PAIGE: Sunday, June 2 - 6:00 AM
I quietly slide out of bed and into jean shorts and a t-shirt. I throw my Harry Potter book, notebook, pen, flip-flops, and iPad into a bag. When I get downstairs, I see bagels. I put one in my bag, along with an apple. I go out the door as quietly as possible, hoping not to wake up Levi or Faith (my 11 year old sister). I turn on my iPad when I’m on the front porch.
“Yes! Three bars!” I whisper to myself.
PaigeM_33: u guys awake?
MusicLuvr5: have been for 1 hour
PaigeM_33: cool. meet me at the beach in 10 mins with food and whatever else u need.
MusicLuvr5: ill be there... I can see through Hazel’s window that she’s sleeping.
MusicLuvr5: she just got up!
PaigeM_33: lets go. she’ll know where to find us
MusicLuvr5: kk. be out in a sec
I quickly - but quietly - run back inside and get my swimsuit. I open the door to Jenny looking at me when I come back out.
“Let’s go!” I whisper. When we’re at the beach we encounter Hazel sitting on the sand building a castle.
“I thought you were sleeping!” says Jenny.
“I told you my brother (Adam, an 18 year old weirdo) and I switched bedrooms last week. You can see him, not me...” says Hazel.
“Ohhh” Jenny and I say together.
“I’ve been here since 5:30. I forgot my tablet at home. You guys have your swimsuits?”
“Yep.” says Jenny.
“Yeah.” I say. “I almost forgot mine, though.”
“Go change, you lunatic.” Jenny says angrily.
“You’re soooo weird when it comes to choice of words...” I say. She really is. One time she called Hazel a nutshell. She said she was at a loss for names in a really intense moment. I come out of the beach bathroom with my black and white striped two-piece. Hazel slips off her adorable sundress and has on a one piece blue halter-top swimsuit. Jenny takes off her flouncy, loose green top and jean shorts and has on a hot pink two piece.
“Race ya to the water!” Hazel yells. I barely make it to the water because I fall halfway there!
“Get back up you lunatic!” you-know-who shouts. We all finally make it into the water. I could stay at the beach all day. All of a sudden, we hear screams coming from the house next-door to mine.
“What’s going on over there?” Jenny asks.
“Let’s go see!” Hazel says with a scared tone of voice. At this point, it was about 8:15 and we had been out of the water for a while with our clothes on. We all start running towards the house. I see my parents and Hazel’s parents run outside. A GIANT cloud of smoke comes from the peoples’ chimney. Hazel’s dad runs back inside and comes out with a fire extinguisher and his super cool work mask on. And shoes, of course.
“I’ll go see what’s going on. Everyone stay where they are.” he says boldly. We see him run into the house and hear the fire extinguisher running. The mom of the house (who is single with four kids, by the way) comes running out with her two youngest. I was dying to run into the house and get the other two kids but my mom told me to help with the two already safe ones while someone else gets the ones in the house. Hazel, Jenny and I all run over to the kids. One is a boy, Jackson and he’s 4. The other is Annie, a girl and she’s two. Annie is screaming like a baby girl. Oh, wait, she is one. I try to calm her down while Hazel and Jenny put Jackson in a sort of two person straight jacket. He is so restless. He’s not that loud, though. Just restless.
“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 -