Life in the Grump House

Part 16

Joy

We came back to the Grump Space to see everyone asleep. Mom sighed but smiled as she went over to Dad. Dad was curled up in a bean bag chair, his legs in his arms in a fedal position. Mom gently leaned over and kissed Dad on the forehead.

"C'mon Ross, time to get up," Mom whispered in his ear as she ran her fingers through his hair. Dad reluctantly opened his eyes to see Mom standing over him. He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but it only half worked.

"Hey Holly, what time is it?" Dad said slowly.

"About five I think," Mom said as she went over to Brian.

"Five? Man that was a two hour nap," Dad mumbled. Mom woke up Brian and Barry next, then Gabriel gently woke up Danny. Finally Mom went over to Suzy and Arin to wake them. Arin didn't want to wake up, but when Suzy saw Jack Jack and Gracie her eyes lit up.

"Hey kids, did you have fun?" Suzy said as she shook Arin awake gently.

"Yeah! Collie is so cute," Jack Jack said. I smiled as I went over to Matty. Matty and Audrey were asleep on the floor so I shook Audrey awake and hushed her with a wink. Audrey smiled and did her best to get out from under Matty as I looked at him.

"Matthew? Matthew you gotta get up now," I said sweetly. Matty opened his eyes barely as he glanced a tired look at me.

"Five more minutes," Matty mumbled as he tried to lean on Audrey. Problem was, Audrey had moved out from under him so Matty ended up just falling on the floor. It jolted Matty awake as I giggled at him and stood up to walk away. Audrey laughed as she helped Matty up and gave him a look.

"Well I'd say it's time for everyone to go home, since it's a day off and all," Mom said with a smile.

No one objected as we all got our stuff together and drove to our homes.

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The next day Mom thought it would be a good idea for the "Girls of the Grumps" to hang out for the day. We picked up Suzy, Gracie, and Audrey and went to a local day spa. Gracie seemed a little hesitant with it, but I think me being there helped her a lot.

"Hello ladies, what did you have in mind for today?" The receptionist asked as we walked in.

"We want nails and hair please," Suzy said.

The receptionist smiled and brought us around to some chairs where we could sit and relax as we people came over to us. Suzy was placed at the far left, then Gracie, then me, then Mom, the finally Audrey at the far right. They all asked us what we wanted, then left to get their supplies. when they came back the tub at the base of our feet began to fill up until it was half way up our calves. Gracie seemed unimpressed by it all but once they began to massage and clean her feet she relaxed into it.

"See hon? I told you that you would like it," Suzy said with a smile. Gracie smiled back as she stole a glance at me.

"So you said they're doing our hair too, right?" Gracie said.

"Yeah they can cut it or style it or----" Suzy began.

"Can they dye it?" Gracie said suddenly.

"You wanna dye your hair?" Suzy said, her eyes glowing.

"If that's okay, I'm eleven I like to think I'm old enough. We are starting middle school soon," Gracie said.

"What did you have in mind?" Suzy said.

"I my hair dyed the same color that you and Dad have, with like the ombre style," Gracie said. Suzy sat silent for a second before glancing at Mom.

"It's fine with me, but let me text your Dad and see if he is okay with it. I can't imagine him not being okay with it though," Suzy said as she began to text Arin.

Gracie wiggled in her seat at the thought of dyeing her hair as she looked at me again, "you should dye your hair too!"

I blinked and reached for my hair subconsciously. It was starting to get darker so it wasn't almost white anymore, but it was still a platinum blonde, it just favored gold more then white now.

"Do you want to honey? You can if you want," Mom said.

"Uh. Okay, then I my under layered hair dyed, I don't know what to call it," I said and tried to show them what I wanted.

"Oh that sounds beautiful Joy! Just let me text Dad and tell him, like Arin I don't think he would mind but still," Mom said and rubbed my arm.

"Don't tell Matthew, I want to see his face," I said with a smile. Mom giggled and nodded in agreement as the people came back. We told them we wanted to dye our hair and picked out the color we wanted. When they finished Gracie was practically jumping up and down from excitement. Gracie got a hold of the mirror and a big smile krept across her face. I got the mirror next, and my eyes lit up when I saw myself.

"Wow Joy, that looks really pretty, maybe I should try that color," Mom said. We finished and walked out with instructions to not wash our hair for a few days, but since Mom and Suzy had dyed their hair multiple times before, they knew the drill.

"Well the guys are still holding Arin down to watch Lord of the Rings so what should we do now?" Suzy said.

"Lord of the Rings? They'll be there all day," Audrey said with a laugh.

"I know, I think they're only on the second movie, and they still have The Hobbit," Suzy laughed.

So we walked around the local park.

"Hey look, that's the playground Matthew and I used to play in when we were little," I said casually.

"Oh yeah, you guys used to love it there," Mom said.

"What changed? You're talking like something happened," Gracie said.

"Oh, this kid pushed me off the slide and Matthew beat him up," I said.

"Woah really? Why didn't I hear about this?" Suzy said.

"Oh it was terrible, Ross barely got Matthew off that kid. We exchanged apologies and all but still," Mom said.

"Wow. Hey at least now you know that Matthew will protect you huh?" Suzy said and patted me on the back.

"Yeah, I know he will," I said with a smile.