Dreams of Tomorrow

“Well, it’s time for us to go…” said Billie Joe, rubbing his neck and getting up.

They had been sitting in the living room, talking about nothing and everything for hours, the 5 of them. Billie Joe and Adrienne sitting on one couch, Suzan and David on the other, and Athalya was sitting cross-legged on the floor, starring up at them.

Adrienne groaned.
“I was fine here, damn plane…” she muttered, getting up too. Athalya pushed herself off the floor and walked in the hall as Billie Joe and his wife said Good Bye to Athalya’s grandparents.

“Bye Athalya! It was really nice to meet you and I hope you’ll come to visit us soon!” said Adrienne, as she stood in front of Athalya, not knowing what to do. Athalya smiled at her, but couldn’t bring herself to take a step forward and hugged her, she just couldn’t.

“Thank you for coming, and for the kick ass T-shirt!” she said, smiling. Adrienne smiled and walked through the front door David had just opened.

“Bye Athalya!” said Billie Joe, waving at her. “And I hope to hear from you really soon!” he said, winking at her and then walking through the door.

“Thanks again for coming and a big Thank You to Tré and Mike!” she called out. Adrienne nodded as she got into the car they had rented. Billie Joe waved at her and Athalya stood on the doorstep until she couldn’t see the car anymore.

She let out a sigh and walked back inside, closing the door behind her, a big smile on her face.

“Oh my God…” she whispered, walking into the living room.

Her grandparents were sitting on the couch, smiling as Athalya let herself fall on the other couch.

“Woah…” she whispered, closing her eyes, her head hitting the cushions. “Just wow…” she mumbled, holding a hand to her forehead. “Wow…” she whispered, her eyes snapping open. She jumped off the couch and rushed to the table and picked up all her presents before running back in the living room area and sitting on the floor. She picked up her drumstick and tried twirling it between her fingers, a dreaming look on her face. The drumstick fell but she didn’t noticed, she starring out of space.

Her grandmother’s chuckle was what brought her back down to earth.
She blinked a few times,
“Huh?”

Suzan smiled,
“So, did you enjoy your birthday?” she asked.

“Oh yeah… oh yeah…” said Athalya, nodding. “An MJ CD, a GD T-shirt from Adie & BJ… Tré’s drumstick, Mike’s pick and pictures of them… One of the best birthdays ever…” she whispered, playing with the ring on her finger.

“I’m gonna call David.” She said, standing up. “Can I?” she asked, gathering her presents in her arms.

“Sure Athalya, and tell him we said ‘Hi’…” said David, smiling. Athalya nodded,

“Will do!” she said as she grabbed the phone and then headed to her room. She dropped her presents on her bed, put MJ’s CD in her player and then sat in the middle of her bed and typed David’s number.

She pressed the phone to her ear and waited for him to pick up. After two or three rings, she heard his voice.

“Allo?”

“David! C’est Athalya!” she said in the phone, a smile on her face.

“Happy birthday honey, how are you doing? How is the American life treating you?” he asked, his English accent making her scrunched up her nose but she kept on smiling.
David, her stepfather, was English but lived in France and she had always thought his accent was funny…

“Okay I guess… And thank you for the present!” she said, playing with her ring.

“You’re welcome Athalya, your mother wanted to give it to you for your 18th birthday, but I figured you’d like to have it now…” he said.

“Yeah, thanks David… How is everything going here?” asked Athalya.

“Life is pretty much the same, I mean, things are slowly going back to normal…” he whispered, sadness evident in his voice.

“Will you come and see us soon?” she asked, hopeful. “By the way David and Suzan said ‘Hi’ “she said.

“I’ll try, around Christmas…” said David. “I’m sorry Athalya but I have to go now…Thank you for calling, it was nice hearing you. I miss you and I’ll see you soon, alright?”

“Sure, thank you again David. Miss you too. Bye.” Whispered Athalya in the phone before ending the call. She got up from her bed and went to put the phone back on its base and then walked back in her room and let herself fall on the bed. She took the envelop from her pocket and held it against her heart. Her plane ticket to San Francisco…

If someone had ever told her she’d meet her hero, she’d have never believed it, and especially seeing that he was so nice. Like, super mega nice. She knew he was nice, because he just couldn’t be an asshole, but that nice, that was a surprise! An awesome one!

She sighed happily, a big smile stretching over her face. She closed her eyes and let out an other sigh. MJ’s voice was soothing her. She felt herself slowly drifting off to sleep.

