“That’s why I opted to run myself through a Xerox any time I wanted another child,” Beverly chuckles. She tilts her head as she considers my modified dolly. “That thing really work?”

  “Give it a try,” I reply as I stack the last box labeled ‘Pots & Pans’ on top.

  Following Beverly into the house just in case I misjudged the weight of the boxes, I laugh at her look of amazement.

  “Holy smokes!” she cries as she’s pulling the dolly up the stairs of the porch with ease.

  “Mom’s on box detail!” Tonya calls out with a laugh. Many of our siblings join in on the laughter but continue to grab boxes from the back of the moving truck.

  “Guess what, Pierce,” Gabby says as I’m loading the next stack of boxes.

  “What’s that, Miss Gabby?”

  “My bathroom is all pink! The tub, the toilet and the sink too. How wicked is that?” she exclaims excitedly while waiting on me to find a box small enough for her to carry.

  “Totally wicked,” I chuckle as I hand her a box.

  “Aw, schucks. It’s Vic’s stuff,” she complains, looking at the label on the box.

  “Hey now. Those are my CDs. You better be careful with them,” Vic scolds as she comes to grab one of the boxes I’ve set off to the side as the lighter ones.

  “Yeah, yeah. Be nice. Don’t touch. Today is the only day I’m ever allowed in your room. I heard you the first eighty times,” Gabby grumbles as she marches past her older sister.

  “And that is why Gabby and I are the ones sharing a room,” Tonya laughs.

  “Oh?” I ask as I follow Tonya into the house.

  “Yeah. There are only three bedrooms upstairs, so someone had to double up. I guess it’s the age gap, but any other combination of sharing would have ended up in huge fights.” She pauses to glance around. “Mom doesn’t need that kind of stress.”

  “Pierce, my room is up here,” Gabby calls from the top of the stairs.

  “Are you going to keep me from getting lost?” I tease as I drag the boxes of her belongings up the stairs.

  Gabby rolls her eyes. “Whatever.” Once we’re in the room, Gabby looks up at Tonya. “Can I show him our room?”

  Tonya shrugs. “No skin off my nose, little homie. Just don’t take too long because we need to have that truck completely empty before the mover people show back up.”

  “Don’t have a cow, Tonya. Pierce will get it done. Won’t you, Pierce?”

  Tonya and I share an amused look at Gabby’s utter confidence. “Let’s do like Tonya says and make it quick. If we can get done early, your mom will be less stressed,” I tell the little girl.

  Gabby immediately starts running around the room. “Tonya and I have the biggest room because there’s two of us, but only one of Vic and Angel. They have to share a bathroom that’s in the hallway. It’s blue. Tonya and I get our own bathroom that no one else can use because it’s in our room. We also get our own closets. Tonya needs to get more clothes because hers got messed up. Mom bought us bunk beds, but we’re not going to make them bunk beds because the room is so big we don’t have to. If we had to make them into bunk beds, Tonya was going to let me sleep on top. Tonya let me pick the sheets. I picked some rad pink and green and blue ones. It even has matching curtains. Mom tried to give us lace ones but I like the ones that match the sheets better.”

  “Pause,” Tonya laughs, tapping her kid sister on the head. “That might be a bit much to take in. How about we invite Pierce back after we’re done unpacking so he can see your bodacious fashion sense for himself?”

  Gabby starts bouncing on her toes as we leave the room. “Mom said that if we get everything unpacked and put away just right, we can go skating at the Rinky Dink next weekend. Tonya says we can do it. Do you want to go with us, Pierce?”

  I stop halfway down the stairs. “You know, I’ve actually never been roller skating.”

  In true Gabby form, she doesn’t belittle or think it’s weird. “That’s okay. Tonya can teach you. She teached me.”

  “Taught,” Tonya corrects while ruffling Gabby’s hair.

  “I know that. I said it wrong on purpose to annoy you,” Gabby grins.

  “Hey, can we all take a quick break so I can get a picture of everyone?” Angel asks.

