Chapter 56

September 1, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written September 3]

Practice today was three hours of half-field scrimmage, O vs. D, a set of midfielders on each team, the D wearing the orange vests. As we did on the premier team, Coach moved players around, changing positions and whether on O or D. However, I could see her ulterior motive: trying out different offensive formations against what is a very good starting back line. After about 90 minutes of a three-girl back line, she spent much of the rest of the time trying individual defenders as a fourth in a four-girl back line, including Gracey and Rose, the latter a backup last year at both fullback and goalie.

Shameka collared us at the end of practice.

“Hey, I talked to Coach and she suggested I talk to you. I want to take Civia up on her offer for dribbling instruction and I was hoping, Rhee, that I could ask you if you’d be willing to teach me that rocket of yours.”

Rhee had whacked two of them today, one goal and one oh-so-close miss.

“Of course,” Civia said, which response was overlapped by Rhee’s “Sure. When?”

“Not today, as Coach wore me out. Could we do it Monday and Tuesday? Coach said that we’ll be doing drills both days. I could get my dad’s Suburban both days so that I could drive you home as thanks.”

“You don’t have to do that. We’d be happy to help without that,” Rhee replied.

“No. I insist. We’re teammates, and teammates help each other in whatever ways they can.”

I chimed in with, “I agree. Why don’t you drive us home immediately after practice, you could have lunch with us at ... my house and then go to the premier team’s practice pitch where we go after practice to ... well, practice? Oh, wait. There’s a regular pick-up game on that field on Mondays. We could do the school field on Monday, then our neighborhood on Tuesday. Would that work for you?”

“Sure. We could pop to the pizza place after practice on Monday and then do extra work after that.”

“Sure,” Rhee responded. “We’ve done that a few times so that we could go straight to our field after getting off the bus. In fact, we’re doing that, today.”

“Great, and thanks. I look forward to it. See ya Monday.”

We curtailed our dribbling practice at the practice pitch early due to an approaching thunderstorm that broke after we got home but before we got into showers. We said “hi” to Emma as we came in the door.

Liya said, “First round Civia and Gracey, Beth and Rhee.”

We hung around upstairs after showers talking for a while, then dressed and began on dinner: baked rosemary chicken, mashed potatoes, and blackened green beans, along with a diverse salad. The chicken recipe is Dad’s mother’s, involving marinating the chicken for at least six hours (Mom had made it this morning) in orange juice, olive oil, rosemary, and chives. It’s so good. As per usual, we split the tasks among all of us. Rhee taught Civia how to do the green beans.

“Civia,” I asked, “are there foods that either of your parents don’t like? I’m in charge of figuring out what we’re having tomorrow night when they’re here.”

“Not much. Dad and I don’t like broccoli and Mom doesn’t like cooked spinach. Otherwise, I don’t know of anything else that they really don’t like.”

“Do they like lamb?”

“Yeah, we have that once or twice a year.”

“All right, we’ll do that.”

Once I got confirmation that we could get a three-rack lamb crown roast, I texted Dad and the Moms to ask one of them to pick it up from the butcher on the way home. Emma was waiting for me to finish the text.

“Would you, please, tell your parents that we’ll be finished with the bathroom mid-day tomorrow? I know that your dad asked us to expedite its completion, but we didn’t have to, as we didn’t run into anything unforeseen.”

“Great! I’ll tell him.”

“I couldn’t help overhearing you ordering a lamb crown roast. I also noticed that you girls are making tonight’s dinner. Do you girls regularly deal with dinner and always enjoy it like you seem to have today? I ask, because I find that it’s like pulling teeth to get my kids, even my girl, to help without a lot of resistance.”

“Yeah. When we’re not in school, we help out with dinner a lot. It’s only fair, since our parents work and all we have is soccer. We all enjoy it, to lesser or greater extent. It was the first task that Rhee and I asked to be allowed to do. We’ve done it since last summer.”

“And you’re, what, 14?” When I nodded, she shook her head and said, “So you asked to be able to cook dinner for your family shortly after you became a teenager? Are you girls aliens? My daughter just turned 13 and I’ve become a little concerned that I’m going to have one of those teenagers. Your parents wouldn’t be interested in a trade, would they?”

She followed that with a smile. I smiled back.

“Probably not, now that they’ve finally got us civilized enough to let us out of the locked basement.”

She and the girls chuckled.

“We’ll be starting on the upstairs work on Thursday. Is it correct that you girls won’t be here during those days?”

“Yeah, we’ll be hanging at Rhee’s house. I think it’s still up in the air as to whether the parents will be here or there then.”

She raised her eyebrows at that, then said, “I guess if you’re responsible enough to deal with dinner regularly, you’re probably responsible enough to live on your own for a few days. Is it far?”

“Nah, less than two blocks. We haven’t decided, yet, whether we’ll live here or there while you’re doing the upstairs bathroom. How long will the new wall and shower take?”

