Best Friends...Forever?

We walked over to my house to find my mom still cooking and my dad helping as best as he could without mom yelling at him.

“Good you guys came back just in time. Your cousins and uncle should be here soon.” My mom said as we sat down on the couch next to each other. We had a sofa, loveseat, and two recliner chairs. You wanted to get a seat early after dinner or else you would be sitting on a kitchen chair or the floor when we open presents.

My uncle and his two kids were the first to arrive. They arrived a couple minutes after me and Hunter had. I wasn’t looking forward to my cousin, Marisa, coming. She walked through the door with a smile on her face when she saw Hunter.

Marisa was a couple years younger than me but she was a girly girl and always thought she was better than me. She looks almost exactly like me with her long brown hair but hers is shinier and more manageable. She was really skinny, way skinnier than me and a social butterfly. She always flirts with Hunter and it makes me really mad. She’s two years younger than him and she thinks she’s all that. Hunter thinks it’s funny and laughs which makes her think he likes her.

Marisa’s brother, Paul, is only five. He’s my favorite cousin. He’s always shy at first but after a while he explodes and starts bouncing off the walls. You never know what to expect with Paul. My uncle gets them every once and a while tomorrow they probably will be with their mom. Marisa sat on the other side of Hunter.

“Hi, Hunter.” She batted her eyelashes.

“Hey, Marisa.” Hunter smirked to hold in his laughter.

“Don’t say hi to me. Hi, Paul. Hi, Uncle Jim., I said. Paul hid behind his father while Uncle Jim said hi back. They sat on the loveseat, Paul on his father’s lap. Marisa latched onto Hunter’s arm. “Wow, you must be really strong,” she said.

Hunter smiled. “Yeah I am.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please you’re not strong.”

“Yes I am. Are you calling me weak again?”

“You are weak,” I said.

“How can you call him weak, just look at those muscles?” Marisa marveled.

“Yeah look at my muscles.” Hunter laughed.

“You don’t have any muscles,” I said.

“Oh yeah, I could lift you again to show I have muscles.” Hunter smirked.

“No that’s okay!” I said quickly.

“Why don’t you pick me up, Hunter?” Marisa said seductively as she could.

“You want him to drop you?” I asked.

“He wouldn’t drop me. Would you, Hunter?”

“Not accidentally,” he mumbled.

“See he wouldn’t drop me.” I just laughed. She obviously didn’t get what Hunter said.

Hunter picked Marisa up and said, “See I am strong.” Marisa smiled her evil grin at me. Saying hah he likes me better than you. Whatever. Anybody could lift toothpick Marisa up. It’s not like Hunter would stop being friends with me if he liked Marisa and I don’t like him in any way other than a friend.

After he put Marisa back down, my grandma and her mother came in. My great grandma is really old and weird. She took a seat in the green chair while my grandma went to help my mom in the kitchen. My dad came into the room and started talking with my Uncle Jim. My great grandma watched TV talking out loud but no one seemed to be listening. I felt kind of bad for her. Hunter was laughing as Marisa tried to impress him while I just stared at all the people.

After ten minutes the food was ready and my aunt walked in the door right as we got up to take our seats. My aunt is really cool. She is eight years younger than my dad. Hunter sat to my left and my aunt sat to my right. My dad was at the head of the table with my mom to his right; who sat by Hunter. Marisa sat across diagonally from Hunter with Paul next to her. Uncle Jim sat next to Paul and Great grandma sat next to him. My grandma sat next to her. The other head of the table was empty because my Uncle Lou hadn’t arrived yet; he was late as usual.

There was ham, mashed potatoes, corn, gross broccoli casserole, yummy rolls, and noodles for picky kids like Marisa and Paul but I had some too. There was ice tea, mountain dew, root beer, Pepsi, milk for me, and water for Marisa. Paul had apple juice. Hunter grabbed a root beer. I had ham, corn, three rolls, and some noodles. Hunter had everything on his plate except broccoli casserole. Paul only had buttered noodles and a couple rolls. Marisa had plain noodles and one small scoop of broccoli casserole. She took one bite of it and didn’t touch the rest, instead she ate the plain noodles. As we were eating, and people, mostly the adults, were talking the door opened and Uncle Lou finally showed up.

“Sorry, I’m late.” He sat down and placed everything on his plate like Hunter only with a lot of broccoli casserole. He joined the conversations. My Uncle Lou is a big joker. Him and my dad are a lot alike and even work for the same company.

Once I finished my dinner, I excused myself from the table. I didn’t really want to hear the adults talk about stuff I didn’t know about. Hunter followed me, Marisa followed Hunter, and Paul ran after his sister and the rest of us, his wild side starting to come out. We still had about half an hour till we could open presents.

