Living in Stratford

II

     A couple of hours after Mom told me about Zoe, there was a knock on the front door. Sure enough, it was Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Sean, and Zoe.

     "Cathy!" Aunt Jennifer squealed like a demon who smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. She ran towards my mother, her bouncy blonde hair bouncing like a beach ball, and her bright green eyes, surrounded by blue eye shadow, staring at my mom. Compared to her, Aunt Jennifer was the complete opposite of my mom- instead of being short and overweight like me and her, she was tall and quite skinny.

     "How's it going, Jenny?" Mom asked as Aunt Jennifer bear-hugged her.

     "Oh, this is the best day of my life!" Aunt Jennifer exclaimed, "I can't believe Sean's taking me to South America and to Brazil and Colombia! Imagine- just the two of us together all alone all summer long! Isn't that romantic?"

     Uncle Sean's pale white face blushed red, and his light brown eyes darted to our caramel wooden floor. He ran his fingers through his even lighter brown hair and sighed. I don't blame him for being embarrassed because Zoe was right behind him cringing as well. Zoe was a tall skinny girl with frizzy light brown hair and light brown eyes like her dad; at that moment, her hair was sticking up in all sorts of places and her eyes were staring past Mom and towards the big black grand piano. Hell, even I was embarrassed, and I didn't even live with them!

     "Oh, Cathy! If only April was still here with us, then she would understand just like you would!" Aunt Jennifer sniffled.

     Mom winced, and it's not like I didn't know why. The only thing I knew about Aunt April, her youngest sister, is that she moved to Alberton, married some boring dude named Gordon, and now lives with him there with my eight-year-old cousin named Victoria. Mom doesn't really like to travel all the way across the province to visit once a year for Christmas or Easter or any other holiday even though Prince Edward Island isn't really all that big.

     "Jenny, I'm pretty sure April would understand," Mom said flatly.

     "Eh, sweetie? We have a plane to catch soon," Uncle Sean told Aunt Jennifer, tapping on the silver watch buckled on his wrist.

     Aunt Jennifer slapped her cheeks and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, you're right!" She pecked a wet juicy red-lipstick kiss onto Zoe's cheek and said, "Daddy and I will be back at the end of the summer, okay?"

     "Yes, Mom and Dad," Zoe merely answered, rolling her eyes.

     Aunt Jennifer walked out the door and shouted, "And be sure you stay safe!" Then she and Uncle Sean drove away in their tiny yellow Bug.

     The second the yellow Bug disappeared from view, Zoe looked at me with big puppy-dog eyes and asked, "I wanna go to your school!"

     School?! God, Zoe! Are you crazy or something?! "What for? It just ended," I replied back, thinking- no, praying- she was just joking.

     "No, I'm serious," Zoe said, "I wanna see all the classes that Justin Bieber's been in!"

     Oh...My...God. "Hold on, let me get my shoes."

     Zoe nodded, then turned to Mom and called out, "Hey, Aunt Cathy? We're gonna go to Ashley's school for a little while?"

     "What for? It just ended!" Mom called back.

     "Oh, Aunt Cathy! We're just going to visit for a little bit!"

     Mom took hold of Zoe's skinny arm and suggested, "Why don't you play us a few songs on the piano, eh? You're such a talented musician."

     Zoe relented and walked over to the piano. The first song she played was, you guessed it, "Baby" by Justin Bieber. Then she played the Glee version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" with a couple of runs and vibrations in her voice. And to be absolutely honest with you, my mother was 100% correct. Her voice was in practically perfect pitch the whole time, and the piano was in perfect harmony with it.

     "That was amazing, Zoe! Bravo!" Mom applauded, clapping when Zoe finished her mini concert.

     I was clapping along, too. "Yeah, that's really impressive," I added.

     Zoe turned to Mom and asked, "Now can we go out and visit Ashley's school?"

     "Wait, don't you want to watch some new episodes of Glee or Degrassi or something like that?" I asked.

     "Glee comes on on Tuesdays, and Degrassi comes on on Fridays," Zoe said.

     "And what day is it today?" I asked her.

     Zoe looked at me like I was the stupidest person in the world and answered, "It's Sunday." She yanked on my arm and exclaimed, "Now let's go see that school!"

     I winced and cringed and almost whined. I wanted to tell her, I really wanted to tell her, that no, Justin Bieber did not go to my secondary school because he's not from the same Stratford as I was.

     But it turned out I didn't have to because Mom called out, "Ashley! Zoe! It's time for dinner!"