Sorry about taking so long to update. Almost five months exactly. I kinda got stuck on this one and wasn't sure where to go. Anyway, everything's fine now though no promises on the next update.

Chapter 35: End of School


After having cake, Lizzy looked around the wedding then grabbed her coat and slipped towards the door. She was a few steps from it when a hand wrapped around her bicep. To be honest she was really expecting her dad but was slightly shocked and surprised when she turned to see it was her aunt. "Aunt Casey?" Lizzy asked.

"Lizzy, can I ask you to wait a moment?" Casey asked. Lizzy nodded. "I am glad you're here. Even though we talked this morning I wasn't sure you were going to come."

"My dad would have been pissed."

"But he would have understood. It's not easy to make a complete 360 after so many years of being angry."

"I'm working on it."

"We know and we're proud of that."

"Is there something else?"

"I want you to know that we're here for you, every step of the way."

"Thank you. Will I see you on Thursday?" Lizzy asked.

"Yeah. You headed home?"

"Long drive, I should get going. Should I take Charlie with me?"

"Liz, there you are," Rob said, walking up.

"Yep. Here I am," Lizzy said. She grinned up at her father.

"I'm glad I caught you. I know you're heading home but it's not going to be quite as far a drive as you think. We'll be staying here in Minnesota. Everyone is already here so why take the trip? However, you'll have to stay in the guest room in the basement."

"What? Why? I have my own room there."

"Because Natasha, Star, and my mom will be staying with us. Star will be in your room, Grandma in the first floor guest room, and Natasha will be in Seth's room and he'll share with Matt if Matt's there at all."

"So I get stuck in the basement? What about Charlie?"

"Charlie?"

"Isn't he coming? I mean Grandma lives closer than closer than Charlie does."

"He is but he'll be bunking down the street at Fulton's. Nat and Jim already said it was okay."

"So can't I stay in the office or playroom?"

"The game room doesn't have bed and the couch in the office is very uncomfortable."

"I'll be fine."

"Okay. Are you sure you want to leave now?"

"Yeah, I love you but I need to go," Lizzy said.

"Okay, say your goodbyes and you can go."

"Can't I go without saying goodbye? I'm going to see most of these people over the next week anyway."

"Lizzy." Rob said.

"Fine." Lizzy turned to her aunt and smiled. "Congratulations, I hope that you're always as happy as you look right now."

"Thank you. I will see you on Thursday." Casey pulled her into a hug.

"Yeah," Lizzy sighed as she relished the hug. "It's the one with the stars and the dark blue wrapping. I made it myself."

"I'll love it." Casey kissed her niece's forehead then let her go. Lizzy said goodbye to the rest of her family and friends before finding Matt again. He told her to be safe and he would see her when he got the chance. He also gave her the code to his security alarm.

Lizzy reached the house in under an hour and made her way inside to the office at the back right of the house. She was there for maybe an hour when the bell rang. She frowned but headed for the door. Her entire family had keys to the house there should be no reason for the doorbell. She made her way to the door to see a brunette in the doorway. She pulled the door open.

"Danni?" Lizzy asked.

"Hey, Liz, can I come in?" Danni asked. Lizzy nodded and stepped out of the way.

"I thought you had a family thing?" Lizzy asked, shutting the door.

"I did, but my grandma's okay for now so she told me to come. My parents are there and they'll call if anything happens."

Lizzy led the way down the hall into the living room where they both sat. "Danni, do you talk to Val?"

"Yes, I do." Danni smiled. "She's my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend. As the girlfriend of the pitcher for the University of Tennessee it is my job to make sure other girlfriends don't distract the players too much." Lizzy nodded. She stared across the room as Danni smiled again. "But she's also my friend. Kinda happens when your boyfriends are really close and your brothers are really close. What's going on?"

"Did my behavior at Easter drive Val away? Matt said that Val was taking some time away. I don't want to interfere and I don't want to be that little girl who drove her big brother's girlfriend away. Ben deserves so much better and sometimes, around my family, I don't realize how my actions affect them."

Danni reached over and touched Lizzy's hand, drawing her attention. "It's not you. Val and Ben have been dating for just over one and a half years. For her, it's been the longest relationship she's been in and part of her is scared. She's not sure if this is what she wants. She just needs time to think it over."

"Are you sure?" Lizzy asked.

"Yeah. Things will work out. Trust your brother."

"Okay. If you're staying, I'm sure Seth wouldn't mind giving up a room so you have a place to stay," Lizzy said.

