Chapter 4: Intense Insanity

“Man, I’m stuffed,” Chris muttered. All the younger people of the house were sprawled in the living room in different positions, but they were all holding their stomachs. The dinner was so good they kept going back for more, now it hurt for them to move so they were lying down talking to each other, waiting for the pain to go away. Suddenly a large burp escaped him. “Oh, I feel better!” he cheered as he jumped to his feet. “C’mon, let’s do something!”

“Is that the only thing that comes out of his mouth?” Mack groaned.

“Unfortunately,” Justin replied. He groaned when Chris stood above him repeating “Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!” Justin closed his eyes, reached up, and continually jabbed Chris in the cheek with his finger. “Where’s the off switch?”

“Hey!” Joey suddenly shouted, causing everyone to jump. “It’s Blast from the Past/Game Night!”

“It’s what?” Mack questioned, afraid to know the answer. She learned to be hesitant about asking questions around the guys, because they almost always resulted in ridiculous answers or actions to occur.

“Blast from the Past/Game Night,” Lance repeated. “We have it once every month. See, what we do is we put our names on paper and put it in a hat. Then we get someone, usually a parent, to pick a name. Whoever’s name is picked we look at their pictures or videos from when they were younger up until now. We look at everything, nothing can be hidden. Embarrassing stories have to be explained, stuff like that. Then, they get to pick a board game that we have to play, no matter how long it takes to finish it.”

‘I just had to ask.’ Mack sighed and rolled off of the couch, landing on the floor with a thud. Justin laughed lazily without getting up. She left the room but came back quickly with a piece of paper and a pen. She scribbled down everyone’s names before ripping up the paper.

“Hey, wait a second,” Justin said as he looked over her shoulder. “How come you’re not on this list? You live here now, you’re included too.”

“Yeah, but unlike you guys I don’t have any of my kid stuff with me,” she replied with a smile.

“Your mom’s here make her go get it.”

“Next time,” she said with a wave of her hand.

“You’re just looking for an excuse to get out of thiiiiis,” Justin muttered.

Mack ignored him. “Hat,” she held out her hand to Joey. Joey slowly removed his Superman hat from his head and stared at it. Mack wiggled her fingers impatiently. “Joey! I’m going to give it back!” She cried out in exasperation. He finally slapped the hat into her hands and she dropped the papers into it.

“Mom! It’s almost time!” Justin yelled from the couch.

“Coming!” Lynn called back. A few seconds later she, Dianne, and Charlotte came into the room and settled down in the remaining empty seats. Mack mixed up the folded names in the hat and held it out to Lynn, who pulled out a name. She raised an eyebrow when all the guys leaned forward in their seats and held their breaths. ‘Is this night really that bad?’ She wanted to ask but held her tongue when Lynn read the name and looked at everyone. She opened her mouth and poke, “Josh.”

“No!” He groaned, dropping his face into his hands as she left the room. The other boys laughed at him as he lifted his head, his face was bright red and he was glaring at the floor. “Shut up!” He grumbled before getting to his feet and leaving the room.

“Oh, this I have to see,” Mack said with a big grin as she scooted back onto the couch. Lance swiped a box out of JC’s hands and rushed over to the couch, dropping down on Mack’s free side. He practically ripped off the lid and pulled out a large photo album. Mack pulled it out of his hands and flipped the cover. She sucked in a breath as the corners of her lips moved up and down. “You don’t have a lot,” she muttered.

“Most of them got burnt in a fire at my old house,” JC replied nonchalantly. She nodded and continued looking through the album. From his seat in the chair across the room JC stayed quiet, glaring at each of them in case they started laughing at him.

It wasn’t that his pictures were bad; it was that they always wanted to hear all of the worst stories that could only be explained because of the picture. He was used to it but annoyed at the same time. Just because he didn’t always act out like the others did all of the time didn’t mean he was the one they could tease. He was usually the butt of their jokes–especially when he didn’t understand the jokes aimed at him–but he dealt with it silently. They were his family now and family always teases each other, he’d just have to suck it up.

“Are you going to laugh or are you going to say something?” He finally demanded when he saw the looks on their faces. They were either holding in a laugh or a comment. Both reactions would get on his nerves and he just wanted to get it over with.

“You’ve heard every possible thing that we could’ve said about these pictures,” Lance told him, the smile never leaving his face.

“Yeah? What about you, little Ms. Blunt?” JC asked, shifting his eyes over to Mack who didn’t lift her eyes from the photo album. “You must be bursting at the seams to make a sarcastic remark.”

