Everything Changes: A Waitress musical fan fiction

Chapter 13

It was official. I hated flying. I started feeling nauseous halfway through the flight, and it didn't stop even after we landed. I spent the 10 minutes after we had landed puking my breakfast up in the airport's ladies room. Jim assured me it was just because of my hormones acting up, but that didn't stop me from hating the thought of air travel. "Are you sure we have to fly back?" I asked Jim as we waited by the terminal for a taxi. "Well, tickets are non-refundable, and it's round trip. So yeah, we do." I groaned. "I promise you is the last and only time I will make you fly." He told me. "Thanks." I said. "I'll remember that." Suddenly a taxi pulled up, and Jim hurried to flag it down. He and the driver exchanged some words, and we all climbed in, while Jim told the driver where we were going. Molly offered to sit up front, which Jim objected to, but she won out, so it was Lulu, Jim, and I in the back.
Lulu ignored me, as per usual, so I leaned back in my seat and relaxed. "Hey Jim?" I asked. "Yeah?" Do your parents know that, we, um...?" "What, no?! Are you crazy?! All they know is that we were friends back in the day, and that know we're dating." I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a short nap.
I was awoken by Jim shaking me, saying "Jenna, we're almost there." I shot up like a little kid and eagerly looked out the window. We were driving into a neighborhood that looked like it belonged on a postcard. The houses were huge, Tudor style houses, with large, healthy looking yards. Every house was surrounded by a fairly low lying dark brick wall, and most houses were shrouded by large oak trees that had leaves in any color you could imagine. To top it all off, everything was covered in a dusting of snow. "Lulu, look at houses? Aren't they beautiful?" She barely looked up before saying "Yeah, they're cool." I sighed and returned to looking at the neighborhood. "What's up with Lulu?" Jim whispered in my ear. "Hell, if I know." I replied. "She's been moody for weeks." "Could Earl have caused it?" "I don't know, maybe. Becky says it's hormones, but whatever it is, I don't like it." "Everyone's always asking me 'Don't you hate raising an 11 year old?' And I always say 'Nope! Lucky for me, Molly's still an angel." I laughed lightly and asked Jim as a joke if we trade kids. He laughed and said maybe, we'd just have to 'accidentally' grab the wrong one in the luggage line. I laughed for real and then suddenly gasped. The house we pulled up in was the prettiest of all. It was like all the other houses, but better. We all hopped out of the taxi and grabbed our stuff, before Jim paid the taxi driver and we all walked up to the house.
"Do you like it Lulu?" Molly asked. "I know it looks like every other house, but it's my grandma's, so it's extra special." "Yeah, it's nice." Lulu replied duly. Just before I walked up to the front porch, I grabbed Lulu's shoulder and turned her toward me. "Hey, I don't What your deal is lately, but we are guest in this house, so you'd better cut it out and at least pretend to act nice, okay?" Lulu sighed, but agreed to at least try. We both walked up to the porch, and Jim rang the doorbell. After a few moments the door opened, and an old women stepped out. She was wearing grandma jeans, and a nice red sweater, and her gray hair was swept up into a bun. "Hello!" She greeted in that typical grandma voice, accept it had a slight accent, that I assumed was Dutch. "Okay, well, let's see who's here. There's Molly, of course." She said, bending down to hug Molly. "And there's Jim, my one and only son, hello dear." "Hi Mom." Jim replied. "And then you must be Jenna!" She said, hugging me. "I'm Jim's mother, but you can call me Julie." "Hi, Julie, it's so nice to finally meet you." I replied, smiling. "And this must be Lulu! Molly's told me so much about you!" Julie said, turning toward Lulu. I nudged her and Lulu politely said hi back, giving a small smile.
             Julie ushered us inside, and I gasped when I saw the inside of the house. It was even more beautiful than the outside, with it's fancy furniture and wide open rooms. "So this is the entry room." Julie said as we walked farther into the house. "You can leave your bags here, we can get them later. Now, why don't we all go into the living room so we can relax and get to know each other."
We walked into the living room, which had beautifully paneled walls with dark red paint, plush green chairs and a couch, and a huge flat screen tv on top of an old looking tv stand. "So Jenna, how did you and Jim meet?" Julie asked me. "Oh well, we used to be friends a while back, and when the girls became friends we started hanging out more, and we realized we had a connection." I answered, slightly nervous. "Oh well that's just lovely." She beamed. "And Jim tells me you own a pie diner, how on earth did you end up doing that?" " Well, I didn't always own it." I began telling the story of how I started working at the diner.
"I was 19, just married and needed a job to help pay the bills. I saw an add in the paper that read Waitress wanted: Someone who can bake pies and wait on tables as well. $10 an hour. I had never waited before, but I thought it couldn't be that hard, and if there were pies involved, I could do it. So I went to the diner, which was called Old Joe's, and talked to the manager, Cal. He told me he'd give me the job, but he had to run it through Joe first. He got Joe to come up there, and while I waited, I met another waitress who worked there. Her name was Becky, she was 25, and she married straight out of high school. We talked and got along well, and we started talking about my hiring. Becky told me good luck, since Joe's hardly a crowd pleaser himself, and that's when I came up with my special pie for Joe, A Crowd Pleaser pie. I don't remember what I put in it, but I do remember Joe telling me that it was the best d*mn pie he had ever tasted, and that I was hired on the spot. I went on working there, baking pies and waiting tables. My life was fine, though my husband had turned out to be not the best kind of guy. 8 years later, and about 6 months before I got pregnant with Lulu, a girl showed up. She couldn't have been more than 21, and she was very nervous. She walked up to the counter and I went and asked her what she wanted. She said she wanted the manager, and I joked that she didn't have anything to complain about yet! That seemed to calm her a little, and I got Cal. She told him she needed a job, and that she could wait tables well. She got hired, and then we became good friends. Her name is Dawn, and along with Becky, we're all good friends. Right around the time Lulu was born, Joe tragically passed, but he left me a check to buy the diner. I got all my affairs in order, divorced my husband, bought the diner, and now I'm here."
"My, that's quite a story." Said Julie. "What's the diner called now?" "Lulu's." I said proudly. "I remember reading about it in the New York Times! I'll have to stop by sometime." "Yes, you should." I agreed. "Well, I'm sure everyone's hungry, let's go eat." Julie said. We all agreed and walked into the kitchen, prepared to eat what ever delicious thing Julie could have prepared.

Wow, that was long! How has everyone's week been? Mine has been fine. Bye, and thanks for reading!