"D, wake up. I smell bacon and I think Mom is making breakfast." I heard a voice whisper in my sleep.
I opened my eyes and saw Ricky on top of me. "Get off of me." I grumbled kicking my legs so he would fall off.
"You're gonna miss out on breakfast." Ricky said.
"Just leave me alone. I'll get up when I get up."
Ricky sighed and walked downstairs. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep til I heard another voice. "Dwayne Edison-Mark Anderson, get your butt up and come eat breakfast." I sat up and saw that it was Dad standing at the doorway.
"Okay okay, I'm getting up." I sighed.
I walked downstairs with Dad to the kitchen table where I saw a plate of waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon. "Good you're awake. Just in time for breakfast." Mom greeted hoping that the sound of breakfast will wake me up.
I didn't say anything back but yawned and sat down on a chair.
"Why are the waffles so big?" JD asked picking up one of the waffles from the table.
"Stop being dramatic they're not that big." Mom answered.
"You want me to cut it up for you?" Dad asked.
"Yeah." JD pushed his plate to Dad.
As Dad began to cut JD's waffle he looked up at me and asked, "You look a little rough, did you sleep okay last night?"
Being a little annoyed by that question I answered, "Sure."
"Have you been playing on your little DS thing all night?"
"No."
"Okay just checking. You can't really be playing on your electronics all night." Dad lectured me.
I tried to hide my annoyance by staring at my breakfast plate and engaging what I'm eating. I'm starting to feel like I'm not able to do certain things anymore because of this depression. I can't spend my time alone in my room as much I used to, I can't really be on my DS for long......well it's only two things but I can't take that my parents keep asking me questions and lecturing me. I know they're trying to help me out and everything but can they like not do that 24/7?
We finished up breakfast and Mom told us to get ready. Where are we going this time? We all went upstairs to get dressed for another "family outing" I guess. "Should I wear my green and yellow long sleeved shirt or my Gryffindor shirt?" Ricky asked me.
"Well it looks like it's pretty hot outside so I guess wear your Gryff-whatever shirt." I answered.
"Okay." Ricky put back his green and yellow shirt. "And it's Gryffindor."
"Whatever." I laughed.
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I looked out our minivan window. The sunlight bouncing off the trees and bushes to make them look bright green. Cars driving next to us on this highway and looking at different restaurants and buildings off the exits.
"Mommy," JD called, "can you turn up the radio?" Mom turned up the radio and played some song that sounded like Kanye West singing. "Get down girl gon' head get down! Get down girl gon' head get down!" JD yelled the lyrics.
"Oh my god." I mumbled. I heard Dad and Mom giggling at him. I hope he doesn't do this the whole car ride.
"JD you don't have to be this loud." Dad said.
"But I like this song." JD said.
"Okay but you can sing quieter, okay?"
"Okay." JD put his head down and sat back.
We soon pulled up to a nice three story yellow house. "Where are we?" Ricky asked.
"I forgot to mention to y'all along time ago that some of my relatives live here in Baltimore like your Grandma Vynette." Dad explained. "And you guys never met your great grandmother yet so we planned to visit her today. She also made a big lunch for us." A lunch sounds like a nice offer, now I'm interested in meeting her.
Dad knocked on the double sided door and a woman with light gray hair answered. "Oh hey Jonathan." She greeted and hugged him. "I haven't seen you in forever. come on in, come on in." As we walked in, her house was very spacious and and big. I looked up and noticed a cool window up on the ceiling.
"You remember Dwayne, right?" Dad asked her.
Remember? Have I met her before? Maybe that kinda explains why she looked kind of familiar. When she looked at me she gasped a little. "Oh my goodness, you have grown so much. I haven't seen you since you were a tiny little baby. Oh how the times fly." So she hasn't seen me since 1994, kind of a really long time if you think about it. "And I see you have two more little cute boys and another baby. At first I thought Vynette was telling me lies."
Dad laughed. "So what are you cooking?"
"Your grandpa is making some bacon wrapped hotdogs and homemade curly fries. I'm almost trying to get started on the German chocolate cake." Hearing that just made my mouth water. Bacon wrapped hotdogs, pure protein heaven. "You guys can get yourselves comfortable. The TV is available and if you need anything let me know."
"Okay thanks." Dad said as she walked back to the kitchen.
JD turned on the TV and it showed some weird old black and white show. "This place is really nice and big. How does her and her husband live like this on their own?" Mom asked.
"This house is actually owned by her sister and they lived together in this house. After her sister's passing, two of my late cousins offered to live with her so she wouldn't have to take care of this big house by herself." Dad explained.
"Oh that was sweet of them." Mom smiled. "Where are they now?"
"They might be on their way back here."
The front door opened and two women walked in. "Jonathan?" One of the them gasped.
"Hey Bethany, hey Cecelia." Dad hugged them. "Boys, meet your cousins Bethany and Cecelia."
Had I met enough people already? "I think I've seen you when you were a baby." Cecelia said to me. Wow, apparently I'm meeting relatives I haven't seen since birth.
"Oh my gosh, you have another baby?" Bethany asked picking up Lucille.
"Yep that's my youngest daughter, Lucille." Dad introduced.
"She's so cute. I just wanna eat you up."
I turned and noticed Ricky and JD not doing anything but watching the TV. I walked up to them and asked, "Why are you guys not interacting with them?"
"Because I don't know them." JD answered.
"Well there's a thing called 'getting to know them'. Just like when we first met Grandma Vynette, we didn't know her at first but we got to know her. We can do the same thing with these people. Okay?" I tried my best to persuade them to not be left out this little get together. They both shrugged and got off the couch.
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We all sat at the this really cool family dinner table and ate our big lunch together.
"So how was everyone's day so far?" Great Grandmother (or Granny) asked.
"Oh my gosh Granny," Bethany began, "me and Cecelia went to this little petstore at the mall today and when I tell you we found the cutest little puppy, we found the cutest puppy." she rambled.
"Now that doesn't mean we're getting a tiny puppy for this big ol house now." Granny said.
"I know. I just wanted to tell you."
"you guys ready for dessert?" Grandpa came in holding the German chocolate cake.
"Oh yes please." Mom said.
"That looks delicious!" JD yelled.
"The madear can cut the first piece." Grandpa handed the knife to Granny.
"Oh now I don't have steady hands. I'm not sure how it's gon' turn out."
"I'll help you." Grandpa held her hand as they both steadily cut the cake.
So her German chocolate turned out really good and we spent the rest of the evening catching up with each other.