"We showed them at dinner tonight!" Zac proudly proclaimed.
"Yeah, we are the champions, my friends," Isaac started to sing, putting his arms around Zac and Taylor as if they won the Stanley Cup instead of a small dinnertime battle.
"And we'll keep on fighting, till the end," Taylor crowed out. They stood up and started doing a victory dance, which consisted of a Rockette style thing and a twist here and there.
"What are you guys doing?" Jessica Hanson asked from the staircase. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac stopped their celebration immedietely and turned to face their younger sister.
"Uh, nothing. Just, well, you know..." Ike stammered.
"Goofing off," Taylor finished.
"I hope it's not contagious," Jessie replied.
"Ooh, you're gonna get it for that," Isaac said. He lunged for Jessie and started chasing her. "I'm going to get you and I'm going to tickle you till you pee in your pants!"
"No! Don't, Isaac!" Jessie said, running away and giggling. After a few moments, Isaac came back downstairs.
"Mom wants us," he said glumly. "We're going to find out what we're doing with our cousins tomorrow."
"I don't want to do anything with them," Zac said.
"Yeah. From letters, Grace seemed like a nice person, but she's not," Taylor said.
"Come on, lets just go and see what we're doing."
The three guys trudged up the stairs. Everyone else was already in the living room. They sat down on the floor.
"Everybody, tomorrow we're going to go shopping and get some stuff that we need, and just hang around here and do stuff. There's plenty for you to do, uncle Nate brought the boat down. Maybe you could go boating with Grace and Aidan," Walker suggested.
"Or not," Zac said under his breath.
"Anyway, we'll all just lay low tomorrow. Then, on Monday, we could go someplace, if you wanted."
"Like where?" Avery asked.
"I don't know, we'll talk it over with uncle Brad and aunt Katherine."
At this point, everybody split up and went their own ways. All the guys went downstairs-- Mackie included.
"Well, we can always stay away from them if we have to," Isaac said.
"Yeah," Taylor said.
"Why do you want to stay away from them?" Mackie asked.
"Don't worry about it," Zac said. "Isn't it time for you to go to bed?"
"No."
"Liar. Go get your pajamas on."
"I'm not a liar, Zac." Mackie still went off and got his pajamas.
"Anyway, lets just play it by ear tomorrow and if they try stuff, we will then. I think Mom and Dad caught some of the stuff that happened at dinner," Zac said.
"It'd be kinda hard not to, but yeah I agree, we'll lay low tomorrow," Taylor said. They turned to Isaac. "Ike?"
"Yeah, we'll take it as it comes tomorrow," Ike agreed. Mackie came out with his pajamas on.
"Good night," he said.
"Well Mackers, we're going to go to sleep, too," Ike said.
"We are?" Zac said.
"YES, we are," Isaac said, giving Zac a pointed look.
"Oh yeah, we are. Night Mackie," he said.
"You guys are the liars. You aren't going to sleep," Mackie said.
"Good job, Zac," Taylor muttered.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I woke up the next morning and I looked at the clock. 8:30. Better get up before Mom or Dad comes down. I looked over at Aidan's bed. Surprisingly, it was already made. I went to my closet and pulled out some clothes, an orange tank top from American Eagle, and some blue jean shorts. Underneath it, I put my swim suit on, in case I felt like going to the pool.
"I would wear my brown sandals if somebody hadn't taken them," I muttered under my breath. I then went over and made my bed. I knew, that if Aidan made his bed, I'd have to make mine. Mom probably isn't going to let us not make them, even if it is vacation.
I went upstairs. There were some leftover donuts from yesterday. I reached into the box and pulled out a glazed one. I opened a can of diet Coke, since that was the only beverage we had here besides water. Aidan and I finished all the "good stuff" yesterday.
I found a note taped to the refrigerator.
"Morning Champ!
