"Patrick, did you put it at 360°?" I asked, looking at the box.

"Of course I did," he said. Then he checked the oven and said, "Nevermind, what was it again? Three hundred fifty? Three hundred sixty, thank you."

We were baking biscuits for Thanksgiving. Pete invited us to come over for Thanksgiving. Andy was going back to have thanksgiving with his family, but Joe and his wife accepted the invitation. We were on the list to bring biscuits, and rice.

Elisa entered the kitchen and took a whiff of the air, "Ah, I can smell the biscuits already. How's the rice?" I looked at the pot of rice and it seemed okay for the moment.

"Fine, I think. How much longer?" I picked up a plate from the table and put it in the dishwasher. I couldn't believe it was thanksgiving already. It felt like Halloween was yesterday.

"Just ten more minutes," Elisa said, walking out of the kitchen. "Go take a shower, when you come out the rice will be ready, or the biscuits. It all depends on how long you're shower is," she babbled a little while she wrote down something on the calender in the living room.

I took off my apron and tossed it to Patrick. "You're on oven duty. Don't burn down the house," I said.

"Please, Cora, I've cooked before. I am a grown man." I shrugged and went upstairs to go get my towel. I was excited. I was going to meet Bronx, Pete's kid. I am also going to meet Marie, Joe's wife. They said they had a big announcement.

I grabbed my towel and clothes and phone and went to shower. With the music on loud, I almost missed the beeping. I got out of the shower and wrapped it around my body. What's going on? Is there a fire? Damn, there's a fire and I'm naked. Fuck, run. I stepped out to see there was no fire in sight, but I smelled smoke and saw black smoke coming from the kitchen. Did he? Oh my God, he did.

I walked down the stairs and to the kitchen. There was black smoke and it had a nasty smell. Patrick was pouring water on the oven and Elisa was fanning the fire with a wet towel. There fire was almost out but the smoke remained. With one last cup of water on the biscuits,  the fire went out and the only thing that remained was the smell.

"I'll," Elisa coughed, "I'll go stop the fire alarm." She went out, coughing. I coughed and looked at Patrick who sat slightly bewildered at the kitchen table.

"You burned the-" I started and he interpreted with, "I burned the biscuits. " I nodded and pursed my lips. "I'm gonna go finish my shower," and I went upstairs.

After the shower, I went to my room. I looked througn my closet and decided on a blue shirt and jeans. As I was about to start dressing, someone knocked on the door. "Yes?"

"Hey, Cora, open up, it's Elisa." I opened the door to reveal Elisa in a nice brown sweater and black leggings. "Okay, I'm here to help you with your outfit."

"I decided to wear this," I said showing her my outfit. She looked at it for a moment and then said, "Do you have any dresses?"

I nodded and then said, "I don't like showing leg, though." Elisa looked me straight in the eye and said, "Show off your legs now. One day you will be forty and not be able to show off your legs." I laughed. 

She looked through my closet and took out the white sunflower dress that Spencer had given me for my birthday. "This," she said. "Then I can put your hair in a bun," she grabbed my damp hair and wrapped it up as if it was a bun. "Yes," she said. "You like it?" I hated to say it, but my inner girlyness took over and I nodded. She let me keep my converse, at least. I looked quite nice after.

"Patrick, you ready?" Elisa asked as we walked down the stairs. "Yeah, we'll just have to buy biscuits." Patrick was wearing a plaid shirt and blue jeans. It looked weird on him, to be honest.

"Hey, cheer up. Not everyone it made for cooking," Elisa said, kissing Patrick's cheek. Patrick grumbled something along the lines that he wasn't upset, but we all knew he was upset.

I grabbed my phone and we were off to the store. Patrick got off of the car to go find the biscuits, while Elisa and I waited in the car listening to Beatles.  He returned with like a 24 pack of biscuits and then it was time to go to Pete's. We drove for about twenty minutes before we arrived to Pete's.

It would be a lie if I said I wasn't nervous. I felt butterflies in my stomach as we walked up to the house and then all went still when we knocked on the door. Then, as we stood there waiting they started again suddenly deciding to bring sweaty palms and shaky legs into the mix.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably thrity seconds, Pete answered the door, wearing a pilgrim hat. "Happy Thanksgiving!" He looked at our store bought biscuits and frowned. "Where's the rice?" At that moment, we all miraculously remembered we forgot the rice. We started running to the car, telling Pete we'd be back with the rice. Pete was just shaking with laughter. "It's alright! Marie thought this was going to happen and brought extra rice!"

We all sighed and walked inside. His house was just how I remembered. In the living room sat Joe, his wife Marie, Bronx, and Meagan, Pete's girlfriend. Patrick and Elisa went straight in, greeting everybody as if they were old friends. Well, I guess they were old friends, but to me Joe was the only old friend. After lots of hugs and stuff, they suddenly seemed to remember me. "Marie, this is Cora, Patrick's duaghter," Joe said. Marie lookee at me and smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Cora," she shook my hand and I smiled.