“Let’s play a game,” Paul said as he jumped up and down.

“I’m not playing with you, Paul,” Marisa said obviously annoyed by him. Paul stopped jumping and frowned.

“I’ll play with you, Paul,” I said there was nothing else to do and it would keep him busy.

“Do you want to play chutes and ladders?” Paul nodded his head yes. I got the game board and set it up. We sat on the floor and Hunter sat down too.

“I’m going to play with you guys too,” he said.

Of course Marisa immediately sat next to Hunter saying, “Me too.”

Paul was happy. Paul went first and rolled a three going up a ladder. He jumped up and down. Marisa went next and got a six. Marisa handed the die to Hunter but he let me go before him. I rolled a measly two. Then Hunter went and rolled a four. Then it was Paul’s turn again; he rolled a six. Marisa went and got a ladder. As the game went on Paul got mostly ladders, never did he get a snake. He was in the lead. Marisa got one snake and was still doing well. Her and Hunter switched back and forth for second place. While I was dead last, never once did I get a ladder. It was always snakes. Paul ended up winning, jumping around as he sang, “I won, I won.”

“I can’t believe it, I totally stunk,” I pouted.

Hunter laughed .“I know all you got was snake, snake, snake. You did horrible.”

“Jessica sucks at all games,” Marisa said “Unlike me. I almost won.”

We picked up the game and the adults filed in. Unfortunately for us they filled up all the seats. My parents were on the love seat. My uncles and aunt were on the sofa. My grandma was in the leather arm chair and my great-grandma was in the green recliner chair. I sat in front of the tree with Hunter beside me and Marisa beside him. Paul sat in front of his father.

“Can we open presents?” I asked my mother.

“Yes, but you have to hand out presents to us first.”

“Fine.” Everybody got presents for everybody in my family. The three of us picked through presents bringing them to who they were addressed to. We finally got to open our presents. I mostly got money because that was all I asked for. I got fifty dollars from just my grandma. Marisa got some make up, a purse, and money. Paul got money, toy trucks, guns, and swords. Even Hunter got things. My family was used to him being there and always seemed to get him presents. The women got robes, cups, and beauty supplies. The men got tools, cologne, and other things.

The funniest gift of all would be the present my great-grandmother gave to my uncles and my dad. They opened their presents and inside were toy microphones. We were all confused until my great-grandma said they were flashlights. She had gotten them all toy microphones because she thought they were flashlights. They all said thank you and to this day she doesn’t know that they weren’t flashlights. Everyone was in good spirits after that with amused smiles on their faces.

After presents we had desert. I had chocolate ice cream with whipped cream. Marisa had vanilla and Paul had both chocolate and vanilla. Hunter and most of the adults had some apple pie with whipped cream. The rest of the night Marisa tried to flirt with Hunter. She was getting on my nerves but I didn’t say anything to her. I tried to keep Paul entertained as he bounced around.

We played hide and seek which Hunter joined and because Hunter did Marisa did too. Paul was bad at hide and go seek in his hyper stage because he couldn’t wait long for someone to find him and always came out and was found. Marisa didn’t try too hard to hide or look.

You could tell she was only playing because of Hunter. Hunter and I knew all the good hiding spots because we use to play when we were little. We played for an hour and Paul got tired. He eventually fell asleep under the bed he was hiding under. Hunter got him out and placed him on top of the bed, letting him sleep. The three of us went to my room. I sat on the bed and the other two followed suit, Hunter in the middle of me and Marisa. I was getting tired and wished that my relatives would leave already so I could go to sleep. Marisa babbled on about her presents she got today and the ones she would get tomorrow from her mom.

“Don’t you just love my Gucci purse?” Marisa said.

“Who cares?” I said yawning.

“I forgot you’re not a girl,” Marisa said and ignored me as I scoffed and she turned back to talk to Hunter. I’m sure he cared just as much as I did. Finally after listening to Marisa forever, her dad finally called her and said they were leaving. Marisa left to go downstairs. Hunter went and got Paul. He carried Paul downstairs and Uncle Jim took him. Everyone said bye.

“Bye, Hunter,” Marisa said with a little wave.

“Bye,” Hunter said.

“Bye,” I said although she again didn’t say bye to me. Shortly after my grandma and great grandma left. My uncle and dad were talking and my aunt was talking to my mom. Hunter and I took a seat on the loveseat. We were watching TV.

“I’m tired.” I yawned. I placed my head on the armrest of the couch. I slowly nodded off to sleep.