Danni smiled softly. "Thank you but I have a hotel room. I don't want to put that kind of pressure on your family."

"Or you don't want to tempt my brother. I'm not fooled; I know my brothers. With their girlfriends here there's no doubt they'll sneak over to have a little private time."

"I wouldn't do that to your family or your father. The hotel is fine, I promise."

"Okay, so how are you, really?" Lizzy asked.

"I'm alright. I don't like that my grandmother isn't at her best but otherwise I'm good."

"I'm glad." Soon the rest of the family was coming in and settling down for the night.

A couple days later, Rob sat down next to Lizzy as she and Ben watched a hockey game. "Your brother ... uh, Matt asked me to bring this for you. Said you'd want it for some reason," Rob said.

"The book you gave me for my birthday. I never looked at it. Matt said it was Mom's," Lizzy answered, taking the book from him.

"It was. She called it her "Planner" though not the way most people mean it," Rob said.

"What do you mean?"

"It was ... well, you should just look at it."

Lizzy nodded and flipped through the book. It was decently thick, almost like a hardback novel but there was no printed text, instead it was filled with drawings. The first few pages were filled with animals but then it moved on. The next page had a wedding drawn from a picture on the opposite page, and then some designs for what looked like nurseries. There were also drawings of the house they were currently sitting in, and then several of the rooms' designs. At the very end were drawings of babies. "Wow. She was good."

"It's what she went to college for. These were some of her favorites. Sometimes art is passed down. She would have been so proud of everything you've done. I apologize for not being more supportive of your passion."

"Thank you. That was your wedding, wasn't it? The one she drew?"

"Yeah. She also did a painting of your uncle Austin's wedding to your aunt Sasha."

"You got married in 1969, didn't you?"

"'72. Nearly 395 days after your oldest brother was born. July 15."

"Oh. Why?"

"Your mother loved me. Love at first sight she said; I believed in it too. I wanted her since the day I met her at a party. We dated a bit in the next two months and I was pretty sure she was it for me. I intended to propose but that night, before I could, she told me she was pregnant with your brother Matt. When I explained how much I loved her and that I wanted to be with her, she wanted to make sure I loved her for her, not because I had gotten her pregnant. Those were the longest 20 months of my life. Eventually I did prove it and we got married. I kept it from my parents until 1975 when your mom was pregnant with our third kid and my parents wanted to send us on an Italian getaway. They knew we were dating but I didn't visit much."

Lizzy looked up at her father sharply. Something wasn't adding up. "Third kid? Seth wasn't born until '77. Did you give my sibling away?"

"No. Your mom miscarried, twice. Once between Chris and Seth in early August 1975 and again in late 1979 between you and Ben. We were pretty sure both were boys but back in those days you couldn't tell without a very long needle and your mom was not a fan of needles."

"There's no needles with an ultrasound."

"Before the mid-eighties, the ultrasound wasn't clear about those parts of a fetus. We were lucky to get an ultrasound with Seth and that was only because of the miscarriage. They were concerned and wanted to check up on him around 16 weeks. Anyway, do you have any questions about your mom's art?"

"The babies are us, aren't they?"

"They are. She'd start drawing what she thought you'd look like before you kids were born and then after, on the opposite page, she'd draw what you actually looked like about five to six hours after birth."

"That's why I'm not in there?"

"Not what you actually look like. We hoped that you'd survive like Seth did but we didn't want to get our hopes up and when you did at five, six, seven months, she was on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy with the worst case of morning sickness I have ever seen. It was hard, four kids to look after and I had to do it on my own? But, I loved my wife and I love you kids so I did what needed to be done."

"What about her parents? Did they know you got married?"

"Sooner than my parents did. It happened a couple months after she got pregnant with Chris. She got into UM on an art scholarship so they didn't have to know when she dropped out because of Matt, but when we played against UG in hockey that year, it was a big year for our team, and he found out. He told her he wanted her to come to his wedding and it kinda came out there."

"I could believe that but the Gophers don't ever play the Bulldogs. Not in football, not in hockey. While it's true both schools are NCAA Division 1, the Bulldogs are a club hockey team and only play against SEC teams not against the Big Ten. Although there is a chance they could have played against each other in a bowl game, it would have been football and not hockey. I got curious when I found out Bash's dad when to UG and if I could play there when I graduated."

"He came up to see a hockey game when he had time off and found out. She swore him to secrecy and he agreed for a while."

"Bash told me that his dad played for a minor league hockey team after college for seven or eight years."