Pete came back in and sat next to Meagan. "Meg, this is Cora. Bronx, come say hi to Cora," Pete said. Bronx looked up from his tablet and walked over to us. He had one of those t-shirts that looked like a tuxedo.

"Hi," he said.

"Hello," I said.

He stared at me for a while as if trying to make something out of me. "Do you like dinosaurs?" Pete smiled as if he recognized this. I turned back to Bronx and nodded.

"Yes, I like dinosaurs, especially trexs. They're so big and roar so loud."

Bronx looked at Pete with big eyes and whispered, "She likes dinosaurs!" Pete nodded with a smile and replied, "She also likes skateboards and comics. " Bronx said, "Woah," and then turned to me. "Wanna go upstairs and play superheroes?" I turned to Pete and he nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

"Awesome!" He jumped and down and ran to the stairs, I follwed suit. "I call batman!" He said and then ran upstairs.

"I call superman!" I said trying to keep up with him. We went up to his room, which looked pretty much like any 5 year old's room. But with much more toys. I looked at the pile of cars on his floor. "Woah, you have a lot of cars. Do you have a monster truck?"

He went under his bed and took out a blue monster truck and said, "I do! Look, Mommy says not to bring it over cause I lose it, but I haven't lost it! See?" I nodded.

"Ahh, very nice monster truck. Have you seen a monster truck rally?" He nodded, excitedly.

"Yeah, I saw one on tv! They had this ginormous truck that's red like Meg's car!" I nodded again, smiling that he was so excited about everything.

"Do you know what they do in those rallies?"

He looked confused for a moment and shrugged.

"They jump over cars, that's what! You wanna try that?" He smiled and practically screamed yes. "Okay, I'm going to line the cars in a straight line, and let's see if your monster truck can jump over all of them."

I took my time putting all the cars in line while Bronx practiced jumping over stuff. Once in a while he'd say, "Cora, look!" And I'd turn to see his monster truck jump over a toy. Then I'd clap or say something like "Wow!"

When I was finished I said, "Okay, time for the moment of truth! Can Bronx's monster truck jump over twenty cars?" He got on the floor and readied his truck. "On your mark, get set, jump!" He pretended to make it jump over the cars making a "whoosh" sound until he landed on the other side. To please him, I made a big deal out of it. "Oh my god! Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot believe my eyes! Bronx Wentz just jumped over twenty cars! That has to be a world record! Yeah!" Bronx was excited by all of it and bowed and ran around his room.

Meagan knocked on the open door and said, "Time to eat!" Bronx went up to her and said, "Guess what? I jumped over twenty cars! Cora saw!" She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, he jumped over all those cars. He might've just broken a world record. I think we have a jumper an extreme sportsmen in the family."

Meagan smiled and said, "Oh yeah. He gets it from his father. He used to play soccer in highschool, you know?"

"I did not know. That is amazing," I said following her and Bronx down the stairs.

When we got to the kitchen, everyone was already sitting down with a plate served. There was turkey and corn and rice and stuffing and ham. Patrick didn't eat turkey or ham.

"And then, I jumoed over the twenty cars! It was so long! My monster truck did, though, not me . Tell em Cora!" Bronx would say and then I would say, "Oh yeah. Imagine the longest thing you could imagine and now double it, that's how much Bronx jumped. He might've even broken a world record."

Everyone looked amused with the excited Bronx and the accepting Cora. At the end of the night, Bronx fell asleep on Pete's lap, and he put him to bed. Everyone was just sitting at the living room, eating desert, when Joe cleared his throat.

"We have an announcement to make. Marie and I are expecting a baby. She's pregnant." Suddenly, we all seemed to realize that Marie was wearing a baggy shirt and still yoy could notice a slight bump.

"Congratulations!"

"How long have you been keeping this?"

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"How long in the pregnancy are you?"

Marie smiled and rubbed her tummy. I smiled a little thinking of the little cousin I had on the way, but smiled a little more when I thought that Marie and Joe were going to become parents. It seemed hard to imagine Joe, the one who always seemed so chill and might throw a party for the whole town, was going to be a dad.

All the girls huddled up, while the guys went into the kitchen to talk with Joe.  "How long?" Meagan asked. Five months was her reply. We all awed and looked at her belly.

"It's gonna be a girl," and again we all awed.

"A baby girl," I whispered. She looked at me and smiled.

"When is she due?"

"Sometime late April."

That night, when we drove home, Elisa was trying to convince Patrick again. "I want a baby. I think it's time we have a baby."

Patrick was once again nervous and kept dismissing the thought. "No, we should wait a little longer, you know til we decide if we're making another tour. I don't wanna be on tour when the babu is born. " Elisa nodded and went on talking about how excited she was for Joe and Marie.

I laid my head against the window and smiled. That was the first thanksgiving in forever that I had soent with family.

AUTHORS NOTE: WOO I FINISHED THE SECOND PART NOW I NEED TO FINISH THE THRID! HELLO THANKS FOR READING, HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, IF YOU DID PLEASE GIVE THIS CHAPTER A VOTE, COMMET, OR SHARE!!! LOVE YOU ALL!