2014
"Mommy's got a real bad temper... and daddy's got a shotgun!" The right chords got hit on the small guitar. "Welcome to the family!"
"Why is he singing that song?" Karen asked.
"I don't know." Jimi took Karen's hat off.
"Hey, don't do that!" She hit the hat out of Jimi's hand and it fell on floor. Karen sighed.
"I want to see your eyes."
"Sunday Hatday."
"It's just Sunday."
"It's not, James."
"Ooh, do I have to watch out now, Karen Renee?"
"Always, James. Always."
A phone rang and a one eye got open.
"What?" Karen snapped. Who the Hell dares to call her at 6 In the morning?
"Karen, it's Kelli. Mom and dads house, asap." Typical Kelli, never saying the whole sentence.
"What? Why?" Karen asked but her sister already disconnected the line. She moaned and got out of bed. She put on a sweater and jeans. When she was done with doing her hair and make up, she woke Jimi up.
"Clothes are on the bed. We have to go to Georgia."
Ten minutes later they sat in their truck, ready to drop Elijah off at Phillip and Rebecca's place and drive to Georgia.
"Any idea what's going on?" Jimi asked when the cross the State line from Tennessee.
"No, but I don't think there's any good news." Karen looked into Jimi's eyes, it was like looking into a mirror. Eyes filled with fear.
"What the heck is going on?" Karen tripped over the door matt and crashed into the door to the living room.
She looked up and everybody was there. Her mother, her father, Kelli, Geor, Kerry, Lilly, Matthew, Cassadee and even her new baby niece Delta.
"I'm getting scared now, who's dead?"
Then she noticed a girl standing behind her sister. She'd never seen her and looked like the same age as Cassadee. If she wasn't that curious about what was going on, she would have introduced herself to the girl.
There was a long silence but Kelli took a deep breathe. "This is Brooklyn, our new niece."
"What?" Jimi asked. "How's that possible? Who's daughter is she?" He looked to Karen, who was shocked as well.
"Mine." Kerry said.
Lilly, his wife, started to cry.
"Eh, we're waiting." Karen frowned.
He took a deep breathe and started to talk. "Remember when I had a thing with Dakota? It was just for the summer. Apparently she got pregnant, I mean this is the living proof" he pointed to Brooklyn. "but she never told me that. She died in a car crash a week ago and the police found me and brought Brooklyn to me."
"So you didn't cheated on Lilly?"
"No."
Jimi looked at Brooklyn, who tried to hide behind Kelli. She looked at her boots but he could see that tears were streaming down her face.
"I can't believe this!" Lilly yelled. "We just got our own family and now it comes out that he already has a daughter for sixteen years!"
"Hey, relax!" Karen shouted. "It's not his fault, like he said he didn't knew it! And stop yelling okay? Don't you realize how this is for Brooklyn?" She walked to the girl and wrapped her arm around her. "Just lost her mom and now in the middle of a damn useless family fight." She turned to Brooklyn. "Where are you from?"
"Washington."
"Come, I'll bring you to my old bedroom." Karen grabbed Brooklyn's hand and took her upstairs.
One look at her family, anger.
"Are y'all out of your mind?" Karen yelled when she walked back down the stairs. "Don't you remember what mom and dad taught us? Family above everything. And what are y'all doing? Fighting! This girl is our family now, the rule counts for her too!"
She took a seat on the kitchen table, like she always did when she was a teenager. "So, what's going to happen to her?"
Everyone kept quiet.
"Okay, she's coming with us." Karen decided. "No discussion. For the summer break and after that we'll look what will happen. We're not on tour anyway." She looked at Jimi.
"It's totally fine with me, babe."
Cassadee started to scream. "That's so not fair!" She jumped off the couch and ran to her mother. "I'm already begging for years to spend a summer break at aunt Kiki and uncle Jimi's place and you never allow me to go and Brooklyn can just go! You know how much I miss Jimi and Kiki and you never let me go. Never! And Bailey is spending the whole break at Phillip and Becky's place and I'm all alone in stupid Georgia, this is so not fair. I hate y'all!" She started to cry and ran to the garden.
"Cass," Matthew stood up and followed his sister.
"Why does she loves you more than me?" Kelli asked Karen.
"Grab your stuff." Jimi said.
Brooklyn and Cassadee turned around. They were both having breakfast at the kitchen table.
"Both of you."
