Chapter 3
"Ryder!" Mom called from the living room. I got up from the dining room table where I was doing my homework and walked over to her. She was sitting on the couch, looking exhausted. "Would you be able to run to the store to pick up a few things?"
"Sure," I said. "What exactly do you need?"
"Lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and pickles," Mom said. "But only dill pickles. I don't like the other one."
I furrowed my eyebrows. "You don't even like dill pickles. Mom, are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" Mom asked.
I shrugged. "I don't know. You've been exhausted all the time and now, you want pickles. You hate pickles."
"I think I know what I like," Mom said. "There's a twenty dollar bill taped to the cookie jar lid. And can you also bring Tulip with you? She's been wanting to get out of the house."
"Sure," I said before walking towards the stairs. "Tulip! Want to go to the store with me?!"
"Yeah!" I heard Tulip say.
Unfortunately, the triplets heard that, too. "I want to come!" Alan said.
"Me too!" Orchid said.
"Don't forget about me!" Nolan said.
I sighed and looked at Mom with a hopeless look. "Can you take them as well?" she asked.
"Fine," I said as the triplets came barreling down the stairs with Tulip bouncing down behind them. "Hurry up and put your shoes on," I told them before going to the kitchen to get the twenty dollar bill. I then put my shoes and jacket on before we all headed out of the house to get to my car.
Immediately, the triplets began arguing about who gets shotgun. Normally, I made all three of them sit in the back but this time, Tulip was coming so one of them had to sit in the front. Great.
"But I'm the girl!" Orchid said. "I should sit in the front!"
"You're also the youngest out of us three," Alan said. "I'm the oldest, so I should sit in the front."
"Haven't you heard of ladies first?" Orchid asked.
"But I'm not a gentleman, so I don't have to listen to that," Alan said.
I groaned, almost getting a headache from their argument. "Nolan, you can sit in the front on the way there and back," I said. "Frankly, you're the only one not giving me a headache."
Nolan smiled as he got into the passenger seat as Alan and Orchid began complaining. Sucks for them.
I honestly hated being in the same care with my siblings, besides Tulip, of course. They always demanded that I put on music but no matter what I put on, they said it sucked. Excuse me? I was a dancer and I danced to that music. If anything sucked, it was the fact that they were my siblings.
After a very painful car ride, we got to the grocery store. I told my siblings exactly what we needed, and each of the triplets ran off to find an item. I tried telling them not to run in the store, but they were too far to hear me.
"I guess that leaves us to find the pickles," I said to Tulip.
"Ooh, I know where they are!" Tulip announced happily, grabbing my hand and pulling me to an aisle. "I come here all the time with Dad!" When we got to where the pickles were, she looked up at me. "Which one?"
"Well, mom said she wants dill pickles," I said.
Tulips scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion. "But Mom doesn't like pickles."
I sighed. "That's exactly what I said. I don't know, she just said she wanted dill pickles, so we'll get them for her." I picked out a jar and Tulip begged me to carry it, so I gave her to her, telling her to be careful not to drop it.
Nearby, I saw someone very familiar trying to reach something on a high shelf. The only problem was that Mae wasn't exactly tall. So I walked over to him and grabbed the item for her. "Thanks, Ryder," she said as I handed it to her. "It's times like these where I hate being short."
"You're not that short," I offered.
"I'm still short," Mae said.
Tulip then decided to be the talkative person she was and said, "Hi! I'm Tulip!" she said with a smile.
Mae smiled back at Tulip. "I'm Mae," she said.
"Do you know my brother?" Tulip asked.
"I do," Mae said. "We got to the same school and we're in the same dance studio."
"You're a dancer?" Tulip asked. "I want to be a dancer like my brother! He's, like, the best dancer I've ever seen!"
"He's definitely the best I've seen," Mae said.
I looked at Mae with furrowed eyebrows. "Wait, really?"
"Yeah," Mae said. "Come on, I've heard of you before. Ryder Prince, the state male soloist last year. Of course you're the best."
"Well, thanks," I said, giving her a smile.
