Chapter 52 – Iris's Journal – The Party CrashersAnd now, introducing the newest member of the family. Everyone, please give a warm welcome to Angelia Iris.
Yeah, I'm flattered.
Who wouldn't be, sharing your name with an adorable kid?
Then there's little miss Electra, who is two now and ridiculously cute.
I've got to hand it to my little brother; Devon is one heck of a dad. He may be a complete fruit loop, but he is a gentle, loving guy and Electra and Angelia just adore him. Dev, if you're reading this, I apologize for being such a jerk when we were younger. All right, so you're a little off-the-wall and a bit too obsessed with aliens, but you're totally okay.
There. I finally came clean.
These last twelve months have been busy, but in a good way. First off, uncle Ethan and aunt Holly celebrated their fifty-second wedding anniversary. It's not exactly a milestone, but aunt Holly made the point that “At our age, every year matters.”
Man, I hope that Timmy and I are like that when we're in our seventies.
A couple of months later saw the first of three major birthdays in the house. First up was Kenji, who I seriously can't believe is already eighteen.
In light of all of the wedding prep surrounding his sister, Kenji opted for his own quiet birthday celebration. He claimed it was just to avoid stressing out his mother even more. A nice enough gesture to be sure, but he had an ulterior motive. What he
really wanted was to just spend his birthday with Karina.
And so he did. We...really didn't see them for most of the day, actually. The two of them surfaced later on for dinner, but that was about it.
The entire family turned out for Kenji's graduation the next day. Elly was in tears at the sight of her little boy in his cap and gown—and he was the valedictorian, no less!
(Don't my aunt and uncle look so proud?)
Then a few months later came the two birthdays that I
really couldn't believe.
Someone pinch me. How is it that my son is now a teenager?
So far Marcus is doing quite well with high school. He is already in junior-level math classes and is taking advanced computer programming...as an
elective. Yeah, I gave birth to a computer geek...and I mean that in the most endearing way possible.
I do worry about his social life though. As in he
has none. Marcus would much rather spend his time on the computer. He says that he much prefers to chat with his friends online than in person. Here's hoping it's just a phase. Maybe getting him his own computer for his birthday wasn't the wisest of ideas...?
My little sister on the other hand is the exact opposite, being quite the social butterfly.
Remember this guy? Kenji's friend Roman? Well...
It would appear that Amaya has gotten over the whole “ugly shirt” thing.
It's been a bit more than a year since Andrew and Zoey got engaged, and only recently were they able to set a date for the wedding. About a month after he proposed Andrew's unit was suddenly deployed to Pleasantview to help deal with the aftermath of an earthquake. Yeah, neither he nor Zoey were particularly thrilled about it, but it wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter.
At least it had afforded more time for planning, and when you have aunt Holly, Elysia, Mom, and Bella all wanting to have their say...it became very chaotic very quickly. They were starting to drive Zoey up the wall, if you want to know the truth. Finally she just gave up and said “Just tell me the time and the place and Andrew and I will be there, okay?”
She
was joking...sort of.
The groom-to-be finally returned a couple of months ago, much to Zoey's delight. With Andrew back home things seemed to settle down and Zoey was able to relax somewhat.
Fast forward to last night—the night of the long-awaited and much anticipated bachelor party for one Andrew Michael Goth. I swear he invited half of the town, including Dad and uncle Ethan, much to their mutual shock.
(Note the two retired doctors in their natural habitat: the chess table.)
I don't know, Andrew, are you
sure you want a couple of old farts putting a damper on your good time? (Kidding! Don't kill me, Dad!)
Our original plan was for the ladies to have a girl's night in, complete with chick flicks, popcorn, and plenty of chocolate. That idea lasted for a whole ten minutes. Aunt Holly wasn't feeling too well and decided to go to bed early (she's fine, don't worry), and horror of horrors, Elly forgot to get the
chocolate, which might as well be a cardinal sin as far as my mother is concerned.
So what are a bunch of bored ladies to do on a Friday night when the guys are out having fun?
Crash the party, of course.
The four of us dressed in our party finest and zipped over to the dance club, where we were greeted by two very familiar faces.
Dress to impress must be a relative term.
I sure wasn't impressed. Mortimer Goth in a powder blue tux just doesn't seem...right. Neither does uncle Mike in a cowboy hat, for that matter. And then, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse...
Ew, Dad. Just...ew.
Things had only just gotten started. No one seemed terribly surprised that we were there, and actually Andrew looked rather happy to see Zoey.
After which he was promptly dragged away by his best friend.
It's pretty well known around town that Irwin Hart is...not all there. Insanity merely skipped a generation in his family, so when he decided to propose a toast in honor of his soon-to-be married friend, none of us knew exactly what to expect.
It was remarkably coherent, actually. Full of the standard “I remember him when” and “I'll never forget that one time” and the inevitable embarrassing story from his childhood. Andrew was a good sport, even when Irwin tried to drown him in fizzy nectar.
There must be some unwritten rule about bachelor parties and fizzy nectar. They seem to go hand in hand.
It was at that point when Devon realized that something was a bit different about Timothy. He hadn't seen my husband since he had lost so much weight and was rather taken aback by the change.
“The aliens stole part of you, didn't they?”
Timmy just laughed. “Aliens had nothing to do with it. More like the treadmill, actually.”
“Whew, that's a relief. You know they have this probing mechanism that can literally suck the life right out of you? They're sneaky like that.”
Oy.The rest of the night was filled with drinks and laughter and thankfully devoid of party dancers (though from what I heard aunt Lisa tried). There was much dancing, and Zoey and Andrew did more than their share of flirting.
Irwin did more than his share of weird creepy things.
Mom and Dad partied the night away and were actually among the last to leave. As much as I tease them, they still never cease to amaze me.
But the night, ultimately, was all about Andrew and Zoey, and the new life that they are about to embark upon. Tomorrow they will leave the single life behind and embrace their future together, hand in hand, heart in heart.
Heh. Look at me, waxing poetic. I must be in serious need of coffee or something. Either that or I'm getting old, though if anyone ever tells me that thirty-nine is old I might have to smack them.
Laters,
Iris
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(A/N: I started cracking up when I saw what Michael Bachelor was wearing to the bachelor party, and about choked when I saw what Malcolm changed into. Iris's reaction was actually my reaction.
I guess the term “dress to impress” has a different meaning when you're an elder...?
I didn't add this to the story but Darlene tried to die on me again at the party. One of the hot tubs at the dance club busted and she tried to fix it. Zzzap! Dead. Then Grim laughed at her and brought her back to life. Man I love the Unlucky trait sometimes...but it was super-sad watching Malcolm bawling his eyes out. I might eventually post the pics of this as outtakes.
Next up—a wedding! Thanks so much for reading!)
