Chapter 1: Off to Spring Break

Friday, March 11, 2011

“Robin Lovell, wait up!” I heard, from behind my back, as I was approaching the main entrance doors leading out of Northwick Junior High.

“I can’t help it if you are so slow,” I replied, turning to face Tom, my best friend and for the past six and a half years, step-brother. He was as usual, while inside one of the school buildings, trying to see how fast he could go without being accused of running.

“Sorry about that. Mr. Higgs asked me to stay for a couple of minutes after class. He wanted to ask that I consider trying to tutor some additional students.”

“Teacher’s pet,” I teased as we walked through the doors heading towards the bike rack.

“Right back at you. He also asked me to see if you would reconsider joining the science team for the rest of the year, as well as doing some tutoring. He would have asked you that himself, after your class with him, but you escaped before he had a chance.”

I started considering Mr. Higgs’ request, “I will have to think about those things Tom. I might be able to do some tutoring instead of homework during my Study Hall. As for being a part of the math and science team, and go on their competitions, I would have to see.”

“I told Mr. Higgs’ that I knew you were still committed to cheerleading so that limited your time a bit. He then mentioned that he had checked with his wife, who is one of your cheerleading coaches, on the dates of the cheerleading competitions until the end of the school year. Based on the dates she told him, you could go to two of the science and one of the math competitions without missing any games or cheer competitions.” Tom replied.

“I still have practice every weekday there isn’t a basketball game.” I commented.

“For now, he would be satisfied if you took some time during Spring Break to consider doing those things. Changing the subject, are you all packed and ready to go?” Tom asked as we reached the bike racks.

The abruptness of the change in topic was a little glaring. “Sure am. I can’t wait to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Rose in person again as opposed to just on a computer screen,” I replied. “What about you?”

“Same here,” Tom replied as he turned his attention to the combination lock that secured his bike to the rack. As I started spinning the combination of my bike lock, I noticed Angie and Sofi Mueller heading towards their father’s car.

“Have a nice Spring Break!” I called out, waving goodbye to them.

“Same to you, Robin,” they replied in stereo as they returned the gesture.

“Race ya home,” Tom said less than half a minute later while climbing on his bike.

Even though he had a slight head start, I passed him before we had left the school grounds. As usual, while riding single file along the neighborhood streets we did not try to talk. While still paying a minimum of attention to my surroundings, my mind started to wander as I made my way home.

As I had done several times this past week, my thoughts focused on the Skype session that Jessica, Tom, and I had last Sunday with Aunt Rose. During that session, Aunt Rose told Tom and me that she had some new fun activities to teach us. Before Tom and I could ask her any questions about that teaser, Rose asked us to leave Jessica’s room.

I suspect that Aunt Rose then spent some time talking about ‘girl stuff’ with her niece – which is the response Tom and I usually get when we ask what the two of them talked about after sending Tom and me away. I would later learn that most of their conversation involved making plans on how they would be teaching Tom and I those fun new activities during Spring Break.

I spent most of the bike ride home speculating on what those activities could involve. I would later learn than none of my speculations were close to being true. In the end, I decided to ‘just keep an open mind’ since with only one exception, all of the many activities Aunt Rose had said would be fun when she started to teach Tom and me. turned out that way. The single exception was when she taught us what we needed to know to help her out with her morning and evening chores. Then again, Aunt Rose only really started to share the fun activities she had discovered with Jessica, Tom, and me after we had started helping her with her chores.

That train of thought got derailed when I noticed I was making the final turn on the way home. Once again, I had gone from school to nearly home, almost on autopilot.

“Happy Birthday, Staff Sargent Howard!” I called out while waving at Naomi’s parents as I passed them working on their yard. They are both veterans with the USNA Marine Corps, having spent ten years each in active duty. My parents met them the day they first looked at the empty lot our home now sits on.

Shortly after we moved in, my parents invited them and a few other neighbors, who have since moved away, over for a barbecue. The two things that I remember best from that barbecue were listening to Mr. and Mrs. Howard telling my parents their background and meeting Naomi.

That day we learned that Naomi’s mom, Mrs, Moriah Howard, was from a small community about sixteen kilometers (ten miles) outside of Butterfield, about twenty-four kilometers (fifteen miles) in a straight line from my grandparent’s farm. She joined the USNA Marines three days after graduating high school. Some of her younger siblings went to high school with my moms, since Naomi’s mom was in the last graduating class before that high school shut down.

Naomi’s dad was from here in Northwick. Like his wife, he joined the USNA Marines shortly after graduation from high school. They met shortly after reenlisting for their second four year commitment while going to a Military Occupational Specialty school to learn how to be programmers. After the MOS School, their next duty station was in what their instructors jokingly called ‘exotic Kansas City’ where they spent the last five years of their enlistment.

While in Kansas City, they got married and a year later Naomi was born. They took advantage of some educational opportunities they were given and they both both got a Computer Science bachelor’s degree while they were there. They decided to reenlist for two more years giving them each ten years of active duty. They have been in what they call ‘First Civilian Division’ for around twelve years.

Arriving home, I put my bike in the garage with Tom right behind me. As we opened the door between the garage and the laundry room, we saw a basket with folded sheets sitting on the dryer. Attached to the basket was a note reminding Jessica, Tom, and me to remake our beds. Normally, washing our sheets is part of our weekly chores and we typically do that on Saturday. But since we would be taking off to see our grandparents this evening, one of our moms must have done that part for us.

Tom and I took the basket upstairs. While climbing the stairs, I decided to play a prank on my sister, “Tom, since Jessica’s sheets are on top, how about we make her bed?”