  Robbie steps forward to say something to Angel, but Tonya quickly pulls him off to the side. “The best way to get in my sister’s good graces is to step off. Let her approach you if and when she’s ready. You keep invading her space and she’s going to make you regret it,” she quietly tells him.

  “Oh, thanks. The last thing I want to do is upset my mate,” he replies.

  “Mate?” Tonya asks.

  I quickly step in before my brother says something we’ll both regret. “I’ll explain later.”

  Tonya looks at the growing crowd and nods.

  “...I can’t believe we lucked out at finding a house at such a reasonable price, especially one that was just remodeled,” Beverly gushes as she comes out to the porch.

  Mom nods. “I was talking to Marvin about your banquette with the storage under the seats. That would be amazing for breakfast now that the kids are on summer break.”

  “Mothers!” Vic half-scolds with a grin. She laughs when my mom tilts her head. “You fed me, that means you’re stuck.”

  Mom crosses her arm and gives Tonya’s sister a shrewd look. “What if I want to discuss the benefits of glass blocks in a kitchen?”

  “If you want to talk about the pretty-factor, I’m your girl. If you want to talk about the science-y, build-y side of the deal, you should talk to Angel,” Vic answers with a wide grin.

  “Everyone, stop yacking and get in place,” Angel orders as she fiddles with a camera on a tripod. We quickly settle in, and she hollers, “Okay, picture in three…” She clicks a button on the camera and dashes to her mom’s side. “Two… Cheese!”

  Chapter 4

  Tonya

  After Angel’s picture, we double down and make quick work of the rest of the stuff in the moving truck. I’m thoroughly convinced that Pierce’s funky contraption is the only reason we got all the boxes out with time to spare. Even with thirteen people, moving boxes one at a time is time consuming.

  “Hey Mom, do you think we'll have the TV and VCR hooked up in time to record The Facts of Life?” Angel asks as we mill about outside, anxiously waiting for the movers to come back for their van.

  “I don’t know, but I'll make an exception for today and let you stay up and watch it,” Mom replies.

  “I want 21 Jump Street and Werewolf, so we have to have the VCR set up by tomorrow,” Vic chimes in.

  “Werewolf?” David asks.

  “Oh, yes. It's about this radically hot dude named Eric who got bit by a werewolf and how his life changes and he's always on the run and stuff. You should totally check it out,” Vic gushes.

  “That’s on cable, right?” Jenny asks.

  Vic nods. “Yeah. Tonya’s paying for us to have cable and the company was able to set it up yesterday. Do you like werewolves?”

  David shrugs. “We tend to make fun of werewolf movies and TV shows, but they aren’t all bad.”

  “I want Small Wonder!” Gabby pipes up, desperate to not be left out.

  “What are your shows?” Pierce asks me.

  “I'm a Friday night gal, Beauty and the Beast followed by Max Headroom,” I chuckle.

  “What about you, Robbie?” Angel asks, making the young man grin.

  Robbie glances at me before answering, “I like MTV. A bunch of us do.”

  Vic laughs. “Mom hates it when we watch MTV because we always end up doing the dances.”

  “No, I don’t think it’s appropriate for a young lady to dress like Madonna. I don’t mind if you do the dance moves,” Mom corrects.

  “You mean, these moves?” Michael asks before doing the hand movements from Vogue.

  Christine rolls her eyes. “We should show them the Thriller dance. That’s the mega wicked one.”

  Gabby jumps up and down. “We know that dance too.”

  I look at Pierce. “Are you included in the ‘knowing how to do the dance’ group?”

  Pierce shakes his head. “Are you?”

  “You better believe it,” I smirk. Turning to the group, “Who has music?”

  “I’ll be right back,” David says before dashing to his house. He’s back in record time with a boombox. “We’re in luck. Thriller is ready to play.”

  Jenny rolls her eyes. “Might as well tell them that we’re all backup dancers for Christine’s school talent show next year, so we’ve been practicing a Michael Jackson montage.”

  Gabby gets excited before her shoulders sag. “It’s too late for me to join, isn’t it?”

