I think you're going to like this next part. No, really, I think you will! :)
PART SIX: SATURDAY
IN WHICH MY GUARDIAN HELPS ME WITH BOOKS AND PLANNING
Saturday mornings are the only mornings of the week that
we get to really sleep in on, so I didn’t wake up until past eight. When the
sun finally managed to find its way through the blinds and across my eyes, I
woke up groggily.
I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the alarm clock
said it was 10:47, but then I checked my phone and it told me the correct time
(8:14) and figured out that the power must have gone out sometime during the
night. I could have figured out when, but my brain didn’t want to work full
time yet…and besides, I didn’t really care anyways. After my pulse returned to
it’s normal tempo, I was very awake and ready for the day to begin.
Breakfast, thanks to a little preparation between my
guardian and I, was blueberry coffee cake. After bringing out come freshly
brewed coffee to the Mornelly boys, (Aileen didn’t get any this time, though
she did her best to manipulate Aichear into letting her again…nothing worked)
and we played another round of riggamarole.
Breandan kept pestering me to show him my stories, so at
last, and with great reluctance and some embarrassment, I pulled up my stories
on my computer and showed them to the siblings.
While the Mornelly’s were reading over my shoulders, I
quickly gave my stories a once over; changing mistakes as I found them before
the Mornelly’s discovered them. It became almost a game, but I won over all
because Aichear was the only one who could find mistakes… and I didn’t expect
to be able to edit faster than he could read.
After a few hours of this, we stopped and they began
giving me advice, helpful in some cases, and not so helpful in others. I’ll let
you guess which brothers were helpful and which ones weren’t. Aileen simply
said that she loved them all.
“Which was your favorite story?” I asked them all. That
was a mistake. They all started talking about different stories all at once. I
stopped them all by holding out my hands in front of me. “Whoa guys!” I
exclaimed. “One at a time, please. You go first Aileen.”
The youngest Mornelly sighed. “I really can’t choose a
favorite. I love them all…but I do like the elf story. I love magical fairy
tales.”
Damhán snorted and rolled his eyes at his sister’s
answer. “I like the story with all the sword fighting in it… but I really think
you should have more gore in it. So far it’s ok, but not nearly bloody enough
to attract an audience.”
“Not your type of audience and any rate,” Bran remarked
drily. “My favorite is also that one, but I didn’t think there was any need for
more blood. You did a fine job. Maybe you could add a little more about the
types of clothes they wore and describe more of the medieval styles. I think
that would be interesting.”
Ciarán shook his head violently, causing his hair to fall
over his eyes and hiding them completely from view until he pushed it behind
his ears again. “Please don’t make her ruin perfectly good stories to satisfy
your ridiculous love for style.”
“It’s not a ‘ridiculous love’!” Bran exclaimed hotly.
“You’re just jealous that you can’t pull off a suit and tie look as flawlessly
as I can.”
“I’m not jealous! I like
wearing black. It’s cool.”
“No it’s not.”
“Is too.”
I rolled my eyes and stood between the arguing brothers.
“Guys, stop this arguing or I’ll make you both go stand out in the rain.”
Their mouths snapped shut and they carefully ignored each
other for an hour.
Breandan told me his favorite story was “Beyond the
Galaxy” and Aichear said his favorite was “Alice & Alyssa”. As they told me
their reasons, I closed the various story folders.
Suddenly, Breandan pointed to a folder on my desktop.
“What’s that?”
I frowned and opened the folder. Recognition lit my face
when it opened and revealed the document’s title. “Oh, this is graduation
stuff. I forgot I had that on here.”
“Graduation stuff?” Breandan asked. “What are graduating
from?”
“High school.”
“When?”
“Early this summer along with three other home school
students.”
Aichear squinted at the small type through his glasses.
“Who are all these people?” he asked.
I sighed. “They’re people I’m hoping to invite to my
graduation…but I’m afraid to send out the invitations in case I accidentally
forgot someone.”
“Try putting them in alphabetical order,” Breandan
suggested. “It’ll be easier to see who you might be missing if they’re
organized.”
I looked at my guardian in amazement. “Why didn’t I think
of that?”
Breandan grinned. “Probably because you’re not the most
organized person in the world.”
“That’s true,” I agreed ruefully, beginning to switch
names into the suggested order.
Breandan brightened suddenly. “Hey, I know that person!”
he exclaimed. “ ‘Emily McConnell’. She’s our author!”
I grinned. “Yes, and also a very good friend of mine.”
Damhán came over and looked over my shoulder again. He
had been swishing an imaginary sword around and stabbing Aileen and Ciarán in
turn, all the while making horrendous faces at them. This made Aileen squeal in
terror and Ciarán’s face turn darker and darker as his glower settled deeper. I
was glad to stop the torture, even if it was temporary and let him point things
out as much as he wanted.
“Hang on a sec,” he said slowly; going over the list one
more time in it’s completed form. “Where are we?”
I gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we’re your friends, right? Aren’t you going to
invite us to your graduation?”
I thought a moment. “You’re welcome to come of course,
but I thought it might be difficult since you can’t really control when you
come into the third dimension.”
“We could come and be invisible,” the youngest Mornelly
boy said.
“To all but the kids and those who still have active
imaginations,” I pointed out.
“We’ll stick by Emily and not cause any trouble,” Damhán
begged, turning to Aichear. “Please say that we can come and watch her
graduate!”
