Quiet vs. Loud

Normal vs. Crazy (Part 1)

Riker's POV

Rayne and I pulled up to my house and I parked the car.  I looked at her and asked "Are you ready for this?  We can always just leave again if you're not.  My family tends to be a little crazy when we are all together.

Rayne laughed and squeezed my hand. "It's fine, I can handle a little crazy.  In fact, I live for crazy.  So let's go."

We climbed out of the car and walked towards the house, but we were interrupted by Ross running out of the house and hiding behind me.  He said "Riker, Rocky is freaking out.  He thinks Ratliff and I took his mac & cheese, and he is threatening to dye my hair purple and Ratliff's hair pink if we don't give it back.  Ratliff is hiding in Rydel's room, and I ran out here to get away.  Please, be the great, awesome and super big brother that you are and get him to calm down.  I will do anything."

I started laughing at Ross's scared face and also at Rayne's face.  I could tell she was trying not to laugh.  "OK, I will call off Rocky.  Now come out of hiding and meet our neighbor.

Ross walked out from behind me and I said "Ross, this is our neighbor Rayne.  Rayne, this is my crazy little brother Ross."

Ross looked at Rayne and said "Nice to meet you.  Sorry for acting crazy, but I can't deal with purple hair.  I have a hard enough time dealing with green hair."

"Green?" Rayne asked me with a confused look.  "Yeah, Ross's hair turns green if he doesn't wet it with the hose before he jumps in the pool.  Sometimes, if he gets really annoying, one of us will just throw him in the pool.  Well, now that you have met this fool, let's go inside so you can meet everyone else and I can call off Rocky.  I didn't think he would get this upset."

Ross told me to tell mom that he was going to go pick up dinner for everyone, and after he left, Rayne and I walked into the house.  I didn't see anyone, but I could hear a lot of yelling coming from upstairs.  I decided to find mom and dad first, then deal with Rocky.

"Mom" I yelled "where are you?"  "In the office" she replied.  "Come on, you can meet my parents before I introduce you to the maniacs" I told Rayne as we walked down the hall to the office.  I opened the door and saw dad working on the computer and mom curled up on the couch reading.

"Hi honey. Did you enjoy your day off?" mom asked as I walked in.  "I sure did.  And speaking of my day off, I would like you to meet someone.  Mom, Dad, this is Rayne.  Rayne, this is my mom and dad."

"Nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. ......?" Rayne looked at me with a panicked face.  "Oh my gosh.  I just realized that I spent the entire day with you and I never learned your last name."

Mom laughed. "It's Lynch.  But you can call us Mark and Stormie.  All of our kids' friends call us by our first names."

"Well, it's nice to meet you Stormie and Mark.  My name is Rayne." Rayne said to my mom with a smile.

"Nice to meet you too sweetie.  I just wish you could have met us on a day when everyone wasn't so crazy.  I think my son Rocky has lost his mind over some mac & cheese.  That's why Mark and I are hiding in here." my mom said as she wrapped her arm around Rayne's shoulders.  "Absolutely" my dad added.  "I love that boy but there is only so much I want to hear about mac & cheese."

As soon as Rocky was mentioned, I said "I forgot.  I need to go save Ross and Ratliff's hair and settle Rocky down. Rayne, do you mind if I leave you hear with my parents? You should be safe in here."

"That's fine.  I don't mind staying with your parents.  Have fun upstairs.  I hope you don't get hurt too bad." Rayne said and mom led her over to the couch.  I told mom "Oh, by the way, Ross told me to tell you that he ran out to pick up dinner.  He should be back soon."  Then I headed upstairs.  On the way, I ran into Ryland, who was sitting on the stairs laughing.  When he saw me, he just said "Man, you probably don't want to go up there.  Ratliff is hiding in Rydel's room, Rocky is trying to get a hold of him and dye his hair purple, and Rydel is threatening to make them both wear Hello Kitty shirts at the next concert if they don't leave her alone.  Good luck."

"This should be fun" I thought and headed up to the warzone (aka Rydel's room).