We lucked out that my family reunion is at noon, and Adam's practice just so happens to be later tonight.
We ride in the back of the car while my dad drives. My mom looks back at us from the passenger seat.
"Are you ready to meet the crazies?" She directs to Adam.
He gives me a questionable look before answering, "Yes. Your family can't be that bad."
"You have no idea," my dad mumbles.
My family is extremely crazy. Correction, my mom's side of the family is a really whacky bunch. But every year we get together for a reunion since we all celebrate the holidays with our individual families. This is one of two times where all twelve families come together for one big gathering.
Yes, I said twelve. My mom has eleven brothers and sisters. It's like that Cheaper by the Dozen movie. Except the kids are all grown up, have their own kids, and some of their kids are having kids.
My mom is in the middle to younger side of the group with her being child number nine.
We reach the park on time. We have to rent it out because there are so many of us. The park is kind of small, so we do this out of respect since we are extremely loud.
Everyone steps out of the car and grabs whatever food item is their responsibility.
My parents walk off and I look at Adam's wide eyes. It's like he has never witnessed so much chaos in his life. Some of my cousins are whaking one another with swords, while others squirt each other with water guns. Greattt. Those are already out. Some of my cousins are climbing trees, or dangling from them, and a lot are just running around and screaming.
"How many cousins did you say you had?" Adam questions.
"I didn't."
"Well how many do you have?"
I scoff. "Yeah, let me just round them all up and count them. I don't know! I lost count when my first cousins started having kids."
Still staring at the madness, "Second question." He turns to look at me. "I thought your mom and dad are separating?"
"They are, they just haven't told anyone yet."
"Oh." Adam goes back to watching my cousins.
"Come on," I take his hand and lead him toward the pavilion.
We set our food down and are immediately approached by my craziest aunt and uncle who had nine children of their own.
"Bear hug!" My uncle says loudly as he scoops me into a hug.
"Heyy, uncle Sal. Can't breathe," I cough out. He releases me before turning his attention to Adam.
"Hey, who's this handsome guy?"
"Adam. I'm Chloe's boyfriend," Adam says while shaking hands.
"Ah. Well in this family we don't shake hands, we hug!" Uncle Sal scoops Adam into a hug, slightly lifting him off the ground momentarily.
Adam takes a beat to regain his composure before he looks my uncle up and down. "Well," he says. "If it's what we do in this family." Adam half shrugs before doing the same thing to my uncle.
Now uncle Sal has to regain himself, as he's not used to being lifted. "Chloe, I like him already! You better keep this one," he winks.
My aunt and uncle walk away to greet the next family members. Adam looks at me as if to say something before I'm suddenly lifted off the ground.
"Hey!" I shout at my perpetrator. When my feet touch the pavement I look to see who it is. It's my next crazy uncle. "What do you think you're doing uncle Al?"
"Just gotta say hello to everybody! Look some more unwilling victims!" He sprints off to chase some of the little ones.
"So he was your uncle Al?" Adam asks.
"Yep," I reply.
"And the first was..."
"Uncle Sal. Yes. Remember there are twelve of them. Everybody has a rhyming buddy, whether they were twins or not."
"Uh huh." After a beat he says, "Why?"
"Not a clue. Never question grandma and grandpa. They work in mysterious ways."
"Riiight."
I walk Adam over to the swings where some of my more normal cousins sit.
"Hey cousin Rachael and Michael. What's going on?" I ask.
"Nothing. These gatherings are so boring," Michael says.
"You think this is boring?" Adam asks amused. "There's so much going on, I don't know where to look!"
"Well take a look around," Rachael says. "Do you see anyone else that is our age?"
Adam begins to look. She's right. They are smack in the middle of every cousin. Everyone else is too old or too young. The older ones are having kids and the younger ones aren't even preteens yet. I'm the closest cousin to them.
"Well you know you two always have me. I'm pretty close in age and also in the same boat. Everyone else is three or more years away from me," I reason.
"I guess... but you're already on your last year of high school, not your first," she continues.
"That just means I get to give you all kinds of advice for this upcoming year! What do you want to know?"
"How do you become popular?" Michael questions at the same time as Rachael asks, "How do you sign up for extra curriculars?