“Why?”

“Don’t you want to play a prank on her? We could short-sheet her bed and she would not find out for over a week.”

“Nice, a touch mischievous, but nice.”

After making Jessica’s bed, we made sure that it was impossible to tell that we had short-sheeted it. Tom and I helped each other make our beds. After losing a game of rock, paper, scissors, I picked up the empty laundry basket to take it downstairs to the laundry room.

“While you are doing that, I will be double checking what’s in my suitcase,” Tom mentioned, as I started heading downstairs.

Returning to my room, I decided that Tom had a good idea. While I was going through my suitcase to ensure I had packed everything I needed for my visit, I remembered being told that, the first time I had packed my own suitcase, I had not packed any underwear. This supposedly happened shortly after I had a fight with Tom when I was three when my grandparents were visiting and I wanted to go live with them and Aunt Rose.

I found out that I had missed packing the small half-gag gift I had purchased to give to Tom on our birthday. After hiding that item inside my suitcase, I set my suitcase and a suit bag in the loft temporarily. The loft is open to the living room downstairs, and separates the two pairs of upstairs bedrooms suites.

Standing on the top of the staircase that leads down to the living room looking towards the back of our home you will see the following. To your left is the upstairs guest bedroom. Next to it, in the back left corner of the house is Jessica’s bedroom. Straight ahead is a half bath, with a home theater room that includes the largest TV in the house to its right. Between the home theater room and my bedroom which is in the back right hand corner of the house is a second staircase heading down that ends in the kitchen. Tom’s bedroom is next to mine and on the opposite side of the loft from the guest bedroom.

Before heading downstairs, I knocked on Tom’s door, “Ready to take your bags downstairs?”

“Just a minute came,” from inside his room.

Tom then joined me in the loft and led the way downstairs. We put our bags near the foot of the stair. I then headed to the kitchen to see about a couple of snacks, one to eat immediately, and the other for the trip.

“Ready to go?” April, one of our two moms, asked.

“Sure, mom. Where is everyone else?” I asked, getting some crackers, cubed cheese, and celery sticks from a tray and putting them on a paper plate, while Tom prepared himself a snack as well.

“May picked up Jessica from school. The plan is for her to watch Jessica as she is practicing her driving. While they are out, May was also planning on picking up some snacks for the trip. She called me about five minutes before you and Tom came in and said she saw the two of you riding your bikes. Jessica honked her horn, but for some reason, there was no reaction from either of you. Care to explain?” April asked.

I told April what I had been thinking. Tom admitted to also being in deep thought.

“Riding your bicycles while distracted can be dangerous. Since this was the first time I have known of either of you doing something like that, I am going to prohibit you two from riding your bikes for the next week. Next time it happens, you can expect the punishment to be longer. It’s dangerous enough to be distracted on your bikes, it would be even worse if that happens when you are driving a car.”

I started to open my mouth to complain about the punishment when a thought struck me, this week, Tom, and I would not be near our bikes in the first place.

“I promise I will pay better attention to my surroundings when I am riding my bike, Mom April,” I promised, with Tom echoing the promise.

“Continuing, Henry and Steve are finishing up some things at work before they leave for a four-day weekend. As you know, they both have been very busy with a major project at work for the last few months. It seems that there has been some significant progress in the past few days. Steve called me about lunchtime. He told me that the time and date of the meeting that had been the reason we would have to return Sunday evening had been changed.”

“What was the meeting about?” I asked.

“To be honest, my husbands have been fairly secretive on most details of this project. For instance, about the only things that I knew about the meeting that had been scheduled to start Monday morning was that it was one that both Steve and Henry had to attend due to their current responsibilities related to their project,” April replied.

“When will be the new date and time?” Tom worriedly asked.

“That is the good news. This morning, those in charge of the meeting went around talking with everyone involved in either presenting information or making decisions based on the information to be presented during the meeting. The intention was to see if everything was on schedule to be ready Monday morning or if the meeting would be delayed. When they learned that those making presentations were all ready to make then today, they decided to see if those who would be making decisions based on information presented in the meeting would be available for a meeting starting immediately after lunch,” April replied.

“How did the meeting go?” Tom asked.

“Henry called about twenty minutes ago saying that the meeting went much better and got done faster than they had hoped. He also mentioned that he and Steve were able to move some other things that had been initially scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of next week to later on in the week. With that, instead of them having to return Sunday evening, they were able to take those extra two days off from work. What that means is this year we will be able to celebrate your birthday on the farm, on the date of your actual birthday.” April said as she paused to check the time on her phone. “Henry also said that they would be leaving work in about half an hour. If they do leave at that time, they will be here in about forty-five minutes.”

“What does this mean in terms of our trip? Will we eat here before taking off this evening?” I asked.

“I have called my dad and told him of the change of plans. While he wasn’t very happy with the delay, he was happy that it meant that May and I would be spending a couple more days there. As it turns out, mom and Rose had not started cooking yet. I am to give them a call when we leave, and dinner should be ready when we get there.” April continued.

As an afterthought, April continued, “By the way, my parents have agreed to take the two of you, Jessica, and Rose, camping for a couple of days towards the end of next week. We didn’t want to raise your expectations earlier only to have the trip fall through. That appeared to be likely earlier this week when the long-range forecasts were predicting iffy weather. The most recent weather forecast indicates that next Thursday and Friday will have some nice camping weather. Since that is the case, we will be taking only one of the Honda CR-Vs along with the RV this evening.”