"What?" The said at the same time and looked at each other.
"Y'all are spending your summer break in Nashville.
"What? Oh my goodness!" Cassadee screamed and started to cry. "Is this real?" She looked at her parents.
They nodded.
She ran to them and hugged them. "Thank you so, SO much!"
"Cassadee, can you show Brooklyn the guest rooms? You can fight out together who gets which one or maybe you want to share a room. Then we're going to make tea."
"Okay, aunt Karen!" Cassadee started to giggle and took Brooklyn to the second floor.
"So here is Jimi and Karen's bedroom. It's really fancy, and here's Elijah's. It's even bigger than my living room. The bathroom is on your left side. Jimi and Kiki have one for their own. Here is Karen's room where she paints and all and Jimi's own room is against it. And after almost a five mile walk, we arrive at the guest rooms. Sorry for the lame smile on my face, I'm just so happy!"
"It's fine." Brooklyn laughed. "Do you mind if we share a room? Maybe just for a couple of days. This house is so big, it's kinda scary."
"Of course not! If I'm right this one has two beds." Cassadee opened the first door on her left. "Yep. Which bed do you want? Window or door?"
"Window?"
"Good. Because I have to go to the bathroom a lot at night."
The girls had to laugh and start unpacking their suitcases.
"I'm just leaving everything in it." Cassadee closed her suitcase again and pushed it under the bed. She saw something interesting sticking out of Brooklyn's suitcase.
"Hey, what's that?" She grabbed it carefully and saw that it were a bunch of Grand Ole Opry posters. She looked at the acts. Little Big Town. Little Big Town. Another one from Little Big Town. Miranda Lambert twice and Blake Shelton.
"Oh my God." They said at the same time.
"I'm a big LBT fan, please don't tell Jimi and Karen, I don't want them to know that I used to fill my days with watching their concert videos on YouTube. They'll think I'm a freak! I didn't know that I'm related to them, I didn't even know who my father was until two days ago. Please Cassadee." Brooklyn totally freaked out and started to cry.
"Girl, relax! I won't tell anything if you don't want to. I'm a big fan of them too and I do spend all my free time on YouTube to watch their videos. It's not weird at all. Plus, you're even cooler because you love Blake and Miranda too. How did you got these posters? I'm so freakin' jealous of you!"
"My mom had a friend who worked at the Opry. He shipped those to us."
"Lucky duck!"
"Girls? You didn't took my 'fight out who gets which room' -thing too serious, I may hope?" Karen's voice.
"We're coming!" Brooklyn shouted.
Cassadee gave the posters back and hid them under a bunch of shirts.
The two started to giggle.
"These weeks are going to be crazy!"
"Slow down, Cass."
"I'm sorry aunt Kiki I'm just so excited." She turned to Brooklyn. "I can't wait until you meet my best friend. Bailey is da bomb and likes the same things as us."
"And she is as crazy as Cassadee."
"Yep!"
"Look at them babe," Jimi nodded to the girls who sat on the table reading a magazine. "they look like mini you's."
"Both dark hair and the same face, yeah you're right." Κaren said. "This is one of the less times that I agree with you."
"What? You can't compare me to Karen! She is so beautiful and I'm so not." Brooklyn shouted.
"Hey, don't you dare to say that!"
"Cass? Kitchen? Now?" Jimi whispered.
Cassadee nodded and rushed into the kitchen with Jimi.
"Don't say that you're ugly because you are not." Karen walked to her niece and grabbed her hands. Her bracelets moved and something appeared. Three little scars in her wrist.
Karen looked up and her eyes filled with tears. "Why?"
"I was unhappy. People at school were mean." She stood up and gave her aunt a hug. "Why are you so nice for me?"
''Because we are family.''
"How am I supossed to survive this?" Brooklyn whispered. She had talked a lot with Karen earlier that evening and had moved to the front porch. Now she sat there with Cassadee and were drinking sweet tea. "Together with Jimi, Karen, Phillip, Rebecca and Penelopi at one table. I know these people from the Internet and now they are real humans. I'm going to die I think."
"Die after the dinner. No, after you also met Kimberly."
"Kimberly. Oh my, how is she?"
"Kimberly is an angel."
At that moment they heard doors going open and a wild scream.
"Cassadee it has been two days and four hours since I saw you, I missed you!" Bailey ran to Cassadee and jumped in her arms.
"Can I jump into your arms?"
