Introduction

March 27, 2011

Shortly after I turned fourteen, I was convinced that I should try to keep a journal. While I could have started it at any point, I decided that it would make sense to start the journal by describing my family and recording my memories starting with the beginning of eighth grade.

First of all, let me introduce myself and give you a bit of background on my family. My name is Robin Lovell, and I turned fourteen on March 15^th, 2011. I have an older sister Jessica, who is eighteen months to the day older than me, having turned fifteen on September 15^th, 2010. I also have a younger brother, Tom who was born about thirty minutes after me.

The three of us have four parents who are currently married in a quad. Our two dads, Steve, and Henry, are a pair of identical twins who will turn forty on March 30^th, 2011. Our dad’s names likely were inspired by their deceased grandfathers’ middle names. Our two moms, April, and May are also a pair of identical twins who will be celebrating their thirty-ninth birthday on April 30^th, 2011.

Family legend has it that shortly after our moms were born, Grandma went to sleep exhausted. Later, when Grandpa was asked what he wanted to call his daughters, he completely forgot the names he and Grandma had picked. Grandpa knew April had been born in the evening of April 30^th. Even thought May actually was born about three minutes before midnight, Grandpa thought she had been born just after midnight on May 1^st. Because of that, he named his oldest daughter April and the second one May.

My family moved into our current home, jokingly called ‘Lovell Mansion’ by some of our friends, just before Tom and I started second grade in August 2004. Less than a month later, on September 4^th, 2004 Tom’s and my families were legally blended into one. Tom’s parents, Steve, and April Lovell, married Jessica and my parents, Henry, and May Lovell. The date the two couples became a quad happened to be the eleventh anniversary for both couples.

Their wedding was one of the first polygamous wedding ceremonies held in Texas after the passage of the 30^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of North America (USNA) which came into effect on July 1^st of that year. That amendment, nicknamed the ‘Marriage Equality Amendment’, made same-sex marriages, polygamous marriages, and even certain types of incestual marriages legal in all one hundred states. This amendment, also set the age of consent within the USNA to 14 years of age. This would have some personal consequences later on.

Even though they have been legal for nearly seven years, polygamous marriages are still a very controversial topic. While the 30th Amendment eventually passed in all one hundred states of the USNA, in about half of them the margin between the amendment being passed, and being rejected by the state, was less than ten state legislators.

Because of that controversy, my parents have not made a big deal of them being a now being a quad instead of two couples. That is known only by a few of their close friends as well as my maternal grandparents and Aunt Rose. Most of the time, those of us in on the secret actually encourage the common belief that the adults in Lovell Mansion are two heterosexual couples and not one quad.

The closest that any of us come to admitting the true situation outside that small circle of friends, is when the three of us teens (Jessica, Tom, and I) complain that we have four parents instead of the usual allotment of only two. Granted, while our birth certificates indicate that Jessica and I are children of Henry and May Lovell, and Tom’s parents, according to his birth certificate, are Steve and April Lovell, even before their marriage as a quad, as far as parenting was concerned, Henry and Steve were interchangeable as were May and April.

Our dads, Henry and Steve, stand almost exactly two meters tall (about 6’6”). They were encouraged to try out for the eighth grade gridiron football team. Since they enjoyed playing, they continued while in high school. Even without playing in organized team sports since their high school days over 20 years ago, they still work out several times a week, While they are not in as good a shape as they were in high school, they still would be considered somewhat athletic.

When Henry and Steve choose to do so, by dressing the same, wearing their hair the same way, and having the same amount of facial hair, they can easily pass for each other. My siblings and I were surprised to come down for breakfast on New Year’s Day to see that Henry was clean-shaven, while Steve had retained the full beard and mustache that they both had the day before.

I sometimes wonder what might have happened between Henry and Steve on one side and the rest of their family. The only relatives on our dads’ side of the family I can only remember ever meeting was an ‘Uncle Randy’, his wife ‘Aunt Norma’, and their son ‘Junior.’ The three of them spent a little over a day visiting us just before we moved into Lovell Mansion. Not only has there been no visits, our dads never talk about their family.

Our moms, April and May, are about 185 cm (about 6’¾”) tall, and were cheerleaders while in high school twenty years ago. Based on old pictures they have gained several kilograms since their high school days. The extra weight seems to be concentrated on their breasts and hips enhancing their beauty. They still cause heads to turn their way when they go to the beach.

One of the traditions Tom and I have when going to a beach is to count the number of guys who get slapped by their girlfriends for paying attention to our moms. Several of my friends consider them to be the hottest moms around.

In contrast to dads’ family, we visit our moms’ parents and their youngest sister, Aunt Rose several times a year. Rose sometimes gets teased as being my grandparent’s ‘surprise child’ since she was born on July 15^th, 1996, which happened to be my grandparent’s twenty-fifth anniversary. My grandparents celebrated their anniversary on Saturday of Labor Day weekend that year.

