggestion, so we split up to change.
“I love your room!” Shannon said.
“Thanks! I painted it myself!” My room was painted like the sky, and I there were star lights strung around the ceiling.
“Yow! Looking good Laura,” Justin whistled as I walked outside in my bikini, after talking to my dad a little.
“Thanks babe! Let’s go in!” I headed to the slide, and slid into the warm water. When I resurfaced, I was pushed under by Joey. I grabbed his waist and pushed him down as I went up.
“What was that?” Joey asked surprised when he resurfaced.
“Never mess with a girl who knows self-defense,” I laughed.
“Oh, Laura. We called JC on your mom’s request, and he and his friend are coming to dinner,” Lance said.
“Oh, joy,” I whispered. “Okay!”
“Laura! There’s someone who wants to see you,” my mom yelled.
I went inside and found ten of my close friends from high school.
“Laura!” Lindsay said as she gave me a hug, getting wet in the process.
“Oh my gosh! It’s so good to see you! How did you know I was here?” I asked happily as I hugged everyone.
“Your mom called and invited us to dinner,” Kelly said.
“Awesome! Come outside and meet everyone! But I’m warning you, there are four guys who you might be surprised to see, but whatever you do, don’t scream! They’re just normal like me! Well, some of them are fairly crazy, but they’re normal just the same,” I laughed.
We went outside, and no one screamed fortunately, but I heard Julia gasp.
“Hey! It’s so good to see you!” Chris and Ani said greeting the newcomers.
“Okay, this is Kelly, Lindsay, Julia, Anna, Shaima, John, Dave, Adrian, Scott, and Colm. You ten, this is Joey, Justin, Lance, and Chris, and over here are my dancers, Kirsten, Shannon, Brittany, Jason, Peter, and Dan,” I introduced everyone.
Everyone hung out around the pool and we swam for another hour.
“Laura! JC and his friend are here!” my mom yelled out again. “And dinner will be ready in 45 minutes!”
“Hello,” I said as I greeted Tamara, ignoring JC the whole time.
“Hi Laura! I just wanted to say that I love your music!” Tamara said. She seemed nice enough, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to totally like her.
“Thank you so much,” I smiled. “Anyways, we all better dry off and take showers now. All you girls can come with me to the showers upstairs, and you guys can change downstairs. Tammy, do you wanna come upstairs with us?”
“Sure,” she said following us upstairs. The rest of us changed into nicer clothing than we were wearing earlier. I changed into a sky blue sundress, and went back to my room to talk to Tammy.
“I love your pictures,” she said pointing to my wall of pictures. Every time I got pictures developed, I got doubles and put one set in a picture album and the other on my wall. The entire wall was almost completely filled with pictures.
“So, how long have you been going out with JC?” I asked.
“Going out with him? Ha! That’s funny! We’ve never really felt anything but friendship between us. I’m just his psychologist friend. He goes to me when he needs help,” she laughed.
“He seems to need a lot of that,” I sighed.
“That’s for sure,” she laughed. “Ya know, I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but he really didn’t mean to hurt you. He’s just really confused right now.”
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” I told her, though I wasn’t sure if I believed that myself. “We better get downstairs.”
We went outside to find everyone sitting around the picnic tables. There were tons of huge dishes on the tables, filled with my dad’s fantastic homemade spaghetti, chicken salad, ribs, hamburgers, and many other things.
“Wow mom! How did you cook all of this?” I asked as I gave her a big hug.
“Well, I’ve been working on it since yesterday with the help of Betsy and Tacy, and your dad made the spaghetti and cooked the stuff on the grill,” she replied. Betsy and Tacy are our two cooks.
I sat between Lindsay and Anna, and we all started eating. The dinner was delicious, and my mom kept stuffing us as if we hadn’t eaten in a month.
“Wow, dinner was great mom!” Chris said, rubbing his stomach. Chris, Ani, and I all called each other’s parents mom and dad, since we knew them so well.
“Yes, it was delicious!” Lance said.
“Well, it’s my pleasure. Plus, most of you looked like you needed some home cooking! I’m sure you haven’t been able to get that much,” my mom said as she glanced towards me.
“I’m fine mom! But I do love when you send packages of homemade goodies!”
“Yeah, we all love that!” Dan laughed.
“Well, that’s good. Anyways, you all better get to your concert hall now,” my mom said.
“You’re coming, right?” I asked my parents.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world!” my dad replied.
“What about you ten? Can you come?” I asked my friends.
“We already have front row tickets,” Scott laughed.
“Yay! Well, let’s clean up, and then we can go!” I smiled.
“We can handle that Laura,” my dad said.
“No, you did all the cooking! Us guys will clean up!” Jason said.
The guys cleaned everything up and washed the dishes, and then we all headed over to the venue. The concert went really well, and my parents and friends loved it. I unfortunately had to say goodbye to them all again, but we all promised to call more often, and everyone promised to come to California some time this summer to visit. The rest of us headed back to the hotel, and went to sleep early to be ready for our early morning flight the next day.
Chapter 9
Chapter 11
chapter index
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