Over the next few months, things steadily drifted back to normal. All the drama from Chase Meyer's party blew over, just like Julie had said it would. People went back to not caring who I was, and they found more people and events to gossip over.
Seth didn't try to talk to me anymore after the incident in the hallway. My brother still hung out with him, I suppose, but he never brought Seth or any other members of the basketball team around the house. As Jaime had told me before, he wasn't that heartless.
For a while, I wasn't exactly sure where Brady and I stood with each other. That day that we ditched school together was never brought up again, though. I'm not sure if I was disappointed or thankful for that. It meant that the sympathy Brady had showed me in the hallway never happened, but it also meant that the fight between us never happened, either. I sort of regretted what I had said to him in the car, even if I refused to admit it.
When the two of us both got two days of detention for skipping class, things seemed pretty normal between us. He annoyed me and I annoyed him right back. Brady took every opportunity when the teacher's back was turned to throw something at me, make a face or offer an unpleasant and rather unnecessary comment.
However, as Halloween and Thanksgiving passed and brought us further into the winter months, I started seeing less and less of Brady Hanson altogether. I didn't run into him as much as I used to, but I didn't think of it as anything more than a coincidence. I'd really only see him in band, but even then he didn't go out of his way to make his presence known.
The entire school (teachers included) counted down the days until winter recess started. When it finally did roll around, I was more excited about being off from school than I was about Christmas approaching. I guess that's what growing up will do to you.
"Andy! Andrea!"
Something hit me right in the middle of the forehead. I groaned and rolled over, bringing the covers up over my head. My brother crawled onto my bed and stood up, bouncing up and down on the mattress.
"Danny," I groaned. "Get out."
My brother held up his Nerf gun and pressed the trigger a dozen more times, hitting me with a bunch of foam bullets until the gun finally made a click noise, telling him that it was time to reload.
"Mommy says you gotta get up!" he yelled, jumping even higher on the bed. "She says you gotta get ready to go!"
"Go where?" I mumbled, attempting to shove my brother off the bed without hurting him. If he started to cry, I'd never hear the end of it. "I'm off this entire week."
I guessed it had to be nearly two in the afternoon, but I didn't really care. I had been over Julie's with Tompy, Jess, Steve, and Beanie until late the night before, and all I really wanted to do was sleep some more.
Danny ignored my question and started hopping all over the place, not really caring if he stepped on any of my limbs. "Get up, get up, get up!" I rolled up into a ball and tried my best to ignore him, but it was kind of difficult when his foot went right into my gut.
"Alright!" I yelled, sitting up and throwing the covers off, scattering his Nerf bullets all over the floor. "I'm up! Now get out before I pummel you!"
Danny, grinning broadly, jumped down from my bed and ran out of the room, leaving the foam bullets everywhere.
I slowly made my way downstairs to the kitchen where I found my mother. She was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee in hand, reading one of those home-furnishing magazines. She was obsessed with those. We got about twenty in the mail each week.
I took a bagel from wired basket we had on the counter and bit into it without bothering to put any butter on it. My mother turned around.
"Good morning, Andrea. Or I should say afternoon, really," she said, glancing at the clock on the stove. "How'd you sleep?"
"Fine. It was the waking up part that wasn't so pleasant… You could've just told me to set an alarm."
My mom laughed. "I wasn't sure if we were going. The snow out there is getting pretty bad, so I didn't know if it was going to be canceled or not. But I checked this morning, and it's still on."
As I reached up to get a glass from the pantry, I glanced out the window. It had started snowing late the night before, but the snow covered every inch of the back porch now. Judging by the amount that was collecting on the windowsill, there had to be about four inches of it.
"What's still on?" I asked, bringing my attention back to our conversation. "Where are we going?"
"Eileen invited us to a Christmas tree decorating party at her house… Didn't you see the invitation?"
I shook my head, pouring milk into my glass. My mother's words didn't sink in right away. I was always pretty comatose when first I woke up.
"Oh… I left it on the refrigerator purposely so you and your brothers would know."
As I put the milk away, I took notice of the invitation hanging on the fridge beneath a magnet. It was barely visible underneath the mess of school notices, grocery lists, and Danny's drawings; no wonder I hadn't seen it.
Then it clicked. I coughed, almost choking on my bagel. "Wait… Eileen?" I said, whirling around to face my mom. "Eileen Hanson? From next door?"
"Mhm." She nodded as she stared down at the pages of her magazine. "It's nice of her to invite us, isn't it? It should be fun…"
"Mom, fun is the last thing it'll be!" I said. "It's going to be torture, that's what it's going to be! I'm not going!"
My mother sighed. She placed her coffee on the table and looked up at me again. "Andrea, I already told Eileen we were all going to be there."
"Well, you should've asked me first!"
"Is this about Eileen's son? Brady?" My mom raised an eyebrow. "You know, you reacted the same exact way when I asked him to baby-sit Danny. Do you remember?"
I tore my gaze away from her, glaring down at my glass of milk. "It's not about him at all. I could care less whether Brady's there." The words sounded like a lie even to my ears.
"Oh? Then why don't you want to go?"
"Because. Because it's a stupid idea," I said childishly. "Why do you want to decorate another Christmas tree? We already decorated our own. And besides. Who decorates their tree two days before Christmas Eve, anyway?"
My mother shot me a questioning glance. "I think that's the point, Andrea. It's supposed to be festive; you know, get everyone in the mood for Christmas."
"Well, what if I don't want to be in the mood for Christmas?" I could tell I sounded like a little kid. I could tell I was being immature, but it didn't matter. I wasn't going.
"That's fine, Andrea. You can be in a bad mood if you want to be. But you'll be in a bad mood at the Hanson's, decorating a Christmas tree with the rest of our family. We're leaving at four." She looked back down at her magazine, which meant the conversation was over.
The way I saw it, I had two choices. I could suck it up and deal with Brady for one night, or I could stay home and lose all of my freedom for the rest of the winter vacation. My mom wasn't one of those overly strict parents, but she absolutely hated when her kids were rude. If I didn't show up, I'd most likely be grounded until school started again.
Muttering angrily to myself, I put my glass in the dishwasher and headed upstairs. If Jaime got to the shower first, there wouldn't be any hot water left.
