They were running late.
They always ran late. In a house with three young boys, there was no such thing as being on time. Katie had learned that the hard way. No matter how early she woke the kids up, or how many lunches she packed the night before, or how many hours they left the house in advance, they were always scrambling to be somewhere. Over the years, they had missed 2 flights, one wedding, and shown up late to about a thousand-and-one gatherings. Katie and Jake had also gotten to know the school’s attendance workers a little too well.
For the Martins, there was always something standing in the way of punctuality: a missing cleat, someone forgetting to pack their bags, general messing around. Today, it was everyone oversleeping.
“Did you remember to fill the cooler?” Katie asked, swinging open the refrigerator door. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to set the alarm. She was usually so on top of things.
“Yep,” Jake replied casually as he made laps around the kitchen. Because he was still in his socks, he was basically sliding across the floor. He was gathering all of the snacks and dishes they had prepared for the party and stacking them on the table. The containers formed a neat, proportional pyramid. He knew there was a time crunch, but the architect in him wanted there to be some structure.
“Great, throw this in.” Without warning, Katie tossed a cold water bottle in his direction. Jake barely caught it and placed it in the open cooler sitting in the chair next to him.
“And all the games are in the car?” Katie asked. They were responsible for bringing cornhole, Twister, and a few board games to the event. The activities were mostly for the adults, since the kids would have plenty to keep themselves busy with at the mansion (plus, most of their games were virtual now, anyway).
“Yes.”
“And you labeled the desserts clearly, right?” Katie turned to face her husband and almost crashed into him as he was now standing right behind her.
“Yes,” he said for the third time, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Red tape equals ‘off limits to kids’.”
“Is this what our lives have come to?” Katie said, both amused and annoyed. “Labeling weed versus non-weed brownies with tape?”
“What’s wrong with that?” Jake asked, and his easy smile made her laugh. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around her, the same gentle way he always did. Their embraces were cozy; the two of them fitting perfectly together. Katie smiled, instantly feeling better. If she had to be fashionably late, there was no one she would rather do it with than Jake.
Besides, today they had somewhat of a grace period. Marisol was planning to conduct a house tour once everyone arrived, but Katie and Jake didn’t need to be there for that since they’d already seen the mansion on FaceTime. Despite Marisol and Eli’s insistence that they weren’t going to give any sneak peeks, Marisol hadn’t been able to resist calling her best friend the second they moved in. Katie and Jake had since been instructed to act like they’d never seen the place before. It probably wouldn’t be too hard, since seeing something on a phone screen and in person were two very different things.
From what they had seen, though, it really was a beautiful home. Lavish exterior, giant pool, tennis courts, theatre, gym, sparkling floors and countertops. It was exactly what Katie would have pictured a “dream house” to be. But as nice as it was, it was too luxurious for Katie and Jake. Definitely a cool place to visit, but for a long-term living situation, they much preferred their modest log-cabin style home. Built by Jake himself, it was sometimes referred to as “the house that Jake built.” They could definitely have something more, especially with Katie as a prominent TV reporter from Stanford, but they didn’t want more. Their life was perfect just the way it was.
“Heads up!”
Katie and Jake barely had time to react before a soccer ball came flying at them. They quickly pulled apart, and the ball smacked against one of the cabinets, barely missing Katie’s face on the return.
“Hey, guys, chill!” Jake ordered, as their younger two terrors, Zack and Brian, thundered into the kitchen after the ball. Despite the fact that he was yelling, his voice sounded just as calm as it always did. In 20 years together, 13 of which were spent in marriage and 12 of which were spent with children, Katie had never seen him genuinely mad.
“How many times have we told you, no ball playing in the house?” Katie demanded, snatching the ball from off of the floor before they could get to it. She tossed it up and down a couple of times for nostalgia’s sake, and then swept it under her shoulder when Zack tried to steal it back. “Go get your brother,” she ordered, before he could argue. “We need to get going.”
“But, Mom!” Zack and Brian whined at the same time.
“No buts, go!” Katie insisted, pointing toward the staircase. With a couple last-second complaints from Zack, the two reluctantly went to go find Jason.
Again, Katie was both annoyed and amused. With an exaggerated groan, she stalked back over to Jake. “How did we end up with two little monsters?” she asked, sinking into his arms once again.
“Hey, they got their soccer genes from you,” Jake pointed out innocently. “Jason takes after me, and he’s the good one.”
