Finally Home

51. Samantha

Uncle Brendon made me lay on the couch a little longer to make sure I was rested. He brought over my breakfast and we ate in the TV room together.

"I'm going to let Pete and Patrick know we're going to head out a little later than planned. We'll meet them for lunch, okay?"

"Okay," I said.

"Maybe try to nap a little? We've got a couple of hours."

I shrugged.

Aunt Sarah still had my head in her lap and she was running her fingers through my hair. It was really relaxing and I think it helped me fall asleep.

When I woke up, Aunt Sarah had gotten up and put a pillow under my head.

I sat up and looked around. Bogart was curled up on the floor beside me, and Uncle Brendon was sitting on the couch, on his phone.

"Hey there, blue eyes," he smiled at me. "Good nap? How do you feel?"

"Better," I said. "I guess I needed that nap."

"I would say so! You slept for two hours. If you're feeling ready, we can get going."

I sat up first, to make sure I felt stable, then stood up. Uncle Brendon stood with me and put his hand near my elbow in case he needed to catch me. I was fine. I smiled at him in thanks.

"Good to go?" He asked. I nodded.

He went upstairs to get Aunt Sarah and I went upstairs to get my backpack, wallet, and then in the kitchen, I grabbed a coolpak and some insulin.

We were all ready in a few minutes. I grabbed my crutch because we'd be doing a lot of walking and so I'd probably need it.

Uncle Brendon unlocked the car, and we piled in. The drive was nice. Uncle B showed me some of the sights as we headed towards the coast.

When we found parking at the Pier, we hopped out of the car and walked over to where they'd agreed to meet Uncles Pete and Patrick.

They saw us before we saw them and before I knew it, Uncle Pete was lifting me up and twirling me around.

"Hello there my favourite Samantha!" He cried.

"Hello my favourite Uncle Pete!" I replied.

Uncle Patrick came over and gave me a hug, too.

"How're you feeling? Brendon said you had a seizure?" He asked.

"Yeah. I haven't had one in over a year. So that really sucked," I said.

Once we got all that unpleasantness out of the way, we went to find lunch, because for one I needed to eat and two, Uncle Pete was already complaining that he was hungry.

We went to a seafood restaurant at the pier and just sat and chatted. I caught Uncles Pete and Patrick up on school, basketball, my injury, the accident, which obviously they knew about, and how Dad and I were doing. They asked how Mom was feeling with the new baby coming and I told them I was excited and kind of hoping for a brother, but healthy was the most important.

After lunch, we went and walked along the pier, looked in some of the shops and then went and walked along the streets near the pier. I found a few things I thought would be cute on Rosie and I knew I had after Christmas to find more stuff for her.

It was so weird seeing Christmas decorations on palm trees. I took pictures because it was so unreal to me. Uncle Brendon laughed.

I'd commented on the first morning that his Christmas tree, as beautiful as it is, looked so out of place in California.

After a couple of hours, we stopped in an ice cream shop and had a snack. We wandered around a little more and then Uncle Pete suggested heading over to his place for dinner. He said he could introduce me to his kids, and show me his house.

We got into our cars and Uncle Brendon drove to Uncle Pete's. He lives in Beverly Hills! So I got to see the famous sign.

Uncle Pete's house is bigger than Uncle Brendon's, but it's also really nice. His girlfriend, Meagan, who I've met a couple of times, came and said hello and gave me a hug.

"You are getting so tall!" She smiled at me. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright," I smiled. "Thanks."

Uncle Pete introduced me to his sons, Bronx and Saint, and his daughter, Marvel, who's a bit older than Rosie.

They were all really nice kids and very polite. Saint wanted me to play X-box with him. Bronx wanted me to swim and Marvel wanted me to color with her.

"How about, Samantha relaxes for a little?" Uncle Pete said.

The kids shrugged and went off to do their own thing.

Uncle Pete showed me around his house and Meagan asked me about school and stuff.

Uncle Pete said they were going to barbecue, and that he had a little surprise for me.

I offered to help, but Meagan said I'm a guest, so no.

I did wind up playing some X-box with Saint and I coloured a bit with Marvel, but I hadn't brought a swimsuit, so I couldn't swim with Bronx, but I did sit by the side of the pool while he floated around in the pool.

"Why do you have a crutch?" He asked.

"I was in an accident in October and broke my femur. I need the crutch when I do a lot of walking because my leg tires out. But it's getting better," I said. "I can walk without it until my leg tires out."

"Why do you have so many scars on your legs?" He asked.

"Bronx!" Uncle Pete admonished him.

"What?!" He asked.

"Not everything is your business!"

"It's okay," I said.

"I broke my ankle playing basketball at the start of October, so that's that scar," I said, pointing to my ankle. "And I had surgery for that as well as for my broken femur, so that's the scar that goes from my knee to my thigh. And these smaller scars are because my blood sugar tanked so bad once I literally crashed through my shower door and the glass cut me. Everywhere."

"Ouch," Bronx said.

I smiled.

"Yeah. Ouch indeed."

I had a great night at Uncle Pete's. His surprise was that Joe and Andy came over for dinner, too, and I got an impromptu Fall Out Boy concert on Christmas Eve.

They even gave me a few Christmas presents. Some Fall Out Boy shirts and hoodies, tour memorabilia from their last tour. Stuff like that. It was very cool. I was really looking forward to their concert on Friday.

Eventually, we had to leave. Uncle Pete's kids had to get to bed, and so did I. Uncle Brendon and Aunt Sarah and I said goodbye and we went home.

I climbed happily into bed, excited to celebrate Christmas with Uncle B and Aunt Sarah.