“No, I’d rather keep it to myself, Beaver Teeth,” she replied with a pleasant smile.

He frowned and lightly touched his two front teeth with his tongue and felt the gap in between them. He mentally kicked himself before he started to worry about something else about himself. “Let’s just play game,” he sighed. ‘Healthy competition, that’s all I need.’

“Which one? You have to pick, remember?” Lance pointed out.

“Well, what are you guys in the mood to play?” JC asked as he pulled open the Game Drawer, colored boxes staring back up at him. He instantly regretted his words once they came out of his mouth, especially when they all shouted out suggestions.

“Monopoly!”

“Trivial Pursuit!”

“Cranium!”

“Twister!”

“Charades!”

“Taboo!”

“Ok, we can play a few minutes of each game,” JC suggested as he pulled five boxes out of the drawer and spread them out on the ground.

“Twister first,” Joey said as he threw the lid across the room and started to pull out the mat.

“Why in the world are you so eager to play?” Lance questioned. “Especially when you always lose first.” Joey just smiled at Lance and it suddenly hit him. ‘Of course, it’s only because there’s a girl here now. God, same ol’ Joey, he’s never going to change.’ But if Joey weren’t being Joey then he wouldn’t be the best friend that Lance grew to enjoy being around. “Joe, don’t bring her into this.”

“How in the world did I know that the stupid game was about me?” Mack cried as she threw her arms into the air. “Look, you guys–” she addressed them all before pointing at Joey and Chris, “–you two especially have gotta deal with the fact that I’m living here. Treat me like a sister; I’m sure you wouldn’t be hitting on them.”

“Ugh, thanks for the bad image,” Chris muttered as he stuck out his tongue.

“Great, maybe now he’ll shut up,” Justin sighed. Chris picked up the mat and dove at Justin, who laughed and jumped out of the way. They watched as Chris chased Justin around the room, the Twister mat billowing out behind him like a cape.

“You cannot escape Patman,” Chris said in a deep voice as he stood up on the back of the couch, his hands on his hips like he was superman.

“Patman?” Mack repeated, as if asking if Chris were for real. She should know that even when they were joking they took it seriously.

“Yeah, from Kirkpatrick, now sssh!” He said with a wave of his hand. “Once again, you cannot escape Patman, Woodpond! Once I catch you, you shall be spanked as your punishment!” He jumped off the back of the couch, the twister mat billowing out behind him in a flurry of color as he tackled Justin to the ground. “Do you surrender, Woodpond?”

“Surrender to my Burp of Despair!” Justin replied before burping right in Chris’s face.

Mack watched the boys running around the room as the others laughed. ‘Are they serious? I knew Justin was crazy but this? I’m going to need tons of painkillers if I’m going to survive living here. Painkillers…good idea.’ She suddenly jumped to her feet and moved as quickly as possible to get to the kitchen before her headache kicked in.

“It took a lot of convincing on my part to get him to agree on letting her stay here. Especially when she’s only thirteen.” Mack stopped when she heard her mother’s voice. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to make her breath quieter so she wouldn’t be heard. “Sometimes I think that this is a bad idea, I don’t want her to get exposed to anything that she’s not ready for.” ‘So much for your faith in me, Ma.’

“That’s what I’m here for, Char,” Lynn’s voice reached her ears. “You know that Justin wouldn’t want to go through this without her, that’s why he suggested her being their choreographer. Don’t think of it as a thirteen-year-old moving in with guys, think of it as friends living together with parental super vision. She’s a tough kid but I’ll make sure that they look out for her instead of treating her as ‘one of the guys’ so much. Justin’s young too–fourteen–but I’m still letting him do this, you have to let her go.”

“I know, but I didn’t expect that it would be this soon.”

“It’s not like she’s going anywhere,” Dianne added. “You’re only a few streets away. You can visit whenever you can, I’m sure she’d like that.”

“Hmm, I don’t know. She’s always been a somewhat independent girl.” Charlotte’s sigh reached Mack’s ears. “I talked to Paul about it and he said…”

Mack tuned out the rest of the conversation as she slowly backed away. ‘She’s still talking to Paul? He’s her partner, I get that, but she talks to him an awful lot…’ She turned around and jumped when she noticed Joey standing there.

“You ok?” he asked, studying her face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Or had a heart attack, either way,” she mumbled, resting her hand on her chest as she took deep breaths to slow down her racing heart. “Are we still playing Twister?” She asked, glancing at the kitchen over her shoulder as she followed Joey back into the living room.

