Chapter 7: A Quiet Weekend

Mom’s parents were down for the weekend, it was only an hour drive for them to get to the hotel we were staying at.

They had a room booked for the weekend, so they didn’t have to drive home late after the first day

We didn’t have much planned, it was just meant as a time for mom to be able to spend time with her parents.

They were not due till midday, so we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then just spent time sitting around the pool.

I wanted to do some swimming, but there were no lanes set out in the pool, and lots of families had kids using the pool, so trying to do some serious swimming was out of the equation. I tried to do a length underwater, but after being kicked twice as I attempted it, I decided to give up until the pool was quieter.

Mom and Dad seemed quite happy to just take in the sun on the lounge chairs that were provided. Without being allowed to do any reading ahead of my school work, I didn’t know what to do for the first time that I could remember. I was bored to tears, I couldn’t swim so what else could I do.

Ah I could text to some people, which would keep me occupied. Well it did, but not for as long as I hoped, Scarlett and Bailee were both busy, so couldn’t spend time texting.

Rory was at work and not allowed to use his phone. The only one who could text me back was Gemma, that was nice, but we covered all we wanted to talk about pretty quickly, so that plan failed.

I thought about the day before and how much fun we had had. Even mom had enjoyed it even though she wasn’t as into getting down and dirty like me, Dad and Alex had been.

That reminded me that I had some business to take care of. I called up Andy, OK it was a Saturday, but I didn’t need him to actually do any work for me, just take notes to take care of when he went to work on Monday.

I wanted him to get the trust to give a hefty donation to the orphanage, but that wasn’t all, I wanted him to get someone to make sure the money got used for the benefit of the kids, not getting siphoned off by the administrators.

I also wanted to make sure Alex had some decent gear to start off with at high school, I was all too aware of how difficult it was to fit in if you were different, I didn’t want him to suffer because he wasn’t wearing clothes that would define him as different to anyone else. I also wanted him to have all the latest gizmos that the cool kids would have. Andy through the trust could make that happen, a lot easier than I could, so I would leave it with him to sort out on my behalf.

My idea for a paintball venue in Albany or somewhere close to Putney could wait till I got home, we could repack the guns and the remaining balls we hadn’t used to take home with us. I was sure I could get Rory and a couple of his friends excited about a new activity that was so much fun, well I thought it was.

If there wasn’t a local venue, I would get Bill to organize either a franchise from an established firm, or we could set up our own paintball arena. It would take a lot of money to get a venue started, but the costs involved in buying the equipment to rent and buying paintballs would soon recoup those initial costs.

Alright the staff to make sure it was all safe for the players would eat into any initial profits, but if these companies could make it work, I was sure we could create enough interest from the area to make a profit.

Those thoughts and calls to Andy took up enough time to keep me occupied until the grandparents turned up just before midday.

Then there was the usual bunch of hugs and kisses, they had already booked into the room we had reserved for them.

That meant we were able to just spend time catching up on what had happened since we saw them last.

They were amazed at what I had done in the last week.

They were enthralled by my reminiscing of my motor racing the prior weekend, as I showed them a couple of racing reviews on my smartphone, showing them articles from specialized sports magazines that had just come out.

They wanted to know if it was something I was going to pursue further.

I admitted it was really just a one time deal, telling them all about Tony, how he was the main driver of the car, and that he had brought the sponsorship money to the team, so he would still be the main driver. I wouldn’t be surprised though if sometime Geoff asked for me to help out again before the season was concluded.

Then mom dropped the bombshell about who we had met on the flight down here.

Even though being as far out of the fashion loop as you could be, my grandparents still had heard of Scarlett and Brandy Melvin.

They were laughing their heads off as Mom told them how I had got Scarlett so flustered and under my spell during the flight, that she had gone so far as to invite me to watch them doing a photoshoot.

If they were amazed by that, they were flabbergasted when Mom told them I had actually been involved in the shoot, since I was the only one who hadn’t been so seasick to not need to keep running for a bathroom or the side of the yacht to throw up.

So they wanted to know if I would actually be in the next catalogue, we informed them that it would be likely, since they had used me for several more hours the next day to incorporate me in the shots I had missed the day before the yacht debacle.

When the heard about what I had suggested to Jason about keeping the yacht closer inshore but heading in a direction that allowed the shoots to show an ocean panorama behind had them in giggles, knowing it was so simple as to be overlooked by anyone other than a layman, who had to point it out.

That then moved onto the bonus money I was given, and how I had used some of it to improve a day at the seaside for a bunch of orphans I had found on the beach.

Then we talked about our day paintballing, including how we took Alex from the orphanage with us. They were really proud, like my parents seemed to be, when I had spent the money I had made on making the day better for others less fortunate. They were really surprised about how mom admitted she enjoyed the day, even though it wasn’t really her thing, she said she would do it again in similar circumstances as it was a lot of fun.

That was when I chipped in on the conversations, telling them what I had arranged with Andy before they had arrived, that resulted in me getting smothered by both my gran and mom in hugs and kisses for my consideration of the unfortunate kids of the orphanage.

They wanted more information on the shoot, which I gave up to a point, but silly me, I wasn’t able to hide anything, and had to give the full story, mom hadn’t been able to pry much more out of me, but with Gran’s help they now heard the whole saga, which had everyone in hysterics when they heard about how I had reacted to the models nudity.

But to be fair, they also complimented me on how I handled the situation, not making a fool out of myself, and not taking advantage of the situation I found myself in.

Although the weekend was spent mainly with the grandparents, I was able to have some time to go off and do some solo activities. I had booked up for a week-long course in scuba diving, this was several mornings using the pool before it became busy, learning how to scuba in a safe environment. I would learn all about the dangers of diving, the breathing techniques to ensure you didn’t get nitrogen build up in your bloodstream. I was in a group of four students, I was the only one who wasn’t an adult, I had tried to get dad to do the training with me, but he wasn’t interested. Of the others two were males and one female, who was the partner of one of the males.

When in the water, there was no way to verbally communicate, when we didn’t have all the breathing apparatus on they still didn’t seem very interested in being friendly, I tried to start up a conversation several times, but each time they basically just ignored me.

We wouldn’t get to actually go out into the ocean until the end of the week, it was all safety training and practicing in the pool until we could pass our basic certificate qualification, only then would they allow us to go into the ocean with a much more experienced diver.

When Monday came around and we waved goodbye to the grandparents who were heading home, it was time for me to really try to have some quality fun.