Brooklyn looked down and saw Penelopi standing next to her. "Of course."
The two started to giggle and at that moment Phillip and Rebecca walked onto the front porch.
"Aha, making new friends P." Rebecca laughed. "I'm Rebecca Sweet." She said to Brooklyn.
"Phillip Sweet, nice to meet you."
"Brooklyn Bassett, it's also nice to meet you."
"I'm Bailey Sparks, by the way. Sorry for the drama."
"It's fine." Brooklyn laughed.
"I heard a lot of noise and that means one thing: Bailey is nearby." Jimi walked out of the house and waved to the others.
"Right behind you, loser."
Jimi turned around and the two gave each other a high five.
"Everybody's here, how wonderful. Shall we eat on the front porch?" Karen asked.
"Yeah, the girls 'round here they all deserve a whistle. Shakin' that sugar, sweet as Dixie crystel."
The four girls and Elijah found a spot on the field where they could sit down and jam with the guitars. They found out that they all play instruments. Bailey piano, Cassadee guitar and Brooklyn plays both.
"Pianos makes me wanna slam my guitar through a window. The only keys I like are the keys of a truck and the ones on my iMac." Cassadee explained.
"You write, right?" Brooklyn asked.
"She does, it's lame." Bailey said.
"Cassadee once wrote a story for my birthday! I was a princess and had my own unicorn." Penelopi giggled.
"That's so sweet."
"You can have your own unicorn-princess story too if you want." Cassadee threw a candy cane to Brooklyn.
"What's going on with candy canes in this house? I opened a kitchendoor earlier today and it was filled with candy canes."
"Jimi's obsessed with them.''
"I like candy canes too. Only the pink ones." Penelopi crawled to Bailey to steal her pink candy cane.
"How are things going here?"
The girls looked up and saw Phillip standing next to them.
"Good."
"How do you find Nashville, Brooklyn?"
"It's like Heaven. I always dreamed about being here and I finally am."
"You're a brave girl, you know that."
"Not really." She lifted up her shoulders. "But thanks."
"If you still can stand Bailey after this night you should come over to our place a time. We have extra beds too." He winked, stole a candy cane and walked away.
Jimi and Karen really tried their best to make Brooklyn feel welcome into their lives and it worked. She wasn't shy anymore and always had a smile on her face, except when the night came because then she became more quiet and looked a bit sad.
"So how's life with three kids?" Jimi asked one morning. He rolled over to Karen's side of the bed.
"It's fun and exhausting. But you're still the most annoying one of them all." She squeezed in her husbands nose and rolled out of bed. "Duty's calling."
"Another duty is calling too."
"The kids need food, hun."
"I mean laying back down and cuddle with me. The latest weeks you're already out of bed before I wake up."
"Later today, okay?"
"Will never happen anyway."
"Probably."
Three weeks flew by. Days filled with Fairchild family members coming over and travelling through the country to perform at county fairs.
Brooklyn had never been on the road before or even went to a concert so she had the time of her life.
''I wanna stage dive.'' Bailey said. She sat on the floor backstage behind a big box, looking over the crowd. Now and then, she threw a bottle of water to Johnny. ''Do you think my parents allow me to drop out of school so this can be my full-time job? Throwing bottles to Johnny D?''
''I don't care what your parents think but I don't allow you to do that!'' Cassadee hit Bailey on the head with an empty bottle.
After the show, she realized something very important. She had been walking over the venue for over an half an hour trying to find her aunt. Cassadee found Karen laying in the field with a corndog in her hand.
''Hey aunt Karen, what are you doing here?'' She sat down next to her aunt.
''Oh hey honey.'' Karen took her sunglasses off and got up. ''Just chillin'.'' Her sunglasses fell back on her nose and she made a peace-sign with her hand and a duck face.
It made Cassadee laugh.
''But, that's why I'm here, I'm wondering what's going to happen to Brooke after the summer break. Bae thinks that she is going to Georgia with us, but I'm not sure. Ya know, uncle Kerry and aunt Lilly problems...''
''Well, we're talking about this a lot too and it seems like Kerry and Lilly are going to try it and otherwise she's going to mom and dad. But I find it bullshit, it's Kerry's daughter and he didn't even cheated on her. It's shocking, but nothing to be furious about. Maybe a bit mad but yeah, that's my thought about it. What do you want?''
''Stay here with you, uncle Jimi and Elijah.''
