Chapter 2
Happy Reunion
After departing the airport, Hank drove the family to his residence where the main road was not connected anymore. Where he drove next was a dirt road leading up a hill with lush greenery around the driveway. What was behind the trees and shrubs was an older two story house. After the jeep reached to the house, Hank parked the car and started up a conversation.
"Well, here we are. It's not much, but it's cozier inside than it looks outside."
"It's fine, I'm sure you enjoy it in the long run with you being stationed nearby." Ashlynn said.
"If it means serving our country and get a beautiful view, then I'll take it."
As soon as the car door came flying open, a woman came out to greet Hank and the family.
"Ah, there you all are! Welcome to our home!"
Brie was Hank's wife of twenty years. She was a Hawaiian native with black, long hair, dark, amber eyes, and her skin was delicately tanned.
"It's good to see you again, Brie. Where's the girls?" Ashlynn greeted while looking for her nieces.
"I'll call them out here. Lynae! Meredith! Come say hello!" Brie shouted toward the house to request the girls out of the house.
Two girls came out of the house looking a bit disinterested but tried to conceal the looks on their faces because knowing they would have gotten a lecture from their father. One girl was a brunette. She had hair that came down to her shoulder blades just like how her cousin Amelia's was. She also had inherited her mother's amber eyes. The other girl was younger around the boys' age. She had dirty blonde hair that came down to her lower back, but inherited her father's bluish green eyes as well.
"Girls, you remember Mia, Alex, and Aaron right?" Brie introduced the girls to the other teenagers.
The girls just stood there not saying a word to either show interest or to be rude to them.
"So, you're our cousins?" Aaron finally broke the silence.
"Did it take you long to figure that out?" Lynae snapped in a snarky tone.
"Lynae Alexandria!" Hank scolded her.
"I don't think we've met before have we?" Meredith peered into the boys a little further as well as Amelia.
"You have but you were too young to remember. Plus, I'm sure the boys were too." Brie mentioned how long ago it was since they last met each other.
"Mere, why don't you show your cousins around the house? And you, young lady, we're going to have a serious talk about manners."
"Whatever..." Lynae scoffed as she walked back into the house.
"You'll have to excuse her, she's been going through her rebellious stage. It wasn't easy for her dealing with Hank being stationed here and all." Brie tries to defend her in an ordinary perspective.
"I can't imagine." Ashlynn said feeling sorry for Brie and the family going through this tension.
"It's not easy being a Navy wife, that's for sure." Brie sighed.
After being let in the house, Meredith showed where the boys would be sleeping at.
"You two will be staying in Lynae's bedroom. Mia, you'll be sleeping with me and Lynae in my room."
"So, what's your sister's deal? Is she always this unpleasant?" Alex asked about Lynae's earlier behavior.
"To me, yeah, we're sisters. All the time? Not really."
"I was going to say, I don't remember her being this mean. She was always nice and easy to get along. Now she just looks as if I mean nothing to her." Amelia recalled from previous memories with her cousin Lynae.
"Try not to take it personal. I just ignore her most days." Meredith gave some advice to Amelia and the boys.
"So what do you do for fun?" Aaron asked Meredith.
"Huh?"
"You know, games, hobbies, entertainment..."
"Oh, well, there's the TV down stairs. I usually just play outside either playing soccer or beach volleyball with my friends."
"Are any of your friends single?" Alex asked mischievously.
"Alex!" Amelia stepped in.
"What? I had to ask. She's around my age, right?"
"Wait, how old are you?" Meredith asked out of curiosity.
"We just turned 13, and you?" Aaron asked Meredith in return.
"I'm 14. So wanna head to the beach and play some volleyball?"
"Alright, let's go play some volleyball!" Alex said excitedly.
"You really are an idiot." Amelia rolled her eyes at her brother.
Later on in the kitchen where all the adults were, Alex and Aaron dashed to the door.
"Bye, mom, Aunt Brie, we're going to the beach!" Alex waved at his mom.
"Already?" Ashlynn was shocked by their enthusiasm going to the beach rather than play their video games.
"Yeah, Mere is going to show us around." Aaron explained that they will be going with Meredith.
"Alright, don't stay too long, dinner will be ready before you know it." Brie told them what time they should be home by.
"We won't, bye!"
"Well that didn't take long for them to bond." Ashlynn was shockingly impressed at how well her boys were getting along with Meredith.
"Amelia, are you not going with them? I thought you would want to go?" Her aunt asked her inquisitively as she spotted her walking past the kitchen.
"Nah, I'm going to see what Lyn is up to."
"Okay." Brie said in a neutral tone but her expression said otherwise.
Amelia went back upstairs to go see where Lynae was. She felt like she could use some company despite the attitude she displayed earlier in the day. It may have been several years since she last saw Lynae, but she still felt that the connection and bond they had before was still there. Amelia found a door cracked open to a room where Lynae was lying there reading a book. She then decided to break the silence to start up a conversation.
