Daring to Hope (Standing Up to Life Book 2)

Chapter 23:

I WOKE UP the next morning with a prod. "Ugh... I'm sleeping here."

"Wake up before your mom tells me to tickle you," Amy told me.

I grumbled and forced myself to sit up a bit. "What time is it?" I asked while rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"9:30, as usual you're the last girl to wake up." She told me.

"Ugh... Why can't you all sleep longer so I don't look bad..." I asked her as I stumbled up.

"Oh, stop your whining and come eat something. You have got to be the grouchiest girl ever in the morning," she told me.

"And proud of it too..." I said as I made my way to the dining room table where all of the rest of the girls were already eating breakfast.

After a few minutes of quietly munching on some scrambled eggs and bacon that were made for us I became a little more human.

"So, Tiffany what are you doing tonight?" Amy asked.

"Actually, I'm babysitting tonight," I told her.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah, our neighbor across the street came over and asked Wednesday night. I can't believe I didn't tell you about it."

"You kind of had other things on your mind," she reminded me.

Yeah, I did, I thought, I still had to tell my mom about what happened on Friday. Although I had a feeling she might have already known since Dad had gone home where he would have been able to get the message off of the answering machine. "Yeah." I replied.

"Are you excited?" Lindsey asked me.

"I don't know. I've never babysat before." I told her. "Have you done it before?"

"Yeah, several times, I really enjoy it." She told me.

Kristina chimed in at this point, "It's a really great way to make some extra cash. I usually get at least sixty dollars a night for it – and I've always thought it's not really that hard of work compared to something like McDonalds even when I'm older."

"I know she said she'd pay me... I didn't ask how much. It'll be nice to have some more cash for our trip this week though. I just hope I can manage to do it – I'm not looking forward to changing diapers." I said.

"Well... that part kind of sucks," Kristina told me with a grin. "But you'll have to deal with it one day anyway – might as well get used to it now."

I just nodded and moved back to my eating. Conversations weren't very animated that morning. One of the girls that had gone to sleep before me asked how much longer we stayed up. "I don't know, maybe an hour longer?" I suggested.

"Wow, it was three when I fell asleep," she told me.

"Were we really up that late?" I asked Amy.

"Probably."

"I think that's the latest I've ever stayed up." I told her.

"I've stayed up later on these before... but usually during the summer when we haven't had school the day of the party," she told me.

About that time the doorbell rang and we started saying goodbye to the girls one-by-one as their moms picked them up. By the time that Ashley's was the last one picked up, I had used my shower and changed into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

After a short time, it was just Amy, her mom, and my mom and I working to finish cleaning up from the party. It took until about noon. Amy's mom heated up some of the leftovers from the previous night and we ate before loading up my mom's van with all of the presents I'd gotten that night. Amy and her mom helped with getting everything in there, before I gave them both really big hugs. How had I ever gotten so lucky to have my own parents, and then Amy's family too?