There I stood, in the middle of the kitchen, arms crossed and
eyes locked on my mother, who was standing about three
feet in front of me. And there she stood, like a huge stone
wall that could never be knocked down. While I was already
in shambles, nothing but broken rubble on the ground. I
could never win an argument, no matter what it was over, with
my mom on the opposing side. Especially not when she set
her jaw like that. I wasn't stupid, I knew when to back down.
"But why do I have to take the kids to the Saunders' house?
Can't you just get Ike to do it?" I questioned, feeling more
like butler than the second oldest son in this family. It
wasn't like I was the only person who knew how to drive a
car around here. And I certainly wasn't the only one who
owned a car. Zac had two parked in the garage, and Ike had
that stupid truck he was always bringing into the shop.
My mother raised her eyebrows, and shook her head. "Taylor,
I asked you to do me a favor. Now, I'll go tell Avery to round
up the other kids while you go grab your car keys. And it
wouldn't hurt you to bring your bathing suit and actually inter-
act with your brothers and sisters for once" she replied, and I
could tell that my Saturday afternoon was going to be spent
sitting on a lounge chair in the pool room in the Saunders'
house. Just great.
With a sigh, I turned and went in search of my car keys. Why
was I the only one they ever asked to do this sort of thing for
them? It wasn't like I enjoyed getting lost in that enormous
house of theirs. And I certainly didn't find spending my after-
noon watching my younger siblings and talking to Brooke at
all amusing. I don't think I would've put up much of a fight
if I had known that Brooke would be out. But, of course, I
knew for a fact she'd be there, because, at dinner the night
before, my father had mentioned that she had to study for
some exam all weekend. Maybe she'd just stay in her room.
After about half an hour of getting all the kids ready, meaning
getting them to get changed into their bathing suits, Mom
sent us all on our merry way. Oh what fun. I got to take care
of three of my younger siblings for the day. And I just loved
wasting my Saturdays like this. I should volunteer my driving
services every weekend. I'm sure it'd be a whole lot easier
than arguing with Mom every time she needed me to do some-
thing.
The drive there was relatively uneventful. We had to stop to
get the kids some lunch, and Mac couldn't decided what he
wanted for about ten minutes, but, other than that, it wasn't
bad at all. It was once we stepped inside that all hell broke
loose.
Now, I know I come from a big family. I mean, come on now,
seven kids is a whole lot. But with the Saunders, it's just a
little out of hand. Mr. and Mrs. Saunder have six kids them-
selves; Rachel, Beth, Brooke, Danny, Krystal, and Jake.
Rachel is 26, but she still lives at home, with her newborn
son, Nathaniel. That makes for seven kids right there. Jake,
the youngest, is only eight, so there's and eighteen year
difference between the oldest and youngest kids. Everyone
else is pretty much squished together in groups of three by
their ages. It's like Mr. and Mrs. Saunder had baby spurts
twice in their lifetimes. Let's just hope they don't have one
more go.
But anyway, when we got there, all the kids were still home,
even Rachel and Nathaniel, which is actually surprising. And,
of course, all the younger Hanson kids and Saunder kids
sprinted for the pool the second they saw each other. It's a
race, with three kids from each family battling it out. See,
both of our families, since all of the kids are relatively close
in age, have some rivalry between us all. Most of the time,
Rachel sits it out, so Ike goes head-to-head with Beth.
Zac normally goes after Danny, and it just goes down the
list of names. Meaning I get stuck with Brooke. But today,
if anyone saw fit to start a water balloon or food fight, us
Hansons would be on the disadvantage. Seven Saunder kids,
only four Hanson kids. Makes for lots of thrills.
Surprisingly enough, not much happened at all that day.
Nothing too horrible anyway. Around two o'clock, I plopped
down on one of the lounge chairs that were lined up around
the pool. Looking down the long line of white chairs, it
seemed like none of the kids had opted to save room by
sharing a chair. Each had dumped their towels, shoes,
shirts, and shorts on different chairs. Not that it mattered,
there were enough chairs to go around.
The chair on my left had definitely been claimed by Avery,
I could tell by the size of the shoes that had been kicked
under the metal rods holding up the rest of the structure.
And, on my right, well it didn't look like anyone wanted that
chair. It was completely empty, spotless. Like it had never
been touched by a grubby hand that was still covered in the
remains of a melted a popsicle. But that was impossible.
Boy, just looking at these chairs brought back memories of
the summers I'd spent here. And they were just chairs.
Plastic, metal chairs. I really needed to get a life.
I picked up the walkman Avery had insisted on bringing,
even if we all knew she'd never look twice at it. Well, at
least I could put it to some use. Pushing the button that
opened the lid, I looked at my sister's choice of CD, just
to make sure it wouldn't make my ears bleed. Elton John's
greatest hits. I smiled slightly, I always knew my sister
had good taste in music. Slipping the headphones over
my ears, I blocked out the shrieks and splashing coming
from the pool and drifted into another world all my own.
