Don't Cover Me

Chapter 12

We finished the movies around three and even after all the chocolate we had eaten were dead tired and decided that we needed to sleep before we completely passed out.

The next morning Miranda picked me up at four in the afternoon from Viola's and took me back to our house where my dad was waiting in his old overalls and hiking boots. That ensemble could only mean one thing: painting.

"No!" I protested. I hated painting, the paint thinner I breathed in made me loopy for about a week and it was more of a workout than field hockey practices were.

"Sorry kiddo but the dining room really needs a fresh coat of paint" my dad says.

"But we just moved in, shouldn't all the painting be done?" I ask.

"Yes, but we wanted to re-paint the whole house. We would have done it sooner but I decided to wait until Miranda was feeling better." My dad says.

"Fine, I'll go change, give me five minutes" I say and head upstairs. I throw my hair into a messy bun and change into my paint covered leggings and black tank top. I throw on my hiking boots that we bought specifically for painting and headed back downstairs.

Miranda and my dad were in the dining room already. They had already moved all of the furniture out and laid out a blanket to cover the floor. When I walked in Miranda was sticking painters tape along the crown moulding and my dad was preparing the rollers.

"You want door frame or wall?" He asks me without looking up.

"Door frame" I say. He hands me a small brush and a jar of white paint and nods in the direction of the door.

"So how was your sleepover?" Miranda asks me as she positions the ladder near the wall so she can reach the highest point.

"It was fun. We spent the whole night watching movies and pigging out" I tell them while starting on the side of the door.

"What movies?" My dad asks and he starts rolling the paint onto the wall.

"Nightmare on Elm street and a few other horror movies" I tell him.

"Horror marathon?" he asks and I nod.

"Yeah, but the movies weren't scary. We spent half the time trying to tell the characters what to do but they didn't listen."

"They never do" Miranda says and I laugh a little.

"What did you guys do?" I ask them.

"We went out for dinner and then came back and baked carrot cake" My dad says.

"We have cake!" I yell excitedly.

"Yes, but no cake till you're done painting" my dad says but I'm already almost out the door.

"Hey!" He yells after me and I feel something wet hit the back of my neck. I wipe it with my hand and discover it's paint. He threw paint at me!

"Oh you're going to pay for that old man" I say and charge back into the room. I pick up my jar of paint and scoop a lot onto my brush and fling it in his general direction. But before I do, he moves slightly and I end up getting the paint on Miranda's face.

"Oh, it's on" she says and before I know it, paint is flying everywhere and the walls look somewhere between artistic and chaotic.

"Well, we've run out of paint" I say after we've stopped laughing from the aftermath of the paint fight. "Can I have cake now?"

"Sure, I think we all deserve a little" Miranda says and we walk into the kitchen being mindful of the fact that we are covered in paint.

"I think the dining room looks quite nice don't you?" I ask.