“No, not since Chris managed to get J tangled in the Twister mat,” he replied with a chuckle. “So, we’re playing Cranium instead. I’m on a team with Chris, JC’s with Justin, and you’re with Lance.”

She nodded and sat down next to Lance around the coffee table. The game had all ready been set up and their pieces were on the board. “Who goes first?” She questioned.

“Um…the team who has a player who’s birthday is coming up,” Lance said as he looked at the instruction manual. “So, I guess that’s Chris.”

“No it’s not,” Justin said as he grabbed Chris’ wrist as he reached across the board. “Her birthday is next,” he nodded at Mack, “it’s the sixteenth. So she starts.”

“Really? So, how old are you turning?” Lance asked as he rolled the colored die, moving their game piece to the color.

“Fourteen,” she replied. The boys’–minus Justin’s–jaws dropped as they turned to look at her. “What?”

“You’re only thirteen!?” Chris choked out. “Dang, I thought you were older than that by how you carry yourself.” He flinched when Justin hit him on the arm. “Sorry,” he grumbled as he shuffled the deck of red cards.

“I don’t see why you’re making such a big deal about it. I mean, Justin’s fourteen yet you seem fine with it,” she pointed out as she reached for a Word Worm card. She nodded at JC who flipped the timer. “Spell snorkel backwards.”

“L-e-k-r-o-n-s,” Lance recited easily, grinning at the guys who groaned. He rolled the die and moved them to the next spot before answering. “It’s not that, it’s just that you’re…more mature than most young teens are.”

‘Trust me; you don’t know the half of it.’ She merely shrugged and drew a blue card and held it out to Joey. He grinned and rubbed his hands together when he saw that he had a Sensosketch card. Joey picked up the pad of paper and a pencil, a large grin was on his face. Justin turned the hourglass over as fast as possible to try and catch Joey off guard. Joey squeezed his eyes shut and started scribbling on the paper as Chris looked over his shoulder.

“Cat…dog…elephant…Jell-O!” Chris shouted as he peered at the drawing.

“How in the world does this look like Jell-O?” Joey questioned without opening his eyes.

“How in the world does it look like an object?” Chris shot back.

“Times up!” JC shouted happily.

“Hey, no fair!” Chris pouted as he pointed at Justin. “He cheated.”

“How could I possibly have cheated? It’s not my fault Joey can’t draw to save his life. It’s not my fault you can see,” Justin shot back defensively as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I mean, Jell-O? C’mon, that picture is so obvious!” he added with an eye roll.

“Thank you!” Joey beamed.

“It’s vomit,” Justin concluded.

“It is not!” Joey huffed. “It’s a rabbit! See, can’t you tell?” He held the pad out for everyone to see. All they could see were random squiggles with a little cotton ball somewhere near its nose.

“No,” they all replied in unison.

“Just go!” Joey growled, throwing the pad down on the table.

“Hey, don’t be such a sore loser, Joe,” JC spoke up. “Or in this case, a sore drawer.” They landed on green and JC picked up the Star Performer card.

“Dang, Joe, why couldn’t you pick up that one? It’s so much easier,” Chris grumbled.

“Get over it,” Joey grumbled in response.

“This one’s Copycat,” JC told Justin who nodded. Chris turned over the timer as fast as he could to catch them off guard. JC stood for a few seconds, looking up at the ceiling as he thought. His face lit up as he bent his knees forward slightly and placed his hands on his knees, a small smile coming onto his face. Lance and Mack immediately cracked up, knowing that he was portraying Marilyn Monroe but Justin, Chris, and Joey sat staring at him, blankly. “Oh come on it’s not that hard!” JC groaned, standing straight up.

“Thirty seconds,” Lance called out.

“They’re not going to get it,” Mack told him. “They’re not as smart as we are.”

“Wait a second, are you calling us dumb?” Chris demanded as Justin shouted out random people as JC steadily got more and more frustrated. “I’ll have you know that I got straight As when I was in high school.”

“Did you forge them?” She questioned with a smirk.

“No, but if I ever need to get anything forged I’ll just go to you.” She cocked an eyebrow. “You thought you could get away with forging your mom’s signature on that Science quiz you failed?”

“Have you been looking through my stuff?” She asked, alarmed. If her mother heard him then she could go total lockdown on Mack.

“Course not,” Chris scoffed. “Joey did,” he said as he punched Joey on the arm.

“Ow! Hey man, I did no such thing,” Joey said as he held his arms up in defense.

