J*A*D*E*S- Fate Series

JADE(S) 4

A very long opening of Part 4

J*A*D*E 4: - Murder and Mayhem

j*a*d*e*s – surprises

            "You mean to tell me that your uncle is going to throw a costume ball in the middle of the summer?  The fourth of July to top it all off?  Are you sure this is the same Uncle Jon that we all know and love?"  Emma questioned from the back seat of Jo's sleek black mustang as they made their way to Jo's house for supper.

            "Yup, actually it's to celebrate more than one thing.  So he's inviting everyone he knows, I know, and dad and Kate friends too.  Practically everyone is going to be there.  He can fit like twelve hundred people in that place if he tries, and hopefully he doesn't put it to the test.  There would be like two, three hundred tops with all the publishing people that he knows.  He even had the Fire Marshal up there to check the place out.  Plus he wants to get the grounds all decorated and everything, show off all the work that's been done to the house.  You should see the place; it is so different from when we first went in there.  He seems to want to go all out: a live band and everything.  It should be fun, a real relaxing party.  No school, no parents, just some old fashion fun.  I wonder if we can handle that?  If there really is still such a thing with us, normal that is."

            "Jo, no offense, but what is going on here?  Your uncle is the biggest scrooge that I have ever met, and why is everyone in the celebratory mood all of a sudden?  Did someone win the lottery?  It sure as hell wasn't me, I'd be in Hawaii," Darci asked, not believing that Jonathan Wheaton was going to spend some money, any money for that matter.

            "Dad and Kate are now engaged, it is official; he finally gave her a ring.  So it's an engagement party.  Uncle Jon is ecstatic about it, so he really wants them to celebrate it.  Of course dad is not going to throw a party, so Jon decided to do it for them.  Getting dad to take time off is like pulling teeth," Jo stated bluntly, knowing it to be the utter truth.

            "Okay, what about you and Jon, what are you two celebrating that's so great?"  Amy asked, just as skeptical as the rest of the girls were about all of this.  She had been busy watching her parents and her brother planning his wedding, which was fast approaching.

            "Jon just got paid for his new book, and the rights to half of the stories are already sold for movies.  He's kind of going nuts over it, it's his biggest pay day to date.  He was surprised that most of those stories were picked up so quickly," Jo said, not sure how to phrase the rest of what she was going to say, not wanting to make a big deal of it all.

            "Okay, that leaves you, oh god, don't tell me that you're pregnant, oh please.  Oh boy, my dad will flip right out; he'll hit the roof.  I'll never be able to go on a date again.  He'll lock me up until I'm thirty, and I won't see sunlight for years," Emma blurted out, with a smile, but still meaning every word of it.  Her parents were strict, and if Jo was pregnant, they were going to go ballistic.

            "No, it's not that, trust me, it's not that.  You have one hell of an imagination don't you?  Actually, how am I going to say this?"  Jo asked herself out loud, she scratched her head with her right hand. 

            "The best way is to just say it," Amy prompted, giving Jo's shoulder a shake.  She had never, well almost never seen Jo nervous, but for some reason she was.  Her eyes were darting left and right and she looked like she was blushing.

            "The book that Uncle Jon sold?  Well, some time ago Darci gave him a copy of some of my finished work that she must have printed off from my computer..."  Jo let the statement hang, letting Darci pick up where she had left off, hoping that they figured it out without her having to say it out loud.  She had yet to come to the realization that in a few weeks she was going to be a published author.