Due to Rose’s age, the relationship my siblings and I treat her as a cousin instead of an aunt. There have been a few occasions when my family has spent a few days with Grandma, Grandpa, and Rose at Lake Texoma state park on the Oklahoma side of the Red River, about halfway between our homes. When they are together on those occasions, Rose and Jessica often get asked if they are sisters. This mostly is done by strangers seeing them together and how they interact.

My moms also have a brother, Jim Cunningham who is married to Aunt Joan. They have three children, Julia, Jewel, and Jim Junior, all younger than Tom and me. Both of my great-grandmothers on moms’ side of the family are still alive, and by their choice are roommates at the nursing home where they live. I never met great-grandpa Butterfield since he died a few months before I was born. Great-grandpa Cunningham passed away about three years ago.

Our four parents each have a single small tattoo on their right ankle. They got their tattoos while in college, about six months after they had started dating. The four tattoos have the same theme, with an outline of a playing card about 2.5cm wide by 3.5cm tall, with a black K on the top half for the men and a red Q in the top half for the women. The lower half of the card has one of the four poker suits and the person’s initial, with Henry having a black club with an ‘H’, May a red heart with an ‘M’, Steve a black spade with an ‘S’ and April a red diamond with an ‘A.’

The idea to get those tattoos supposedly came after a night when they discovered that Steve had gone on a date with May, and Henry had gone on a date with April.

The problem was that earlier that day, Steve had made plans for the evening with April, and Henry had made plans for the evening with May.

It was only when the two dates were over, and April and May complained about the one-sided change of plans, that they found out that they had accidentally switched dates that night.

Ever since our moms got their ears pierced while in high school, they each wear three earrings. May wears two earrings in her right ear, with one in her left ear. April wears two earrings in her left ear and one in the right. The only issue with using that as a way to tell them apart is that they both tend to wear their hair so that it covers both their ears. Granted, unlike what they usually did until their college years, they now usually have different hairstyles.

Jessica gets most of her looks from our mother. Last month we went to the Dallas Aquarium. Jessica and our moms wore similar outfits and a few people asked if the three of them were sisters ... She is in tenth grade at Northwick High School, and in the running for Valedictorian of the class of 2013. She is the head cheerleader for the Junior Varsity squad. I have heard more than one person describe her as one of the most attractive girls at her school.

Tom is my best friend, and the person who knows me best. In fact, there have been times that it seems like he knows me better than I know myself. The hardest thing that someone can ask for me to do, is to promise them that I would not share a particular secret with Tom. For me to do that, first I would need to be convinced that Tom would enjoy the surprise when he finally learns the secret. I also would need to be convinced that keeping that particular secret would not make Tom angry at me. Finally, I would need to know if there was some sort of timeline or condition that once met would mean that I could share the secret with him.

About the largest secret that we are comfortable keeping from each other is what someone is giving them for their birthday or Christmas.

There have been times that I have been more upset with someone who decided to hurt Tom, than when the same person hurt me the same way. Tom tells me that he feels the same way about those things in relationship with me.

Technically, Tom is Jessica’s and my double cousin as well as being our step-brother, although the last is somewhat secret outside the immediate family. Even before our families officially merged and moved into the Lovell Mansion, Tom and I have treated each other more like brothers than cousins. Tom and Jessica treat each as brother and sister, although at times they don’t seem to be as close as Jessica and I are.

Tom and I, on occasion, have been teased as being ‘twins with different mothers’ by some of our friends who know we were born on the same day and since we look somewhat alike. This teasing is sometimes done by people who, as far as we know, don’t know we are step-brothers.

As far back as I remember, Jessica, Tom, and I would have our height measured twice a year, on or near our birthdays. When Steve measured our height earlier this month, Tom and I measured 185cm (about 6’1”) high, having grown 5cm in the past six months. Jessica however, remained 180cm (almost 5’11”) tall.

We have an athletic build without prominent bulging muscles that some athlete’s possess. We do sport four-packs on our abdomens. While I have overheard some of the young women in my classes describe Tom and me as ruggedly handsome, I am not sure I believe them.

Flashback—August 16, 2010

On Tom’s and my first day in eighth grade, there was the usual ‘first day of the school year’ confusion. In our physics class, Mr. Higgs made an announcement that caught our attention, “Anyone who is interested in trying out for the math and science team is invited to stay and take some mock competition tests after class starting tomorrow. I will need signed permission slips from your parents or guardians allowing you to stay late this week for those who are interested in trying out.”

When he dismissed class that day, Tom and I were among those who indicated to him our interest in trying out for the math and science team. We also collected a permission slip that would tell him that our parents supported us applying for the team.