"Austin did. Started in late '73 after he graduated and played for eight years. He gave it up, not only because he missed his wife, they got married at the end of his first season when all that time being away from her reminded him how much he loved her, but also because she was pregnant with Bastian. He almost missed being there for Bastian's birth and didn't want to miss his boy growing up so he gave up hockey and fell back into his old love. Was a photographer until he died."

"Is that how you got this house?"

"That was a gift from my parents. After coming to terms with my elopement and subsequent not telling them about the kids, they wanted to do something for us. On top of that our two bedroom apartment was kinda small for us."

Lizzy nodded. They talked a bit more about the art in the book, Lizzy's favorites were the nursery designs, but eventually they went back to watching the game.

Friday after Thanksgiving, Lizzy was playing video games against Ben when Rob's mom came in and sat down on the couch behind their gaming chairs. Lizzy glanced back at her grandmother but paid more attention to the video game. She did however notice her grandmother was holding a newspaper. After beating her brother, Lizzy looked at her grandmother again. "Anything interesting in the paper?" Lizzy asked.

"Star Tribune has put out their annual Top 75 Minnesota High School Hockey Players list," Tonia said.

"Oh? And where's Adam ranked?"

"Banks? Sixth. Only one from your high school to rank higher is Kyle Riley."

"Yeah, I figured that. Who else is ranked?"

"Guy Germaine, Dean Portman, Ken Wu, your cousin Charlie, and your main goalie, Tom Harkins," Tonia said gently to her granddaughter.

"I bet I'm not on that list."

"Unfortunately you're not."

"I will be next year if I go out for it." Lizzy shrugged.

"And if you don't?" Tonia asked.

"I'm not worried about it. I love hockey but I'm better at baseball."

"And she can't lose with baseball," Ben said.

"I could but I try not to," Lizzy said.

"Don't sweat it, Matt was never ranked and he plays pros now," Ben told her.

"He has a game tonight, doesn't he?" Tonia asked.

"Yeah, against Vancouver," Lizzy answered.

"Is that where your other grandparents disappeared to?"

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson had also made it up for Thanksgiving dinner but had left early Friday morning. "Yeah. They wanted to see Matt play in person. They haven't done that in a while."

"I'm sure they'll love it." Tonia said.

"Yeah. Have you ever seen him play for the Red Wings?"

"All the time on TV but only a few times in person. He sends me tickets but I can't get out that way as much as I'd like to. I'd like to see Chris play too sometime next year but things don't work out the way I want them to. However your father got me a sports' package so I can watch them on the TV. Maybe one day."

"Oh. Okay. You can come see me play in the meantime."

"I would love that."

"Can I have that paper when you're done with it?" Lizzy asked. Tonia nodded and the kids got back to their game.

Not much happened over the next month with the exception of Lizzy and Julie playing more time in the games.

About a week before Christmas break, Lizzy was approached by the theater arts/sophomore English teacher. "Ah, Ms. Jones, what can I do for you?" Lizzy asked.

"I was hoping you would help me again this year?" Ms. Jones answered.

"What's the musical this year?"

"Into the Woods."

"Just the lighting?"

"Please?"

"Okay." Lizzy nodded. She continued on her way to class thinking about it. Normally it wouldn't bother her, being asked to do the lighting for the musical, she had done it the year before too, but something seemed slightly off about the ask. It was almost like Ms. Jones wanted to ask her to do something more but didn't want to overstep. Lizzy filed the information away for later and continued on her way to class. After class, she entered the locker room only to be stopped by Portman. "What can I do for you?" Lizzy asked.

"How are you getting home for Christmas?" he asked.

"Driving. Charlie will be flying with his mom later. Why?"

"I know things have been awkward between us and I regret that. I think maybe, well ... I was hoping that maybe you could drive me to my place and we could talk about it."

"There's nothing left to talk about. I was wrong and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. I apologize. What's there left to talk about?"

"Nothing I guess," he sighed.

"I'll still take you if you want. We can talk on the ride if you want," Lizzy answered.

"Okay. When are you leaving?"

"Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, whichever you prefer."

"Friday, say three? We have a game on Thursday so we should be free Friday night."

"Okay," Lizzy said.

Portman smiled. "You know, Ms. Jones approached me after lunch. Asked me to do the sound again. I'll try not to make it awkward."

"We got this, like I said, we can be friends. Figure out some way to make it work. We'll be fine."

"Yeah. Better go suit up," Portman told her. Lizzy nodded and grabbed her stuff heading into the bathroom.