SWNOVELS Chapter 7 Dinner
I followed this little girl past this teal color kitchen all the way to the dining room, and when I arrived at the table, I saw all of his family members just sitting there chatting away, but they all stopped once they saw me walk in and just oddly stared down at me. It almost seemed like they wanted me to say something back to them or maybe say sorry for what I did or maybe why I was so late, but I never said a word to any of them. I just sat down at the only empty chair that was next to my….mother, I think.
As soon as I sat down, his family kept talking as if everything was normal, and from what I overheard, they didn’t seem to mind that I was gone, which was a little concerning since I almost decided to ditch them. Anyway, Gary’s mother cut the chatter amongst the family and said, “Thank you, Gary, for finally joining us for dinner, and since you were the last one to sit down, you know what that means. You’ll have the honor to start us off with Grace.”
I thought, Grace ...Grace, what in the world is Grace? Come on, brain, work with me here and… Aha I got it! Grace is the prayer that we say before eating, like what me and my family do before eating some lovely Turkey for Thanksgiving. I nodded and said, “Let’s give thanks to God for the weather and the opportunity that God has given us here in Michigan. Amen.” The rest of the family said amen, and my older sister whispered to me, who was the one that I thought was my mother, “That was a good prayer.” Now, I don’t know if she was being sarcastic with that comment or not, but I didn’t care. I was starving!
As soon as I got handed a plate of something that looked straight out of a horror middle school lunch menu, I picked at what looked like mashed potatoes with gravy at the bottom. As I was picking at it more, Gary’s mother said, “Gary, stop picking your food and eat it before it gets cold.” With that, I had no choice but to have a bite of whatever this was supposed to be, and the smell didn’t help at all. But as I took a bite, I was surprised that it tasted so good. Even now, I miss eating like that from time to time.
But anyway, while I was enjoying eating in peace, Gary’s father just had to kill the mood and ask questions to “Mary” and “Susan,” who are my sisters and just going on this rant about their day, etc. Like how Janet was to me. The conversation was just going back and forth with no sign of ever ending until I foolishly looked at him while I was eating. Gary’s mom must have seen this and thought that I was simply being left out of the conversation because I saw her whisper something about me to Gary’s father. He immediately stopped what he was doing and then started asking me how my day was other than my car being taken away.
Before I said anything, let me tell you that when I was younger, I hated the spotlight...hated it! I wanted nothing to do with the spotlight at all, even going as far as making and talking nonsense to people. One thing is for sure, though, that I never did say or do this to any family of my time-traveling adventure or in general. I guess you can say I grew up since then, but I’m just glad now that I’m older and much wiser now to see just how much of a self-centered jerk I really was. But enough about me, let’s get back to the story, shall we...? so, where was I again?
Oh yeah, so this family was the first family, which you’ll see later on that I really considered my second family. Sure, this was a rocky start, but I have a feeling that I’ll get used to them and their antics all in a good time.
I guess you can say it kinda felt like home. So, with me being comfortable enough with them already as they seemed non-threatening to me, I said, “It was a blast. I got shown around the new school and--”
Gary’s mom interrupted me and asked, “Was it by a teacher or the principal?” ̈
“No, it was just some doll, she was very nice to me and...what?" As I look around the dinner table, I see the whole family widen their eyes in shock like this boy never talked to a girl his whole life.
This was when I realized that oh ... this just got complicated. So, if I learned anything from the movies, I was going to have to try my best to be Gary, or else I may just get the boot. While I was thinking about how I was going to pull this off, Mary, who was to my right, asked, “Did she show any signs?”
“Signs of what?” I asked.
“Uhh, signs of liking you, kid,” she replied.
“Maybe, I don’t know. I wasn’t paying attention. She was just showing me the new school.”
She rolled her eyes at me and replied, “Well, the next time--if she ever decides to talk to you again--make sure you look for it, okay, and we will talk more about this later.”
Gary’s dad, who actually turned out to be impressed by me having contact with a girl for the first time other than family, said, “Well, Mr. Romeo! You will get your ride soon if you keep this up, even tomorrow maybe if you can get a girl or her phone number by dinnertime tomorrow.”
Mary said, “Dad, that will never happen to him.”
“Hmm, I don’t know about that, Mare. Love does work in strange ways, like how I met your mother--that was strange,” Dad replied.
Ok, on that note, I think I lost my appetite, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have dessert, so I ate this delicious slice of carrot cake that I somehow managed to eat without getting sick to my stomach. After dinner/dessert was over, I put my plate on the kitchen counter and headed to “my’’ room, where I should be able to finish the one and only homework assignment that I had. I’ll never forget it. That one-worded homework assignment didn’t take me too long for obvious reasons, and the word I chose was dull because that’s how I felt right now writing this simple, boring word.