That evening, it wasn’t hard to convince our parents to allow us the opportunity to try, with all four of them agreeing to allow us the opportunity. April signed Tom’s permission sheet and May signed mine.

August 17, 2010

Tuesday, much of the ‘beginning of school year’ chaos was gone, leading to close to a normal school day. As planned. Tom and me stayed after class to take a couple of mock tests. We both thought the tests ‘fun’ and did well in them. That led to us staying after class the rest of the week, taking a total of eight mock exams between Tuesday and Friday. The mock tests were representative of the type of tests we would encounter in competitions, although the mock tests only had between ten and twenty percent of the number of questions that the tests in the competitions had.

August 18, 2010

On Wednesday of my first week in eighth grade, one of the morning announcements caught my attention. Starting on Monday, August 23^rd, there would be tryouts to select new seventh and eighth grade cheerleaders The tryouts would be held soon after the last bell rang.

During the day, I remembered that the cheerleading squad typically holds two tryouts a year. Most new cheerleaders for a school year are selected during the tryouts held mid-April for the school year that starts the following August. However, due to a variety of reasons, there normally are some open spots in the squad at the beginning of the school year.

Most of the vacancies in the cheerleader squad are created when a cheerleader moves away. Usually, there also is at least one cheerleader who leaves the team for various reasons during the Summer. Those empty spots are filled during the second round of tryouts, typically held after class, during the second week after the start of school.

“Do you plan to try out again Naomi?” I teased my second-best friend and next-door neighbor during lunch, “After all, you just barely missed making the team last Spring.”

“You know, I think I will try out. I also hear that they are looking for at least one tall and strong base. I challenge you and Tom to try out as well.” Naomi replied.

It took her a while, but by the end of our lunch period she had ended up daring Tom and me to try out as well. “I want the two of you to give an honest effort or it will not count.” was her parting shot.

When we got home after taking the mock tests to join the Math and Science team, Tom and I spent about half an hour begging Jessica, for help learning the expected poses and moves. She had joined the cheerleading squad after the tryouts in the spring of her seventh grade. With two years as a cheerleader, Tom and I figured she would be familiar enough with the moves and poses we would likely be expected to perform that she could help us during the five days we had to prepare.

We would pay for her lessons her by doing part of her regular chores for a specified amount of time, depending on how well we did. Like Naomi, one thing Jessica made us promise before she would even consider helping us was that we make an honest effort in making the team.

May happened to overhear our discussion after we had started arguing about details related to the payment, “Why are the three of you arguing?”

“Let me explain the situation Mom,” Jessica replied. “Tom and Robin have asked for my help in getting ready for the cheerleader tryouts. I have agreed to do so under two conditions. First, I will be expecting them to put in their best effort. Second, as ‘payment’ for my help, they have agreed that to do part of my chores for a certain amount of time.”

“Robin and Tom, do you agree with what Jessica has said?” May asked.

Upon hearing our positive response, May continued, “So, what is the problem? I want to hear from each of you one at a time. Jessica you can go first, then Tom, and Robin will go last.”

“We are having trouble deciding what chores should be involved and how long the two of them should pay for those lessons. I also want some reassurance that they will be putting their best effort in the training I give them as well as during the tryouts,” Jessica replied.

“Tom and Robin, do the two of you agree with what Jessica just said?” May asked.

“Yes,” I replied, echoed by Tom.

“Robin and Tom, when were the two of you planning to ask me or one of your other parents for permission to go to the cheerleader tryouts? Also, what would happen if you get invited to join both the cheerleaders as well as the Math and Science team?”

“As for the first, I was wanting to see if Jessica was willing to help before I asked. Since she has, and you are here I want to know if you would let me try out for the cheerleading team? As for the second question, I admit I hadn’t considered that possibility. I would need to think about how I would decide.” I replied.

“Ditto to what Robin said,” Tom added.

“First of all, Jessica. I see no problem with Robin and Tom doing part of your chores for a time they in payment for your lessons.” May commented.

“How long would we have to do them?” I asked.

“Before I give my opinion I have to ask Jessica a question. Which is more important to you, not feeling like you are wasting your time trying to teach them, or for them to do part of your chores for a while?” May asked.

“Me not feeling like I am wasting my time trying to teach them if they are unwilling to make an honest effort in learning.” Jessica replied.

“Here is my suggestion. How about rewarding them the better they do? For instance, if one of them makes the team they have to spend two weeks doing part of your chores. On the other extreme they would owe you let’s say, six weeks if they are among the first to be dismissed?” May asked.

Jessica thought for a moment. Smirking she replied, “Could we extend the amount of time if they are in the first group to be dismissed to eight or more weeks?”

“Why would you want to make that change?” May asked.