Hopes and Dreams

Chapter 1

Noman's Field, Saskatchewan, late August

My entire family is here.

Well, not my entire family, considering that I have about 45 first cousins when I add up both my parents' families, and at least one third of them are married (or sexually active) and have kids, so that would be nearly impossible. Add up my second and third cousins and their families, and there's probably more people than in this entire town.

Let's rephrase that. My two oldest brothers, Harrison and Roland, are both home, which means that all of my siblings are in my house at the moment. Harry is returning to Ann Arbor tomorrow, where he was recently named team captain of the University of Michigan Wolverine ice hockey team.

In total, there are seven of us Hamilton children: Maggie, who is 27; Harry and Roland, the first set of twins who are 24; Francesca and me, the second set of twins, aged 17; Allyson, the smart child who is 14; and Josef, the baby of the family at 9 years old.

Maggie brought her husband and their two sons, aged 4 and 3, and the two boys are hitting a small ball between each other and Josef with hockey sticks.

"Can you guys please go outside?" Francesca exasperatedly asks, ushering them out the sliding glass doors. "You guys are going to break something." The two little boys eagerly run outside, Josef's tall, lanky frame following them.

In our rather large backyard, the boys seem to be having the time of their lives, running and chasing each other through the open, albeit a little overgrown, grass, in contrast to the cluttered living room with its multiple tables and sofas. I smile at Francesca in thanks as she tightens her long dark blonde ponytail as she plops back down on the three-seater couch next to my dark red recliner armchair. I'm trying to last-minute complete my summer reading for Grade 12 Honors English - reading Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and writing a thoughtful analytical essay. Our school, which only has about 200 students in grades 7-12 (I think the statistics say 184 students total), only has one to three teachers per subject, and I already know I have Mr. Pearce, the only English teacher for grades ten through twelve. He's strict, but I'd like to think he likes me well enough.

I probably would be able to concentrate better if my parents had allowed us to work in our rooms, but they claim that we should "preserve family time." Yeah, right. It's only John, Maggie's husband, Allyson, Francesca, and me sitting here. Allyson is playing a video game against John on the flat screen TV, while Francesca and I are both completing assignments that we managed to procrastinate for two months on. Mom and Maggie are in the kitchen, undoubtedly gossiping while preparing what will be enough food to feed the family for a week (and any average family for a month), while Dad, Harry, and Roland are who-even-knows-where.

I keep reading for a few minutes, the sounds of some sort of outer-space shooting playing in the background. "Wow, this is actually really cool," Allyson says to John. "But if this is the game of your generation, why am I beating you?" She teases with a laugh.

"Maybe I'm just going easy on you," John laughs with her. He's an undoubtedly good looking man, tall with reddish-brown hair, thick, black-rimmed glasses, hazel eyes, and a spattering of freckles. For most of her life, everybody knew him as a geek who had a huge crush on the popular girl, my sister, who was also his best friend since kindergarten. They're the typical small-town love story, but both of them always seem incredibly happy with each other.

Mom comes into the hallway that connects the kitchen and living room, looking around at us. "John, you're going to be a bad influence on Allyson."

John sighs and pauses the game.

"It's not like I play video games every day-" Allyson protests.

"You're a girl, you're not even supposed to be playing games. Why can't you learn embroidery or cooking or something like that?" Mom notes.

"In a town where girls play hockey, you'd expect there to be less rigid gender roles," Allyson mutters under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing."

"Anyways, I'm not here to watch you guys commit murder on screen. Where are your dad and the boys?" Mom takes in the four of us, including Francesca sprawled across the couch, lying on her belly and watching something on her laptop.

"Huh?" Francesca asks, popping her earbuds out.

"Maybe if you weren't always listening to your crappy music so loudly-" Mom starts, but John quickly answers her question.

"The little ones are outside, Fred is right there," he points to me, "and Mr. Hamilton, Harry, and Roland are probably at the ice rink, pretending that the two of them are little boys again."

"Well, tell them to be back home soon, dinner will be ready in 45 minutes," she says to none of us in particular, then walks back to the kitchen.

The four of us look at each other to see who will do the dreaded duty of calling Dad while he is on the ice. Finally Francesca sighs and says, "I'll do it," taking the excuse to go back to her room, though none of us can blame her.

I go back to reading my book, while John and Allyson return to their game.

"Mom can be so 'ugh' sometimes," Allyson says.

John laughs. "I'm her son in law, I'm not allowed to say anything against her."

"Seriously, though? 'Girls shouldn't play video games'? What is this, the nineteenth century?"

"Hey, there's probably a reason why we have separate teams for boys and girls."

First real chapter of the book! Tell me what you guys think, and thank you for reading! ❤️