"Grace! Get up! It's 9:30!" Aidan called from my doorway. I blinked and sat up. Whoa, I overslept. A lot. I got out of bed and carried my bag for the car downstairs. There were a box of doughnuts on the table. I reached for the box.
"Those are for the car, can you hang on for awhile?" Mom asked me.
"Yeah." I drew my hand back.
"Good. Get dressed, Mike's here to see you."
"Okay." I ran upstairs and I pulled on a pair of Adidas shorts and a gray Old Navy t-shirt that I saved for today. I put my sandals back on. I ran downstairs.
"Mike! Good morning!"
"I told you I'd be here," He said with a grin.
"I didn't doubt you. How are you?"
"I'm good. I brought something for you." Mike handed me a huge manilla envelope that was packed with stuff.
"Whoa, awesome. Thanks! Can I open it now?"
"Nope, it's for the car," he said.
"Rats! What do you want to do?"
"Do you have to ask?" He said with a grin.
"In that case, race you to the trampoline!" We took off at full speed. I think Mike and I could live on the trampoline forever. Mike beat me by a hair. We jumped on and started doing butt bombs and making each other fly in the air.
"I wish we could always do this," I said.
"Yeah, me too," he said.
"Trampolines kick butt."
"For real."
We were quiet for a few more minutes. Then, we got back up and started jumping again. Soon, too soon, I heard Mom yell "Grace! Lets go!"
"Ohhh," Mike and I groaned. I picked up the envelope that I had set besides my shoes. "I gave you the address to the place, right?" I asked.
"Yep," he said.
"You have my e-mail, right?"
"Ever since the day you got it."
"Okay," I said. "I guess that's it."
"I'm going to miss you, Grace," Mike blurted out.
"I'm going to miss you, Mike."
"Really?"
"Yeah, you're my best friend, why wouldn't I miss you?"
Mike didn't answer. He just kissed my lips. I was surprised.
"Don't forget to call," he whispered quietly.
"I won't." My lips were tingling a little bit.
"I won't either." We walked up to the car. Mom, Dad, and Aidan were outside.
"Bye Mike, we'll miss you!" My mom said.
"Bye Mrs. Rapisardo! I'll miss you guys too."
"Bye Mike," Dad and Aidan said.
"Bye guys," he said. He turned to me. We already said our byes. He wrapped me up into a huge hug, and I hugged him back hard.
"I'll call when I get there," I said.
"You'd better," he said jokingly.
"Bye Gracie."
"Bye Mike." I let go and so did he. I climbed into the car, still watching Mike. He waved to me. I waved back. I didn't stop waving until Mike was out of sight. I don't think he did, either. I pulled out Mike's envelope. It was a very long letter, filled with stuff to do for the car. He even put in some Airheads and some other little treats. The letter kept me very occupied! About halfway through, I took a break and I opened my laptop. I played a game of Solitaire and I wrote a few e-mails to be sent when we get to the room. I kept dozing off. We stopped for lunch at a Steak N Shake. I got a plain double steakburger and fries, with a gigantic Cookies n Cream shake. We were on the road again in about 30 minutes. I finished up Mike's letter. In it, he told me why he kissed me (he had it all planned out).
"Grace, I really and truly am going to miss you. You're more than a best friend to me. You're someone I care about very much. I could never go out with you, because even the strength of our friendship is comparable to a solid brick wall, if we broke up, I don't think that I could take losing your friendship. I also feel the need to share affection with you. I'm hoping you don't mind that I kissed you. You're always going to be my best friend-- and more."
I was taken by that section. I knew things between Mike and I would never be the same-- we'd be closer. We would be like boyfriend and girlfriend, but not. We'd date other people, I knew, but we'd always have a strong affection and strong feelings for each other. Suddenly, that didn't sound bad.
I started to doze off into a dream about re-meeting my cousins. I was at a part where Isaac and Taylor were laughing at me and throwing objects at my head when my dad woke me up.
"We're now at Table Rock Lake!" he announced. Dad parked the car and he and Aidan went inside to get the room keys. We were room 19. We drove the car to room 19 and Dad parked it. We unloaded stuff out of the car and the boat. After we all had it inside, and we got our rooms (Aidan and I were sharing the small basement the place had. There were two double beds down there), Dad made another announcement.
"Grace, Aidan, get your stuff unpacked and whatever else you can. Your mom and I are going to put the boat in the lake. We shouldn't be gone too long."
"All right, Dad," Aidan said.
"Be good, champ," Dad told me as he and Mom left the room. Aidan and I lugged our bags downstairs. It was a plain little room, a dresser, a closet, a nightstand, and a TV. Aidan claimed the bed closest to the TV. We dropped our bags on our bed and began to unpack.
"Ooh, hold on. I forgot something important to bring down!" Aidan said. He raced up the stairs and was back within a matter of moments with his boom box.
"I thought Mom and Dad said you couldn't bring it," I said.
"They had a change of heart. Find a good radio station on there," he said. I fiddled around with the dial. Mostly country and western music. I did manage to find a radio station with pop, rock, and alternative music. Aidan and I continued unpacking to the tune of "Closer To Free" by the BoDeans.