''Aw, girlie.''
''I just want to stay.'' Cassadee crawled over to Karen and gave her a hug.
The end of the summer break came closer and closer and Cassadee slowly turned into an emotional wreck who was complaining about not wanting to go back to Georgia all the time.
''I hate Georgia, I just want to walk over to this house and not planning a whole vacation for it.''
''Cassadee, stop complaining. I invited you and Elijah to come over to watch a movie, not to hear that annoying voice of you all the time. Haven't your parents thought you to hush hush during a movie?''
''But aren't you sad then?''
''Of course I am. Especially because I have to miss this boo,'' She squeezed in Penelopi's hand who laid in her lap. ''but I enjoy every second that I have left here.''
Jimi and Karen had told Brooklyn about her new home for the new school year. Kerry, Lilly and Delta also had come over to get to know Brooklyn better. They had done some things together like going out for dinner and visiting a zoo.
One night Cassadee came back from her 2 am toilet visit, Brooklyn was sniffing a lot.
''Brooke, are you crying or getting sick?''
No reply.
She walked over to Brooklyn's bed and took a seat on it/
''You're crying, what's going on?''
''I'm scared for the big change.'' she cried. ''Living with a man who is my dad and his new family? That's just weird. I'm going to miss Nashville a lot. Jimi and Karen, who are so nice to me. And I miss my mom.''
''Oh Brooke.''
''Why will you miss Jimi and Karen a lot, by the way? I hear you talking about it like every hour.''
''Just memories. When I was younger my parents used to drop me and Matthew off at uncle Mark and aunt Karen's place almost all the time because they work a lot. Being at their house was always a party. I mean, who else wakes you up at 1 am in the night with loud music and cookies to party and dance? Not my mom.''
''Karen really did that?''
Cassadee nodded. ''If Matt was nervous for a test, or just randomly to cheer us up. She was like the a grandmother, you enter the house skinny and walk out being a fatty. She was always baking. But then she divorced and married uncle Jimi and the fun was over. We couldn't come over a lot anymore because they were becoming big and were on the road all the time.
"That sucks."
"Look at us, both crying."
The two girls started to laugh.
"Ya know, I was always day dreaming about going to a party and that Jimi and Karen would pick me up because the others were mean to me. Stupid right?"
"It's not, it's sweet. It could happen for real, both absolutely hate bullying. I'm sorry that it happened to you."
''How do y-"
"Karen."
There was a long silence.
"People tease me too, but no one knows it. Not even Bailey."
"What? Why would people tease you? You're pretty freakin' amazeballs awesome!"
"Well, they don't think so."
"They suck."
"Hey, but uncle Kerry lives fifteen minutes away from my house, Bae thinks that they're going to send you to our school. Maybe we end up in a class together. Trouble's even better in three's!"
"I hope so. In all those years I never made any friends by my own."
"God has a plan for you. For all of us." Cassadee smiled to her niece.
"Is Kimberly coming over too?"
Karen nodded.
"Kimberly is coming too!" Cassadee screamed and ran to the living room. Three screams followed after that.
"Teenage girls." Karen had to laugh and walked to the dinner table with plates.
"How am I going to survive this?" Karen heard Brooklyn say. "Together with Jimi, Karen, Phillip, Rebecca, Schlap, Kimberly, Penelopi, Daisy and Elijah at one table! I know those people from the Internet and now it's all real. RIP me." She had said a thing like that too a few weeks ago when she first met the Sweets.
"What's that smile on your face, aunt Karen?" Bailey laughed.
"It just makes me happy to see you three happy. The smile is creepy right?"
The three nodded.
"Stupid bitches." Karen giggeled and walked back to the kitchen. She almost tripped over her own feet.
"Already tipsy?"
"Hell yes!'' Karen screamed back from the kitchen.
''Let's cheer on that." Bailey raised her glass. "How old are you actually, Brooke? Cassadee is drinking illigal, she turns sixteen in September. What a loser."
"September is my month too. The twenty-eighth..."
"Karen's birthday?"
"Check out my passport. It's actually funny that uncle Jimi and aunt Karen let us drink." Brooklyn giggled.
''Don't tell my mom, she's going to kill Karen first, and then me! But if we were German, we would drink legally." Cassadee said. "Sixteen."
"Yeah, I would but not you two." She kept quiet for a second. "Who cares, we're German. Cheers y'all, on our friendship."