Fear Town- The Chronicles

Chapter 3 (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?)

The doorbell rings.  Petra opens the door and greets her father-in-law and the family’s cousin Jake Tinsley.   “Hello, come on in guys.  Welcome.”  Petra said with a little smile on her face and signaling her hands to enter in the home.   As the guests entered the family room, they all said an uncomfortable hello to each other.   They all stood around just giving glances at each other until dinner was served.

The maids that cooked the meals rang the bell for everyone to come into the dining room.  Everyone entered the grand dining room and sat at the table in utter quiet and sheer awkwardness.  They all sat down and begin to eat their dinner.  Throughout the meal, Grandpa Louis, Petra, and Landon decided to talk about the brief subjects like the news, what everyone is up to, and mostly what’s going on in their businesses.

Everyone discussed the peak of their day and the pit of their day.  Petra and Landon’s peak were both that their business is still going strong and the pit is hearing about the atrocities in the news, wishing that there was peace in the world.  The other members of the family (excluding Grandpa Louis and Jake) shared their responses. 

“Well…The peak is that I am with my family enjoying this meal and the pit is that everyone isn’t as lucky to be like us.”  Pandora said sitting with her perfectly manicured hands folded and batting her eyes.   “Same.”  Penelope said looking down at her cell phone.   Abby rolled her eyes at their responses. Jake just kept his head slightly down and felt too uncomfortable to respond, thankfully he didn’t have to.   “My peak and pit…I got an A on my Math test and I missed the basketball tryouts.” Ian said.   Everyone just gave Ian a weird look and shook their heads.   “Oooo-k.  Abigail, what is your peak and pit of the day?”  Petra asked.   “My pit, Cheerleading session is almost over and my peak, I got an A+ on my Science test.”  Abby said.   “My dearest Abigail, you don’t do enough to have any kind of peak or pit.  You don’t have enough brains to have that privilege.”  Pandora said with a smirk on her face.   “Yeah and it’s peak and pit…not pit and peak dummy. Say it right.”  Penelope said.  The mother, father, twins, brother, and grandfather just looked at each other and chuckled at Pandora’s response to Abby’s answer.  “Oh, and you have?” Abby asked.  Pandora couldn’t give a clear answer, she just rolled her eyes at Abby and gave her a dirty look. 

Everyone carried on eating dinner and after dinner they all talked amongst themselves and relaxed.

During the dessert course, everything was quiet and calm until Landon and Louis started getting into an argument about how they both conduct business.  “If you would just listen to me, maybe your business would be as booming as mine was 40 years ago.  I’m a pro at this Landon, I know what I am doing.”  Grandpa Louis shouted.   “You always want things your way.  It’s never enough for you.  Your ideas, your designs…you act like you’re running my business.”  Landon said.   “Well, someone should run it, way better than you have been!  Things are going down the tubes.” Louis said.   “You never let me run the business like I want!  You always want to take over!”  Landon said.   “You can see where the twins get it from” Abby whispered to Jake, they both giggled silently.  After two hours, everything seemed to calm down.  The atmosphere felt uncomfortable, but calm because of the bickering.  Everyone was excused from the table and were left to their own devices.

Dear Journal:

I hope things don’t get crazy.  We have enough drama in the family…there’s even more drama on our family dinners than Thanksgiving & Christmas combined.  Angry words were said, some glass was thrown, feelings were hurt, silence, a little bit of conversation, laughter, than last goodbyes before the house is all quiet again.

Nothing is worse than being in the annoying presence of my family.  I mean, they’re my family and I love them, but they seem to be non-responsive in terms of any emotions and feelings …I’m sure they love me in their own way, it’s just that that kind of love is a little foreign to me.  I’m more into the kind of affection that you would see on TV sitcoms.  You know the kind…the family might go through some kind of troubles, there’s laughter, drama, wit, quirkiness, but they always get their act together in the end of the episode (well, most times).  The world is just not like that…you may get small little moments like that, but the world is cruel and disappointing.  It helps sometimes to escape to fantasy and just relax before getting back to reality.  Yay.

