Lucas And The Time-Traveling Fog Party Animals
Chapter 11 Birthday Boy

You would think I would have a panic attack in my car by now, but luckily, that never happened. Do you want to know why? I was so pumped up about going back to a place where ...where I could call home that I kinda forgot what happened to me in the mall. Going home meant everything to me on that day. Even though my family may be different, the town wasn’t.

To make it easier for you to understand how important this was to me, this was the only reason why I got up in the morning to start my day and thought to myself, “Today’s the day, Lucas...today’s the day it’s going to happen,” but it never happened like that. Heck, if I was given a choice to be stuck as a girl in 1985 but get to live in my hometown or be stuck as some dude in 1959 living in some strange town in Michigan, I’ll take my chances as the girl.

One of the best parts of being in my town again is that I get to see what it looked like for myself instead of seeing pictures or hearing stories from the older residents back in its heyday during the 80s, and if it wasn’t for the Welcome to Hawkesville sign when I first arrived, I thought I was in another town. But the one bizarre thing I found being back was not the town itself but how the townspeople looked all happy as I drove past them.

Seems to me like some sorta happy bug just stung all of them because never in my life had I seen my town looking this full of life. I even saw a couple of people that I recognized that I thought weren’t born with smiles, but here they were in the flesh smiling. It was music to my ears. Ahhh, as much as I love driving through my town again, I am a man...er, I mean a girl on a mission, and that is to go to Liz’s or my house to celebrate Tom’s birthday. I couldn’t resist the urge to drive back to my house, where my journey all began, and see what it looked like back then. Hopefully, it looks the same as I remember it. I turned my car towards my neighborhood instead of hers.

After driving through my neighborhood, I searched everywhere for my house. Now, my house is two stories in Dark Blue, which is on a corner. The house that is on the left of mine is red. Now, when I parked my car on the side of my neighbors’ house, I was surprised to see it still red after all this time. When I looked at my house for the first time in a while, I nearly lost it. This house brought back so many good memories to me, and now the house that I remember is a lovely shade of brown.

Staring at the house was cool, but I wished that the blinds were open so I could have a little peek inside. But the only thing I could do without trespassing is staying here in my car. After a few more looks at my house, I started my car and left but not before waving goodbye because who knows; this might be the last time I get to see it. As I passed through Liz’s neighborhood, I wondered what kinda house she lived in. Hopefully, the house color won’t be pink.

Driving through her neighborhood, I spotted some balloons attached to a mailbox at the end of some driveway. When I got closer to the mailbox, I saw the number 431 on the side, so I knew this was her place. I parked my car in the driveway, looked up, and saw that this house was beige, two stories, and had a long driveway. When I got out, I put my stupid heels back on, grabbed my purse, and locked the car. I saw that there were small concrete steps that had a long path leading to the house. As I’m following the path, I noticed that this didn’t look anything like my house, but I’m just glad it wasn’t pink.

As soon as I got to the door, I decided to knock first before ringing the doorbell. I just wanted someone else other than her mother to answer. She made that very clear to me with the hug she gave the first time I ever saw her. If you’re wondering, yes, I still talk to her, not by my will but Liz’s. She tends to call her mom twice a week, and I found that out in her planner. As for me, I tried to do the same thing, but I quickly got sick of her yapping and decided it was best to call her once a week.

Anyway, while patiently waiting for someone other than her to open the door, I swear I saw somebody peeking through one of the blinds in the front windows. But that person was gone by the time I went to do a double-take. So, I said to myself, “Ok...you can do this. It’s just a birthday party, no big deal, just a whole bunch of strangers that know everything about Liz while I barely know anything about her or them at all. No problem. I just gotta act like I belong, channel my inner girl in the process, and everything should go along smoothly.”

Suddenly, the door swung open, and I was surprised to see or hear no one inside; it was total silence. I thought with a house of four siblings, surely, there would be some noise. Just then, Liz’s father came from around the corner and said, happy as one can be, “Oooh h-hey, there’s my Lizzie. I was wondering when you were going to show. But thank goodness it’s you. I thought you were someone else at the door for a moment. Come in, come in, and tell me all about your exciting time at college so far.” He then escorted me inside before I had a chance to say something and closed the door behind me,where he whispers,

“Hey, just between you, me, and mom, I put the present from all of us downstairs in the basement closest to the left. I want you to be the one to record Tom opening his presents outside this time, so don’t tell her; she doesn’t know, but once he gets to the last few, I’ll give you the signal to go downstairs and bring it out. Can you do that for me?”

I whispered in his ear, saying, “You can count on me, Dad,” with a smile at the end.

Her dad spoke back softly, “That’s my Girl. Knew I could count on you.” After that, he began to ask me questions about my day so far and my friends. I answered his easy questions while exploring this house. The inside looked as though the seventies and eighties had a love child, and this was the result.

I feel like I’m living in two different eras right now as I’m walking through the house. I noticed that there were family photos everywhere. There were even some on a wall on a green shag-carpeted stairwell going up. But when I got to the living room, it looked like a freakshow. There was the same green shag carpet as before, a brown wooden television set in a corner, a brown sofa with two yellow sofa chairs on the opposite side of the brown couch, a glass table in the middle, and yellow curtains behind the brown sofa.

