Story: Trailer of Surprises (chapter 1)

Summer was suppose to be a time for relaxation after a year of being in school, something I was looking forward to through both semesters of hell. Just into May as the school year was winding down, I was told of something that changed all of that, and would make my summer start out to be crappy as hell... but It would also be something that changed my life.

Summer was suppose to be a time for me to rest up and be with all my friends to shop and just hang out. The next school year in September, I was suppose to start my grade nine year in the fall, going to high school. Now as I heard of the plans develop as the last days of Grade eight slipped away, my plan had been shot to hell... as we were going to have a family wedding right here at out house.

My mother’s sister was planning to marry some loser idiot lawyer she had met over the Internet a year ago, so my mother in her infinite wisdom... then offered up our house to have the wedding at. She explained how things were going to be with my family of strange people all would be coming to the wedding, I saw how my summer vacation was going to start out in the grip of pure misery.

My relatives were all going to be staying here mainly, the cheap bastards that they were could not simply spring for some cheap motel room for a few days. They all were going to stay with us, and other relatives that lived here in the city. With their imminent invasion already planned out by my parents, naturally, I was now being forced by my Mom and Dad to let some of my family have my room to sleep in for that time, and I was being kicked out of the house to the small trailer we had in the back yard.

All of that, along with having to wear a taffeta cheap bubblegum pink dress so as to be one of the bridesmaids for my Aunt, I was enlisted into this farce without having a say in it...and thrown out of my house all at the same time.

I resigned myself to it all, as I moved a few of my belongings from my room in the house out to the twenty foot by twelve foot space that was to be my room for four days... all because we were throwing the ‘wedding of the century’ here at my home. Happy about it, I was not... having a choice in the matter... being thirteen, I had no say in the matter whatsoever.

Our little trailer was cramped and smelled a little musty smelling after being closed up for the winter.... but I was trying to put some sort of a better spin on it all. Sleeping out here by myself was not going to be all that bad I kept telling myself, reminding myself that I could avoid being around all of my relatives for the most part... and bypass all of the embarrassing shit my Aunt’s and Uncle’s could put on me. Then it happened, life sucker punched me once more.

My Mother came out to the trailer, while I set up some form or order inside this little trailer. She seemed to be in a hell of a good mood despite all of the stress she had in setting up all of the details of the wedding. I looked at her, and could see that her mood was a good sign that something was up

" Good news..." She cheerfully chirped, stepping into the small place as I tried to make the best of it. " You won’t be sleeping out her alone after all."

Her words cut into me, as that happy tone always spelled out that it was not going to be good news.

" Why am I not sleeping out her alone?’ I asked, inside I was dreading her answer to come.

" Your cousin Libby will be bunking out here with you while she’s here..." She announced. " She is one of the bridesmaids as well..."

I froze, as that name shot through me like a .357 Magnum, making my gag reflexes nearly spew my lunch I had gotten at the mall earlier. This person who was coming to bunk withe me was the cousin all through my life, that had constantly tormented and harassed me since I was a little girl.

Cousin Libby was three years older than I am, and always was the bully that beat on me, teased me and threw me into ditches filled with muddy water... just to simply amuse herself because I was so much smaller than she was. She even once stole all of my underwear when we were visiting them on vacation, and buried it all out it in a field near my grandfather’s farm. It took me two days to find where she had buried my panties near the slew on the farthest part of the family’s farm, and dig them up. Even after all that, I ended up missing four pairs of them... as I could not find the rest.

After not seeing this Bitch of a relative for nearly four years, I was now being thrown in to sharing this trailer with my family’s answer to Satan. Could my life end up sucking even more than it had with this wedding, I had to ask myself. It seemed that the answer was a firm and very loud...yes.

I turned to my mother, feeling sickened by even the thought that I had to share this little space with the evil cousin. I needed to change this, and fast.

" Mother... why do I have to share the trailer with her?" I asked, trying my hand at pleading with her. " You know Libby an’ I don’t get along..."

" Now Amy..." She said, in her usual stern way, cutting me off so effortlessly in the process. " You know we will are going to have a houseful of people staying here... there is no room for her in the house.... your Aunts and Uncles need to use the real beds here. You will just have to put up with having Libby staying with you out here so that so your Aunt Marianne can get married to George."

" But you don’t understand..." I protested a little harder, wanting my mother to find a different place for Libby to be sleeping... preferably in some dark hole in the middle of nowhere.

Mom’s eyes flashed with a great surge of annoyance at me, telling me with out a shadow of a doubt... I was going to lose on this thing, no matter what I could say.

" It is going to be only a few days that you two will have to put up with one another..." She said, crossing her arms to accent her words. " She is going to share the trailer with you.. So you two just will have to be civil to one another, and make sure that you get along so you don’t ruin your Aunt’s day. Do I make myself clear, young lady?"