“Times up!” Lance yelled over the noise.

“I was trying to be Marilyn Monroe,” JC said as he glared at Justin.

Justin wrinkled his nose. “You’re doing a very bad job of it.”

“Excuse me for not being a girl,” JC muttered sarcastically.

“You’d be pretty,” Chris spoke up.

“Yeah, pretty ugly,” Justin deadpanned. Lance covered his mouth to keep JC from seeing the smile that crept onto his face. Everyone else burst out laughing as a smile tugged Justin’s lips. JC sat there, staring blankly, before it finally sunk in. he grabbed a pillow and hit Justin over the head with it, hard enough to knock the younger boy over.

“How do you not go nuts?” Mack quietly asked Lance who observed the unfolding scene: JC and Joey attacking Chris and Justin with pillows.

“You get used to it,” he said with a shrug. He tilted his head back and looked at the wall. “Hey guys, it’s close to 11.”

“We should head to sleep, guys,” JC said as he held Joey away from him by keeping his foot pressed on Joey’s chest. He took a serious tone to his voice which signaled the guys that he meant business. “We’re going to have to work early and you have school.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Mack groaned getting to her feet. She looked back and forth between the guys and the hall. “The bathroom’s mine!” She declared before rushing to the hallway. She heard their pounding footsteps behind her as she moved as fast as she could. “Huh? Hey!” She cried out when she felt someone grab her belt and easily pull her back. “Pumpkin eater!” She shouted at Chris who darted into the bathroom.

“Babydoll, I want to talk to you before I leave,” Charlotte said as she came into the hall. Mack grumbled under her breath as the boys laughed and retreated to their rooms.

“Great, now it’s going to take me forever to get to the bathroom,” she mumbled. “What is it, Mom?” She asked, turning to face her mother. She raised an eyebrow when she noticed her mother’s bottom lip trembling. Before Mack could move Charlotte pulled her close and into a tight hug. “Aww, Mom…too tight,” she groaned, trying to pull away from her mother.

“Sorry,” Charlotte apologized as she let her daughter go. “It’s just…you’re growing up so fast,” she commented as she smoothed down the top of her daughter’s hair and smiled. “You’re not a little girl anymore.”

“I could’ve told you that,” Mack said with a little smile. “Mom, relax. I’m with Justin and Lynn’s here too. Nothing can go wrong. You’re a few streets away; I’ll drop by every day after school. Now you can use this time of me being out of the house so you can spend it with Dad.”

“What makes you think I haven’t done that all ready?”

Mack made a face. “TMI, mom.”

Charlotte laughed and hugged her daughter again. “Please, please, please stay out of trouble. The last thing I want to hear is a call from school, especially when it’s only your third week in.”

“Ok Mom. I promise.” ‘Just as long as you promise to pay more attention to Dad.’ Mack closed her eyes briefly when Charlotte placed a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. She followed her mother to the door and gave her a hug. She watched as her mother walk to her car and drive away. Only when she was out of sight did Mack close the door and let out a sigh. ’Freedom!’ “Ok, get your butt out of the bathroom before I make you!”

----

Knock knock!

Mack paused as she pulled her hair back into the ponytail to glance at the door. She jerked her head, signaling that Justin could come in. he sat down on the foot of her bed and smiled at her. “So?”

“So what?” She questioned as she gathered her hair into her hands.

“Aren’t you excited?” He asked as he rocked back and forth. “I mean, we’re actually doing what I’ve always dreamed of and you’re right there next to me. I wouldn’t want to do this without you.” He lightly slapped her knee to emphasize his point.

“Mhm. While you get to live your dream I still have to go to school, do homework, and deal with a bunch of annoying boys. My life is complete,” she said, sarcasm dripping from her words.

“If we ever get as big as…The Backstreet Boys or New Kids on the Block I promise we’ll take you with us. Honestly.” He placed his hand over his heart to emphasize his point.

“I believe you,” she said as she pulled her ponytail tight. “I’m goin’ to bed now. You ready to pray?”

“Yeah.”

They always prayed together before bed, it became a ritual for them once they turned seven. They prayed over the phone whenever they couldn’t physically get together to do it. One would stay up and wait for the other to call so they could pray. They couldn’t do it without the other.

Justin scooted forward and then leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. They smiled a little and closed their eyes; silence engulfed them as they prayed.

‘Dear Lord, please give these boys the best that they deserve. They’re working so hard and I would hate to see their hard work go to waste. Please watch over them and help them through this journey. Amen.’