When Love Takes You In (Jennifer Lawrence)

Family

Genesis' POV

"She fakes left!  She fakes right!  She goes for the basket, and...it's in!  Stella Patterson has beaten her record, making herself the greatest basketball player in the history of ever!" I cheered as I spun my little sister around.  I had her on my shoulders as she carried the ball to the hoop.  It was a warm August 15th evening and it marked one month before my school started.  We had moved into this house at the beginning of summer and I was excited to start fresh in a new town.  I took her off my shoulders and she ran after the ball that had bounced into the grass.

"Sissy!  Let's play chalk!" she called out as she came back with the ball.  "Sounds awesome Stella, I'll go get it." I said as I ran to the garage.  I went to the shelves where we had our outside stuff and got the chalk container.  I pulled it out and ran back to Stella.  I loved my little sister so much.  She turned four right before we moved here and she was really smart for a little kid.  I put the chalk down on the driveway and laid them out.  Stella went for her favorite color, pink, and laid down to start drawing something.  

I picked out my favorite color, purple, and wasn't sure what to draw.  Then I remembered this cool idea I saw on the internet.  I traded my purple for a white piece of chalk and started drawing the outline for a city skyline.  When I finished I told Stella to lay down and go in a superhero pose.  I took out my phone and took a picture of her doing it.  When you looked at the picture it looked like she was soaring over the city.  "It looks so cool Stella." I told her.  "I wanna see." she asked pulling my arm so that she could see the picture too.

"Girls!  Time to come in!" I heard my mom yell.  I looked back to see her standing on the front porch waving for us to come in.  I looked back at the miles of Kentucky that were being lit up by the setting sun.  "Come on guys, hurry up.  Dinner's ready." my dad said as he came out and stood next to my mom.  Everyone said that my mom looked like Kate Hudson and my dad looked like Matt  Damon.  Which I guess could be a compliment.  They were both pretty good actors.

"Coming!" I called out.  I started putting the chalk away with Stella and then we were racing up to the house.  "I gonna beat you!" Stella yelled, as I let her race ahead of me.  I could have easily outrun her.  But being the good big sister I am, I let her win the 'race'.  We all went inside together and I could smell the amazing aroma of my mom's famous and homemade chicken pot pie.  I had to avoid from running to the kitchen.  "Stop right there.  Wash your hands girls." my dad said as we started for the kitchen.  I swiveled back and went to the bathroom with Stella to clean up.

"Sissy, help?" she asked.  I lifted her up to the sink and she washed her hands ans she sang 'Let it Go', her favorite song from her favorite movie, Frozen.  When she was done, I cleaned the chalk dust off of my hands, and then we went back to the kitchen where my mom was pouring two plastic cups of Dr. Pepper.  She handed me the bigger one, and the smaller one to Stella.  She was bouncy enough as is, she didn't need that much sugar!  We sat down and started eating.

"So, Genesis...you ready for fourth grade?  One month." my dad asked me.  I took a deep breath and thought about it.  "Yeah, it'll be cool!" I said excitedly.  "You gonna do cheerleading for Pop Warner?" my mom asked.  She always wanted me to be a cheerleader.  "I don't think so.  I wanna do basketball." I explained.  "Alright, as long as you stick to sports and don't do all that girly stuff.  Like join the Girl Scouts" my dad joked.  "You don't have to worry about that." I said laughing.  I loved all kinds of sports!  I wanted to play football, but my mom said that was a little too rough.   "Sounds like a plan." my mom said as she took a drink of her sweet tea.

We finished dinner and then my dad said, "Who wants to go get ice cream?!" really loudly.  But I don't think his loudness compared to Stella's shouts of "I do!  I do!  I do!".  We then went to the garage and loaded into our car.  My dad drove and played the radio as we went into town.  We all loved music, so we sang to Taylor Swift's '22' as we came into town.  We pulled up to the local Dairy Queen and filed out.  We went in and ordered all our favorites.  I got a strawberry cheesecake blizzard and loved every bite of it.

