The contest

Epilogue:
*editted

I watched as my 13 year old daughter ran down the stairs as her 18 year old brother chased her.

"Give it back" he yelled chasing her.

"I need it!"

"Dad gave it to me not you!"

Luke stopped our daughter, Cleo, and she groaned.

"But dad!" she whined.

"Cleo that's Zander's guitar"

"Fine" she groaned handing it to Zander.

"Why don't I get anything special?"

"Fine" I said walking up to her. "I'll find you something of mine"

I go into my room and look through my stuff. I find my old worn down accustic guitar. I go downstairs and hand it to her.

"Here. I used this guitar every night when I performed"

"Cool!" she said running to her room with it.

Our family is very musical. Zander is a mini Ashton who can sing and play the guitar, piano, drums, and bass. Cleo sings and plays guitar and piano.

I hear the doorbell ring and I answer it right away. Everyone in our "family" walks in and I smile. We all live near each other and we visit each other often.

Today we're having a barbecue to celebrate Zander getting accepted to Liverpool.

It's sad to think my blue eyed baby is going to England for college and that's he's growing up but I'm proud of him.

His girlfriend shows up at the party too. She's also considered a part of this family.

When I had a talk with him last week about how to treat her he stopped me right away. He told me she's the one. That he wants to marry her.

To think my child is ready for that commitment makes me smile. They both make each other happy. They both have been together since 8th grade.

Cleo on the other hand is going to 8th grade and she doesn't have a boyfriend. Thankfully.

Luke would have had a heart attack. Luke has always been so attached to his baby girl and if she got a boyfriend he would freak.

He knows she has to grow up he just doesn't want it to happen so fast.

We all gather around a fire in the back as we eat the meat that Ashton grilled expertly.

After eating we started talking and like always we ended up getting our instruments and played a song around the campfire.

Once we all started talking again Cleo looked at me and Luke and smiled.

"You never told us the story of how you met!" Cleo says.

Luke looks at me with a smile and I return it.

"Well it all started with a contest.

The contest that brought us all together"