JASMINE'S POV
The car on the driveway goes off, a sign that mom and dad are back from grocery shopping and it's currently 11am. Dad bursts in with so much bags which makes me wonder if he robbed the store.
Mum walks in behind him, I could barely see her face with all the grocery bags she was holding. She drops all the bags panting slightly.
The front door hasn’t even closed when Mum goes DEFCON 1.
“John lands at 3!” she announces, brandishing a new toilet brush like a sword. “That gives us 4 hours to make this house look like humans live here and not raccoons!”
Jake groans from the couch. “He’s 22, Mom. Not the Pope.”
“He’s my firstborn,” she fires back, “and he’s bringing his girlfriend. Girlfriend Jake!” She emphasized very strongly on girlfriend.
Dad lowers the grocery bags he was holding. “He has a girlfriend now?”
“He does Norman. And she's coming over for Christmas !” She carries the remaining groceries bags dad couldn't carry then keeps them in the kitchen and comes back out with ‘The look’
Mom’s on a warpath, she starts pointing around like a general as she dishes out chores left and right.
“Jake, baseboards. I can write my name in the dust. Jayden, your room hasn’t seen a vacuum since Halloween. Jason, Jaxon bathrooms. If I find one more toothpaste meteor on the mirror…”
“We get it!” the twin whine in unison.
“Jeremy.” Mom turns. Jeremy, is already wearing a bike helmet for some reason. “You. No fire. No glitter. No ‘experiments.’ You are on sock patrol . Match every sock in this house or so help me.”
“I’m an agent of chaos, not laundry,” he mutters.
“You’re an agent of clean today mister.”
She looks at me. “Jasmine, you’re the foreman. Dish out duties, keep them alive, and for the love of Christmas, make the living room presentable.”
I salute. “Yes, Commander.”
For 20 minutes, it’s controlled pandemonium. Everyone is running around to get their chore done before mum loses it.
Jake’s grumbling with the Swiffer. Jayden’s dragging trash bags. The twins are having a “who can make the toilet bubble more” contest. I’m shoving Jeremy’s science projects into closets when—
“Oh NO.”
Mom’s voice stops everything. The whole house freezes, soon everyone rushes to the living room.
Dad appears in the doorway to see what's wrong.
“Honey? What happened? Is it the dog again?”
“The TREE!” Mom whispers, horrified. “ Norman Watterson, you forgot the tree. I told you Sunday. I told you yesterday. I even put it on the fridge!”
Dad blinks. “The… ah.” His face does the thing it does whenever he forgets someone's birthday or his wedding anniversary. “In my defense, the fridge is where lists go to die.”
“You said you’d get it after work!”
“I meant to! Then work had that thing, and the thing had a—” Mum cuts him off looking really furious.
“We have no tree Norman!. John is bringing Melissa to a house with no tree!. Last year we had a tree!”.
Mum is right . We HAD a tree but thanks to Jeremy it is sadly no more. I actually do remember it like it was yesterday
YOU ARE READING
GAME ON
AcciónJasmine Watterson has it all figured out. Straight A's. One ride-or-die best friend, Rosie. And six overprotective, chaos-loving brothers who turn every quiet moment into a disaster. Then there's Connor Payne. The name says it all. Leather jacket...
