Never Forget

Chapter 7 (Krista)

This house is huge. The kitchen is as big as my entire apartment. J told me that the Andersons were one of the better off families in his church. They had a 5 bedroom house. With three bathrooms. One downstairs and two upstairs. Downstairs had a large kitchen, a formal dining room, a formal living room and a family room. Upstairs was all the bedrooms and they had a loft. They had one son, Levi, and were in the process of adopting a little girl named Tanya.

They had a large backyard and that's where the party was going on. There was a huge blue and red bounce house and baloons everywhere. They had a face painter and someone who did balloon animals. There was also a long table that had bowls filled with candy, two large cupcake stands filled with colorful cupcakes and a big cake that said "Happy Birthday Levi" on it. It was amazing.

J led me toward the table with food on it and asked me if I wanted anything. They had hot dogs and hamburgers. I asked him for a hot dog and an orange soda. We sat down at a table on the large patio. "Before you start eating I want to introduce you to someone."
"Okay." I say. He gets up and goes over to a guy that I noticed walk in a couple of minutes ago. They walk over. "Ricky, this is Krista. Krista, this is my little brother Ricky." Ricky was about a half inch shorter than Joshua. He had the same green eyes as J but other than that, they didn't look alike. Ricky ' shoulders weren't as broad as J's and his hair was a lighter brown that his brother's. "Hi" I say and I smile brightly. "Hey" Ricky says. "Dude, she's so out of your league" He says, not even trying to hide it. J rolls his eyes "Okay Rick, you can go be a jerk somewhere else now." J says. Ricky shrugs his shoulders and walks away. I chuckle. "Well he's....something." I say. "Yeah. He's a handful. I try my best to lead him down the right path but it's hard. I don't know what's going on with him." He says. "It's just you and him? You guys don't have any sisters?" I ask.
"Nope. Just me and him."
"Well..maybe he just needs a sister figure, a woman's touch you can say."
"Yeah..maybe."

We were eating our food in near silence until a group of small boys approached our table. They looked like little a pack of wolves. The leader of the pack was a red haired boy that was just a little bit taller than the rest of them. He had a paper crown on his head so I inferred that he's the birthday boy.

"We, the people of Levi kingdom challenge you, Joshua, to a dual!" Levi said.
"Oh my." J said
"Are you too chicken to accept the challenge?" One of the kids say.
"I, Joshua of Joshua kindom, am no chicken. I accept your challenge!" He said. The kids ran away laughing. "I'll be back." He said and dashed away to play with the boys.

I sat in silence waiting for him to come back. I was watching him play with the kids. They all had balloons swords and were chasing him around the yard. There was a little girl sitting at the table next to me she looked very shy and she kept glancing over at me. She was about 6-years-old and had short thick brown hair and bright blue eyes. I decided to talk to her.

I walked over to her table. "Hi sweet heart."
She kept looking down and wouldn't look at my face. "Hi." She said. "What's your name?" I asked. "Haley." She said. "I'm Krista."
"Umm you're pretty Krista."
"Thank you Haley. You're beautiful."
She looked up at me and smiled brightly. She took my hand and said "We should get our faces painted."
"Okay. Let's go."
We walked to the face painter hand in hand.
"What do you want painted on your face?" I ask her. "A butterfly." She replied with a smile on her face. "I'll get a butterfly too."

We both got big matching butterflies on our faces. We walked away from the face painter. "I bet we look like sisters" Haley said. "I bet we do." We went back to the patio to find J waiting for us to return. "Well don't you girls look pretty."
"Thank you" I say and blush a little hoping the face paint hides it.
"Krista is beautiful." Haley says and smiles at J.
"She is very beautiful." J says and looks at me. I can't help but look back at him in awe. He is such a great guy.