Chasing Secrets

10

I woke up to the sound of loud music, it startled me, I rose from my bed to find my friends dancing, that was their way of waking me up
"What the hell?" I asked yelling
"Good morning sunshine" Pietro yells back
"Hey sleepyhead" Juniper yells as well
"I'm awake, turn it off" I continue yelling but no one heard me "Alexa stop the music" I said
Alexa turned the music off
"Hey!" they all said in frustration
I grabbed my phone to see that it's 9 minutes past 10
"It's 10 am you guys are insane" I tell them
"Breakfast time" My dad yells from downstairs
We all go downstairs and sit down at the table, my siblings were already sitting there
"So, how was last night?" my dad asks as he's plating our waffles
"It was good" I said
"Yeah fun" Ace added
"Incredible time" Harley said
"Well I'm glad you guys had a blast" he gives me a kiss on the cheek and I smile with my mouth was stuffed with a waffle piece
"What time's the County Fair again dad?"
"Starts at 3 and ends at 12 am"
"Okay great" I swallow another piece of waffle then look at Ace Juniper and direct this question at them "Wanna rehearse to kill time?"
Juniper nods cause her mouth was also filled with a waffle piece and Ace says "Sure"

After breakfast we take the rehearsal to the living room, I grab the copies of the scripts off the coffee table and give them to Ace and Juniper
"Okay let's go with scene three in the bedroom" Juniper suggests
"11:30 pm. The Bedroom.
The light is, at first, a vague glow on the lovers, who are asleep on the bed. From offstage, faint at first, there is the sound of knocking. It gets louder; Tony stirs. At a distance, a police siren sounds, and the knocking is now very loud. Tony bolts upright. Anita comes in from outside and goes to the bedroom door- which is locked - tries the knob" Pietro reads the script out loud for us as we act it out.

After rehearsals it was time to head out to the County fair, my dad owns a gray 2017 Chrysler Pacifica, the car is about 2 years old today and impressively, it's still in incredible shape and works as if it's brand new. I sit in shotgun and Rainer sits on top of me, Pietro sits in the seat directly behind mine, next to him is Ace, then Alexis sits in between Harley and Juniper. I plug my phone into the aux chord and blast some Billie Eilish, the girls and I absolutely adore Billie and her music so we sing Bury A Friend at the top of our lungs.
"Step on the glass, staple your tongue, ahhh, bury a friend, try to wake up, ah ahhh, cannibal class, killing the son, ahhh, bury a friend, I wanna end me." The girls and I scream the lyrics while the boys look at us in pure confusion
"What on earth is that?" My dad asks
"Billie Eilish, her songs vary from pop, to electropop, to indie pop, can you believe we're the same age? She's like way cooler than me"
"Hey, you're pretty cool and whoever disagrees, I'll show them their business"
I laugh then think to myself how lucky I am to have a close and special relationship with my dad, he loved my mom more than anything I can think of, he did absolutely everything she ever wanted and rarely said no, even though I look a lot like my dad, I can see a lot of my mom in my sister, and a little in my brother. Rainer has features from both my mom and dad, he's got moms eyes and nose, my dad's eyebrows and huge forehead, I got the big forehead too, but nonetheless even though my dad has a big forehead he's good looking. I turn to my dad and ask him
"Dad, do you mind if I bring up the subject of dating? Your dating life?"
"Sure, what about it?"
"I know you loved mom so much it's unbelievable... but don't you think its time you start dating again? I mean it's been 7 years"
"Don't you think I'm a little too old to be dating?"
"Come on, you're only 38, you're not that old"
"You're only 38, Mr. James?" Pietro asks
My dad slightly nods his head
"So that means you've become a dad to Luna when you were 21?" Ace asks
My dad nods again and adds "And Nova (my mom) was 19"
"Woah" we said in shock
"That's so cool Mr. James" Juniper says
"Please, I feel old when being called "Mr. James", call me Declan"
"Declan and Nova James, have children named Luna, Alexis, and Rainer. All unique and beautiful names Declan" Harley speaks
"Thank you Harley"
"Okay dad, back to the subject" I say
"Who would even want to date me?"
We stay quiet for a few moments pondering
"What about Karen from the diner?" Alexis breaks the silence
"Karen? She would never be interested in me"
"Actually that's not true, why don't you give her a shot dad? I'm sure she'll be at the fair, you two would definitely hit it off, plus she's a few years younger than you. I'd give her at least 35" I say
"Alright then, I'll go up to her and ask her to play a couple games with me and end the night riding the Ferris wheel with her"
I clap my hands in excitement while Rainer says "Go dad!"