  Christine looks at Michael. “We can fit Gabby in, can’t we? Can we make it where I do some of Michael Jackson’s parts and Gabby can do the others?”

  Michael taps his chin and pretends he’s thinking deeply. “Well, school hasn’t even started yet, so that’s not an issue. How about we let Gabby do the Michael role for this one and see what we’re working with. Fair?”

  Christine squeals and wraps her arms around Michael’s waist, with Gabby close behind. “Thank you!” both girls cheer.

  “Let’s line up,” Michael says, awkwardly returning their hugs.

  I get into the back of the triangle of dancers. Just as Christine starts the opening move with her shoulders, a brown pickup pulls into the driveway. The air is thick with tension as the driver from this morning gets out of the truck. Rather than the burly assholes that accompanied him this morning, he has a lone teenager who looks scared to even be here. Heaven only knows what that jackass told him was going to happen. While the gangly teen gets out of the truck, he hangs back.

  “Y’all give up on unpacking? Like I told you earlier, unless you come up with the five-hundred unloading fee, we’re taking off with the truck and you’re going to forfeit whatever belongings are still in the truck,” he says before spitting a wad of tobacco onto the driveway.

  “Were you raised by wolves?” Angel sneers.

  Robbie gives the driver a look of disdain while answering Angel. “Excuse me, I was raised by wolves and even I have better manners than to spit on another person’s driveway.”

  “That’s not a very nice thing to say about your parents,” Vic scolds, but David starts howling which is quickly followed by his siblings joining suit. I have to hide my laughter behind my hand when both Joan and Marvin join in with the howling as an obvious attempt to shame the driver. I’m exceedingly surprised when the teenager throws his head back and adds his voice to the fray. I can only shrug when my sisters add to the ruckus as well.

  Pierce steps forward which immediately stops the howling. “Is that the name of your company?” he asks, nodding towards the ‘Best Movers’ logo on the side of the truck.

  “What’s it to you?” the driver asks before again spitting on the driveway, this time very close to Pierce’s feet.

  “Do you happen to have a bid with Midcity Engineering to move them to a new location?” Pierce asks.

  The driver scowls at Pierce’s casual tone. “Yeah. Boss has been working with some guy named Lunar or something like that.”

  “Pierce de Luna?”

  The driver starts looking worried. “How did you know that?”

  “Because I’m Pierce de Luna. I’ll show you my driver’s license if you need proof.”

  The driver blanches. “Mr. de Luna… I don’t know what she told you, but she shorted us five bills.”

  Pierce crosses his arms and subtly flexes, making his broad form even broader. “Very odd since one of your main selling points was that every cost is covered in the contract and there are no surprise fees.” He turns to my mother. “Beverly, were you told that all costs were covered in the initial contract? I want to know if there are different rules for personal versus business ventures. Especially since this is going to be a very extensive move for us.”

  Beverly smirks at the panicked driver. “Actually, I was told that all costs were paid before they even packed up my house to begin with. It wasn’t until after this man discovered that I was divorced that he decided he wanted more money.” She puts on an overly innocent expression. “I believe you said it was an additional fee because I’m not woman enough to keep a man, right?.”

  “You misunderstood…”

  “No!” Pierce barks, cutting the man off. “You misunderstood. And as a start to clearing up the misunderstanding, I do believe you have a mess to clean up.”

  “Trevor…”

  “I said you have to clean up,” Pierce reiterates coldly while freezing the teenager with a glance.

  The driver looks around at everyone, trying to find someone to be on his side, but we all stare him down. He dug his own grave. “I don’t have nothing to clean it up with,” he finally whimpers.

  “You have a shirt on, don’t you?” I say blandly.

  He looks at Pierce in horror.

  “You heard the lady,” Pierce says while clasping his hands behind his back. I don’t even bother to hide my smile when he flashes a thumbs up as that jackass driver starts unsnapping his work shirt, revealing a very stained undershirt. Seriously, that thing looks like it’s never even been acquainted with a washing machine, much less soap.

  After he cleans up the driveway he turns to Mom. “Do you need help unloading your belongings, ma’am? I can get my guys and be back in an hour tops. No charge or nothing.”

