Summer with the Friends

The Beach, Fire, and a Sleepover

“Shh..” I whisper. “Everything’s okay. You’re safe here.” I finally get her to stop screaming and crying. Jenny and Hazel have pretty much gotten Jackson under control.

“GET...OVER...HERE!” Jenny screams as Jackson wrestles and wriggles away from her. He gets away from Hazel and Jenny and starts running towards the beach. 

“NOOOOOO!” We all scream at the same time. I scoop up Annie and start running with Hazel and Jenny. He gets to the beach, plops down on the sand and starts crying. 

“Hey, what’s up, little man?” Hazel asks quietly. I finally get there and I’m out of breath. I sit down next to them. 

“I...ju- I just... I don’t know!” he says between sniffles. 

“Shh, shh...” Jenny calms him down. 

“Okay, take a deep breath. Then tell us what’s going on,” I say. 

“I, I was going into the living room when I saw the wood in the fireplace was knocked over, and fire was going on the carpet. I screamed, then mommy came down and saw it, and she screamed really loud. We dumped a bucket of water on the fireplace. Then some guy came in...”

“My dad,” Hazel chimes in. 

He continued, “And then mommy carried me out and here I am.” He sniffled a couple of times before bursting into tears and flopping on Jenny’s lap. 

“Is my house gonna be okay?” he finally asks.

“I’m sure there’s not a lot of damage!” I assure him. We all walk back over to the houses and my dad starts telling us what happened. It was pretty much the same as what Jackson told us. The big cloud of smoke happened when they poured water on the fire. It didn’t cover all of it, though so when dad went in, he still had to put out some fire with the extinguisher. But, the good news is, everyone is safe and there’s barely any damage. We all go inside my house, even Ms. Bailey and her four kids. 

“And we still have church today!” I say to Hazel and Jenny. 

***

HAZEL:                                      11:45 AM

We’re all home from church (The Mack’s, Louis’s, and my family all go to church together) and everyone is having lunch at our house. Lunch is homemade meatball subs with mozzarella cheese.

“Mmm!” Paige, Jenny and I all exclaim together. My mom makes awesome meatball subs. After lunch, us three gals go up to my room. We play cards and board games and laugh all afternoon. I love my friends. 

“What are we gonna do tomorrow?” Jenny asks. 

“I hear it’s going to be 88 degrees!” says Paige.

“No way! I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll be surfing all day!” I say. 

“I’m in!” says Jenny. 

“I’ll come along and read Harry Potter!” Paige announced. 

“Come on, Paige. Just try surfing ONCE. If you hate it, you never have to do it again.” I tell her. 

“Fine. Tomorrow.” 

“Sleepover tonight?” I ask.

“We should!” exclaims Jenny. 

“I’m free.” says Paige. 

“I’ll go ask. You two stay and set up Phase 10.” When I ask everyone’s parents, they all say yes. But, one catch. They want us to baby sit all the kids so they can have a triple date night. Ugh. Plus, Adam is going to a friend’s tonight so he can’t help at all. I tell the news to my friends. 

“Awesome!” says Jenny.

“I guess that’s okay. Did they say we can order Jimmy John’s?” exclaims Paige. She LOVES Jimmy Johns. 

“Yes, they did. Are you happy now?” I tell her.

“EEEEEEE” she yells. Ugh. What are we gonna do with her?

“Okay. Three kids, three different bedtimes. Wow.” I say. 

“Can we watch a movie?” Levi asks. 

“When’s dinner?” Faith whines. 

“Can I leave now?” Taren says.

Before we know it, Levi is asleep, Faith is getting ready for bed, and Taren is watching TV. 

“That was easy!” Paige says.

“Surrrre. Whatever you say.” Jenny says. We tell Taren that she has to be in her room no later than 10. We, on the other hand, stay up till 1 AM playing games, talking, girl stuff like that. It was awesome. As I said before: I love my friends!

***

Thanks for reading!!!

- Jena Perkins -