emily // hs au

chapter one

I didn't remember much about the drives to Emily, as I was never the one behind the wheel in previous trips. But I do remember the drive being painstakingly boring up until we would reach Mille Lacs Lake in Garrison, about an hour and a half into the trip. The only scenery i'd get to see before then, was either boring gray factories, or the long, endless highways littered with garbage, I had to make sure I kept my music playing to keep myself somewhat entertained. But, Lake Mille Lacs. That was a sight I could never want to forget. The size of the body, and the light blue shade of the water made it look like the ocean from the highway right by the shoreline. Despite being a grown adult now, I'm still as fascinated with Mille Lacs Lake as I was when I was a child. I had always thought it WAS the ocean, and when I figured out that it wasn't, I had always wondered what made something so massive in the seemingly small state of Minnesota. It made me question a lot as a kid, more than a normal kid should, and it surely brought back a little bit of that child-like excitement to the drive, but as I drove past it, I thought about how much I had grown since my last visit. And then I began to wonder if I really knew about everything else I had as a child, or if they possessed a little mystery that I had to question, just like Lake Mille Lacs.

****

After making it through the township of Emily, I was pulling into the long, familiar driveway of  my cabin, and soon enough, dogs were parading around my car as I was putting it in park. This lot was always known within my family to be our own, private dog park. As every relative and family friend of mine owned a dog, it was expected to see the multitude dogs running around my car, tongues panting and tails wagging. Opening the door to my car, I step out and grab a hold the sides of the face of my aunts black lab, Layla. Pinching her face and greeting her with a pat on the head and ruffle of the ears. 

"Come on, dogs!" I called out, snapping my fingers twice and looking around to see whose following me. Nothing could be heard except for the muffled sound of the radio, the chorus of dog paw-patter, and panting, and the distant sound of laughter coming from the garage at the bottom of the driveway. Making my way down the small hill, I see inside the car-less stalls of the garage, my aunts Jennifer and Kelly, uncle Tom, my grandparents and my father, mother and sister, all sitting around a fold up table watching my cousin Jessica shuffle a deck of cards, dealing out 2 card hands. 

"Aves! Avery is here!" I hear my uncle Phil shout, standing up to greet me. His 6'3" frame towering over me in a hug. "How are you doing kiddo?" He asks, sitting back down to play his hand in i'm assuming, Texas Hold 'em.

"I'm doing alright, just really glad to be here finally." I answered honestly, wrapping my arms around the neck of my seated aunt Kelly, giving her a small hug. "What have y'all done today? When did you get here?" I asked to nobody in particular, my aunt Jennifer was the first to respond.

"Katie, Nathan and I all got up here yesterday afternoon, your parents and Melanie got here this morning, and-" 

"Phil, the boys and I got here two days ago, Monday night. How long are you here for?" My aunt Kelly interrupted, which wasn't unlike her at all. She was quite the talker, and she would always force everyone of us to listen to her. She demanded attention.

"I leave a week from today, either Wednesday afternoon or Wednesday night, not quite sure yet." I responded, sending a sympathetic smile to my aunt Jennifer as I know her older sisters persistence got on her nerves frequently, she rolled her eyes and laughed standing up to hug me, just to sit back down seconds later. My aunts and dad were siblings, nearing the ages 43, 46, and 49 with Jen being the youngest and my dad being the oldest, yet they still bickered at one another like they were children living under their parents roof. 

I gave my grandfather a quick hello and kiss on the cheek, then headed towards my trunk to retrieve my duffel bag and hammock. As I went inside the house, I was rushed with a faint, familiar scent of pine needles and saw my cousins Nathan and Kathryn both sitting on the couches, on their phones and watching the Price is Right with my grandmother sitting in her reclining chair.

I walked by the small kitchen, placing my phone onto the island and quietly walking behind Nate, sitting on the couch, oblivious to my looming presence as I readied my open palm above his head to ruffle his hair around.

"Ow, what the fuck! Avery?!" He laughed as I pressed my hand down, turning his body to face me and giving me the lightest punch on the arm as payback. Nathan and I were around the same age, despite only being older than him by 3 months, I still treated him like the baby brother I never had. 

"'Hey girl!" my cousin Kathryn yelled at me, standing up from the couch as I walked past her, following me into the back porch where all the grand-kids slept. 

"Aw come on, we don't have to sleep in this shithole still, do we?" I whined, pulling my eyebrows together as I threw my bag on a top-bunk cot. 

When we were much smaller, my two sisters, Nathan, Katie, and I would always just fill the living room floor with air mattresses and sleep there. However as we got older and bigger, my dad and his sisters thought it would make more sense if they invested in 2 sets of some old-fashioned bunk-bed cots and put them in the enclosed porch. That didn't seem like a problem at first, it being a contained room connected to the house with a sliding door, and every square inch of wall being a window, 2 fans, and a backdoor. However after our first run at sleeping in them, we figured out why exactly that room was meant to be a porch and not a bedroom, as the temperatures would change drastically from burning hot to freezing cold just by depending on what time of day it was, the carpet that was installed wasn't much of a berber, but rather an artificial grass, so it would be the rudest awakening you could ever receive if you were to fall off the cot. 

"Looks like, all the bedrooms are taken. And even though we are adults now, we still get grand kid treatment." she said, rolling her eyes and lying down on her bottom cot that she always claimed.

I shrugged my shoulders, accepting the fact that we are still the young ones, turned on my heel and opened the sliding door, "I'm going back outside and catch up with the elderly" I heard Katie give a little laugh as she stayed put on her cot, presumably on her phone. I passed the living room and noticed Nathan was gone, assuming he was either playing with Kelly's kids, Ben and Jacob. Both were little 12 and 7 year old brats, but Nathan enjoyed teasing them and roughhousing with them nonetheless. 

I walk outside the front door and hear a loud "get her!" I felt a small weight on my shoulders as I stepped onto the grass, and then later felt something or somebody on my legs. Nathan then came into view as he started shooting me with a nerf gun, "this is payback!" he screamed, laughing and smiling as he continued to attack me. This was how Nathan was, since we were roughly the same age, he had always picked on me at any family gathering, as he was a few inches taller than me, and quite athletic and much bulkier than me. Before Jacob and Ben came along, it was me who was his partner in all of his games, but i'm glad I had retired from that position, it was an exhausting gig. 

"Nathan!" I laughed, "How the hell are you an 18 year old man playing with a Nerf gun?" I had managed to shimmy Ben off my leg and I raised my arms, grabbed Jacob by his armpits, flip him up and off my shoulders and set him down on the grass beside me.  Nathan had stopped his assault on me and walked up to me, smiling, draping his arm over my neck, pulling me in and giving my hair a quick shake with his palm, "that was payback, Cuz." He said, walking back into the house, Jacob and Ben following not too far behind him.

I walked into the garage and just looked around for a few seconds, still noticing the same old things that have been there for years. From the Shania Twain posters my grandfather had, to the shelf on the back wall that carried nothing but golfing equipment, the tubes and floating devices we would use to tow behind the pontoon, not a lot has physically changed up here. I had just hoped that the family dynamic would remain the same.

"So, what are we playing, boys?"

*****

First chapter is done! I had spent a few days panicking and being an anxious wreck about writing the perfect first chapter, but a few friends of mine told me to just write and get to know the characters. So these first few chapters I feel will be a little messy. 

I thank you for reading my story and for having a little patience with me. I'm still only learning. 

all the fucking love,

Meg