Your brother and I are putting the boat in the lake again, since it didn't quite work so well last night and then going up to get a rope for the tube. Your mom went over to the Hanson's. We should be back around 9:30 or 10:00. Love you lots! -Dad"
That explained why everything was so quiet. I decided to take my chances and go over to the Hanson's to find mom. I had my Adidas sandals with me, so I put those on. I headed over to their room. I saw aunt Diana, Mom, Mackie, and Zoe out on the front porch.
"Morning, sweetie," Mom said when she saw me. "Did you sleep well?"
"Morning mom. Yep, sure did," I said.
"Hi Grace, how are you?"
"I'm good, aunt Diana. You?"
"I'm fine."
I went over to Zoe. "Hi Zoe!" I said. She gurgled happily. I laughed. I knelt down to watch Mackie play with some Tonka trucks.
"Hey Mackie, I'm Grace," I said. "Remember me from last night?"
He looked at me. After a few minutes he said yes. I pulled up a chair and sat next to my mom. She noticed the lumps and bruises on my legs.
"Grace, what happened?"
"What?" I asked.
"Your legs. How'd they get so bumped and bruised?"
"Oh, I fell going down the steps."
"You poor thing," aunt Diana said.
"I'll survive," I said.
"Would you like a drink?" she asked.
"Okay, sure," she said.
"There's some Coca Cola in the fridge. Help yourself," she told me.
I went inside. Taylor was in there. He took one look at me and went downstairs.
"Well, good morning to you too," I mumbled. I took a can of soda and went outside.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Guys, Grace just was inside," Taylor told his brothers who were getting dressed.
"Wonderful," Zac said in a sarcastic tone.
"She has bumps and bruises all over her legs," he told them. Isaac stopped from buttoning his shorts, and Zac paused in the middle of pulling a shirt over his head.
"Her legs were probably like that before last night," Zac said, pulling the shirt over his head. Isaac shook his head.
"No, Zac, I remember watching her and Aidan get out of the pool and run off, and neither of them had bruises and bumps over their legs."
"Oh man," Zac said, sitting down. "I meant to annoy them, not to hurt them."
"Yeah, same here," Taylor said.
"You know what we gotta do, right?" Isaac asked.
"What?" Zac asked him.
"Apologize."
Neither of the two guys answered.
"What we were doing last night was pretty childish," Taylor finally said.
"Yeah, but they were doing stuff, too," Zac said.
"Still, we didn't have to do anything," Isaac said.
Zac was quiet for a moment. "How did the whole fighting thing start?"
"You know, I really don't know," Taylor said.
"I think it was a bunch of misinterpretation," Isaac said.
"I still think they should apologize first," Zac said.
"If someone doesn't apologize, and this goes on all summer, our vacation will be ruined, not to mention Mom and Dad will eventually catch on and we'll be punished," Taylor said.
"Okay," Zac finally said.
"All right, so we'll apologize to them," Isaac concluded.
"Yeah," Taylor agreed.
"Wait," Zac said. Taylor and Isaac sighed.
"Now what?" Isaac asked.
"Is my hair really prissy?"
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Why don't we go grocery shopping and get that out of the way?" Mom suggested.
"Great idea," Aunt Diana said. "Jessie and Avery went out with Walker this morning. He was taking them into town to get them some new life jackets. The boys will stay here and entertain themselves, so I'll only have to take Mackie and Zoe."
"Okay. Grace, do you want to go grocery shopping?"
"Sure," I said. I wanted to get out a little bit.
"Okay. Let me get these guys some sandals and my purse, and we'll be ready to go," Diana said.
"Okay, Grace and I will be right back. Do you want to take our car?" Mom asked.
"It'd probably be better for us to take the van. Then, I don't have to move Mackie and Zoe's car seats," aunt Diana pointed out.
"Good idea. We'll meet you back here, we have to get a few things from home," Mom said.
"Okay, see you in five minutes!" aunt Diana said.
"All right! Come on, Grace," Mom said. I got up from my chair and I went back home with mom.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Mom, is Grace still here?" Taylor asked.
"No, she just went back with her mom. I'm going grocery shopping and I'm taking Mackie and Zoe with me, anything special you guys want?"
