Unexpected

[4] Road Trip

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Clara.

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The only thing worse than a road trip, was a road trip that included your estranged father and his perky fake girlfriend. I guess it could have been worse and the trip could have been longer than an hour. Dean’s SUV was the only vehicle suitable for a trip with more than two people, and for some reason Mark was insisting that we all go in the same car. When he learned that Rachel was coming with us, Dean tried to convince him that we could drive ourselves and he and Rachel could take one of his cars, but Mark wouldn’t go for it. He kept going on about spending quality family time together or some crap like that. Like he actually cared. Just when I thought it wasn’t possible to make this summer any worse and he had to go and pull this.

    If Mark thought that shoving Rachel and I into a car for an hour would make us like each other than he was seriously mistaken. In fact, I was pretty sure we just disliked each other even more. On the plus side, I learned that Dean didn’t like her either and we had fun coming up with rude nick names for her. We spent practically the whole ride making faces at Mark and Rachel’s conversation and texting each other snide comments. We really were mature, somewhere deep down.

    For the reunion, everyone in the family had thrown in some money to rent a huge Malibu ocean-side mansion. There were three floors including the basement, plus a guest cottage that had two more bedrooms. If this were a family reunion on Mom’s side, there would never be enough room for the family, but with Mark’s I figured everyone would fit just right. Dean and I would both be bunking with cousins our age, but I hadn’t seen them in years and I was a little bit nervous. Unlike my mom’s family, who was spread over a few states, all of Mark’s family lived here in California. Our grandparents, Aunt Emily and her family all lived in Malibu, which was why the reunion was going to be there. When we arrived at the mansion (there seemed to be a lot of those in my life lately), there were three cars in the driveway already. Aunt Emily had the most children out of Mark’s family, but they apparently were too upper class for a minivan. A sleek black Escalade was parked beside a BMW and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

    It had always been me and my mom for as long as I could remember. Mom made a good amount of money in her job as a lawyer, but she’d never focused on things like clothes and a big house. I’d always felt so out of place around my father’s side of the family because I felt like I wasn’t worldly enough. Sure, I liked nice things. But I didn’t think I needed them in order to have good friends or because I wanted to make a ‘good’ impression on someone. Maybe that was part of the reason my parents never lasted; they were just too different in what they thought was important. Not that my dad’s family was all bad or anything, I mean, I liked most of them well enough. I’d just never felt completely comfortable with any of them except for a few cousins.

    The door opened as we all got out of the car and stretched. Grandmother’s face lit up into a smile as she hurried forward. She threw her arms around Mark, kissing both cheeks.

    “Marcus! I’m so glad you could make it, darling.”

    I made to turn to Dean and pretend gagging, but then I realized he was on the other side of the car and couldn’t see me. Grandmother pounced on Dean next, squeezing him and fussing over his messy hair. Without warning she was beside me, grinning like a maniac with her green eyes and short, graying hair.

    “Dakota! Oh darling, it is so good to see you again! You’ve grown so much!”

    I just smiled and chuckled awkwardly, hugging her back. I thought maybe she needed to check her glasses prescription because I hadn’t grown since pretty much eighth grade, but I didn’t mention that.