real quick I know it's a dad dating game but my person is a female, don't like it don't read it easy.
now about my character- Celeste is a single mom, she and her daughter Amanda move to the other side of Maple Bay. She wasn't expecting to make frie...
the sound of snores fills the room until a voice yells "mom" nothing "MOM! Wake up!" I let my tough roll out of my mouth and stop breathing, Amanda shakes me "come on mom, this hasn't worked on me since I was six" "I'm sorry Amanda, this is the end of me" "mom I swear to god..." "Amanda, I bequeath to you all of my earthly possessions. Spread my ashes over my recliner." "okay well your corpse better get into the moving van, because it's leaving soon" I sigh opening my eyes and sitting up. I'm lying in the middle of the living room, spooning a moving box. I yawn and stretch. "Morning, Manda Panda," I say smiling up at my daughter as she stands in front of me "yikes, mom your breath smells. Go brush your teeth" she says smiling I sigh and slowly stand up "but I don't want to" I whine "go," she says pushing me toward the bathroom.
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"did you fall sleep packing?" my daughter asks as I walk back into the room "I got most of it done, I think" searching around the room, it looks like I did a pretty good job. Every box is sealed except for one. "wait, straggler" I say walk over to pick it up "what's in it?" Amanda asks walking over to me and peering in we look into the box, and see a bunch of old photos in little albums "whoa, I haven't seen these in years..." she exclaims. I pull out of the dusty albums from the top of the pile and we begin looking through it, the first picture is of Amanda as a baby and she's wearing sunglasses "that's the coolest baby I've ever seen" "the only way your mother and I could get you to stop crying was to put the sunglasses on you, but whenever we tried to take them off, you would start crying again. You spent the first two years of your life with sunglasses on" I say smiling and remembering how upset she would get when ever I or Alex would take them off. "nice" she smiles I look at the next picture, it's her in her Halloween costume "Halloween when you were maybe four?" I said tilting my head to side thinking "oh my god that dragon costume" she laughs "you couldn't decide between being a princess or a dragon, so you went with both. A princes' dragon" "Why do I remember crying in that dragon costume?" she asks raising an eyebrow "you saw yourself in the mirror and realized you were afraid of dragons. Seeing yourself inside the dragon's mouth was a realization of your greatest fear" I pause "I think" Amanda nods "right. Yep. Definitely repressed that memory" I pick up the next photo and smile "and THIS was you in your horse phase" I say holding up a picture of Amanda wearing a pink cowboy hat, and an overall dress. "Mooooom..." she whines "I believe you named that plush horse 'sir Horsington the Brave'" "I don't think that was his-" Amanda lunges for the photo, but I quickly snatch it away and hold it above her head with my amazing mom arms. "Nice try, but this is important black mail for later down the road" "go ahead and try me, I've seen pictures of you in your Ska band" she says sticking her tongue out at me "ouch, kid" I physically wince, but recover and come back with "The Skammunist Manifesto had a chance back in the day" I look off into the distance and reminisce about that rad horn section for a while before pulling the next photo out. "hey, it's Emma P!" I say smiling at the pic of Amanda and her friend before their school play, Panda was a flower "No, mom, that's Emma R! I didn't meet Emma P. until high school" she sighs "honey I promise you, wholeheartedly, that I will never stop mixing those two up" "mom, Emma R.'s been my best friend since I was seven. Give it like, a little bit of effort." she sighs again. "Oh right! Emma P. was the one who..." I trailed off trying to think "oh" I snap my finger "LIghter fluid, tennis ball, a racket. Right?" I ask "mom, that was you" "Oh right, I was a wild child" "I was six when you did it" Panda smiles "OKay, Amanda." I say rolling my eyes "I wasn't aiming for the police station. It just happened that there was a police station in the vicinity of where I wanted to hit a flaming tennis ball" "yea, I remember you explaining that to the police," she says placing her arms on her hips "They didn't believe me either" I sigh. "Anyway, I GOTTA show this to Emma R. later. She'll get a kick out of this" Amanda takes the photo and I pick up the next one, I get a big smile on my face "they first photography award