Adopted

Chapter 71

Dad was awake and in the kitchen when I went downstairs before school the next morning. He drove me to school and told me he'd pick me up.

School went pretty well like always. I handed in my English paper and did all my homework during PE.

Dad, true to his word, picked me up. I had physio again, so he took me to my appointment and we went home.

Over dinner Dad said he was thinking of having the guys from the band and their families for a barbecue on Saturday and that I could invite a friend if I wanted. I couldn't decide between Astrid and Paige so I asked if both could come. Dad said yes.

Friday night, Astrid and Paige slept over. We hung out downstairs watching TV and eating junk food.

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast and then sat by the pool and swam while Mom went shopping for stuff the barbecue and Dad got the house ready.

"I think it's cool your dad helps out when you're having people over. Like, my dad would invite neighbors over and my mom would have to do all the shopping, cooking and getting the house ready," Astrid said.

"I don't remember what my bio parents did, but yeah. Dad's awesome," I said.

"Thank you, girl-child," he said as he passed by me with the barbecue tools. "Could you go grab a couple of the folding chairs from the front hall closet?"

"But Dad, my arm isn't fully healed," I joked. "I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting."

"I'll show you heavy lifting," he said, and picked me up and dropped me in the pool.

"Daaaad!" I exclaimed.

"I still love hearing that," he smiled. "Now dry off and grab out four chairs. Please."

I climbed out of the pool, wrapped my towel around my waist and went into the house. Astrid and Paige followed and we all carried out chairs.

"Ah. Such helpful friends you have, my girl-child," Dad said.

I rolled my eyes.

"My dad is so weird," I said to Astrid and Paige.

Everyone came over around four and I finally got to meet Breezy and Dallon's kids Amelie and Knox. Cute little kids who were pretty attached to their mom, until they saw my dad.

"Uncle Bwandon!" They said. He scooped them up.

"How are my two favourite children in the world?" He asked

"Hey!" I said.

"I said what I said," he winked at me.

Zack came up to me and gave me a hug.

"Hey kiddo. How're you doing? You look good,"

"Thanks Zack. I'm better. Just waiting for my doctor to tell me if I can go back to PE or not yet. It's handy getting my homework done but so boring," I said.

"Sorry about that whole ... thing... last Friday," he said.

"It's okay," I said.

"Are you really okay? B told me you didn't handle it all that well,"

"I'm okay now. But yeah. It was hard when we didn't know anything."

"I bet. I'm sorry about that," he hugged me again, ruffled my hair, gently, and went back to the party.

Paige, Astrid and I mostly sat around the pool eating burgers and salads. Knox and Amelie came over with Breezy who I'd only met a couple of times, and while I was recovering from the beating.

"Guys, this is Uncle Brandon's daughter, Jessica," Breezy said. "How are you, hon?" She asked me, giving me a hug.

"I'm good. How are you?"

"I think I'm still recovering from last Friday. I'm glad Linda came over because I couldn't leave the kids, obviously. I wanted to be with you and your mom, but I also needed to know what happened to Dallon. What a night that was, huh?"

"Yeah. It was... not good for a while."

"Why is some of your hair shorter than the rest?" Knox asked me, looking at my head.

"I was... in an accident. And I hurt my head. So the doctors had to operate and fix my head. So they had to shave my hair so they could get to where they needed to fix," I said.

"Well said," Breezy said. "You're good at explaining to littles."

"I lived with, like, forty of them for five years," I said. "Every time I got sick and went to the hospital, I'd have to explain why to them when I got back."

"Oh, of course," Breezy said.

"How come you're so old?" Amelie asked. "Uncle Bwandon and Sawah didn't have a baby?"

"No. I grew up with different parents," I started, trying to figure out how to explain this without scaring them that the same could happen to Uncle Dal and Breezy. "But one day, my mom and dad got very hurt and couldn't take care of me anymore. So I went to live with people who took care of me until Brendon and Sarah came and picked me to come be their kid."

I hoped that would work.

"Where are your real Mommy and Daddy?" Amelie asked.

Breezy bent down to Amelie's level.

"First of all, missy, we need to be polite about the questions we ask," she said. "And second, Uncle Brendon and Sarah are Jessica's real parents now. Her other parents aren't alive anymore."

Well, that made that easy.

"Why?" Knox asked.

"Because Jessica's parents were in an accident and they died in it. Jessica got hurt but she got better. And now she's Uncle Brendon and Sarah's little girl, for real."

"Ohhhhb," Knox said.

And then the two kids wandered off in search of something else.

"Kids," Breezy laughed. "I'm sorry if that was awkward."

I shrugged.  Little kids have no filters. It's not their fault.

Breezy went off to make sure the kids weren't terrorizing the dogs or whatever little kids do.

Paige, Astrid and I watched my dad and his friends telling stories from the road.

He'd told me all the stuff they'd collected for me was with all the tour gear and he had a meeting in Monday, so he'd grab it all then.

Paige and Astrid's parents picked them up around 9, and I was feeling kinda tired, so I went up to bed. 

I must have fallen asleep pretty fast because Dad was calling my name and that woke me up. It was dark out.

"Jess?  Where are you?" He called.

"I'm here," I called out. He came into my room.

"You're in bed already?  Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah. Just tired," I said.

"Stayed up too late last night?" He smirked.

"I dunno," I said.

"Alright. I just wanted to check on you. Sleep tight. See you in the morning," he said, giving me a kiss on the forehead. 

I snuggled under my covers and was asleep before you could say 'boo'.