| chapter twenty seven“Guys there's donuts upstairs,” Nicole said, walking down into the basement after leaving a couple minutes before. It was about seven in the morning and none of us got any sleep. Our hide and seek game lasted a good two hours and we moved on, laughing the night away.
We had all gotten our second, maybe even third wind and didn't feel tired at all. I got to the top of the stairs and wanted to see what it was like out, walking over to the slider my jaw dropped.
“It's such a mess out there,” I said, pointing to the backyard. Everyone peeked out the window, surprise at what they were seeing. Branches covered the backyard along with pool floats and picnic tables.
“It took me about twenty minutes to get to Dunkin Donuts. It's such a mess just to go down three streets!” Nicole's dad told us, grabbing the newspaper and walking out into the living room.
“Is the power back on yet?” Kevin asked, grabbing a donut out of the large white, pink and orange box.
“Not yet,” Mr. Hansen answered, shaking his head.
“That's so weird. We have underground power lines,” Sage said, grabbing a chocolate glazed donut.
“Well yeah, but there's probably a power line over on that street that got struck or something,” Nick chimed in.
“Or that got hit by the tornado,” Joe said, pouring himself a glass of water.
“Oh my God that was so scary,” Abby said, leaning over on the island.
“Tell me about it,” Allie said. “I walk in and these two are crying like crazy,” she said, pointing to me and Abby and then Carlie, “and this one is panting like she's in the grudge or something.”
Carlie rolled her eyes.
“I just love how it's like, sunny out,” Abby laughed. She opened the door, letting the cool air flow in and shutting it quickly. “It's a little chilly out though.”
“Whoa, this thing says that it's only like sixty one degrees,” Nicole said, bending down to look at the digital thermometer thing that was on the kitchen counter.
I shivered just thinking about the temperature. Living in New England, we had the hot summers and the freezing winters, but I guess it's pretty normal to have a cool day in the summer and a warm day in the winter here and there.
“Girls, it says here that since there is so much damage that schools might be cancelled tomorrow,” Mr. Hansen said, folding back the newspaper and folding it again before slapping it down on the dining room table where we were all sitting.
Abby, Nicole, Allie and I looked at each other squealing and getting our hopes up that classes would be cancelled tomorrow. Sage sighed.
“You guys get the day off and tomorrow is my first day,” she said, taking a bite of her chocolate donut.
“Same,” Carlie said, sipping her milk. We just smiled.
“It's only September and you guys are getting the day off,” Nick said, shaking his head full of curls.
“Well if we have snow days, there's at least four feet of snow,” Nicole told them. “I hate New England,”
“Ditto,” I replied, looking out the window and across the street at the golf course where there were trucks and people picking up debris.
“I kinda want to go for a walk and just like, see how much damage there was,” Abby said, folding up the newspaper and sliding it to the center of the table.
“Yeah, we should go,” Carlie said, peeking out the window behind me.
“Dad!” Nicole shouted, getting up from the table and walking out into the living room to ask her dad if we could go.
“be careful!” Mr. Hansen reminded us.
“I kinda want to stay here,” Allie complained while the rest of us walked to the front door to put on our shoes.
“I'll stay here with you,” Sage told her. They left left to go back downstairs, we assumed to try to get some sleep while the rest of us were out.
“Where are my shoes?” I said, looking over everyone. There were converse everywhere and finally a black pair were thrown my way. I caught them saying thank you to whoever threw them.
The seven of us walked out the front door and into the chilly air. There were puddles in the street but the sun was as bright as ever.
Kevin was leaving for a little bit to go home and make sure everything was good their and coming back later.
“So, where should we go?” Carlie asked, taking a left at the bottom of the driveway and then onto another street.
“Let's go check out the golf course,” Joe said, pointing in the direction of it. We started walking towards the golf course and turned down another road, walking along the side.
Trucks were everywhere, picking up branches and cutting them up, fixing telephone poles and trying to get new grass laid down. Picking up furniture that had blown away from the restaurant...it was all a huge mess.
We walked down into Southwick where even more work was being done. We crossed the street where there were no trucks and leaned against a fence onto the course.
“Guys, look over there,” Nick spoke, pointing to a patch of brown a few hundred yards away. It looked like a straight line stretching maybe twenty feet at the most.
“That must be where the tornado hit,” Joe said quietly, studying it in the distance. Abby shivered, just thinking about the horrors of last night. There was seriously nothing she feared more than tornadoes and it was definitely a good thing Joe was here.
After standing there discussing it for a couple minutes we started to walk back. Nick grabbed my hand, our fingers intertwined. I bit my lip, watching my feet as my heart nearly stopped.
“Hey, look at those two behind us,” Nick leaned in and whispered in my ear. I turned my head slightly to the left to get a glimpse of Joe and Abby in complete flirt mode behind us. Abby giggled at something Joe said to her for only her to hear and I turned around smiling. They were adorable.
I nudged Nicole gently. “Hey, look behind us,” I said, whispering to her. She and Carlie peeked behind them.
“Aww,” Carlie smiled. “Hey, where'd my best friend go?”
“He went home for a little bit,” Nicole laughed. “Where have you been?”
“Yeah, I would have expected that question coming from Nicole,” I said with a laugh. Nicole glared and I flashed a smile, holding it until she finally cracked.
“ow, I'm getting blisters!” I shouted, feeling the pain of my sneakers rubbing against my bare feet. I didn't bother to find a pair of socks to put on and figured I'd be fine. “hold on,” I said, stopping really quick, trying to figure out a more comfortable way to get down the last two streets that were only a few feet.
“Come on,” Nick sighed, putting his back to me and bending over.
“yesss,” I grinned, jumping on his back as he grabbed my legs and I wrapped my arms around him. He stood back up straight, catching up to Carlie and Nicole.
“Hey guys,” I said, sticking my tongue out at them.
“Oh look at this baby...can't walk to more feet with blisters,” Carlie said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
“You're just jealous cause you wanted Kevin here to give you a piggy back ride,” I joked. She nodded.
“You're right,” she said, her eyes drifting back down at the puddles she was walking through.
“I know,” I smiled, fooling around with the loose brown curls that bounced whenever Nick walked.
We finally arrived back at the front door a few minutes later. It was about 8:45 and we walked in, being told that Sage and Allie fell asleep downstairs.
We went into the garage, digging through bins of things trying to find something to entertain us while the girls were sleeping.
“We can play wiffel ball again...” Nicole said, tossing the plastic white ball back and forth between her hands while I put band-aids on all my blisters and putting socks on.
“Let's do it,” Joe said, grabbing the skinny yellow plastic bat and walking into the backyard.
Nicole got up to bat first for our team, but striking out. She sighed and frowned, tossing the bat to Nick. Abby threw the pitch and it went right past Nick while he didn't even bother to swing. I picked up the wet ball and threw it back to her as best I could.
She threw it again and Nick jacked it, causing it to go over the hedges and into the next door neighbors backyard. Nick tossed the bat, smiling proudly as he ran the bases.
“Showoff,” Nicole mumbled under her breath, but joking.
I smiled and laughed, watching him run the bases and wink at us and point when he got to second and continued running to third.
“yes...but he's my showoff.”
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