" But..." I tried to say.

" You just have to deal with it! You both have to" She said, with the stern words of finality.

" So you are saying that I have no say in it?" I said, seeing my losing my argument looming

" You have the right to not like it, but I have the final word on it!!" She said, with a curt tone " We are having lunch in about an hour... Libby and some of the others arrive soon after we have a bite to eat... then I must double check on everything."

There it was, the two ton hammer had been dropped by my mother on my head. I had no choice in the matter... Libby the terrorist, was to share my little piece of hell... and perhaps make it even more hellish. I knew that protesting it any more, would just make my life that much more miserable that it was right now. I choked down everything I wanted to say, and nodded... I had no choice.

" Good! You’ll see... It wont be that bad." She said with her happy voice returning, as she left the trailer to check on preparations for the wedding, slated for three days from now.

I returned to setting up my stuff, and tried not to think of the arrival of Libby.... but that was not working. Shaking my head, I just knew that this wedding was a bad idea to begin with... having Libby staying here just wrote that in big letters.

" Fucking great..." I said to myself, knowing that there was nothing I could do about it now.

******

As I sat on the step in front of out house, I watched as three large cars parked out in front. I knew, that my family had arrived to invade our life. Watching from as far away as my mother would let me get away with...I just knew that this would just be the start of the worse summer ever.

Great Aunt Annabelle and Great Uncle Otto arrived in the first car. When Auntie stepped out wearing that bright flowered moo-moo and such an oversized floppy hat... I just had to gasp and hid my eyes from the sight I was seeing. No one that big, should wear something that loud... yet my Aunt always did with complete satisfaction as well. She looked like a walking billboard for a flower shop... That, along with my Uncle’s overly floral Hawaiian shirt and shocking lime green shorts... told me that they had been married for way too long.

Uncle Albert and his third wife were the ones in the next car. The had parked so close to Uncle Otto’s vehicle seemed that they blended in.

I braced myself, as my father’s brother was not the problem here. He was pretty much harmless in a really geeky way, being the quiet one of the bunch... but his loud mouthed third wife and their twin seven year old boys were a problem. Boy, were they ever a problem!

Aunt Cassidy was annoyingly loud and always was so damned opinionated that no one in the family really liked her. Their boys were simply put, two little terrors. I swallowed hard, hoping these two rugrats would not end up trashing my room like they had done at Christmas. I still was trying to get all of the lipstick stains out of my one pillow... the one those little hellions had used as an canvas to draw many dinosaurs with.

The third large car I could see was being driven by my mother’s cousin... The one I called Aunt Sophie. This tall and very brainy woman was a very cool lady all the way, someone that I always had looked up to. She was a pediatrician out in a rural hospital near where my mother and her had grown up together, that was way too cool in my book... but she also happened to be the mother of Libby. My tormentor had arrived.

I just sat there, eyeing the car as the two got out. My heart was pumping like crazy as I waited. I found myself instantly feeling so stunned...I watched as Libby stepped out. She did not look like she had those four years ago.... so much that at first, I hardly recognized her... but it was her.

Libby was still tall, but she had lost all of the weight she had been carrying since she was a kid. She was now very lean and curvy, her jeans she was wearing seemed to be literally painted on those long legs and ample hips she now displayed. She had long flowing blond hair that hung well passed her shoulders like a curtain of wheat. In looking at her, it showed just how she had filled out also, her tight tapered t-shirt she wore was telling of that. She wore just a light hinting of makeup on her heart shaped face to accent her cheekbones, but she clearly did not really need any of it.

There she was, and she was so damned gorgeous... I felt some type of twinge from deep in me as I looked at her... she looked positively amazing. I was stunned at the transformation this girl had gone through since seeing her... but I was even more stunned at the feelings that were boiling up in myself. I could not turn my eyes away from Libby, as if my gaze had been glued on to her. I found her amazingly beautiful.

Libby came right up to me, and broke such a sweet smile. I took a sharp breath in, as she neared.

" Long time, no see, Amy.." She said with a smile.

" Four years." I said without thinking, while I found myself not being able to get my eyes off of her.

" Yeah, it has been ‘bout that long." She giggled, showing me that even her laugh had changed... and was also gorgeous.

Libby left it at that to go get her suitcase from the car, I could not explain what my reactions towards her was from. I shook my head, trying to get what ever it was out of my head, but it was stuck there.

I was told to show her where she was going to be sleeping for the next few days by my Mom. I did as I was told, thankful that my parents were going to deal with my strange tribe rather than me. I led her to the back yard, trying to ignore all of these weird things that were bouncing in my head.

