GROWN UPS (Book 1)

4.

Third person's pov

The five best friends sat on their chairs in silence. Eric's dog started barging, interrupting the peaceful silence.

"So what's with that Labradoodle? It sounds like Stephen Hawking or something." Higgins said to Eric. "Well, Curly had his vocal chords clipped. A neighbor filed a complaint so it was either clip the chords or put Curly down." Eric answered and the dog started barging again.

"Wrong choice." Kurt said with a chuckle. "Come on, he's part of the family. Plus the kids love him. Especially Alex." Eric said.

"Imagine when a burglar comes overand hears that he must run in terror. Wow, what's that turkey doing in the house?" Lenny joked making everyone laugh.

"By the way Lamonsoff. Your son. What's up with the boobie thing. Is the kid a little old?" Higgi asked.

"Yeah, he's going to get a milk moustache on a real moustache. That won't look right." Lenny joined.

"That kid, when he's ten on his bike The Mom's going to be in the basket he's going to be like..." Higgins said and laughed with the others.

Then a shout was heard. "Yes!" Everyone turned around in the direction of the sound and saw Eric's daughter playing basketball. Then Lenny's kids were heard from inside playing their video game. Again.

"Why are they inside right now anyways? Why would they not come out here and enjoy the lake or do something in the woods or play basketball like Alex. There wasn't a time of day that I wasn't outside!" Lenny complained to his friends.

"We weren't, we were always out-we were never in." Eric said. "I can't take it anymore!" Lenny said and stormed into the house.

"Oh, he's being a Dad"

"Look at this He's going to do it?"

His friend started joking around.

"All right, that's it no more video games. No more cell phones no more texting." Lenny said as he carried his two sons outside. "Just from now on, while we're here stay outside and play." He said as he put them down.

"What are we supposed to do?" Lenny's older son Greg said in an annoyed tone. "Just play like normal kids! Come on, move it. Hey Alex come on we're going for a walk!" Lenny shouted at the girl.

The five adults and the eight children started walking around.

"Hey Greg, When we were kids, your Dad used to talk us into doing the craziest stuff!" One of the adults said.

"That's right! I remember one time we got our shower curtains and put them in shopping carts
and went shopping cart sailing." Kurt said unlocking a memory and laughed with his friends.

"Wait, how did you steer?" Alex asked curiously.

"Well, we didn't." They answered her question. "Then how did you stop?"

"You just mashed into something that was the fun part!"

"And we used to shoot bottle rockets at each other! You always go for the guys face because you want to blind him!" Higgins added.

"Okay that's a little much pal." Robbie whispered to him trying to stop him.

"No I know-kids, don't do that. You don't uh...Erase, reboot." Higgins said.

"Look, look make a tree fort. I'll get you started!" Lenny said excited as he picked up a branch.

"Rob lived in one of those for a year." Eric said trying not to laugh.

"Why?" Greg asked. Robbie looked down ashamed before he answered. "My Dad took away my roller skates."

"Uh oh, vietnam flashback." Higgins whispered and Alex started laughing.

"Wait a minute. Are you kidding me?!" Lenny shouted, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Rope on a tree baby! You know what that means.."

"We get to hang ourselves?" Charlotte said. Lenny gave her a look before saying. "Are you kidding me? You see a rope and a lake and that doesn't make you want to go nuts?" Lenny finished.

"You know what?" Eric interrupted. "Let me go!" He made his way to grab the rope but his daughter stopped him. "Dad please you're going to break a bone or somthing. Besides you did it once." She said a pointed her finger at him. "But I didn't." She said and pointed her finger at herself. Eric's jaw dropped at the sudden confidence of his daughter. Everyone started cheering for her.

"Dude! Get up on the top rock.Yeah, yeah top rock!" Higgins suggested to the girl and Alex grabbed the rope and got up on the top rock.

"You got to back it up! Back it up!" Lenny shouted. Alex took a few steps back. She started running and jumped off the rock.

"Whoo!" She shouted as she dropped into the water. She quickly came up and saw everyone shouting excited.

She got out of the water and stood next to the others.

"Now that my daughter's done it. I wanna do it too" Eric said and climbed onto the rock. Alex tried to stop him but he didn't listen.

He stepped back and ran and jumped off the rock.

"Too high!" He shouted panicked.

"Drop! Drop dad!" Alex shouted.

Eric hit onto the tree and then onto the ground. Ouch.

"That was awesome!" Keithie said.

"Oh God!, Oh God-my leg snapped! Oh my God! I have a bone sticking out! Oh God! I need help!" Eric shouted in pain and Alex quickly ran towards him to see if he's alright.

"It's a stick!" He said showing the stick and started laughing. Alex grabbed the stick from his hand and started beating him with it. "Are you crazy? I was worried about you!" She said angrily. "Yeah I'm fine not me getting beaten up by my own daughter with a stick." He said.

"Daddy look! That bird is hurt!" Becky shouted and pointing at the bird behind the Lamonsoff daughter and father.

"Oh my god. I'll go get a shoebox." Lenny said and ran towards the house. Alex followed Lenny to the house in order to get changed. Little did she knew that she caught someone's attention.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa here you go." Higgins said as he grabbed Eric's hand trying to help him. "Hey did you really land on that bird, man?" He asked.

"I'm not sure? I...I did hear a chirp, and then a "crunch" like noise but uh...that could have been anything."