"How about a movie night?" my mom asked as we were halfway home.  Stella almost spit out some of her ice cream as she yelled "Frozen!".  My dad gave a little groan as he asked, "Stell', can we watch something else?  We've watched 'Frozen' the past five movie nights."  MY mom and I chimed in with, "Yeah Stella, is there a different movie we could watch?"  Stella tapped her chin in a way that she had seen my dad do a million times.  He was an author so it was common for him to come up with ideas that way.

"How about 101 Dalmatians?" my mom asked.  The girly part of me squealed in my head.  I loved that movie, ever since I was Stella's age.  Mostly because we fostered a Dalmatian puppy when I was six and Stella was two.  "Yeah!" Stella yelled.  We got home and my mom set up the living room while Stella and I got into our pajamas.  I had a gray oversized t-shirt that said 'Gosh, being a princess is exhausting!' and black, fuzzy, pajama pants.  I came into the living room and my dad had spread hundreds of pillows and blankets, with like three big bowls of popcorn out!

We all cuddled up to watch the movie and had another one of our greatest family nights ever.

***

Jen's POV

"Hey Momma!" I squealed as I ran up the driveway from my car.  "Hey baby girl!" she said as we threw our arms around each other.  "Be quiet coming in, Ben's got the baby sleeping." she warned as I pulled my suitcase up to the door.  "Alright." I whispered as I came in.  I smiled as I saw my dad, two brothers, and Ben's wife sitting on the couch.  My brothers come running up and Blaine puts me in a head lock while Ben gives me a noogie.  "Some things never change, do they?" I asked as I struggled to get away.

"Happy birthday sis." they said as I was released.  I punch them both in the shoulder and said, "That's what you get, dirtbags.  Hey Sarah." I said as I made my way over to the couch.  "Happy Birthday sweetie." my dad said as he pulled me into a hug.  "Yeah, happy birthday Jen." Sarah said as we hugged.  "I'm sorry I couldn't come in sooner.  Flight was delayed and all that." I apologized.  "It's okay.  We didn't touch your party stuff so we'll just party tonight!" Blaine said nudging Ben to get him just as excited.

"Not too loud.  You wake that baby, you will be the one getting him back to sleep." Sarah warned.  I knew my nephew Cody all too well, and was smart enough not to wake him up.  Otherwise, it would be hours before he went back to sleep.  "Then let's party!  Quietly." I said.  My mother covered a laugh and we went to the kitchen.  "We were gonna wait to eat with you, but you took too long." my dad said as I looked at the half eaten pizza .  "Hey!  A pizza's a pizza!" I said as I lifted a piece and ate it within about a minute.

We went back to the living room and got to talking.  "So anything new happen while I was gone?" I asked.  "Actually, yes.  A new family moved in down the street.  We haven't met them personally yet, but I think there is the husband and wife, then the have two girls." my mom said.  "Sounds cool!" I said excitedly.  I loved meeting new people, and let's be honest...how doesn't wanna meet Jennifer freaking Lawrence?  "So how's filming?" Sarah asked.  "Good, we just got done with Catching Fire.  Premiers start up in November.  Pretty excited!" I said smiling.  We talked for another hour and a half, before I noticed a strange change in my dad's demeanor.  

"Dad?  What's going on?" I asked.  "Something isn't right..." he said as he got up and went to go look at the window.  He gasped and yelled, "Someone call 911!"  "Dad, what is it!?" I asked as I got our home phone.  "That family we told you about...it's their house.  It's on fire!" he said.  As I dialed the number, all I could think about was that husband and wife and their two little girls.  "God, please get them out safely.  I handed the phone to my mom as I raced out the door with my dad and brothers.  "Jen!  Jen, come back!" my mom called after.  I wasn't listening though.  If that family needed help, I wasn't going to let them go up in flames.