“Just a few days, at most.”

Dinner was yummy and enjoyable with a wide-ranging conversation. While we girls cleaned up, Dad and the Moms did some prep with the lamb crown roast, which will sit in the fridge until tomorrow afternoon absorbing the garlic and other goodies introduced into it. We played a game of Uno to 500 that Gracey won, then we called it a night.

As per usual, Heather was nearly naked by the time she reached the upstairs hall. Surprisingly, Civia was not far behind in the process.

“Our Civia’s becoming quite the nudist,” Liya said.

Civia giggled, then said, “I know. It’s crazy, but I really like it.” Her face took on a more-serious mien and she continued, “I also like that you called me ‘your Civia,’ Liya. I’m really happy that you girls like me that much. I love spending time with you.”

Heather wrapped her up and said, “Good! ‘Cause we like hanging with you.”

We all sat on the Beth-Rhee-Heather bed and gabbed for another hour or so, after which we conducted nightly ablutions, each of us hugged the others, and Civia went into the other bedroom to spend the night with Liya and Gracey. Rhee, Heather, and I snuggled up tightly with each other, whispering our love for each other, content with the togetherness in bed.

September 2, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written September 3]

With Civia’s help, Dad whipped up a compote new to us, mango-raspberry, while Gracey and Liya made pancakes; Heather made a huge batch of scrambled eggs; and Rhee and I set the table, poured drinks, and did other stuff to prepare for a big family breakfast. In the meantime, the Moms did some more prep work for tonight’s dinner.

I love this family. Like dinner last night, breakfast flew by with sparkling conversation, in which Civia more than held up her end, and planning for the day.

“Now that you’ve had your second sleepover here, Civia,” Carol asked, “what do you think?”

“I really liked the last one and this one was even better, as I’ve become more comfortable here. I love my parents and we have fun together, but I also really love being here. You’re all so fun and interesting.”

“We’re happy that you like it here,” Sandy replied. “We like having you. You fit well.”

“Thank you, Sandy.”

The construction crew arrived a bit before 9, as we were finishing breakfast clean-up. We packed a couple coolers of food and drinks, dug the bean-bag-toss game out of the storage container, grabbed a couple frisbees and soccer balls and were on the road shortly after 10 heading to the park. Dad drove to “our” pavilion and we spent the next four hours and some change there, recreating, eating, enjoying the family. We had to teach Civia how to throw a frisbee. She’s an athlete; she picked it up pretty quickly.

As we were packing up, Dad said, “I still think it odd that this part of the park sees so little use. We’ve been here over four hours and we’ve seen only three cars, and one of those simply drove by on the other road.”

“It’s got to be the lack of a bathroom,” responded Rhee.

“I can’t see any other remotely reasonable ... reason,” he said.

The construction crew was packing up when we got back to the house, and Dad talked to Emma for a bit. She showed him the new, larger, newly-constructed downstairs bathroom, now with a shower, then they went upstairs to discuss the two sets of remodeling there. Once we girls had emptied the Sprinter and put everything away, we took some soccer balls over to the pitch and got some practice in. We were happy to see that the nets were still up, considering that we would need them to be up on Tuesday for our session there with Shameka. Civia again helped Gracey with FFP, Rhee helped Liya with beginning dribbling skills, and Heather and I took turns practicing rockets. I got to the point where I managed a rocket on more than half my tries – still all line drives, so started the process of figuring out how to do it with my left foot. It took Heather quite a few tries before she finally nailed one, a bit surprising, since she had nailed a few the last time. She had to really concentrate to get her whole body into the follow-through, as she was used to having shots that were well-placed, rather than hard. We spent an hour at the field, then headed back to clean up.

The Paleceks arrived shortly before 6. The dining-room table was quite packed with 11 diners, but the meal was great, the conversation convivial. I really like Civia’s parents, and they’ve become much more comfortable with us. Civia may test that comfort when she asks to spend the night with us next Friday, in addition to the scheduled sleepover two Fridays hence. With the plastic sheeting removed with the completion of the bathroom, we now had access to all of the living room and continued the table conversation there. The Paleceks made their departure a bit past 8:30, Civia hugging all eight of us.

The whole family returned to the living room after seeing the Paleceks off and gabbed for a bit longer. After about ten minutes, there was a lull in the conversation that Sandy filled.

“I believe that it’s my turn to strip Our Man. Charlie?”

Dad stood and Mom proceeded to give him the long, sexy version of removing his clothing. It was erotic, causing the rest of us to get quite turned on. I was certainly more than ready to have Dad’s hands on me when I was first to be stripped. Although he was fully erect after Mom’s show, he did not do the long, sexy versions with us, else he’d have been at it for more than an hour. However, he was not shy about putting his hands on me, or on any of the others when it was their turns. Once we were all naked, Sandy took the floor, again.