Finally, there was a stone fireplace at the far back of the living room, and of all places to hang an actual family portrait was a portrait not of the family but three wild horses galloping through the countryside. As soon as I took my eyes off that nightmare, I called out to her father and asked, “Oh hey, by the way Mr. Ro--uhh, Dad, do you know where mom and the rest of the gang are? They would’ve all greeted me by now.”

“Well, your mother’s in our room getting dressed, but I think the kids are still outside playing an intense game of soccer. you want to check?”

“Oh, so that’s where everyone is. I’ll go say hi to Samantha and the boys outside first.”

I then put her purse on some counter by the front door and walked in through this dining room that was next to the kitchen. It was covered with yellow flower petal tiles, had dark wooden cabinets, one yellow table with matching chairs, yellow countertops, and in the back was a stove, dishwasher, and refrigerator that you guessed it was also yellow. Heck, I’m surprised the ceiling and wallpaper weren’t yellow. While looking for the Ross’ children, I could hear their distinct laughter echoing throughout these walls. As I peered through the kitchen window, I spotted them playing soccer just like Mr. Ross had said, and they seemed like they were having a good time. So, not wanting to stay in this kitchen any longer, I headed outside to see how much fun they were really having without me for myself.

Outside, I saw this concrete patio with pearly metal white chairs with a long white metal table in the middle of the patio with a yellow umbrella, of course. I also saw a red plastic cooler probably for adult drinks that was standing next to the screen door. As I looked out, gazing into the backyard, I noticed that this house had a massive yard that was way bigger than mine. This yard, as massive as it was, didn’t have that many trees outback because there were only two massive oak trees standing almost diagonal from each other, but it did have one long garden and a shed that I could barely make out. The grass was up to your ankles but yet had this strange smell of being freshly mowed. The wind felt cold, but yet the sun felt warm as it was beaming down on my head on this lovely September afternoon.

Next was this old-looking caramel wood fence that was running across the border. It was there where I saw her siblings running around screaming while a soccer ball was being kicked around. Soon as I shouted the words, “Hey. Hello, anyone out there?” they all stopped playing their little game and looked right at me. The youngest one, Samantha, came rushing towards me while screaming, “Lizzie!” before hugging me.

As she was hugging me, she said, “I missed you so much...it’s no fun being the only girl here other than mom.” Before you know it, the rest of the siblings followed her.

I replied, “Aww, I missed you too” as I hugged her back, I noticed that Jake and Nate were being left out where I made direct eye contact with both of them and clarified, “All of you...wait.” That’s when I noticed that someone was missing in Liz’s family, so I counted heads just to be sure, and I realized that who was missing was Tom. After I counted heads, I asked, “Where’s Tom? I thought he was playing soccer with all of you?”

Nate scoffed and answered, “He was, but he got bored and told me that he was going to be inside playing on the Atari downstairs but will be quick about it. Must still be down there. Dad told him no earlier, but you know that wouldn’t stop him.”

I then thought, Wait, her dad just told me that the birthday present was downstairs, and if Tom decides to sneak around while he’s down there and replaces it, then the surprise would totally be ruined, and it will be my fault because it is always my fault when stuff like this happens. I have to stop him before it’s too late.

“And you didn’t?” I boldly asked.

“No... wait, was I supposed to, and do you want me to go get him before mom or dad replace out?” Nate asked.

I answered, “Why, yes, you. Ugh, forget it! And if anyone is going down there to get him, it’s me. I think you caused enough trouble already. I’ll be right back; this shouldn’t take long,” then grumbled to myself, “Why do I always have to do everything myself?” while awkwardly trying not to fall flat on my face in front of her siblings and headed back inside to look for a staircase leading downstairs. When I spotted some steps near the kitchen, they appeared to be going down, so that had to be the basement.

Before I even took a step down, I noticed that the lights were off, and sarcastically, I thought, “Nice job trying to be sneaky, Tom...it totally worked.” As I carefully walked down these strange green shag-carpeted basement steps, I saw that both staircase and basement lights were off. So, I knew he still had to be down here. Now, I just have to look. As I looked everywhere for him, I saw on my right that this basement was bigger than mine and even had almost all wood floors. But the wood floors were overshadowed by tables and streamers. I still couldn’t replace him. Hundreds of thoughts were immediately running through my head at that moment, like what if he opened the present and started playing with it already, or what if he took a quick little peek of what it was in there and is currently hiding from me?

As I went to go look for Tom further, that’s when I heard the strangest snarling growl of my life. This noise totally scared the living daylights out of me. To make it even worse, this growl sounded like it was coming from the couches that I had just passed and checked. Curious about what made that sound, I headed back to the couches and went to investigate. Turns out that the strange creature that made that growl wasn’t a creature at all; it was just Liz’s little brother Tom who was sitting on the floor in front of a brown couch playing on the Atari just like Nate said he was and I’d never been so relieved to see him.

I don’t know what it was, but something about seeing Tom playing on that Atari reminded me of my own little brother Alex whenever he decides to play on my Ps4 downstairs whenever I or my parents are not around to stop him. But when I do catch him in the act when our parents are home, not tired, I like to bust his chops a little and tell my parents. Man, those were the days. While reliving the good times with my little brother, I decided to have some fun with her little brother by doing the exact same thing I would do to him.

OH THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!