American Girl: Can't I Just Be Chloe?

Washington, D.C. was very boring. Sure, I’m in a city where a lot goes on, but that’s mostly political stuff. It’s completely boring for me. The fact is that I’m just not interested in it, despite the fact that my mother is a politician. I guess that without the Jonas family surrounding me, my life was definitely very boring. Almost two months had passed since I last saw any of my friends in California and my birthday was about five days away. So, that meant that the Jonas family—excluding Frankie—and the Geiger family was supposed to be coming out here to help me celebrate my sweet sixteen. Obviously, I could not bear to be around Frankie since everything that happened and everyone was aware of that. They weren’t going to have Frankie come if I didn’t want him to.

I sat around just flipping through the channels. Pretty soon, I found something interesting on E! I sat there and watched to find out what was going on in my best friend’s life since I left him and California behind. “…in other news,” the host was saying, “it seems that Drop/Slap member and Bonus Jonas, Frankie Jonas, has been hanging around with a new girl, two months after his break-up with Victoria Roberts. This one, Frankie says, is not supposed to be in a video with him. As most people already know, Drop/Slap’s latest video for their single, I never knew, was scrapped when it became public knowledge that ex-girlfriend Victoria committed fraud in order to get her father into a Senate seat that Jonas family friend, Chloe Fletcher’s, mother currently had. So, we wonder if this girl is Frankie’s new girlfriend or if this is just another family friend.”

The picture was of someone I recognized, the only girl that I would ever be okay with dating Frankie—something I told Zoe months ago—or marrying him: Dana Martin, Kyra’s half-sister. Dana was the one person that I really didn’t care about dating Frankie because it was Kyra’s half-sister. I sighed and continued flipping through the channels. “Well, good for Frankie and Dana. Frana would make a way better couple than Virankie ever was,” I said as my phone rang. I grabbed it and rolled eyes when I saw who it was. “Hi, Kyra.”

“Hey, Chloe. How’s everything out there?” Kyra asked.

“It’s okay,” I replied.

“I’m sure you’ve heard of Frana,” Kyra said.

My jaw dropped when I heard her say that. “Whoa. That is so weird. I was just watching that story on E! How could you have possibly known that I was doing that?” I asked her.

“A guess,” Kyra said. “So, are you okay with that? Are you okay with my half-sister dating Frankie? No one is really sure about that because there’s a chance that you could run into them, somewhere down the line. You never know what could happen in life.”

“Actually, Dana is the only person the world—other than me—that I am okay with seeing date Frankie. She’s your sister through your father. Because of that, I really don’t care about the fact that your half-sister is dating my best friend and crush. So, don’t worry about me; I’m fine with it. The fact is that I really don’t care. I mean, at least with Dana, it’s someone I’ve met and am okay with having around. I only did meet her once at your wedding, but you’ve talked with her often enough for me to know the type of person that your sister is.”

“So, you really are okay with it?” she asked.

“Of course,” I replied.

“That’s good to know,” she said. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in a few days. Selena wants to talk to me about something. I think it’s about how we’re going to get over there without taking a plane. I’m still pregnant and, as I’m sure you know, I can’t exactly get on a plane during my final trimester. So, we’re leaving in a day or two in order to get there on time.”

“How much longer do you have until Ella is born?” I asked.

“Maybe a week,” Kyra said. “Could be sooner?”

“So, you could have a newborn baby girl in your arms by the time you get to my sweet sixteen, huh?” I asked. I was wondering who was going to be around and what was going to be happening at my birthday party. This was just one of those things that I wanted to know about. Kyra was a friend, as well as Joe’s wife, and I wanted to find out when she had her daughter.

“Possibly,” she said. There was a short pause. “Oh, crap! Nope. She’ll be there. My water just broke and I need to go get Joe. Bye, Chloe. I’ve got a baby to go give birth to.”

I closed my phone and laughed at what was going on out there in California while I was away. This was going to be a very weird birthday and a hilarious reunion for me, the Geiger family, and the Jonas clan. From the looks of it, it was going to be me, my parents, Kevin, Garrett, Madison, Jason, Betsy, Teddy, Greg, Joe, Kyra, Quinn, Ella, Nick, Selena, Rebecca, Denise, and Paul. Aside from celebrating my birthday, we’d probably all be fawning over the newest addition to the Jonas clan. That was sure to be fun.

I was about to get up when my phone rang…again. This time it was Zoe. Not really a surprise, not in the least. “Hello, Zoe,” I said, letting out a heavy, almost exasperated sigh.

“Watch E! lately?” she asked.

“Uh, yes. Why?” I asked.

“Hear about Frana?” she asked.

“Obviously. And, with you having kept in contact with Dean, I’m sure that you already knew about Frana, yet neglected to ever mention it to me. You’ve probably known since this happened and I’m sure that you neglected to tell me about it because you were afraid that I was going to react to him dating Dana in the same way that I did with Victoria. Well, if it helps, Dana Martin was the girl I told you about a few months ago. She’s the only other girl in the world—other than me—that I would okay with seeing Frankie date.”

“It was her?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah. The only time that Frankie ever met Dana was at Jyra’s wedding, despite the fact that both Frankie and Dana were both at the concert that Kyra and Joe first met. I was surprised by the fact that they only really met once, but dismissed it because it really didn’t matter. Over the past six years, I got to know Dana through Kyra and can live with Frana. Now, you guys really do need to stop asking me about this. I’m okay with it. The fact is that I just don’t care about the fact that Frankie is dating Dana. Now, are you and your brother coming up here for my birthday?” I had grown close to Betsy’s cousins over the past few months and gotten to know them fairly well. So, it was possible that they would come.

“We may,” Zoe said. “You never know.”

“You had to be vague, huh?” I asked.

“Of course. Now, bye!”

Zoe completely hung up on me and I closed my phone. This was definitely going to be an interesting birthday for me. It was just five days away and I couldn’t wait until then.