"Whoah, whoah. One question at a time," I say.
"I can answer Michael if you answer Rachael," Adam offers.
"Sure," I tell him. I hear him start to say something about playing sports before I turn toward Rachael.
"It depends on the school you go to. Since you don't go to my school I can't tell you exactly, but some events you can just show up for and they will have you fill in a form then. Others will be posted on a bulletin outside the offices where you can write your name down. If you want to play a sport, then they should make an announcement of when and where to grab the forms you need. I hope that helps."
"It does, thank you."
I hear Adam continue, "You want to be friendly to everyone and have a positive attitude. And confidence. Confidence is key."
I narrow my eyes a little before bringing my attention back to my cousin. "Are there any other questions?"
"Can we really have classes with upperclassmen?"
"Yes. It depends on what the class is, but sometimes people get held back and have to retake the course. If it's an elective, you are more likely to have people from all four grades there."
"Do upperclassmen actually play tricks on the freshmen?" Michael jumps back into our conversation, curious.
"That you will just have to find out," I joke. "I'm just kidding. I don't know. Some do, some don't. Just be careful."
"Alright. We are going to go ahead and get started," my Aunt Tracy, who's a little older than aunt Lacy, began over the speakers.
"Thank you," both cousins whisper as we walk over to the pavilion.
"You're welcome," Adam and I reply.
We all say prayer before we get in line for food. My parents, Adam, and I are near the front of the line because we picked seats closest to everything.
We have this whole event figured out. We get seats where we can get food first, eat, talk to a few more people, and then leave before everyone goes nuts with the water guns. We used to stay for that part when I was younger, but now we prefer to keep our clothes dry.
Adam is the first to speak when we sit down. "So every year your family gets together in the summer?"
"Yes," I answer. "We have a reunion where we go over everything that has happened over the past year. Don't worry, you'll hear those announcements later."
"What? There's announcements?" He asks.
"Everyone writes down what has been going on with them since last year and we announce the big stuff. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, and anything else excited or huge is told to the whole clan. And no. We have no news this year," I make a face at him to stay hush hush about my parents.
Since nothing is final divorce wise, they still don't want anything getting out until they know for sure what is happening.
"Ah," is his only reply.
We continue eating until everyone has sat down with their food. I pull Adam to grab a few things from the dessert table.
"Mhhmm," he says. "What do you recommend?"
"Personally, I like the dirty dessert that we brought, a cookie or two, and the cherry cheesecake. But you can try whatever you want."
"Okay. I might try a little bit of everything."
"Go for it," I reply, half serious.
He starts piling on all of the desserts and I widen my eyes when I realize he was serious. When he's done, we walk back to my parents' table.
"Whoah, Adam. Get enough dessert?" My father mocks.
"Yes, sir. I think I'm good with all of this, thank you," Adam jokes back.
"Alright, how much if it is mine?" My dad continues.
"As much as you want to get up and go grab yourself," Adam replies.
"Why would I do that when you have a mountain in front of you?"
"Because then you can pick whatever you want and make your own mountain. If you can handle it."
"Is that a challenge?" Dad asks.
"Maybe?" Adam raises an eyebrow.
My dad gets up and starts piling all the desserts onto his plate and sits back down next to Adam. They both start plowing their plate, almost as if they're racing, but slow enough to not cause a stomachache.
I eat my dessert in silence, amuzed by their "whitty" banter and unspoken race.
Adam finishes first, just in time to hear the announcements. Tracy and Lacy take turns telling us who passed away this past year, who got married, and how old everyone is that had a birthday recently. Which that includes me.
Right after the announcements are over, my family packs up everything we brought so we can leave.
"Leaving so soon?" Uncle Al says.
"Yeah, we got to get going since Adam has football," my mother replies. "We'll see you at the softball game."
Adam turns to me. "What softball game?"
"Oh. Right. We always have an annual softball game around this time of year as well."
Adam gapes at me as we walk to the car. "You serious?" he asks.
"Yeah. It's at the park in Ashland this time. See you there in a couple of days," I say nonchalantly.
We hear the water fight start as we load up the car. Adam stays quiet as he processes my words.
"In a couple of days?"
I stay silent as a reply, the screaming and squirting of water fading as we drive off.