Hope | One √

31

Its 3:15 and my mother just arrived, to pick Me, Alex, and Natasha up. She only saw my text at 2:50pm, I guess she was very much needed at her job.

"Hop in, my lovelies." she says, as she rolls down the window. As I entered the warm breeze of the car hit my face. It was warm. It was, well, nice. It was cold out, so who wouldn't want to warm up.

"So me and your father, were thinking these last couple of days, and since your out today and I'm off from work, and your dad is coming home early, and Beth is home watching cartoons. Why don't we round up around the fireplace and roast up some marshmallows and watch christmasy movies. How about it?" I looked at Alex, who had his mouth open, I chuckled at his expression, than looked over at Natasha who had the same face.

"Well I'm in." I say breaking up the silence, and apparently waking both Alex and Natasha up, from their daydreams. Alex nods. Natasha just sits their. Then it hits me. I think moms idea of a round up, was just for family. I'll fix that. "Mom, Natasha's family, she can come too, right?"

"Of course!" my mom exclaims in reply. I turn back to Natasha and she has a wide smile on her face. "We'll just have to look around together, huh?" I add and she nods.

"Well lets go to Walmart to buy some of our fire round-up, but first we will go pick up your sister."

*

Alex went to the front so Beth wouldn't have to sit on anyone's lap. "All set?" we all hum 'mhm's and my mom prays for the ride. Then we're off to Walmart.

Later on, after a thirty minute drive of singing and dancing in place to K-Love radio, we arrived at Walmart. Once we got out of the car, I realized that I washy worried or scared of the pain anymore. That aching pain that I had after the accident was gone and I'm not afraid of having it again. Armed, mom says that to hold my spine in place they had to place a metal rod inside me.

Even that isn't worrying me. All thanks to the big guy in the sky. Thank you Lord.

I smiled to myself and caught up with everyone. As I did, Beth was talking to mom, who was holding her in her arms. Mom is surprisingly strong.

Natasha was talking to someone on her phone and Alex was talking to no one, so I made my move. "Hey big bro." I said.

"Hey, lil sis." he says. "Have you decided on which college your going to?" I ask. Nothing else in mind to say, just that. Might as well say it, right? "I don't know, what I want to be majored in yet, but I'm starting to think on being a chef. Don't know where it came from, don't ask." a confused expression appeared on my face, as we entered Walmart's food section.

"Have you ever cooked?" I asked. He shakes his head. "Then how are you going to be a chef, if you never cooked." he shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know, I've seen mom cook, and I became interested."

"Well, if you never cooked, then try to think of something you have talent in and see if you can become a professional with it." he looked up, in a thoughtful way. "Nice advice, lil sis." he smiles. "No prob, big bro." I reply and look over at Natasha who signals for me to walk over to her. While Alex approaches mom.

*

After an hour of looking around Walmart we bought a little more than just food.

Our list:

Marshmallows
Roasted Almonds
Arizona iced tea
Chocolate syrup
Caramel syrup
Iphone 6 case (winnie the pooh shaped, couldn't pass it up)
Some shirts for Beth and Alex
A beanie for Natasha
Potato chips
Sour cream and onion chips
A sweater that said Reese's on it
A sweater with the same team my teddy bear had (aka my gifts are in the car, if you were wondering where they were.)
Pj's for the whole family (including Natasha)

And that's pretty much it.

A lot right? I was a little freaked out myself.

But everything with good prices. "Honey?" my mom called for me questioningly. "Yeah!" I exclaimed I was finishing up in the trunk, cause we paid and were all set to go have some fun. Natasha told her mom that she was sleeping over ( that's who she was on the phone with.) and so we were just putting everything in the trunk, to head home. Its seven and dads probably home by now.

"All set?"

"Yup!" I shut the trunk shut and entered the car. I prayed for the ride, and when I finished we headed home. Probably going to do the same things we did, coming to walmart.

Next Stop: Home.