  Mom waves him off. “I’ve not only lucked out to have an amazing house, I’ve also been graced with the most amazing neighbors. Because of them, you can take your truck and never darken my doorstep again.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He bobs his head a few times before heading to the moving truck. “Sorry about the misunderstanding,” he says as he goes. He glances at Pierce but decides against whatever it was that he was going to say. He throws his shirt in the bed of the pickup before climbing into the cab of the moving van.

  Trevor watches the large truck speed away before cautiously approaching my mother. Holding out his hand, he says, “Ma’am, my name is Trevor. Trevor Best. Best Moving is my uncle’s company, and I can assure you he had no knowledge of what William was doing. On his behalf, how can I make this right?”

  Mom returns his handshake. “As your company never unloaded my belongings, I’d like that part of my money refunded. Otherwise, just make sure that man doesn’t pull any more of that nonsense with anyone else.”

  “You have my word.” Trevor waves at the rest of us and gets into the truck.

  “Anyone else thinking Chinese?” I ask after Trevor pulls out of the driveway, laughing when everyone starts talking over each other as they discuss what they want. “Two of everything?” I laughingly ask Joan.

  “Let me get my purse,” Mom says, but I wave her off.

  “I got it.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks in typical, worried-Mom fashion.

  I grin. “Totally. You see, my landlord is the raddest of the rad and I don’t have to pay a deposit, just my first month’s rent which, by the by, is beyond wicked reasonable.”

  Mom shakes her head. “Oh, can you please put gas in the van on your way?”

  I groan but nod. “Yes, I will power up the overgrown Dust Buster on my way for grindage.”

  “Want me to go with you?” Pierce asks. “I can help carry food,” he adds.

  “Word,” I grin.

  Chapter 5

  Pierce

  My heart leaps when Tonya says I can go with her.

  “I’ll be right back,” Tonya says, dashing into the house.

  “One thing. The driver’s door on the van doesn’t open from the inside. So, Tonya will either have to crawl over to the passenger side, or you’ll have to open the door for her,” Beverly tells me.

  I nod while trying to think of what could be wrong and how to fix it.

  Vic comes over. “Fair warning, Tonya doesn’t like it when you scream in fear at her driving.”

  Tonya sighs in annoyance as she comes out of the house. “That’s because I’m not a bad driver.”

  We get into Beverly’s van and Vic continues her antics. “Bye. Hope we see you in one piece upon your return.” She accompanies her melodramatic tone with a hand wave.

  Tonya rolls her eyes at her sister and pulls out of the driveway. Heaven is a Place on Earth comes on the radio again.

  “What does this song make you think about?” I ask, wanting to know more about the inner workings of Tonya’s mind.

  Tonya laughs. “If you had asked me yesterday, I’d have said werewolves.”

  “For real?”

  “Well, there are the lines about how he only comes out after dark and how they can hear the kids outside. To me, that sounded like a werewolf. Now, I think I’m going to have to change up my answer. How does vampire sound?”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” I laugh.

  “What did you think it was about?” she asks.

  “Sex. Specifically how getting off makes you think you’ve reached the heights of heaven.”

  Tonya shrugs. “Guess my experiences have been different in that department. I’m going to head to the service station corner of Seventh and Park because they’re full service and the door over here doesn’t work right.”

  “Your mom said it doesn’t open from the inside. If you want to stop somewhere else, I can pump the gas for you,” I reply, allowing her to change the subject from one that clearly upsets her.

  Tonya smiles at me as she changes lanes. “While I appreciate the offer, this place is on our way, and I don’t like the place up the road.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “It’s the one my dad owns,” she bites out before taking a deep breath. “I left home on my 18th birthday because of him. I was still in high school, but that didn’t matter. It was always his way or the highway, and because there was never any telling what his way was going to be on any given day, I chose the highway. Vic was on her way to choosing the same. Thankfully Mom finally filed for divorce.” She shakes her head. “Let’s just say we’re all much better off without him in our lives. Gabby, especially.”

 

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