I hung up a few shirts in the closet when Aidan brought up the subject of our cousins.
"Hey Grace. What do you think about spending time with our cousins?" he asked me.
I removed a few more clothes out of my bag. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do you think they've changed a lot? We haven't seen them for five years, five years is a long time. It's 1/20 of a century."
"I was wondering that too! I mean, I've been writing to Taylor a lot, but still....letters can be deceiving. Maybe they're not who they make themselves out to be."
"Exactly. I'm kinda nervous about being around them. Isaac and I used to be pretty good pals, but he may have changed, and the way they make Zac out to be in those magazines...."
I stopped putting shorts in my drawer. "You read those teen magazines?"
Aidan shrugged. "I gotta have something to read while Mom's checking out at the grocery store. Tabloids get old after awhile."
"Okay," I said.
"Seriously, though, we gotta do something. We won't make any judgements on them until we meet them and get to know them better. They could be nice."
"Okay, Aidan," I said, hiding a grin. Aidan does this all the time. He talks about a problem he's having, then ends up solving it himself. It's very amusing.
We worked a little more on our room. We had just finished when Mom and Dad were back from the dock. It was around 4:30. Our cousins would be here in about thirty minutes.
"Lets look around this place, Grace," Aidan said.
"All right. I'm right behind you," I said.
"Take a key with you, kids!" Mom called. Aidan grabbed a key and stuffed it into his pocket. We were off. We headed to the dock first and walked around on it. Then, we went into the game room. There was a pool table, an air hockey table, a foosball table, and a handful of video games. We stopped to play a quick game of air hockey, then we left. Our next stop was the pool. Nobody was in it.
"Look, there's a slide!" Aidan said.
"Yeah buddy!" We went over to the slide. I noticed a little sign on it.
"Do not use the slide if you weigh over 110 pounds," it read.
"That knocks me out," Aidan said.
"Me, too," I replied. Then, Aidan saw the diving board.
"Hey Grace, go see how springy the diving board is," he said.
"You do it," I replied.
"No, you."
"It was your idea," I protested.
"Here, we'll both try it out," he said. "You go first."
I sighed then headed toward the board. I stepped up and I went to the edge.
"Oh wait, take your shoes off first. You can't tell how springy it is with your shoes on," Aidan said.
I removed my shoes, and Aidan did the same. I did a jump or two up on it. Suddenly, two strong hands pushed me into the water. I fell into the water. Aidan was standing on the board, laughing his head off. Apparently, I must have looked pretty funny, because Aidan fell in the water, laughing so hard.
"Serves you right!" I said. I splashed him with water.
"Water fight!" Aidan yelled. We splashed and dunked each other. We were having the time of our lives. We weren't even paying attention when we heard someone else come through the gate.
"Hi Aidan. Hi Grace," a masculine voice said. I looked up, mid-dunking position and I saw Isaac, Taylor, and Zac standing there, looking at us like we were the biggest fools in the world, which at that point, we probably were.
"Hi Isaac, Hi Taylor, Hi Zac," Aidan managed to spit out.
"Yeah, hi guys," I mumbled.
"If you guys wanted to go swimming, why didn't you change into swimsuits?" Zac asked.
"Well, it's a long story," I said. "Aidan told me to test out the spring in the diving board, so I did, and he pushed me in. Then, he fell in from laughing so hard, and--" I cut myself off there, because Isaac, Taylor, and Zac were laughing their heads off.
"Why would you listen to anyone who would say that? That's pretty stupid. You set yourself up," Ike said.
"Really, you guys were born in California, right?" Zac asked.
"Yeah," Aidan said.
Zac turned to his brothers. "That explains a lot."
"Hey, at least I don't look like a girl and have that prissy long hair," Aidan shot back. I could tell Zac felt the pain on that one.
"Come on, that wasn't fair, Aidan," Taylor said.
"And I suppose the fact that Grace and I were born in California's fair as well," Aidan replied dryly.
Taylor looked at me. I shrugged.
"He has a point," I said.
"Zac was just joking around, though. Aidan wasn't," Taylor said.
"It sure didn't seem like a joke to me," I said.
"It was. Take a chill pill, it's vacation," Ike said.
"Chill pill? That went out a long time ago," Aidan said.
"Oh brother, give me a break," Isaac said.
"Lets go, Grace. I was right, since they're superstars now, they've changed. They're too big for us," Aidan said angrily. He pulled me out of the pool and we went back.
"Aidan, shoes," I said when we were halfway back. He sighed.
"Lets turn around and get them. Mom'll be mad if we don't come back with them."
We turned around and went back. Our cousins were gone. So were our shoes.
"They took our shoes!" I blurted.
"Gee Sherlock, you're quick," Aidan said. "It's going to be a rotten vacation."
For once, I agreed with him. I couldn't believe I became friends with Taylor. I was right, his letters are so much different than he is in real life. Mike was wrong. My cousins are jerks.
Chapter 3
Chapter 1
Vacation
Kelly's Hanson Stories
