Welcome to the Queendom

Chapter Twenty

Ms. Daniella and Mr. Tyler were having their party outside at Eden Park. Before we pulled into its parking lot, we had came back to the hotel, well, Dean and I telling how we'd meet Jackson at the party, to change into our party gear. Dean sporting black dress pants and a pale blue button down and me advertising a white mid-thigh lacy dress with a brown belt around the stomach and heels that matched the belt. My hair was done in a braid that was rolled into a bun. We got out. I had to say that Eden Park was one of the best parks I've been too. There was a playground and a courtyard holding clumps of colorful flowers. There was also a huge open field toward the back of the park that was occupied by a huge white tent, the two flaps that were the entrance billowed in the breeze along with the skirt of my dress. Dean pulled one of the flaps aside and let me in first. The inside had the space of a house. There were two tables of food and drinks on one side, tables with elegant white cloths on top on the other, and a big wooden slab in the middle which I assumed was the dance floor. I wonder what type of music they listened to for dancing. I felt like a little kid, swimming in a see of people that were old enough to be my parents and had definitely seen, heard, and done more things than I.
"Hey." Dean put his and on the small of my back. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," I assured before clearing my throat. "Can I ask you something?" He nodded before gesturing over to an empty table. He pulled the chair out for me and sat down once I got settled in.
"What's up?" he asked.
I tried to keep my face impassive, but the smirk just wouldn't leave me be. "So," I began, "Jackson told me that whenever you guy talk, I come up a lot." Instead of looking up to see if the confirmation was in his face, I ran my index finger alone the silver edge of the plate.
"Uh...." Dean coughed awkwardly. "Well-"
"Jonny Cakes!" Dean and I snapped our heads up to see a girl with honey blond hair and baby blue eyes skip up to us. She was sporting a white ruffle blouse with a tan colored miniskirt and matching sandals. "How are you?!"
"Madison," Dean sputtered, red creeping up onto his face. "I didn't know you were going to be here."
"Your dad invited me," she stated. "He did always have a soft spot in his heart for me." She said it almost gloatingly.
"Hi," I greeted, holding my hand out for a shake.
She turned to me and sized me up with a hint of disgust before turning back to Dean, whipping her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously. Sensing that my presence was not wanted, I mutely excused myself and heading out of the tent. On the other side of the tent was where the real party was. All the grown grown ups were either standing around or talking at the picnic table by the water. I spotted the back of Jackson's dark chocolate head as he hunched over the end of a picnic table, messing with something. I walked up to him and plucked the back of his ear.
"What the....." But when he saw it was me, he smiled. "Hey," he greeted. "Where's Jon. I thought you two would be glued to the hip for the whole party."
"He's a bit distracted at the moment," I explained as I looked back at the tent.
"Talkin about Madison?" he asked, following my gaze. I nodded. "Yeah, I saw her go in."
"How does she know Dean?" I questioned.
"Ex, but he never really liked her. He just dated her for a couple of months because Mom thought she would be a great influence. It amazes me that she has a 4.5 GPA and still doesn't act all that smart." He shook his head a little before shrugging. "When Dean broke up with her, she went crazy and told everyone that he broke up with her over the phone to make it seem like he was a jerk. But people soon found out what really happened and everyone stopped talking to her. You know what the crazy thing about it was? After Jon graduated, Maddy stalked him for, like, five years straight. Can you believe that?"
"Wow," was all I managed to say as I sank onto the picnic table bench and played with a piece that went with the miniature radio Jackson was putting together. "Pretty determined about him."
"You mean obsessed about him," Jackson corrected. "That girl's crazy. We never liked each other."
"Hm."
"Chelsea!" I peeked around Jackson's body and saw Ms. Daniella, with 6 inch sand colored wedges, running up to me with a man following close behind. The only thing about Mr. Tyler that both Dean and Jackson possessed was his intimidating height, and chiseled featured. Jackson took his dad's eyes. "I'm so glad you're here!" She gave me a vise gripped hug before pulling away and looking around. "Where's my Jonathan?"
"In the tent," I answered.
"He's, uh, busy at the moment," Jackson said before snorting out giggles.
"Well, this is my boyfriend, Tyler Good, Jonathan and Jackson's father." With a hand between my shoulder blades, Ms. Daniella gently pushed me toward the eldest Good.
"Hello, Ms...."
"Chelsea," I finished for him as he took my hand and shook it.
"Ms. Chelsea," he said. "Very nice to meet you."
"Very nice to meet you, too, Mr. Good." I looked up at the sky, suddenly in need of a drink. "I'll be right back. Need a drink."
"Hey, can you bring me back a beer?" Jackson called out before I rounded the tent to go to the front side.
"Sure." When I emerged in between the entrance flaps, only Madison occupied the tent. Dean was nowhere to be seen. Madison was slumped in the seat that Dean had taken before, looking defeated. "Everything okay?" I asked as I made my way toward the food table and grabbed a beer from the metal ice-filled bucket on the ground, placing it on the table.
Madison whirled her head around to glare at me. "You," she spat accusingly, pointing a shaking finger in my direction. She quickly got up, knocking the seat back to the floor and advanced toward. I back up against the table and turned my head as the strong scent of strawberry gum hit my nose.
"I know you better get out of my face," I sneered.
"So you're the one that took Jonathan away from me," she said, ignoring my warning. She sized me up again. "Why would he chose you over me?" I didn't either bother protesting that Dean and I were just friends this time; it was getting tiring. "You know realization's gonna hit him, right? He'll realize the mistake he made by letting me go and come back, so you might as well enjoy your time with him while you can. You may not know this, but I," she stepped a little bit closer, "always get what I want." She stepped back and her menacing face brightened. "See you around," she said cheerfully before skipping out of the tent, leaving the scent of strawberry in her wake.
I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and wiped sweat off my brow. We haven't even been here that long and already I was getting threatened.