**

“ HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” someone yelled, slamming the door against the wall.

Athalya sat up on her bed, her eyes wide and her heart pounding in her chest.

“Huh?” she asked, out of breath, scared to death and barely awake.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY ATHALYA!” shouted Jimmy, and Johnny as they jumped on her bed.

“Wh-what?” she asked, dumbfound. How did they know?

“Surprised, huh?” asked Jimmy, bouncing on her bed.

“Well, yeah…” she trailed off, rubbing her neck. “How did you know?” she asked, looking at Jimmy and then at Johnny, who was looking around.

“We ran into your grandmother at the mall, and she let it slip that it was your birthday…” explained Jimmy.

“What he forgot to say is that he freaked out because you hadn’t told him…” said Johnny, smirking.

“Yeah yeah Shortshit, just shut up! I’m the one telling the story… So anyway, she invited us over for dinner and here we are!” he said, clapping his hands.

“But it’s like, 3pm…” she said, yawning. Jimmy and Johnny both chuckled.

“It’s close to 7pm Athalya, I guess you fell asleep for a while…” said Johnny.

“And the others must be getting impatient downstairs!” said Jimmy as he jumped off the bed.

“The others?” asked Athalya, uncertain.

“Yeah, Val, Michelle, Matt, Justin, Zacky and Brian.” Explained Johnny, nodding and counting on his fingers.

Athalya’s face got paler.
“But why?” she asked.

“Because you are our friends…” said Jimmy and held his hand up to stop Athalya from protesting. “You are becoming a part of the group, everyone likes you. So shut up and let’s go. And you should be thankful the Berry brothers couldn’t make it!” said Jimmy, opening the door.

Athalya jumped off the bed and ran a hand through her hair.
Jimmy left first, then Johnny and Athalya followed them. As the three of them entered the living room, they were greeted by a very loud “Happy Birthday Athalya” coming from everyone.

Athalya blushed and smiled at them, “Thanks” she mumbled, looking at her socks.

“We brought you something!” said Michelle, smiling. Athalya’s head snapped up and she opened her mouth to protest but Jimmy pushed her all the way to the couch and made her seat down.

“And sit still or I’m sitting on you!” he warned, pointing his finger at her. She chuckled but stayed still.

“It’s nothing big since we had no idea what to get you, but we hope you’ll like it.” Explained Michelle as she handed Athalya a present wrapped in purple.

Athalya slowly opened it, feeling all eyes on her. It was a T-shirt. She took it and held it in front of her, a smile on her face.

“We hope you like purple…” quickly said Val, glaring at Brian. “He picked the purple one…” explained Matt, rolling his eyes and resting his head on top of Val’s shoulder as she kept glaring at Brian.

“And we picked this one, because we thought you’d like to have something to remember the beautiful town you were in when you went to stay in the USA.” Explained Jimmy. Athalya smiled brighter and looked attentively at the purple T-shirt.

‘Huntington Beach, CA’ was written in black bold letters on the front of the T-shirt. ‘I was there’ was written underneath, in smaller characters.

“Thank you guys! I love it!” said Athalya, truthfully.

“Next one!” yelled Jimmy, and he handed her a paper bag.

“I was too lazy to wrap it up, hope you don’t mind…” was his lame apologize. Athalya shook her head and opened the bag.

“Jimmy said it was a little bit too French in your room, so…” explained Michelle as Athalya held out an American flag in front of her.

“And there’s more in that bag!” explained Val.

“You seriously didn’t need to…” but once again, Athalya was cut off, by Matt this time.

“We wanted too Athalya.” He said, smiling his dimpled smile, which made Athalya smiled back and she opened the bag.

“Peanut butter and Skittles?” she asked, chuckling.

“Yeap, you never ate it I bet. You just need to try!” said Jimmy, nodding to himself.

“Alright, thanks…” chuckled Athalya and then looked into the bag again and took out a small replica of the Statue of Liberty.

“Jimmy said you had the Eiffel Tower like that, he kept rambling how too Frenchie it looked, so yeah, we thought you’d like to have a more American type of vibe in your room…” explained Michelle.

“Ence the empty Starbucks’ cup?” asked Athalya.

“Yeap, that was Johnny’s idea.” Said Matt. Athalya smiled and put everything on the coffee table.

“Thank you guys, really. You didn’t had to, but I really appreciate it!” she said with a huge smile. They all smiled in return.

