"Hayden darling, you never come to see me anymore." My grandmother's husky voice greets me as I walk in the front door.
Soft hands pull me into a cool hug and my reply comes out muffled. "Hey Grammy."
A sound of mortification floats over to me. "Please Hay, call me Maggie." She says for what must be the hundredth time, I just smile and agree, knowing I was going to forget again.
"Alright Grandma Maggie." I nod.
She just groans letting me go in favor of patting her perfect chignon and smoothening out her peach, silk dress.
"Give up Maggie." My Aunt Candy comes in from the interior, honey blonde hair in a short bob. "You know he'll never remember."
"Aunt Candy!" I squeal, rushing into her open arms. She was a couple years older than my mom and also adopted, I didn't notice it though and if I wasn't told I wouldn't have known.
"My favourite nephew." She hugs me hard, her soft, fluffy sweater tickling my face.
"Your only nephew you mean." I reply, my voice muffled against her ample chest.
"At least you don't have competition." She says, amusement in her voice.
My mom scoffs as we all settle down on the magazine worthy settees. "You're Maggie's favorite Candy, that's old news." She waves a hand. "I mean look at the name she gave you, Candy. While I'm plain old boring Renee."
"You know she only named me that because I was a spitfire when I was brought from the orphanage." Aunt Candy says without a bit of spite.
My Grammy sighs, looking at her daughters with love in her brown eyes. "I was hoping that a sweet name would make you sweeter."
My mom snorts, struggling to hold in her laugh. "Didn't work out though, remember when she filled all your purses with slime?"
My Grammy shudders. "My gloves and purses were all ruined and I kept having nightmares for weeks about drowning in slime."
They all laugh out loud at this. "Hey! Remember now, we're here for Hayden." Aunt Candy finally speaks up still gasping.
"You're not taking him away from me Maggie." My mom says curtly, quickly sobering up.
"I never said I would, Renee, I won't have to because you're coming along too." She says seriously in her high pitched voice, they lived in the city, Reef City and Pine Creek was just one of the small towns on its outskirts.
"We've been through this over and over again Maggie, I'm happy there, I love Pine Creek and the people there, Hayden does too so I don't see the need why we have to move over here to the city." My mom says with all her heart.
"It doesn't have to be Reef, you could go to Los Angeles or even go outside the country. Britain is a nice place to live or Paris…"
"I don't know French." My mom interrupts coldly.
"All I'm saying is that, don't you think it's high time you left Pine Creek? It would help you get over Alex…"
My mom stands up quickly, her quirky shirt billowing. "I'm over Alex!" She shouts.
"Ren?" My Aunt says in a warning tone, pulling me closer to her which was alright with me. I never see my mom get mad and I have to admit I didn't like it.
"I'm sorry Maggie." She rubs her face. "Why don't you ask Hayden? He's old enough anyway, you can ask him if he wants to stay, I don't want it to seem like I'm keeping him prisoner."
With those words, the three women turn to me. My grandfather was out of the state for some important business, I rarely saw him.
"I love it at Pine Creek, Grammy Maggie." I say earnestly, leaning forward unconsciously.
It is true, I've never even remotely thought of leaving Pine Creek even though I was born in the city, Pine Creek has always been my home and there was no way I was leaving.
My grandmother sighs, patting her blonde chignon again, a habit I know she does whenever she gets upset. "Are you sure, my love?"
"Absolutely Maggie." I grin, making sure not to forget to call her what she preferred, I needed all the help I could get.
"Well there's nothing that can be done about that now." She claps her hands getting up. "I canceled my schedule for the rest of the day, so who wants to go shopping?" She announces.
I smile wider, I am going to get to stay in Pine Creek, for now. I never tell Virgil about this issue, a little worried about his reaction, I have a feeling he already knows though, he just seems to know things.
I don't mind shopping with my mom, Aunt and Grammy which might be a little weird to most people, especially guys but it has always been calming to me.
Maybe because my mom's a 'shopaholic' so when she has mood swings, she just straps 'baby me' to her front and goes wild, I usually sleep while she does this.
So, shopping it was…
Shopping with them went in ways I would have never thought of even though I was a high as a kite and drunk on Sprite.
"So, do you live around here? Are those like your older sisters?" The guy in front of me asks and I'm pep talking myself so I don't lose consciousness.
Let me rewind a bit so you'll know how I met the guy trying to hit on me, his name is Blake by the way.
Shopping was going just fine till my Grammy decided that she needed lingerie, I don't want to imagine what for and so they did the absolutely normal thing, drag a seventeen year old male along on their lingerie hunt, that was sarcasm by the way.
Somehow, I'm not even sure anymore, they all decide to use me as the model, I know it doesn't make any logical sense and I'll tell them this but they brow beat me into trying the garters.
So into the garters I go, basically thigh high socks with a strap around my thighs holding them up.
They ooh and ahh intensely over this so I don't have the heart to rip it off like I wanted to then they bring a shopping helper in and ask her to bring in little dresses and oversized, loose tops for me to go with the garters.
Well long story short, I'm dragged out of the boutique dressed like a seventeen year old girl, it almost like magic, well more like wicked juju.
So, here I am, at an ice cream place, holding a conversation with nineteen year old Blake, I know all this because he told me and who has no idea he's talking to a guy in a dress.
I think he's just really dense, because even though I'm androgynous and a little feminine, but come on, 'don't you have eyes, Blake?'
"Not really," I mumble, fiddling with the neckline of the baggy shirt I had on, there was a long belt wrapped around me to accentuate the fact that I didn't eat much and I'm starting to go insane from the amount of air flowing up my thighs, I don't know how girls stand it.
I don't comment on the questions about my crazy relatives who are trying to end my life because I don't think Blake will take it well that those aren't my elder sisters but my mom, Aunt and grandmother. I'm pretty sure he won't take it very well that he was hitting on a dude in a dress so I find the fastest way to get rid of him. It wasn't easy, trust me but I managed to anyway.
"If you guys make me do that again, I'll poison your tea." I threaten them in a dark voice as I stomp over to the limo in flat shoes, Blake sees me and his open mouthed expression is priceless but it was better I didn't tell him who I was.
The LeBarons are a household name in Reef but there's only a grandson, no granddaughter. It wouldn't help my nonexistent reputation if word got out that I liked to cross dress because my relatives were crazy people who liked to torture me.
"And nobody is telling Virgil about this." I add when we were all settled in the car, shopping bags all around us. "Especially you mom."
My mom gives me a lazy, self assured smile. "I won't have to, we're driving home right now."