“It’s not every day I can see one of my charges graduate
from high school,” Breandan said, putting in his two cents.
“We could all dress up for the important occasion,” Bran
added suddenly. This comment was greeted by a unanimous grown from his younger brothers.
I grinned. “Really the only people who need to dress up
for a graduation ceremony is the graduate and the graduate’s family. You’re
welcome to wear something nice if you want to, but it’s not required.”
Damhán gave an exaggerated sigh and wiped imaginary sweat
from his forehead, which earned him a glower from Bran.
Breandan continued to read the stuff I had written off
and on in preparation for the ceremony. “‘Remember to pick two or three
favorite snacks for refreshments after the ceremony’,” he read out loud.
Bran perked up. “There’s going to be food?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yep. And good food too, if I do say so
myself.”
“Which snacks are you going to have?”
I frowned thoughtfully. “I haven’t really decided yet…but
they’ll be good,” I added with a grin.
Breandan suddenly pointed a little lower on the screen.
“‘Choose a song for graduation slideshow’,” he read. “Have you done that?”
I shook my head. “I know which song I want, but I haven’t
found a favorite version yet.”
“What’s the song?”
“The hymn Take My
Life and Let It Be.” I smiled. “I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?”
Breandan returned my grin. “Actually, I do.”
Bran groaned. “Don’t ask…please don’t ask.”
Aichear explained when I shot him a puzzled look, “It’s
one of Breandan’s many country songs he plays over and over again to our great
annoyance.”
“Oh,” I answered. “Well, I would like to hear it…if you
guys don’t want to you could go out until it’s done.”
“I’m leaving,”
Ciarán said with a scowl.
“Me too,” Damhán said. “I’ve heard that song waaaay to many times.”
“It’s a good song,” Breandan replied with an insulted
air. “I think Rebekah is going to like it.”
“Dream on Breandan,” Damhán snorted.
“Let me hear it before you all come to any conclusions,”
I said finally with a roll of the eyes. “Remember, I haven’t heard this song as
much as you have, so it won’t be annoying to me.”
“Don’t say you like it after he’s played it even if you
do,” Bran warned, “or he’ll play it continually.”
“Shh!” I ordered. “I want to hear it first, then decide
whether I like it or not.”
Breandan grinned like a happy dog and lovingly pulled out
his much-used MP-3 player. The rest of the Mornelly’s left the room with
groans, lamentations, and loud snorts of disgust. (Excepting Aichear, he just
left.)
Here's the song! I found it! :)
Here's the song! I found it! :)
At the first few guitar chords, I was hooked. When the touch
of country twang was added, a pleased smile began to spread across my face. A
young woman’s voice began to sing and I looked over at Breandan, who was
watching my reaction. “I love it,” I said simply.
The song continued and Breandan smiled. “I thought you
would,” he replied triumphantly.
After the last chords died away, I gave a satisfied sigh.
“It’s perfect. Type down the name of the album and artist so I can look it up
and have it for my slideshow.”
With an obliging nod, Breandan took my computer into his
lap and typed out the information I had asked for. This done, he read the rest
of my graduation planning.
“Have you designed your graduation invitations yet?” he
asked curiously.
I nodded. “Yeah, but I have some touch-up to do before I
send them out. It would be embarrassing to send out invitations that had typos
in them.”
Breandan’s eyes twinkled appreciatively. “That would be
embarrassing. Any way I can help with them?”
I brightened. “Actually, yes! I would love it if you
could take some graduation pictures of me outside and then we could load them
onto our computer and then I could put them into the slideshow album and the
invitation and then we can work on checking the invitation over for mistakes
and see if…” I trailed off when I saw the blank look on my guardian’s face.
“Sorry, I was talking too fast, wasn’t I?”
Breandan shrugged. “I got about every third word.”
I groaned. “Never mind. Ignore everything I just said.
I’ll repeat it one step at a time.”
“Good idea.”
“First, I need you to take some graduation pictures. Can
you do that?”
My guardian smiled. “Sure!”
Just then, Damhán poked his head cautiously around the
door. “Is it safe to come in now?” he asked in a hoarse whisper.
I looked over at Breandan, who rolled his eyes.
Smothering a grin, I nodded at the youngest Mornelly boy. “We’re not playing
the song anymore if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh good,” he
said, letting out his breath with a whoosh.
“I’ll let everyone know.” Before he did however, he looked at me closely.
“Don’t tell me you liked the song!”
I grinned. “You’ll just have to come to my graduation to
find out!”
With a parting groan, Damhán returned with his message to
the other Mornelly siblings.
I looked at Breandan. The knowing smirk on each other’s
faces sent us both into gales of laughter.
“I’m going to miss seeing their reaction at the ceremony
when they hear the song!” I exclaimed, wiping the tears of mirth from my eyes. “I
probably won’t be able to see their faces from where I’ll be sitting.”
“I’ll leave a note giving every detail,” my guardian
promised.
I closed the computer with a smile of relief and looked
outside. “Currently it’s raining…but tomorrow will probably be sunny enough to
take pictures.”
“Probably. Until then?”
I shrugged. “Let’s go get some lunch. Bran’s undoubtedly
famished.”
Breandan grinned. “Undoubtedly. What shall we make?”
I returned the grin and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Let’s
surprise them.”
“I’m all for surprises,” my guardian answered.
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