Cassie's Perfect Vacation

Chapter 6

It was around the evening now, as Clara and I joined our grandparents in the sitting room. Nana had taken off her apron and was sitting at the glass table with Grandpa. I then noticed many decks of cards on the top shelf.

"Would you girls care for a game of 'Snap'?" Nana questioned.

"Um...how's that one go again?" Clara asked quietly.

"We divide the deck of cards between the four of us, and take turns placing cards down face-up," explained Grandpa, "You repeat this until a card matches, you may need to flip the deck over."

"Whoever yells 'Snap' and places their hand over the deck first when this happens gets to keep all the cards and the play continues," added Nana.

"The game is done when only one person has cards left," said Grandpa. Clara and I sat down in the two empty chairs.

"Sounds simple enough," I said. Clara glanced at me. We both knew that with this game, we would get very competitive. Grandpa shuffled the cards and gave us each a fourth of the deck.

"Ready, set, go," said Nana. And it was on. Nana placed down a Jack of Hearts, which was followed by a Three of Spades by Grandpa. I put down a Five of Clubs, and Clara put down a Four of Diamonds. And it just went on for a while, Nana, Grandpa, me, Clara etc....

Just suddenly though, as I put down a Queen of Hearts on top of the Queen of Spades, Clara quickly shoved her hand over the deck of cards.

"SNAP!" she yelled with all her might, "There is no way you can beat me Cassandra Elaine!" My grandparents laughed at Clara's competitiveness with me and I laughed too.

After a few games of 'Snap' the (icebreaker) we felt a bit more comfortable with being here.

"I can't believe you lost that last round, Cassie," said Clara as we grilled some chicken out on the deck and tossed a tortellini salad.

"I know," I said ashamed of myself for losing two games in a row, "By the way Grandpa, do you play cards every evening?"

"Yes," he answered nodding as he flipped the chicken onto a plate, "We play all kinds of different card games."

"So you could teach us some more?" Clara asked interested. After playing 'Snap' Clara and I would be amazed with pretty much any card game.

"Of course," he replied with a smile, "We have all summer." Clara and I beamed as we helped bring the food into the kitchen. We sat there quietly for a few minutes eating dinner.

"It sure is quiet here," I said.

"I like it that way," answered Nana.

"Me too," Clara and I added. After a peaceful dinner of no yelling about things like who slammed that plate on my head or, who ate the last piece of chicken, we helped Grandpa and Nana with the chores.

We each had a job to do, and we had to do it quick enough to repeat it again. Grandpa would wash the dishes and hand one to Clara and me. We would stand aside of the counter, so we wouldn't be in each other's way as we dried the dishes and Grandpa continued to wash them. Clara and I would then hand the dried dishes to Nana who would put them away in the cabinets and the drawers. After this, someone would wipe the table and sweep, quite simple and very different from our house where we would leave the room quickly usually leaving Paul with the chores. Unfortunately now he could use the excuse to run to Marie's house.

"Well, I think it's time for bed," said Nana yawning.

"You two can stay up longer if you would like, but I want you to stay in the guest room, okay?" said Grandpa.

"Sure," I said nodding.

"Good."

"Goodnight Grandpa," Clara and I said, "Goodnight Nana." We marched through the hallway, put our pajamas on from Paul, brushed our teeth, and sat down on our beds.

"Would you read 'HP'?" Clara questioned, "Please?"

I grinned, "Alright." I picked up the 'Harry Potter' book from the nightstand as Clara sat beside me on my bed with a hairbrush and a pink scrunchy. Before I could begin reading or Clara could begin braiding my hair, a noise was heard from outside. Yes, we could hear the waves, but there was a little whistling sound coming from somewhere.

"What was that?" whispered Clara.

"I'm not sure," I replied. I stood up heading for the window, Clara followed me. Outside of the window we could see the deck with the wooden stairs going down to the beach, the sand, and the waves crashing down loudly. But there was also a tall figure walking around slowly in the dark, kicking a soccer ball. He had messy hair it looked like, and he was wearing navy blue bathing suit shorts and a grey tee shirt. How I knew this? I'm pretty sure I have night vision.

Clara looked at me, "I didn't know anyone else lived around this place."

"Well apparently Grandpa and Nana didn't know either," I said, "Unless they were going to mention it later."

"I suppose you're right," said Clara, "What do you think he's doing?" I peered out the window again, this time looking closer. Yep, all he seemed to be doing was kicking a soccer ball, nothing fancy what's so ever.

"Kicking something anyway," I responded continuing to stare. We were quiet for a moment, just looking out the window. Just then, the boy turned his head towards the window.

"Duck!" Clara whispered, grabbing my arm and pulling us both down onto the floor.

"Do you think he saw us?" I wondered aloud.

"Yes, I think he saw," said Clara nervously. We hated being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Me too." Our bedroom door opened and Grandpa walked in slowly.

"Is everything okay in here?"

"Yes."

"Why are you on the floor?" he asked confused. We both stood up speedily, standing away from the window, speaking of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time...

"No reason..." I said quickly. "...Unless you think looking for a hairclip that fell on the floor is a reason," Clara finished. It was a good thing Clara and I stuck with the same kind of story when explaining things like this.

"Well, okay...see you tomorrow," said Grandpa closing the door. As soon as we heard his door close, we peered out the window again.

"He's gone," I said, "Where'd he go?"

Clara shrugged, "We probably shouldn't have been looking out the window anyway, ready to read?"

"Yeah," I answered sitting back down beside Clara. So I began to read, and Clara began to braid my hair.

It was a very relaxing night just reading for a while, but I couldn't help but wonder what that boy was doing on the beach and where he had come from. I knew the beach didn't belong to my grandparents, but did they have neighbors or something? The options were endless.

After I finished reading another chapter from the book, Clara hopped onto her bed, pulling the covers over her. I did the same, turning out the light. Even though I had many thoughts in my head, I fell right to sleep.