Abigail | Putri Marin

Chapter 17

   Everyone was now wide awake as it is 08:30 in the morning. The kids were already at the dining table having bread as breakfast as the male adults -except Petra- are still asleep. We were planning on waiting for them to wake up until 9 a.m. before waking them up since they do look pretty tired from yesterday's hike. "So what are you kids planning to do for the project?", Aunt Erika asks as she takes a sip of her tea. She's playing chess once again with Mother after they had made breakfast.

   "Well I was planning on showing them my book that I've been working on.", Ruth reply as she observe them playing, "You can kill the horse.", Ruth Aunt Erika as she smile in victory with Ruth on her side. "Checkmate.", She said as Mother tries to save her king. "I'm going to show my comic!", William said excitedly as he bite off of his bread. "I'm going to sing!", Michael said as he went to the piano and sat next to Sharen who is practicing. "Well I'm going to play the piano.", Sharen said, "So am I! May the best pianist win.", Joshua said feeling confident in his piano skills.

   "What about you Abby?", Aunt Erika asks as she was winning the game and Mother was trying to find a way to come back at her. "Well I was going to show them this experiment I've been working on.", I said casually and everyone seemed to stop what they're doing. Sharen stopped playing the piano and both Aunt Erika and Mother were looking at me confused and the boys were just doing what they were doing while Ruth was staring at me in shock. "What experiment? This is new, I thought you were going to write a book as well or something else.", Ruth said as she wonder what has gotten to her cousin's mind and what was her plan.

   "Well I don't want to go too deep this year and I was planning my project very last minute so I decided to plant some carrots and write an observation about it.", I explain as I shrug my shoulders. Everyone seemed to start what they're doing once again after my explanation as Sharen looked back in the direction of her piano and start playing once again and Aunt Erika check Mother's king once again. "Now I understand why you ask for those seeds. Well why do you want to do the experiment dear?", Mother said as she's getting used to being checked and seemed to find a way to get out of that situation.

   Now it was Mother's turn to check Aunt Erika's queen, "Well our carrots have been missing these past weeks so I was thinking of making one so if an animal ever ate ours, we'll have backup stacks of carrots.", I explain once again as I wink to Ruth and realization hits her face. Aunt Erika had now won the chess game and Mother had to clean the chessboard as the loser had to do. "Well, that's really thoughtful of you Abby.", Mother said giving me a warm smile, and I can't help but return the smile.

   Aunt Erika got up and said, "Good game.", with a smirk she walked over to the stairs. "It's time to wake them up.", Aunt Erika sigh before climbing up the stairs. "Prepare your presentation kids.", Mother inform before putting the chess where it belong and we all put the dirty dishes away cleaning our own plates. Afterward, we went outside and stand still in our own stands the adults had made the night before for us to present our project. Everyone except for me was getting ready, preparing their papers, and everything else they need while for me I'm just resting my elbows on the stand waiting for the judges to come.

   The adults had come out of the house and tiredness was still visible on their faces but they seemed excited announcing the start of the summer camp project this year, "Hello! And welcome kids to this year summer camp project!", Father announce and everyone starts clapping cheering for him. He smiled at all of us before continuing his words, "I hope this year every one of you came up with a unique project that represent yourself and what you're passionate about!", He paused, "Now let us start hearing your projects! Don't worry we have the whole day to listen to your creativity and ideas.", Father announce one last time before start the judges -Petra, Uncle Samuel, and Mother- start judging every contestant.

   "First let's start off with you! Yeah, you! What's your name little girl?", Father said sarcastically to Sharen as she is the first contestant. "Oh my! My name is Sharen and I'm so grateful to be here! Did you seem familiar? You remind me of my Father!", Sharen replied giving the same vibe Father was giving her. "Well, you remind me of my daughter! Now let's see your project." One after one everyone's project was being judged and it was my turn, the last one since I did pick the very last stand.

   "Abigal! Nice to see you after winning the summer camp project last year!", Father said smiling at me seeming to be very proud of my accomplishment last year. I grin back awkwardly, "Nice to see you too!", I said with the same excitement this is going to be hard to look at, I thought as I did not put as much effort into my project this year. "Now as I see it you do not have any product on your stand, do you perhaps want to show the judges something?", "Yes! If you just came right here.", I said as I escort them to my little plant area.

   I explain to them about my project and Father and Uncles -because they were not in breakfast- seemed to be shocked at what I did because planting was never my passion. But I explained it's because I wanted another new hobby and because some animals had been eating our carrots. The judges -and by that I mean my Father- seemed to understand a little bit more of the purpose of my project, At the end of the day, everyone did get a badge for every category they had. We spend the rest of the day just hanging out inside the house since it rained after the summer camp project.