you ever won!" It's her next to a framed picture of a ladybug "Yeah, and it got us a $20 gift card to McFridayz, and then you got food poisoning from the Cheezy Toztada Blastz!" she laughs "I think you mean food poizoning. You know, with a Z?" I ask "mom" "I still can't drive past McFridayz without gagging" I shudder "still proud of you, though" I add smiling. Amanda reaches deep down into the box and pulls out one last photo, it's her mother holding her... Neither of us says a word, we stare at the photo for a long moment, both of us stare at it sadness filling the room. I finally decided to break the silence "It's...kind of a funny story" I start to tell the story smiling sadly at the pic "we got into a car accident right there in the hospital parking lot. It wasn't anything big, just a fender bender. But of course, I was freaking out. And the little old lady who crashed into us was freaking out. And I didn't know what to do. But your mother. Oh man, she holds my hand and looks me directly in the eyes- the calmest I've ever seen her, she says....'It's okay. It's all gonna be okay'" we just sit there in silence until Amanda says "she was right, you know." I just stare at the picture longer. Maybe too long.. God I miss her, I can't even imagine what it must be like for Amanda. She pats me on the back "C'mon ma, we gotta finish packing. The moving van won't wait forever" I nod and whip the tears away "you're right"
Amanda and I pile into the car and take one last look at the house "so many memories here. Hard to believe your mother and I bought this place almost 20 years ago." I say my voice starting to strain "Hey, remember when I shattered the front window playing catch?" Amanda asks trying to lighten the mood, I smile and nod "you always had very strong arms" "Hey, remember when I shattered the other front window pretending to be a robot who breaks windows?" I sigh and nod "you were a very imaginative child" "Hey, remember when I broke the back window pl-" "we get it, Amanda, you break stuff," I said cutting her off. "and there'll be plenty more stuff for me to break in the new place!" she yells "memories to make and stuff to break" I smile "You ready?" we sit in silence for a moment. I watched my daughter grow up in this house. It will forever hold a place in my heat, but it stings a little bit to leave it behind. I take a deep breath "I'm ready" the moving van begins to pull away and I get the car into position to follow it. I watch our house-our old house- disappear in the rearview mirror. "so.." Amanda says breaking the silence "so what?" "so sell me on your cool new pad," she says eagerly "I clear my throat and do my best cheesy announcer voice "Nestled in beautiful, scenic downtown Maple Bay, out new house features, not only are their bedrooms for your sleeping pleasure but couches and floor space where you can, yes, catch a wink." "what a deal! I mean, if sleep weren't for the weak" "you sleep more than anyone I know," I tell her "I admit my faults, ma. I keep it real" "anyway, it's also smaller than our last house" "cozier, one might argue" Amanda points out "good spin" I nod "I think it's great! Won't we be closer to a lot of cool stuff that we can walk to? So I don't have to..waste gas? And I mean, trying to park downtown is..you know.." "Amanda, you know you're gonna have to learn how to parallel park at some point, right?" she shakes her head "not gonna happen, ma" "I think someone needs to do a three-point turn in their attitude," I say giving her a sideways look "I don't know how to do that either," she says shrugging. "have you met the neighbors yet?" she asks changing the subject "not yet," I say shaking my head "but the neighborhood seems pretty quiet" "so you won't have to chase any rowdy teen off your lawn?" "You are the very teen you mock when you say that, honey" "I'm in my last year of high school. I'm practically dust" "Yeah, you're a real" "don't you dare" she warns "senior" "mom I know where this is going," she says rolling her eyes "citizen," I say giving her a cheesy smile "I'm just gonna ignore that" she sighs "but I won't forget it," she says pointing a finger at me. "so what's item number one on the new house agenda?" "Well, first we'll need to forge a path through the solid wall of boxes that are blocking the living room." I say thinking "and I still have to install the washer and dryer, we need to go grocery shopping-" Amanda cuts me off "Ma, cool your jets. You have to promise me that we're gonna take a break and explore the neighborhood" "Okay, okay, you're right. We'll get some work done and then check the area out" I agree and nod my head