Katie laughed in defeat. Their oldest son, Jason, was practically an angel. He was fairly shy, but also laidback and sweet, as well as a model student. He brought home straight As (except for gym, but Katie and Jake didn’t really count that), was always receiving praise from his teachers, and had a good attendance record as he’d started carpooling with a friend after his young brothers consistently made him late. On top of that, he was very polite, respectful, and well-behaved. He was, frankly, an easy kid. Katie and Jake had never had to ground him or anything.
Zack and Brian, however, were more a challenge. Zack was a huge troublemaker, practically inseparable from mischief. He was seven years old and was always bouncing off the walls or saying something inappropriate. Katie and Jake had grounded him too many times to count, usually when the school called to inform them of pranks he had pulled during class. He was definitely a good kid at heart, just…a handful.
Brian was a similar story. He was only four, but he and Zack were already partners in crime. Jason and Zack weren’t particularly close, due to Jason’s “goody-two-shoes” nature, so when Brian was born, Zack had made it his mission to make sure his little brother was someone he could hang out with. And it worked. Luckily, the two of them had both inherited Katie’s athletic abilities, so they had something to help them blow off their steam. She just wished they would keep it outside.
“I think today will be good for the kids,” she said into Jake’s shoulder. “They’ll get a chance to run around, hang out with people they haven’t seen in a while.”
“Yep,” Jake agreed. “The only thing we have to worry about is keeping them away from the red-taped brownies.”
Katie pulled away slightly, considering. “What are we gonna tell them if they ask why they can’t eat those?”
“‘They’re not good for kids,’” Jake supplied.
<><><><>
Up in his bedroom, Jason sat on the floor and petted the family bulldog, Wilder. Wilder’s eyes were so big and always looked sad, regardless of whether or not he was actually upset. Well, today he certainly would be. The whole family was leaving and wouldn’t be back until after dark.
Wilder whimpered slightly and pawed Jason’s cheek. It definitely seemed like he knew something was up. Jason frowned. He hated leaving the dog alone, even if it was just for half a day. But when he asked his mom about bringing Wilder along with them, she’d just said Aunt Marisol would not be happy with them bringing a furry, drooling mutt into the new mansion.
“Jason! Hurry up!” Zack yelled, pounding on his door. A second wave of pounding immediately joined in, and Jason gathered that Brian was there as well. “Mom said to get your butt down here or you’re in big trouble!”
“That’s not what I said,” their mother’s voice flooded in from downstairs. A little louder, she said, “Jace, we do need to get going, though. Make sure you have everything!”
Jason sighed and brought himself to a standing position. Wilder immediately stood, too, and Jason knelt down to give him one last scratch on the head. “Goodbye, buddy. We’ll be back later tonight, I promise.”
He grabbed his backpack—which contained games, books, and snacks for the road—and swung it over his shoulder. Then he exited his room and met the rest of the family downstairs.
His mom was already ushering Zack and Brian outside (getting them into the car was often a difficult process), but his dad was still in the kitchen gathering materials. He looked up when he heard Jason’s footsteps.
“Hey, Jace, can you grab some of these?” he asked, gesturing to the containers on the table.
“Sure.” Jason walked over and picked up a couple items, then paused when he saw something strange on one of the brownie pans. “Um, why is there red tape on this one?”
His dad immediately whipped around. “Oh, uh, that’s not good for kids,” he said quickly, taking the pan from Jason’s grasp. “I’ll take that one.”
He turned away again, and Jason just stared after him doubtfully. He didn’t know who his father thought he was fooling. Jason was in Grade 7, after all.
They began loading things up into the car, which took longer than it should have since they had to walk down a flight of wooden stairs to get to the driveway. The stairs were a nice touch, but inconvenient when they had their hands full.
Finally, they found themselves on the road to Aunt Marisol’s. Jason was unfortunately stuck in the backseat with his brothers, who couldn’t hold still or keep quiet for longer than five seconds at a time. He’d gotten better at tuning them out over the years, but it was still hard to focus on reading when he was getting shoved and elbowed constantly. He tried his best, as his parents didn’t need him complaining or starting fights on top of all this ruckus.
Besides, this was good practice for what the rest of his day was going to be like. He would be the oldest kid at this gathering, with several kids under the age of 10 look after. His brothers were already a handful, but he knew from experience that some of the “mini Degrassians” (as his father put it) were just as wild. He would have to rely on every ounce of patience in his body to get through this event.
Luckily, there was someone there who might be able to help with that: Aunt Marisol’s daughter, Alex. She was around his age and one of the nicest girls he knew. It was too bad they didn’t live closer to each other, since he had a feeling they could be good friends. They’d watched the younger kids together at several gatherings in the past and he really enjoyed talking to her. She was cool, funny, and her lips curled up into this cute smirk whenever she was happy.
Needless to say, he was excited to hang out with her.