 It just sounds like such a grand time, doesn’t it?  Anyway, enough of the sarcasm…the rest of the night was okay.  All I did was finish studying for the test in my AP Science class, I love Science.  There’s no better place to be than alone with the universe.  It’s like there’s all the time in the world and you can imagine sitting on a cloud or some kind of universal seat and just losing yourself in your thoughts…or  in a book…or just relaxing.  Now who wouldn’t want to do that?  At least I would be free from my crazy, hectic life and I wouldn’t be alone.  It would be in great company with the sky, the stars, planets, and unknown neighbors of the universe and beyond.

Anyway, I’m babbling on…I have a Science test to go over and ace (I actually enjoy it a little…sad isn’t it?), so I need to get cracking on it.

Abby rolled her sleeves up on her long sleeved dark blue tunic top, organized her supplies, organized her study information, and opened her Science book.  She studied for a couple of hours taking in all the information and storing it in her brain.

As Abby was studying, she heard a knock on her door.  “Come in!” Abby said alarmingly.  In walked her cousin Jake.  “Hello.  Sorry I interrupted you.”  Jake said.    “Oh, hey Jake.  I didn’t know you were still here.  I thought you had left with Grandpa Louis.”  Abby said.   “No I told him to go on ahead, that I wanted to spend a little time with my cousin.”  Jake said.    “Aww, that’s so sweet.  Did he say anything about that?  Abby questioned curiously.  “Nope, he just nodded and left.  I guess the night was just too much for him.  He just needs a cool off.”  Jake said.    “Well, come on in and relax.” Abby exclaimed.

“How have you been? How have things been going?”  Abby inquired while switching from sitting in her desk chair to sitting on top of her bed.    “Things have been ok.”  Jake said nervously, but not enough for her to notice.    “Are you sure?”  You and grandfather seemed kind of tense with each other.  Almost aggressively.”  Abby said babbling on.   “Everything really is fine.”  Jake said interrupting abruptly.    “Ok, ok…I was just wondering." Abby said.

Anyway, what have you been up to?   You still drawing?”  Abby asked.    Jake exhaled comfortably as he sat down on Abby’s desk and then gave off a little smile at Abby’s question.    “Yeah, I’m still drawing.  I’ve even been selling a couple of drawings to some shops, independent dealers, and online.  Just trying to have some kind of business on the side.”  Jake said in quiet excitement.    “That’s great!”  Abby said.    “What about you?  You still into the fashion mag career thing?” Jake said.    “Yep, still on it.  You know me too well, I will always love talking about and exploring the world of fashion.”  Abby said in an excited voice that could not be contained. 

“That’s really good, you’ve always had a knack for that sort of thing.  Me, I don’t know what goes where concerning clothes.  I’m just pretty basic and plan to stay that way.”  Jake said.    “I always thought you knew something about fashion.  You always seemed to have things all put together, even now.  You just have your own look and it’s just effortless.”  Abby said.    “Yeah right, if it was a look it would be loner loser.  Hehe.”  Jake said jokingly.    “Oh don’t be so hard on yourself.  Just think of it as being unique.  We need  more of that this world.  Too many followers.”  Abby said.    “Now that’s something I definitely agree about.” Jake exclaimed. 

Jake looks at his watch and was shocked at the time.   “Well…I better get going, it’s getting kinda late. I really enjoyed talking to you. We should do this again sometime.”  Jake said getting up and stretching from the cushy chair.    “Yeah, that would be really great.  Hopefully sometime soon.”  Abby said as she got up from her bed to give Jake a hug.    “I’ll call you soon to see what our schedules are like to meet up and just hang out and catch up more.”  Jake said. 

“Ok cousin, speak to you soon.”  Abby said.    “See-ya.”  Jake said waving his hand to Abby.    “See-ya.”  Abby said to Jake waving her hand back.   Jake walked out of Abby’s room and closed the door gently behind him.

As soon as Abby heard Jake leaving down the stairs, she looked over her info for the quiz one more time and put her books away.  She quickly went to one of the three bathrooms down the hall (the nearest one from her room), brushed her teeth, brushed & wrapped her hair, and dressed for bed.  She got into her nice, warm, comfy bed and thought about all that has happened throughout the day.  A big smile came upon her face because of her cousin’s visit.  Her smile then turned into a small frown hoping he was ok.  She drifted off to sleep just thinking of everything and went slowly off to dreamland.