Big Family, Big Problems

I walked back in through the front door sipping my hot chocolate and listening to my iPod.

Speaking of iPod, I think I’ll go shop around on iTunes.

I walked up the stairs and heard everyone in their rooms doing different things. I smiled and walked up the stairs into my room.

I found that my dad must have been up here prepping my room for painting because everything was pushed into the middle and away from the walls.

So I went and took my laptop out of my backpack and sat on my bed in the middle of the room surrounded by other furniture and all the boxes.

I pressed the power button and soon was on my iTunes.

It had been forever since I actually had time to just browse through everything.

First I checked the Top 200 on the homepage and saw nothing exciting except a song called Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield.

Hollywood by Michael Bublé was still my current favorite though.

In my opinion Ke$ha was a sad excuse for music and so were the Black Eyed Peas and anyone who rapped.

I was amazed by Lady Gaga and Rihanna though. It was actually quite sad to me that they have such astounding voices but they dress like hookers!

I clicked on the music videos tab and skimmed through them. There was this new guy named Justin Bieber with a song called U Smile on the top list and so I clicked on it.
The preview played and the guy looked amazingly familiar to me. Then, once they got a good shot of his face, I knew who he was.

I gasped.

This was the Justin I had just met!

SWEET JESUS! He’s famous?!

I looked around and grabbed a pillow and screamed into it muffling it enough so no one down the hall could hear me.

What have I gotten myself into?!

What shocked me the most was that, he was actually kinda good.

I mean I could understand how there would be haters for him and all but he had this kinda passion I could hear in his voice that made him good.

I fell backwards and stared at the ceiling. What was I gonna do?

“Bonnie!” my dad called from the bottom of my flight of stairs, “You ready to go?”

“Yeah!” I shouted sitting up, “Be down in a second!”

I turned off my computer and closed it leaving it on my bed and grabbing my cell phone.

I stuck my cell and iPod in my pockets and walked downstairs to where my dad was waiting in the living room.

He smiled at me when I walked down the stairs.

“Well, let’s go!” he said and he grabbed the keys off the counter and headed out the door.

My dad had been very cheerful about the move and was very happy lately.

We walked outside and climbed into the car.

After we had been on the road for a little while and we set the GPS for Lowe’s my dad asked, “So what color are you looking for?”

“A blue,” I smiled.

“How did I know you would say that?” he chuckled.

“You know me too well daddy!” I laughed.

We turned into the parking lot at Lowe’s and he parked the car.

We walked through the automatic doors and my dad asked, “So have you met anyone yet?”

My mind froze on a picture of Justin’s face and I shook my thoughts away, “Um, yeah actually I have!”

“Oh really? Who?” he asked, as we turned down the paint section to where the cases of all the sample colors are; I loved this section because it was just a bunch of rainbows!

“His name is Justin,” I said simply, “He bumped into me at Starbucks.”

“Oh geez a boy,” he said, facing the wall of colored papers.

I skimmed the blue shaded sections of each type of paints. I didn’t want to keep talking about this; I knew my dad was gonna eventually get protective if we did.

“So it has to be a light blue but not too light and not dull; and it a nice strong blue would be great,” I specified.

“Well you’re not being picky at all,” my dad joked.

I laughed, “Hey! I know what I want and imma gonna get it!”

He laughed and held up some choices, “Any of these look any good?”

“Um, these two maybe, hold on to them,” I said and turned back and chose like two more.

“Ok so these four are my main maybes,” I said holding them up.

“I think this one and this one aren’t good,” my dad said pointing to them.

“You’re right,” I put them back, “Now these two.”

We stood and stared at them for a while and a sales woman with her Lowe’s vest came up to us, “Can I help you with anything?”

“Um, no thanks, we are just looking right now,” my dad said politely.

“Well, ok!” she said cheerfully, “Let us know if ya need anything.”

“Will do!” he replied.

“I think I should take these home and look at them against the walls.

“Good idea, BonBon,” he said using my nickname, and ruffling my hair.

“Let’s go,” I laughed.

So we took the two sample papers and walked back out to the car chatting happily.

On our way back home I saw 3 teenage boys riding on skateboards down a sidewalk by the mall.

We stopped at a red light and I took one look at one of the boy’s attire and knew who it was. My suspicions were confirmed when he turned and locked eyes with me.

It was Justin. Yet again.

I rolled my eyes and waved.

He waved back and almost tripped.

I laughed, and soon we were out of sight.

“What’s so funny?” my dad asked.

“That was Justin back there on his skateboard with his two friends,” I said.

“Oh, darn, I didn’t even pay attention,” he said.

I laughed again.

I could tell my dad was going to be very protective over me now that we were in a new city. I could tell he was gonna be that way for all of us now.

Now I knew this may not be a good thing.

“So dad, what are you gonna do at your new job now?” I asked.

I had never really been in tune with my father’s job. In fact I almost had no idea what he did at all.

“Well, back in Anchorage, I was the financial leader for the Island Def Jam music group,” he started, that name sounded familiar to me but I shook it off, “So now that we moved down here and I got promoted I’m now CEO of the financial side for the group so I take care of all the money. I’m like their treasurer so to speak. Which means,” he gave me a sneaky look, “I get to meet some of the most popular music artists of the moment!”

I smiled, “Do I get to too?”

“Maybe,” he said, “I don’t if your allowed yet,” he chuckled.

“Oh well, that would be great if I could! And you know Ashton will be excited.”

He laughed, “I already told him, you should have seen the look on his face.”

I laughed again imagining it.

We pulled into the driveway and hopped out of the car shutting the door behind me.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed two push pins to pin the color papers on my wall to see which one looked better.

I made my way upstairs and did just that.

I stood back away from them on the wall and stared. I focused in on one blue and saw the room covered in it.

Then I did the same with other shade.

I immediately knew I wanted the first shade, which was slightly darker and more turquoise.

“Dad!” I shouted as I unstuck the push pins and walked back downstairs.

“I know which one I want!” I walked into the kitchen and found him sitting at the table.

“Well geez that was fast!” he said.

I smiled, “Oh you know me.”

“Well, I guess we still have time to go back and get the paint.”

“Yay!”

So we drove back to Lowe’s and bought the paint.

So far, still a great new life.