We are the Hamilton

Chapter 16- vocal rest

Alex's POV:

The ham fam and I were all at Lafs house. He doesn't have any siblings that live with him and his mom usually leaves us alone, we basically have the house to ourselves. On top of all that, Laf convinced his mom to let us turn his basement into a hang out zone. In the few months we have all lived in Pennsylvania, we have added a ping pong table, a foosball table, a few couches, a refrigerator, a pantry type thing, and a tv all with our own money. We found black lights on Amazon and we replaced the celling lights with the black ones. We only have led lights on the walls that give off "normal" light. There is no carpet in the basement so we all have a pair of roller skates or rollerblades that we keep in a cubby near the stairs. We all painted the walls light gray and the ceiling blue. Eliza added a black board on the back wall and painted birds and butterflies on the blue ceiling. We are still adding to this huge basement, but for a few months, we have done a lot.

Eliza was painting the cubby we keep the roller skates in a neon green that apparently glows in black light, Angie was sitting on the couch with her phone and a notepad and pencil, Laf and Hurc were playing ping pong, I was painting the coffee table a neon orange that glows in black light near the couch Angie was sitting at, And John and Peggy were painting the bathroom walls black.

"I'm sorry, say it again?" I said to Angie. She showed me her notepad that said 'I'm on vocal rest' in big block letters. "What the hell is vocal rest?" I asked. "It's where you can't talk at all so on opening night for the musical shes in she can keep her voice and be able to sing." Eliza said. 'Vocal rest is really annoying' Angie wrote down. "Angie say nothing if you think I should attach Cannelle to my bike and take her down a hill." "ALEX!" Eliza stood up and brushed the green paint on my face. "You are not doing that to my baby." Laf said, not looking away from Hurc. "Marie-Joseph! Cannelle veut entrer au sous-sol. Venez la chercher et faites-la descendre au sous-sol avec vos amis!" Laf's mom yelled from upstairs. "Maman! J'ai déjà dit que je voulais m'appeler Laf!" Laf yelled and set his paddle down. He ran up the stairs. I looked up at Eliza, her being one of the only ones in the basement that can speak French fluently. "Cannelle wants to come in the basement and Laf wants to be called Laf and not Marie-Joseph." Eliza loosely translated. Eliza put her paint brush back in the can of paint. She rubbed the green paint off of her hands onto a hand towel that was on the ground.

Laf came down the stairs with Cannelle. He set her on the ground and Cannelle ran over to Angie. When Cannelle is in the house they don't keep her wheelchair on her, they just let her drag her back legs around. "Come here Nelly." Eliza said as she clapped her hands to get the dogs attention. Cannelle snapped her head over to Eliza and ran over to her. Liz scooped her up and held her like a baby. "Hold on its way too quiet, where the hell is Maria?" Hurc asked. Peggy and John walked out of the bathroom. "Oh my god, where is she?" I asked. "Gosh." Peggy corrected me. "What?" "Did Annleigh finally get to you?" Eliza asked. "Who's Annleigh?" I took a chip from the bag that was next to Angie. "Annleigh. How is that spelled? It sounds like some crazy rich girl." Hurc said. "Especially if it's spelled-" "A-N-N-L-E-I-G-H" "Spelled like that. Especially if it's spelled like that." I finished my sentence. "Okay but who is she?" John asked. "One of our Cheer friends." Eliza said and she started rocking Nelly like a baby.

'Betsy she's a dog, not a baby' Angie wrote down on her notepad. "I flipping know that." Eliza stoped rocking the dog. "Laf get you ass over here and let me beat you in this stupid game." Hurc said and threw the neon blue paddle at Laf. "Non I want the bright pink one." Hurc and Laf changed paddles and they continued to play. Peggy tuned off the led lights and John flicked on the black lights. The cubby, parts of the ping pong table and the paddles, the coffee table, and our clothing started to glow. This is Angies first time ever seeing the black lights, she was always too busy with rehearsal or learning lines to come over. "Whoa." Angie immediately put her hands over her mouth. 'Istg if my director finds out i said anything i'm going to kill you all' Angie wrote down on her notepad. "We aren't going to tell anyone." I said.