Once in the trailer, Libby looked around the cramped space with a sigh on her lips. She seemed to eye everything slowly as she moved to the second bed on one side of the little trailer... the one without my stuff being there

" So this is where we have to sleep for the duration of this wedding thing..." She said with a giggle.

" Yeah..." I said.

" Really small, isn’t it?" She commented, eyeing the small bed that was to be hers.

" We are like tuna crammed into a can.." I commented, hating the fact that all I could do was make little jokes at this time.

" Well, lets make the best of it." She nodded, as she put her suitcase under the little bed.

I busied myself finishing setting up my space in the trailer, but my mind was totally flying with things. I was confused at why I was finding myself staring at my Cousin, the one that had tormented me those years ago. I could not stop myself from taking little glances over at her lean legs and amazingly curved form with such interest... nor could I explain why my heart was now racing inside of my chest like I was in gym class and doing windsprints.

I just had finished setting up things the best that they could be , and noticed that Libby had already settled things on her side of the trailer. She was looking at me with a curious expression. I turned, and was instantly transfixed by her beautiful blue eyes that were looking at me.

" Could we ...have a little talk here, Amy?" She asked, her voice was soft and musical..

" Uh, sure..." I said, as my heart skipped in my chest.

The girl seemed to blush a little, but she never once looked away.

" I wanted to say this for some time, Amy... and get it off of my chest. Guess with the meeting of our families for this wedding, has gave me a chance to do this..." She started, seemingly nervous with it. " I want to seriously apologize for all the crap I put you through over the years."

I was blown away at that moment, I had to admit. Here Libby was, apologizing for all of those things and actions she had done to me, and I was speechless. I could only manage to nod dumbly, not quite sure just how to respond to her clearly heartfelt words

" I was a real jerk to you... no, let me say it right.. I was such a big fucking jerk is what I was..." She said with a little smirk. " All those pranks I pulled, how I pushed you around and beat the living shit out of you every time we were together... that was all just me being a full blown asshole to you"

" You did do some crappy things..." I said, always one to speak my mind... but finding that was the only thing I could get out.

" Yeah, I did really hassle you alot... I think of everything I done now, and I can’t believe how mean and cruel I was to you?" She nervously giggled, as she was obviously very sorry for things. " I started to thinking it all over awhile back, and God... I could not believe that I was treating you like that. This is the time, the time that I needed to just grow up and fess up to it all, and try to make it right if I can."

She crossed the interior of the trailer, and threw her arms around me. The hug she gave, made me weak in the knees, her softness holding me so gently that it took my breath away. I found my arms wrapped around her instantly, and could not figure out why her perfume was so intoxicating to me.. But I just took it in and enjoyed it.

" Forgive me for all of that shit.... I know I don’t deserve to be forgiven, because I was so mean..." She whispered, as she squeezed. " If you can...let’s start a new chapter in our lives here. We are both old enough that maybe we can..."

"I think that we both can do that...." I said, finding my resentment and all of the other things I had felt over the years, melting away.

" Really??! She said, her tone held a happiness to it.

" You said it best... that was years ago... and we are now older." I said, squeezing her against me.

" This is so great!" She said, her body I could feel had relaxed.

She let go quickly, and seemed to be a little flustered. I looked at her, and found I could not stop smiling.

" Why the change of heart here, Cuz?" I asked.

" Well... It’s like this... um..." Libby started, seemingly she was now really fumbling for words

I was waiting for her to continue, but a shout from the house broke the silence like a hot knife through butter. She looked over as she heard my mother’s bellow, and seemed to sigh. How she had called us, was in that cheerful sort of tone again.. I knew that was not good

" Guess they want us in the house now..." Libby said, clearing her throat as she looked at me.

" We have to make an appearance for our Aunts and Uncles I appears..." I flatly said, guessing at why we had been called.

" The ‘oldsters’ want to see us..." She commented, already getting what I was saying... and that made my heart feel like it was flying again.

" Oh, Joy!" I said, laughing.

" Yeah... just kill me now!" She laughed with a lightness that made me tingle all over again.

We just hurried out of the trailer and hustled to the side door of the house. We could both see that there were more cars arriving out at the front. More of our family was arriving... and arriving in droves. By the boxes that they were bringing, I could see that they were fake flowers.. Obviously we were going to be ‘volunteered’ to help everyone make bouquets and centerpieces for the wedding.

" Just fucking great!" I said, as I already had thought of that

I looked at my cousin, and was glad that she was actually here. I could not explain what my own feelings were being towards her... especially now after Libby had apologized for all of the shitty things she had done to me over the years. The only thing I could think about clearly, was the fact that with Libby being here... I could honestly now put up with the crazy people that made up my family.