"Popcorn," Zac replied.
"Popcorn?" Diana asked.
Zac shrugged. "I have a craving," he said.
"Okay. Taylor? Isaac?"
"Nothing really special," they said.
"All right. I'll be back in about an hour. Behave and if you go somewhere, don't forget to take a key," Diana said.
"All right, Mom," the guys said.
Diana left the room, holding Zoe and searching for Mackie.
"Should we go over to Grace's and apologize?" Zac asked.
"Yeah. Lets go," Isaac said.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Mom and I walked back to aunt Diana's house. Mom had her purse, and I had my sunglasses. I saw the guys heading somewhere, but they were too busy talking about something to even notice me, although they were probably ignoring me, which was fine by me. I didn't want to deal with them now.
"Ready to roll?" aunt Diana asked.
"Yep, lets go!" Mom said. I got into the backseat of the Hanson's van. Mackie and Zoe were in front of me. I was playing little games with them while mom and aunt Diana talked. It took about five minutes to get to the nearest grocery store. I helped unbuckle Mackie and Zoe, Diana held Zoe and I held Mackie's hand, and in we were.
"Lets get two carts, and just walk up and down the aisles," Mom suggested. Aunt Diana agreed, and there we were. Aunt Diana put Zoe into a special seat in the cart, and Mom put Mackie in the seat of our grocery cart. We went up and down the aisles and got stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and some snack stuff. We got some Wild Cherry Pepsi and Mountain Dew (which was a good thing, I was feeling withdrawal). We got some popsicles, and some other stuff. Mackie started squirming in the seat, so my mom took him out. Mackie walked right next to his mom, swinging his arms and not really paying attention. All of a sudden, bam! A display of toilet paper came tumbling down on top of Mackie.
"Help!" he cried, being buried somewhere in the pile. Diana had me hold the cart and she pulled Mackie out of the pile.
"Joshua Mackenzie Hanson, next time be careful!" she admonished him.
"Okay, mommy," he said. A guy came to fix the display.
"We're awfully sorry about what happened," Diana said to the guy.
"Hey, no problem. My little cousin was here last week and he knocked it down, too. Don't worry about it at all," he said cheerfully.
"I feel better, then. Thank you for fixing this. Mackie, what do you say to the nice man?"
"I'm sorry," he said.
"For?" Diana prompted him.
"I'm sorry for knocking down the toilet paper." Mackie giggled when he said toilet paper.
"He really is sorry," she said.
The guy grinned and then set the display back up. We went to check out after that.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Aunt Diana pulled up about 10 minutes later. I saw Terror, Idiot, and Zany sitting on the porch (aka Taylor, Isaac, and Zac).
"Guys, help us carry in the groceries," aunt Diana said. The boys got up and began to unload bags.
"What goes where?" Isaac asked.
"Just bring them all inside, and we'll sort it out in there," she said.
We started carrying in bags. I ignored the guys the whole time. After just two trips, we had everything inside. My mom and aunt Diana began going through everything. I sat down on the couch. Taylor, Isaac, and Zac sat down by me.
"Grace, we gotta talk to you," Zac started.
"I don't have anything to say to you."
"Come on, Grace. Give us a chance," Isaac pleaded.
"Give you a chance? Why should I?"
"Because we want to apologize," Taylor said.
"Okay. Then go," I said.
"Grace, we're really sorry about the way we acted yesterday. It wasn't right," Isaac started.
"I'm sorry for kicking you and doing everything else I did," Zac said.
"I'm sorry I didn't give you or your brother a chance," Taylor finished.
I was quiet for a moment. Did I want to accept their apology? They did say and do some mean stuff to Aidan and I-- we have the marks to prove it. On the other hand, we did some pretty mean stuff, too. And did I really want to be in a long battle over the whole vacation with people I haven't seen in five years, and I could be having the time of my life with?
"Apology accepted," I said.
Chapter 5
Chapter 3
Vacation
Kelly's Hanson Stories