"Ryder!" Orchid called from somewhat far away. "I found the lettuce!"
"Well, I found the onions!" came Alan's voice.
"Yeah? Well, I found the tomatoes, and I'm going to get to Ryder first!" Nolan said.
"No, I am!" Orchid said.
I sighed and turned around to see the triplets running down the aisle. "Don't run in the store," I told them yet again.
"I got to you first, right?" Orchid asked. "So I get to sit in the passenger seat on the way home, right?"
"What? No," I said. "That was never a thing. I already said Nolan gets to sit in the front on the way here and back because he was the least annoying today."
"That's biased," Orchid said. "You're just saying that because I'ma girl."
"No, I'm saying that because he wasn't annoying me," I said. "If Tulip was old enough to sit in the front, she would."
Nolan eyed Mae, then looked at me with a smile. "Is she your girlfriend?"
Orchid gasped. "Ooh, Ryder finally has a girlfriend!"
"Shut up," I said.
"Ryder and....what's her name, sitting in a tree," Nolan sang.
I ignored them and pulled my car keys out of my back pocket and handed them Alan. "You three go to the car," I said. "And Alan, you get to sit in the front now."
"What?" Nolan asked. "But that was my spot!"
"Aww, sucks for you," I said. "Go."
They all began complaining as they handed me the groceries before leaving. Brats.
"I'm sorry about my siblings," I said to Mae. "Tulip's probably the most....not annoying."
"It's fine," she said. "But I only have an older sister so I can't really relate on how annoying they can be. Well, I should go find my mom. I'll see you at school." She left down the aisle.
Tulip and I went to the check out and since there was still some money left over, I let her pick out a chocolate bar. My other siblings had to suffer now without any chocolate.
Naturally, when we got in the car, they started complaining that they didn't get any chocolate, but I just ignored them as I drove home. And it was a bad mistake to let Alan sit in the front because he kept changing my music.
If he wasn't my brother, I would have kicked him out of the car and let him walk home.
When we got home, I immediately put the groceries in the fridge before going back to the dining room to complete my homework. When it was finished, I put it in my bedroom before going to the living room and joining my mom in watching TV.
"Mom," I said. "Please don't ever make me take the triplets to the grocery store."
Mom chuckled. "Hey, I've done it before. I know how bad they can be. But thank you for going to the store and taking them with you. I really did need a break from them, no matter how much I love them."
"We can always send them to boarding school," I said.
"Don't push it, Ryder," Mom said with an eye roll.
The front door opened and as soon as Dad walked in, Tulip ran towards him, "Daddy!"
Dad smiled and piked up Tulip. "There's my favorite six year old," Dad said.
"I'm your only six year old," Tulip pointed out. "Hey, Dad. Guess what?"
"What?"
"Ryder has a girlfriend."
"What?" I asked. "No I don't!"
Tulip ignored me. "Her name is Mae and she's really pretty."
"Oh, Ryder, you sly dog," Dad said with a knowing smile.
"She's not my girlfriend," I objected. "She's a girl who I know. That's it."
"Uh huh, whatever you say," Dad said as he put Tulip down. "Hey, Flower, how does Maeder sound?"
Mom rolled her eyes. "Grayson, you're starting to sound like my dad."
Dad shrugged before sitting down beside Mom and wrapping his arm around her. "How are you feeling, Flower?" he asked.
"Better," Mom said. "Ryder went to the store for me and got me pickles."
"Oh, it's pickles this time?" Dad asked. "Man, you're so weird."
"Mom, you never answered me before," I said. "Why did you want pickles when you hate them?"
"I've never hated them," Mom said. "I just didn't prefer them."
Never hated them. Liar.
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GRAYSON STILL CALLS POPPY FLOWER! I miss them so much....
So, here's a funny story that has nothing to do with Wattpad. My cousin has a pet hamster and she told her dad that she needed more wood shavings so she can clean her hamster's cage. Her dad went to the store and came back with another hamster. He literally bought another hamster when he was just supposed to get wood shavings. cx