Welcome to the Family

Chapter 23

I cannot believe my birthday is almost here! Two minutes from now I will officially be 17! After everything that's been happening, especially the holes in my memory, I am excited to celebrate this birthday. I watched as the clock went from 11:58 to 11:59 and finally 12:00. Happy birthday to me! As if on cue I receive a facetime call from Jessie.

"Hey girl! Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks girly," I smile. "How are you? What's been happening lately? We haven't had time to catch up."

"Yeah things have been busy but everything great."

"How's college?" I ask.

She smiles, "Amazing! I love college! I am even pledging a sorority!"

"That's great! What about the love life?"

She blushes, "There might be somebody."

"Who?"

"Okay, it's this guy named Jack. He's a political science major and he is so cute! He's the sweetest guy ever. We've talked a couple times and oh my God. I can't even handle it sometimes Jess. He's amazing. I like him so much. "

"Give it time; I'm sure something will happen. He sounds like a great guy."

"Thanks Jess. How is everything with you?"

"Good," I lied faking the smile on my face. "I can't believe I actually turned 17."

"Feel any different?"

"Not yet."

"You will," she said. "Maybe not right away but you're 17 baby."

I laughed, "Yes I am."

We talked for a few more minutes before hanging up then I fell asleep. When I woke up I felt somebody pushing me. I opened my eyes to see Dianna waking me up. "Time for school," she tells me.

"Can't I stay home?" I beg, "It's my birthday. Isn't that fair?"

She rolls her eyes but I can see that she's deciding whether to cave in and let me stay home. I give her a sweet smile and the puppy dog eyes. She smiles before finally giving in and nodding. "Thank you!" I tell her.

"Have fun," she tells me, "but don't get into trouble."

"I won't," I say.

Dianna leaves the room and I start thinking about what I want to do today. I certainly don't want to stay home alone. It's my birthday. I need to do something. Maybe Al will do something with me. I quickly take out my phone and text him: Want to hang out?

Surprisingly I receive a reply within a couple minutes: Sure but I have a class at 10.

I ask back: what time should we hang out then?

I get another response a minute later: Pick you up at noon.

I text: okay

I set my phone down again and drift back off to sleep. There's no way I'm getting up that early unless I have to. When I wake up again I glance at the clock and see that it's 11. I only have an hour?! Wow, I must have been tired. I walk out of my room and quickly figure out that I am home alone. I walk down the stairs and find a tray of cupcakes sitting on the counter. How sweet! I pick up the note next to them and see a quick happy birthday written with everybody's names signed after it. At least they didn't completely forget.

After seeing the cupcakes and realizing nobody else is home I walk back up the stairs to get ready. I kept my make-up simple and put on a pair of my jeans shorts and slid a t-shirt over my head. Nice and simple. I finished putting on my shirt when I heard somebody at the door. That must be Al. I opened the door and he has red roses in my hand.

"For you," he hands them to me.

I smile, "Thank you."

I let him in and walk to the kitchen putting the roses in some water so they don't die. "What are we doing today anyway?" he asks.

"Canoeing?" I asked. "There's a canoe in the garage that they never use."

He nods, "We can go canoeing."

"Awesome!"

I grab my purse from my room and show Al where the canoe is in the garage. He hooks it up to the top of his car and we both slide into his car.

"Where is this lake anyway?"

I start giving him directions and we head out of the town to the perfect lake for canoeing. It's not exactly a long ride but I wouldn't call it a short ride either. We talked somewhat on the way to the lake but most of the time we stayed silent. I gave him more directions as we got closer to the lake and looked out the window to enjoy the scenery. It's been a while since I went canoeing. What a way to spend my birthday.

After the long ride to the lake we finally arrive. Al pulls in and I suddenly have a flashback. I remember heading to the pond for the first time with Justin. I could not only see the pine trees but I could smell them. The grass seemed greener than any other place I had seen before. I wanted to pick up the wild flowers that were scattered everywhere. I could hear the sound of the running water as it hit the dirt and the rocks. I could see the small fish swimming around. Justin and I had the best time.

Nothing went wrong that day. I felt as if nothing could go wrong because I was in such a beautiful place. I felt like I was at home. It was a weird feeling but that's exactly what it felt like. Being in that place always made me feel like I was at home; the trees, the grass, the flowers, the sound of the water, and the small fish, it was peaceful. Al quickly brought me back to reality and we got out of the car. I looked around and I could almost compare it to that same pond. I could see trees and it smelled almost the same. I smile thinking of it. I help Al get the canoe off his car and we push it close to the water.

"Ready to go?" Al asks.

"Yes sorry, I was thinking about something."

"Want to talk about it?"

I shook about it, "Just a memory. We had a pond my brother and I went to back home."

He nods, "Should we get in the water?"

"We should put on life jackets," I say.

He replies, "Why?"

"We could easily fall out of the canoe."

"Is that the real reason?"

"Okay," I admit, "I can't swim well. I don't want to take any chances."

He laughs, "You can't swim?"

"I said I can't swim well not that I can't swim."

He continues laughing, "That's funny."

I rolled my eyes with a smile, "Put them on anyway."

"Why? I know how to swim."

"That doesn't matter anything could happen. You never know when you might need a life jacket."

"But I won't," he argues.

"You could."

"No," he shakes his head.

"Just put it on," I threw one at him.

He laughs, "You really don't know how to swim."

"I will feel safer so we both need to wear them. Now."

After forcing him into a life jacket we get in the canoe and push off the shore. I honestly cannot remember the last time I actually did this. Hopefully we're not too terrible at it. I truly do not want to end up in the water stranded out here. We had a couple moments at first where we had a hard time figuring out what to do. We got the hang of it for a while though and we stopped when we got to the middle of the lake which makes me a little nervous.

"Look," he says.

"Look at what?"

"Everything. It's a beautiful day."

I finally took my eyes off the water to look up.