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-Mia
Worth a Thousand Words: Chapter 4
“Happy Birthday dear Shelly…” screamed 20 second-graders, an assortment of aunts and uncles, and a few grandparents. All in all, I wouldn’t have put us down for any choral award. “Happy Birthday to you!” Everyone clapped and Griggs let out a whistle as Shelly blew out the candles on an enormous cake nearly taller than she was when she was sitting in her chair. The dog finally stopped barking and the cake was cut to the delight of all the children, who honestly didn’t need any additional sugar. I grabbed a piece of cake on a paper “Hannah Montana” plate and two forks and slid past the crowd of party-goers to the open backyard. Griggs was sitting on the swinging bench, already scarfing down his piece of cake, but I went to go sit with him anyway.
My cousin, contrary to how he acts, is in fact twenty-one years old. He’s the one closest to me in age, so we’ve always hung out at the family get-togethers that are overwhelmingly popular with our clan. I don’t get to see him much anymore because he’s always working, but he seemed as ridiculously goofy as ever.
“Hi, stranger.” I said, tucking a leg under myself as I sat down beside him. “I thought I’d bring some cake, but apparently that memo already came through.”
He laughed. “Hey, cuz, what up? Word on the street is that someone’s graduating this year. Has it really been that long?”
I lightly punched him in the arm. “Hey! I resent that! I’m only 3 years younger than you. Is the old age finally setting in?” I teased.
“Yeah, I mean what can I say? Being 21’s a lot harder than you’d think.” He shrugged. “So what did you get ShellzBellz for her birthday?”
“Something pink and musical of course. It was a difficult choice between the Hannah Montana dance mat and the Cheetah Girls dress up set. I think in the end we went for the dance mat since I don’t envision myself in sparkle cheetah pants any time soon. I’m babysitting next week apparently.”
“I pity you horribly.” Griggs cracked a smile. I’d missed seeing him and hanging around like this.
“So what about you? I’m sure super cool older cousin #2 must have gotten her something fabulous.”
“You might hate me for this.” He put up his hands to prematurely shield him from any blows. “But I got her a ticket to the upcoming Jonas Brothers concert.” He let out the last part extremely fast.
“And that would concern me how?” I asked.
“Well, you have a car, Shelly doesn’t, and I highly doubt that Aunt Nancy is going to drive and sit with her…” I groaned.
“Wait, who’s playing again?” I asked. If I was going to be dragged to this thing I might as well calculate how many sets of earplugs I was going to need.
“The Jonas Brothers, you know, like my favorite bunch of guys ever?!?” He put on a valley girl accent for the last part.
“Like omigod, I like, can’t wait, even though I like don’t even know who they are!” I responded similarly.
“So like, apart from like stalking like Hannah Montana…”
“Griggs? You can drop it now.”
“Okay, but dude, how have things been? Are you still doing the cheer thing?” He mimed having pom-poms.
“Sort of…I guess it’s mainly for fun though. I’m actually trying to focus on school right now. You know, college and all that stuff?”
“Ouch…I remember that.”
“Yeah. Nothing really bad this year except for photo. My teacher’s pretty killer and I’ve been having to stay after school to work on printing.” A few days had passed since I’d developed the film, so I had a few prints, none of them particularly good, tucked into my bag. My parents had literally dragged me away from the enlarger to come to the party.
“Jeeze, a photographer in the family? First me, now you, I wonder if the ancestors are turning over in their graves?” He cracked a smile.
“Don’t joke. We all know Great Aunt Essie would rather I stay at home and learn to make perogies.” I pulled a face.
“Well, Leese, I still don’t quite believe you, I mean, where’s the proof?” He asked, raising an eyebrow and shrugging his shoulders. I knew he was trying to provoke a reaction, and it was too hard to say no.
“Fine, you know what?” I put down my cake and reached into my bag, pulling out my photography folder. “See for yourself then!” I thrust the stack of prints at him, pretending to be infuriated. On top of the stack was the picture I’d taken at the park of the three guys. The negative just hadn’t been cooperating with me. I’d been working on getting the tones right for forever, but I thought that I’d finally nailed it, thankfully. I watched Griggs face crinkle in amusement. Uh oh, that couldn’t be good.