"Hey"
"Hey" Lynae caught a glance at her then went back to her attention on the book.
"What are you reading?"
"Porn..." Lynae responded in a nonchalant tone.
Amelia didn't know how to respond to her. She ended up blushing since she caught her in an awkward situation, but then Lynae continued on with what she was actually reading.
"It's a mystery novel trying to figure out about mysterious disappearances of numerous of people that go on this beach at night. Do you really think that Mr. Cadet down there would dare let me read something so degrading as that?"
"Oh, ha, right. So... any more on that story that you're reading?" Amelia tried to focus on the subject of the book to kill the awkward tension.
"The detective claims that there is a serial killer on the loose making it seem like it's cursed to give him a scapegoat to keep his killing spree going. A conspiracy theorist argues that a serial killer would target a certain group of people like males, females, children, race, some that he personally knows... Whereas, these people are disappearing left and right and it does not discriminate on who they are."
"Don't know whether to find that disturbing or interesting." Amelia gave her opinion openly.
"So, did Mere give you the tour already? Or did she bail and left me with doing the honors?" Lynae asked.
"No, she already did; she's out with the guys."
"Doesn't surprise me one bit." Lynae said under her breath.
As the day went on, everyone was at the house gathered at the dining table eating the dinner that Brie had prepared all day for. While enjoying the food, all of them cheerfully chattered around the table.
"Wow, almost forgot about how awesome your cooking is, Brie,"
Ashlynn smacked her husband lightly after his statement to Brie.
"Well, of course Ash is an amazing cook herself, it's just been so long since we've had dinner like this."
"Think you might have saved yourself a night on the couch." Ashlynn said in a snarky tone.
"Well, it sort of gets old when you eat it over and over again, but Brie manages to spice things up a little despite limited choices we get at the market." Hank mentioned.
"I do what I can. So Mere, how was the beach?" Brie asked Meredith.
"It was good, showed Alex and Aaron around. Found out that Alex here is a big show off when it comes to volleyball."
"Is that so?" Bill intervened
"Well, it's not hard to just bump and smack a ball across the net." Alex said in a prideful tone.
"It isn't either when there's other girls on the beach." Aaron added on.
"Mia, I heard you didn't join them on the beach. I thought you might have liked going as much as I've heard from your mom?" Hank turned his attention towards Amelia.
"I just wasn't up to it today, I might go tomorrow."
"Well I hope so cause tomorrow we're all going as a start for some family bonding time. There's a beach in Nanakuli that's not that far from here; also, a great fishing spot too."
"You don't have to go in tomorrow?" Brie asked worriedly
"Nope, got the day off after I got someone to cover for me at the station."
"Oh nice, well I guess we better get some good night sleep if we want to get up early." Ashlynn was excited about the trip for tomorrow.
"You bet, it'll be just like old times when Mom and Dad took us to the beach when we were these kids' ages."
Hank and Ashlynn continued on the conversation by telling stories on the vacations they use to take when they were much younger. After dinner was over, everyone was getting ready for bed for the trip Hank had planned early tomorrow morning. In Meredith's bedroom, Lynae was brushing her teeth, Meredith was brushing her long hair, and Amelia was taking her medicine with a glass of water.
"Do you have to take that every night?" Meredith asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." Amelia said in a neutral tone.
"What's it do?" Meredith asked once more.
"Helps me go to sleep and helps my body not convulse while I'm asleep."
"How often do you have to take it?" Meredith kept asking questions to Amelia about the medicine.
"Every morning and night. Also when I'm traveling."
"That sucks, so what happens if you skip a dose?"
Finally, Lynae stepped in after rinsing her mouth off.
"Meredith..."
"What?" Meredith replied back to Lynae.
"Amelia doesn't want to answer every single question about her condition. She probably gets these questions all the time."
"It's true, but it's okay. Honestly, I don't know when I started getting these episodes. I just remember having to go to the doctor a lot and take a lot of medicine each day, but it was a lot more when I was little. Doctors say I have Epilepsy, but they cannot find the root cause for it so they've been keeping a close eye on me to study about any patterns or triggers. Honestly, I know just as much as my parents and the doctors since it's been unpredictable over the years." Amelia explained.
"Do you stand out more at school from this?" Lynae asked her.
"I do. I used to be home-schooled when I was in kindergarten through the second grade, but my condition got better so my doctor reduced my dose, and I was able to attend to a regular school."
"Well, hopefully you'll get a good night's rest because we're supposed to get up really early tomorrow; not that it's anything new to us anyway." Lynae advised Amelia.
"I don't envy you. Goodnight." Amelia tucked herself into the air mattress on Meredith's bedroom floor.
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