Green Porcupine

"Ramona, are you ready to go?" I ask her as I look up at the airport clock.
"Yup," she says giving her mom one last hug.
"Bye Lisea," I say as I walk with Ramona to the gate.

On the plane we sit side by side and wait patiently for the stewardess to finish the safety check.
"I'm glad you're coming to the reunion, I hate flying alone," Ramona says, looking up at me.
"To tell you the truth I hate flying alone too, it's just awkward," I say, laughing. The rest of the flight has little conversation. Ramona is content in watching the film and I was happy to have time to read. We get to the airport in Oakland and see Tre and Frankito waiting impatiently.
"Ramona, B.B.!" Frankito exclaims as he comes running toward us with open arms. At the sound of Frankito calling me B.B. I shoot an angry look towards Tre.
"What? He asked me if you had a nickname," he says innocently. "I could tell him the whole nickname," he says, smirking evilly as he goes to hug Ramona.
"Hey Frankito," I say as I give the small child a hug.
We all pile into Tre's SUV.
"So where's the reunion barbecue being held," I ask as we drive away from the airport.
"Well, it was supposed to be at Mike's, but a pipe burst in the ceiling of his living room, so it's at my place," he says as he changes radio station.

We walk into Tre's backyard where everyone already has a drink in there hand. Adie comes up running up to me in a bathing suit and wrap skirt.
"How was your flight?"
"Good, good," I say, waving at everyone else. "Maybe we should get changed into our bathing suit since that seems to be the dress code." Tre leads me and Ramona into the house. I get changed into my bathing suit and wrap skirt and head outside. I go to chat with Adie and Jill by the pool and Ramona comes up to me and taps me on the shoulder.
"I didn't know you had a tattoo," she says, pointing to my right shoulder.
"Oh, the music note, I got that one just last year, but I've had the green porcupine since I was seventeen."
"Green porcupine?"
"Yeah," I say, moving the knot on my wrap skirt to show her.
"Why did you get a green porcupine?" she asks in disgust of my choice in tattoo art.
"I got it when I was dating your dad, he had green spiky hair back then," I say, laughing at her reaction.
"I like the music note better," she says as Joey calls her into the pool.
"So Jill, who are you dating now?" I ask as I shift my weight in the lawn chair.
"Well I've been dating this guy named James for a while now," she says as she takes a sip of her drink. "He's a recording technician at Warner Brother's studio. Billie introduced us, actually." All of a sudden I feel myself being lifted up by Tre.
"No Tre!" I yell, trying not to laugh as he throws me in the pool. "Jerk!" I yell, but he doesn't seem to mind.
"We needed another player for water polo," he says, laughing
"You could have just asked," I say as I pull my hair back and toss my wrap skirt out of the pool.
"Yeah, I could have, but where's the fun in that." The water polo teams were me, Ramona, Mike, Estelle and Joey versus Tre, Billie, Jakob, Adie and Frankito. The game lasted about half an hour, but our team was victorious. Throughout the game Billie kept trying to psych me out by saying,
"Cover up in front of my sons, B.B. Legs!" and I'd return by saying,
"No worries, your crappy water polo skills distract them enough."
Later on in the evening I go into the house to get changed into dry clothing. When I leave the guest room I see Joey sitting on the couch.
"What's wrong, Joey?" I say, sitting next to him.
"I need to ask you something," he says quietly.
"Go ahead."
"How do I get a girl to like me?"
"Which girl?" I ask, suddenly over-intrigued by the conversation I'm about to have.
"Ramona," he whispers.
"Alright," I say, looking out the patio door. "Right now she's sitting by the pool, so my suggestion is ask her if she wants a drink, if she says yes then get her a drink."
"Okay," he says nervously, "I can do that."
"But don't just toss her a can of soda, bring her a straw and hand it to her nicely."
"Hand it to her nicely," he repeats.
"You should also bring yourself a drink so you can sit next to her and chat a while."
"Thanks, Bianca," he says as he gives me a hug. I walk outside, grab myself a beer and sit next to Tre.
"What was that all about?" he asks, nodding towards Joey.
"He has a crush on Ramona," I say as Billie and Adie laugh a little.
"Why I aught to give him a good whoopin right now," Tre says, standing up and waving his fist in a humorous fashion.
"Hey, keep your hands off my son," Billie says, standing up and also waving his fist.
"Then make sure your son keeps his filthy hands off my daughter," Tre says in a hic voice.
"What's going on?" Mike asks as he walks up to the table, beer in hand.
"Joey loves Ramona," I say in a rather childish voice.
"Ahh," Mike says, understanding the joke of an argument his band mates were having.
"Hey, hey. You two, look over there," I say to the two men who are still waving their fists and we watch Joey intently as he carries two drinks towards Ramona.
"Aw, that's so sweet," Adie says cheesily. "Did you tell him to do that?"
"Yeah, well he asked me how to get her to like him, so I suggested he get her a drink."
"One with alcohol would've been more affective," Billie mutters as Adie slaps his arm. Tre shoots Billie a warning look as Adie, Mike and I laugh at the rivalry between them. Billie sees the look of amusement on Mike's face and says,
"Now I just have to set up Jakob with Estelle and their futures are set, I'll be expecting the dowries by next week." Mike stops laughing and says,
"I've known you since the fifth grade and I'm not letting my daughter be close to a mini-you!" We all start laughing at this on-going match-making jokes when, Jakob starts tugging on Adie's arm.
"Mommy, can we go home now, I'm sleepy." Adie looks at her watch then turns to Billie Joe.
"We should get going."
"Yeah, okay," he says, finishing off his beer then picking up Jakob. He turns toward the pool. "C'mon Joe, we're leaving." We all head to the front of the house to see them off and before they pile into the car Joey runs up to me.
"Thanks for the advice," he says, smirking. "She gave me a hug."
"You're welcome, Joey," I say, crouching down to his level. "You should get going, your parents are waiting." He runs off and he waves goodbye to Ramona before climbing into the car. I walk into the house with Tre (Mike and Jill left at the same time as Billie and Adie).
"Apparently, Joey got some action with your daughter," I tease.
"What?" he says, looking at Ramona who's following behind.
"She gave him a hug," I say in a cheesy voice as Tre begins to laugh. I go up to the guest bedroom to unpack my stuff. After a few minutes I hear a knocking on my door.
"Come in," I say over my shoulder.
"Hey," Ramona says as she sits on my bed with a big smile on her face.
"What's up?" I ask, putting away my cosmetic bag.
"Joey hugged me," she says, giggling.
"Aw, that's so sweet. So, just between the two of us, do you like him?" She nods vigorously.
"Do you know if he likes me? I saw you talking to him before."
"Yeah, he likes you a lot." As I say this, her smile widens even more. "You got that porcupine tattoo because you liked my dad, right?" she asks, pointing at my hip.
"Oh, umm yeah, I did, actually," I say, looking down at the tattoo.
"No tattoos!" Tre yells from outside the door. I look over at Ramona who turns beet red. I open the door to see Tre standing there trying to look innocent.
"Eavesdropping, are we?" I say, tapping my foot.
"Maybe," he says, looking at his feet. "Ramona, isn't it time for you to go to bed?"
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbles as she walks past Tre and me.
"I was about to order a movie on that movie network thing, would you like to join me?" he asks, pointing towards the living room.
"Sure," I say as I turn off the light in the guest bedroom and follow him to the living room.