“Do you want to drink something?” Athalya asked, sitting up and looking at her ‘friends’ that were taking over her living room. “I got coke, orange juice, lemonade, and beers.” She added.

“Beers!” was the reply from almost everyone.

“Me and Justin need to get going, we just stopped by to wish and happy birthday…” explained Zacky. Athalya’s face fell a little.

“Oh, alright…” said Athalya as she walked them to the front door. She opened it for them.

“Thank you for coming by guys, and for the presents too!” she said, smiling at them. Justin and Zacky both smiled.

“We kind of wanted to apologize again for the way we’ve been treating you.” Said Justin.

“It’s okay, you’re forgiven.” She said. They waved and Athalya closed the door after them and went back in the living room.

“So, what do you guys want?” she asked.

“You said you had beers…” started Michelle, “but we’re al under age, and your grandparents don’t mind?” she asked, voicing the question that was in everyone’s mind, except for Jimmy.

“My grandmother is French, she was born and raised there, until she met my grandfather and came live here. In France, legal age to buy beers is 16/17. And the legal drinking age is 18, so how old are you?” asked Athalya.

“We’re all 18, except for Johnny.” Said Matt.

“Then you can drink, let’s just pretend you’re in France.” She said before disappearing in the kitchen. She came back with 5 beers and put them on the coffee table before she turned to look at Brian.

“And you, what do you want to drink?” she asked.

He blinked and looked at her, “Sorry I spaced out for a moment I guess…” he apologized, rubbing his neck.

“No problem, so do you want a beer or something stronger?” she asked.

“Uh, beer sounds cool…” he mumbled.

“Alright…” she said with a nod and disappeared in the kitchen.

“Dude, you spaced out for a while, what’s wrong?” whispered Jimmy.

“Nothing…” mumbled Brian, rubbing his temple.

**

“Thank you for the dinner Suzan, it was awesome, even better than last time!” said Jimmy, as he hugged Suzan.

“You’re welcome Jimmy, and remember that the door will always be open for you.” Said Suzan. Jimmy smiled down at her, seeing that he was about a head taller than she was.

“Thank you for inviting us!” said Michelle and Val. Suzan and David just smiled at the group of friends as they exited the kitchen and headed to the hall.

“Thank you guys for coming, and for the presents!” said Athalya, smiling.

“You’re welcome Athalya!” said Matt, ruffling her hair on his way out, dragging Val along with him.

“Bye Frenchie! See you at school!” said Michelle and Johnny, before walking out of the house too.

“Hey Jimmy, where are you staying tonight?” she asked, looking at him suspiciously.

“At Gates’…” he replied, pointing at Brian from over his shoulder.

“Okay then, you’re free to go.” She said with a short nod. Jimmy laughed and patted her head.

“You’re a funny one Athalya, I like you.” Randomly commented Jimmy. “Bye Athalya, see you at school on Monday!” he shouted, before dragging Brian outside.

“Bye guys, thanks again!” she said, standing at the doorway.

“Bye Athalya!” both said Brian and Jimmy, before disappearing down the hall.

Athalya closed the door behind her and rested her back against it, letting out a sigh.

“They are really nice.” Commented Suzan as she appeared at the kitchen doorway, with a smile.

Athalya nodded.
“Yeah they are…” she whispered, pushing herself off the door and looking at the presents that were still on the coffee table.

“I like that Jimmy kid.” Said David, smiling.

“I know Papy, I know.” Said Athalya, shaking her head, smiling. “Well, I’m going to bed now, I barely get any sleep last night…” added Athalya as she hugged both her grandparents, before gathering her presents in her arms and walking back in her bedroom.

She closed her door with her foot and then dropped her presents on the bed.

She put MJ on and then proceeded on unfolding the American flag. She smiled, it really meant a lot to her that they bought her presents.

She climbed on her bed and took off the French flag. She put the American flag on the right side, and then the French flag on the left side. So when you looked at her bed and the wall above it, it looked like it was separated in the middle. French side on the left, and American side on the right. Then she placed the empty Starbucks and the miniature of the statue of Liberty on the bedside table that was on the right side.

“That will do it…” she whispered.

She put everything else on her desk, too tired to do anything else. She grabbed her PJs from under her pillow and went to the bathroom that was a few doors down from her room.

When she got out, all ready to go to bed, she slide under the covers, took the envelop BJ gave her and starred at it for a few seconds, replying the scene in her head. She put it carefully on her bedside table, left side. And switched off the light. She fell asleep almost instantly as soon as her head hit the pillow.