About 15 minutes later, all the guests were in the tent, filling up the tables. Dean had came back a little while after his ex, Madison threatened me, smelling like cigarettes.
"I didn't know you smoked," I had said to him.
"I haven't in years," he'd replied and that's when I realized that he didn't like Madison being here just as much as I.
As we were eating, Mr. Tyler and Ms. Daniella made their way onto the "dance floor," each holding up a flute of what looked like champagne. "Excuse me, everyone," Mr. Tyler said after clearing his throat. Everyone gave the couple their full attention. Well, everyone except, of course, Madison. She kept staring at Dean while twirling a strand of hair around her finger. Dean shuddered. "We have some announcements to make." Then he looked at Ms. Daniella.
"Well first of all, thank you all for being here and as you all know, or might have guessed Tyler and I are back together." Everyone clapped but Dean and Jackson, who was sitting on the other side of me, did it a little reluctantly. I, on the other hand, was very happy for them. "But that's not all the news we have to share," she said. Then she held up a decent sized diamond ring that I didn't notice her wearing before. It was eerily placed on her left ring finger. I looked back at the brothers who looked as if they had swallowed food they'd forgotten to chew first and were choking. "Tyler and I are getting married again!" All the women screamed as if they were still in high school and found out that their best friend was going to prom with the star quarterback of their football team. Mr. Tyler probably was one back in the day. The men whistled happily. Jackson looked as if he was about to fall out of his chair while Dean, scarily, looked apathetic and calm.
"Jackson," I whispered, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Everything all right?"
He nodded. "I think I need to lie down," he choked before placing his head on the table.
I turned to Dean and placed my hand over his, but his eyes never averted my way so I just held his hand, hoping that provided at least some comfort even though Madison looked as if she would leap over and tackle me any minute.
"But," Tyler said, calming the noise with a wave of his hand, "we have one more surprise."
Ms. Daniella put her hand on her stomach, her eyes brimming with happy tears. I guess Dean realized what she was about to say next, because he crushed my fingers. I heard a sickening pop. "I'm pregnant!"