Family Reunion

Rose was the underling and a very notable and different 17-year-old woman. She wasn't very typical; with an anxiety disorder and constant stress bombarding her life, she found it hard to work or associate with other people. She was down and out and she lived alone with her mother on the east coast of the United States.

With feeling no sense of belonging and a great loneliness her entire life; she had been secluded from her family. They all had a dwelling on the west coast and had rarely to never made an effort to contact her. The young woman felt a great animosity towards them.

Her sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents never seemed to have the time for her in their busy schedules. Her dad lived on the east coast and he would visit her on occasion, but even then, didn't call her every day. So to speak, he was also a very wealthy man; it was not like he couldn't afford the long distance bills.

Rose mostly just spent her days getting high alone in her room with her guitar. There wasn't much else to do, except that and listen to her favourite groups of all time. Anything to her liking was, English punk or Green Day.

Green Day in particular.

She was very much a heavy eyeliner type person, with a suicidal and dysfunctional attitude. She kind of reminded herself of Billie Joe, all though she never liked to copy him or anybody. She was proud and stubborn in her own right.

On one particular day, when the skies were veiled by the puffiest of white clouds you see on sunny days; she was blaring Green Day through her headphones as she sat almost dormant on her bed.

Her mother Sher came to her bedroom door and stepped into the room swiftly; her feet thumping against the hardwood floor carelessly. Turning down her music disgruntling and raising her head, Rose eyed her mother with contempt.

"What is it?" she muttered.

"We just got an invite to our family reunion out west Rose. And oh, I'm so fucking excited! I haven't seen my sisters and parents forever!" her mother yelped giddily as she was practically jumping up and down like a schoolgirl.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh yay great, our asshole family wants to see us after all this time." She paused and thought about it for a moment as her mother's expression changed to bitterness. "You know, I don't think I want to go. It's been so long and there hasn't been one fucking phone call. No I miss yous, no I love yous, not even a fucking suck my cock!" she retreated with an angry expression.

"Oh stop your juvenile fucking behavior! I'm excited about this, and I'm not going to let you ruin it!' Sher yelled as she gave Rose this look that said 'you're a freak, I can't believe you're my daughter'.

"Stop giving me that look!"

"Your grandfather is going to fly us out tonight! So pack your things." Ignoring her daughter's comment, Sher threw the invitation down on Rose's bed and left.

Rose tutted to herself quietly, "Hmm trust rich selfish old gramps to put us on a short-notice flight. Oh well as long as he spends money on me I could really care less."

She got up off of her bed and went to her mirror to put on some eyeliner and some pale foundation. She turned up her headphones once again and she started to sing along. "Do you dream too much? Do you think what you need is a crutch?" she sighed, "Thank God, Allah and Buddha you understand me Billie Joe. But ahh...where's my Nimrod?"

She finished applying her makeup which basically just made her under eyes look as though she had stood over a smoke stack. Drawing away from her tiny vanity mirror, the short and level-headed girl turned to see the invitation her mother had thrown down on the bed. Gawking at it for a short moment, she picked it up; firstly admiring it's gold border which made it look more like an invite to a wedding.

It read: Moore/Armstrong Family Reunion.

She laughed to herself as she thought of Billie Joe, "Yeah right."

She threw it down and went and pulled a suitcase out of her closet. It was old and the zipper was broken. In other words it was meant to be a black suitcase but it had turned brown.

She messily threw her clothes and other crap in it, pulled it out into the hallway, and then towards the front door.

"Are you ready to go?" Sher asked, as she darted around in a stressed manner. With Rose's mother, a stressed manner usually meant yelling her head off and sometimes violently throwing things about.

"Yeah, I guess. I still think this is a fucking stupid idea."

"God! Stop calling everything stupid! You'll have a lot of fun..." the woman in her early forties chastised in reply.

"I highly doubt that," Rose scowled as she thought about how she'd probably get into a fight with her family, if anything. She went outside with her suitcase and threw it into the back of their beat up welfare ravaged truck.

Her mom came out with her own luggage and threw it in beside Rose's suitcase. "I think that's the fastest you've ever gotten ready," Sher commented in a very passive-aggressive manner. "Okay let's go, it's like a two hour drive to the airport from here. And our plane leaves in three."

"Hmm, whatever," Rose replied as she loaded herself into the truck. They drove away from their small suburban home. Rose didn't even think twice about glancing back.

Feeling particularly bored on the way to the airport, Rose mostly just thought of her family. Especially her sister whom she hadn't seen for years. And than there were the cousins she had never really met, except for when she was a very small child.

"Why don't you look out the window or something? You're always just staring into space," Sher repeated again, and gave her that same look 'you're a freak.'

"Stop fucking staring at me like that! Holy fuck I'm getting tired of that look. Accept me for who I fucking am! You can't blame me for being angry at all!" Rose snapped suddenly, which caught her mother slightly off guard.

Sher didn't say anything, she just looked back at the road and shook her head. There was silence for quite a few minutes again, and Rose felt very uncomfortable. Especially since she was the last to speak or add to an always constant fight.

It was about twenty some odd minutes since they had spoken and Rose broke the silence boldly, "So who's going to be at the airport when we get there?"

"Your Grandfather, your sister Sarah and some of your cousins whom I haven't seen since they were babies."

"Ah I see."

* * *

They arrived at the airport with forty minutes to spare. Giving their plane tickets to the attendant at the front desk, the woman took their luggage and sent them through security.

Once they had done that they boarded their plane, waited for a solid ten minutes and their flight left for destination 'known but unknown'.

Rose was quite panicky about flying, being a first time flyer and someone whom suffered from anxiety. Her heart started to beat rapidly and she began breathing heavily and crying subtly. She tried to subdue her tears desperately and could feel them stinging the rim under her eyes.

Her mother noticed she was obviously having quite a problem. "Are you okay?"

"No I'm not fucking okay! We are fucking seven miles up in the air!" a green-eyed Rose shot out unintentionally. A few people sitting near looked over her way curiously.

"It'll be okay, just relax. You'll get use to it after awhile."

Rose nodded her head, as she was embarrassed that she was crying. It wasn't her style to cry infront of other people. But her panic disorder had kicked in, and this was really freaking her out. But of course this wasn't the only time she'd panic. Other times it happened for no reason at all.

The flight was about five hours long and as they started to decend the captain came over the intercom, "Okay folks we're about six minutes from our destination of San Francisco, California. I'd like to ask at this time that you be wearing your seatbelts for when we hit the runway."

Oh my God landing, that sounded awesome to Rose. She didn't care if she was landing in a place other than home.

Land was just land, and that would be awesome.

The plane hit the runway six minutes later and Rose was quite shocked at how fast it felt they were going as the plane slowed down. Digging her nails into her armrests, the 17-year-old girl gasped, "Oh my God, we're alive?"

"Yeah we're fine," her mom said assuringly, but also in a tone that sounded intentionally mocking.

They waited for the plane to drive into the terminal and people slowly started to offload one at a time or pairs at a time.

Rose was deep in thought by this point. That this was it, she was finally going to meet her asshole family. She was finally going to meet the people whom would indeed in the end...change her life forever.