-2-

I sat beneath the tree in the yard, far from everyone else, casually tearing paper to shreds as I watched Pamela's husband set up the boy's tent with Anthony. The house was just a brick square in the middle of a yard, grass surrounding the perimeter.

I filled my backpack with the shredded paper. Once I was done, it was filled to the brim with the tiny pieces.

I zipped it up and went to find the triplets.

I found them by the chicken coop, playing with chickens. Three little heads of black hair, inches taller than when I'd last seen them.

"Hey guys!" I said. They all turned at once, literally tackling me to the ground in an attempt to give me a hug.

"Logan!" they chorused.

"Yeah.... Hi...."

"Can we play?!"

"Actually" -I dropped my voice to a whisper- "I have a prank planned for Stacey."

Evita gasped and Xavier exclaimed, "Yes!"

"Shh! We have to be quiet. Which tent is Stacey's?"

"She's with us this year," Utopia told me. "In the big yellow tent. I think I know which sleeping bag she has."

"Okay, now I need one of you to make sure Stacey isn't anywhere near me when I do this."

They all glanced at each other. No one liked being the distractor. I didn't blame them - I'd rather be part of the action, too.

"I will," Evita sighed, holding her hand up a little.

"Good. Now go find her and create a distraction!"

Evita nodded and ran off toward the house.

"Follow me," Utopia said quietly, and started to tiptoe in the direction of the yellow tent.

Inside the tent was Stacey's eleven-year-old sister, Kayla. She looked kind of like Stacey, with light brown hair that was almost blond and blue eyes that could scare the crap out of you if you caught them staring. She was talking to Lily.

"Can you keep a secret?" I whispered.

"Not where you're involved," Lily retorted.

"Look, man, just do me this one solid."

"I don't do solids. Consider it a liquid."

I wrinkled my nose. "What?"

"That means I might keep a secret. You're not fully guaranteed."

I shrugged. "Better than nothing."

Utopia pointed to an orange sleeping bag, distinguishable from the preteens' neon ones and the little girls' cartoon themed ones.

I unzipped my backpack and dumped its contents into the sleeping bag. I took special care afterwards to spread them around. Lily was looking at me weirdly, but Kayla looked victorious.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"Thank you for doing this to her."

"You're welcome?"

"She deserves it."

"Why? What'd she do?"

"Oh, just for being her."

"Alrighty then," I slowly backed away after making sure her sleeping bag looked flat, as it had been when I first walked in.

Xavier and Utopia snickered as we left the tent. As I stepped outside, I saw Evita running toward us, flinging her arms, yelling, "Abort! Abort! Code red! Code red!"

"What?"

Stacey walked around the corner then. I threw my backpack over Martha's manicured bushes and then hopped over them, leaving the triplets to fend for themselves.

"Logan!" Xavier hissed. "I can't climb over!"

"Sorry, man!" I quietly yelled back before making a mad dash for the tiny grove of fruit trees.

Once behind all of the trees, I poked my head over the top and saw Stacey stepping into the big yellow tent.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. "I swear if you mess this up, Lily...."

I gulped and waited anxiously. Stacey came out, looked around, and headed back to the house. While her back was turned, I sprinted to the door on the back of the house, whereas she was going for the side one.

Once inside, I was shocked to find Stacey standing right by the door, going through a cabinet. Before she could turn and look, I slammed the door shut and bolted back to the tiny grove of trees.

There was nowhere to hide.

I looked through the little forest of tree trunks and saw Stacey coming out of the back door. She was holding some kind of blue paper, a big bag of chips, and something else that I couldn't see. She stepped into the yellow tent, and I took my opportunity to casually walk back to the house. I might as well act like nothing happened.

"Logan!" Mom's voice said as I walked through the door and into the kitchen. "Be ready for dinner in ten minutes."

I nodded and went downstairs to the basement to look for the rest of the kids.

I found the triplets, Anna and Preston, and that left Stacey's little brother, Kyle, and Martha's son, Patrick.

"Logan!" Anna called me over. "We're playing How Old Am I."

They were situated in a little circle, so I sat down just outside of the little ring of kids.

"You go, Anna," Patrick said.

"I went first! Remember I'm seven!"

"Oh yeah. I'll go I guess. How old am I?"

"Ten!"

"You're very close."

"Are you nine like my brother Presley?"

"No."

"He's eleven! Duh!" Kyle said. He also had Stacey and Kayla's eyes, but his hair was a lighter shade.

"Okay, you're right," Patrick said. "Now it's your turn."

"How old am I?"

"I think you're also eleven."

"Ugh!" Patrick leaned back in frustration. "This is no fun!"

"I didn't go yet!" Evita said. "How old am I?"

"You're seven," Xavier said, and Utopia nodded.

Anna gave a nod of approval. "Utopia? Have you gone?"

"Evita just went. Now you all know we are seven."

"I'm out of here!" Patrick stood up angrily. "Come on Kyle! Let's watch TV!"

"I'm kinda having fun, though." Kyle looked uncertain.

Patrick threw his hands in the air. "Here: Evita, Xavier, Utopia, and Anna are seven. Presley is nine, and you and me are eleven! How complicated can it be?!"

"Wait!" Anna held her hand in front of her. "You'll never guess how old my brother is!"

"He's nine," Patrick said with a smart-alecky tone.

"No, no! My other brother! The one who's old!" She pointed at me, and the kids got confused faces.

"I think he's forty," said Utopia.

I snapped my head at her. "What?"

"No, no, no," Patrick said. "I got this. He's sixteen. Now we're done."

"You guys are all wrong!" Anna looked angry. "You're just messing up my favorite game! He's seventeen!"

"Now we're done!" Patrick angrily climbed up the stairs.

I was about to make a remark on is attitude when Martha's voice called, "Dinner!"

We always eat outside on Martha's assortment of picnic tables. Today they were situated in a semicircle. Once we all had our food, we sat close by to our own families. Martha stood in front where everyone could see her.

"Guys," she said, smiling at all of us. "You know what's coming. I need you to introduce your families because for the life of me, I can't remember most of your names. Besides, we don't see each other hardly at all, so why not have a refresher?"

Martha must be getting old.

"I'll go first," she said. "I'm Martha Banks, my husband is Don, and we have two kids, Faron and Patrick."

Brianne stood up next. "We're the Fitzgerald family; I'm Brianne, my husband is Jason, and I have three kids" -her voice cracked on the word three. She's probably remembering Carla- "Xavier, Evita, and Utopia." She sat down quickly.

My mother was the next one to stand. "I'm Paulette Evans, and Brian and I have five kids. Anthony, Logan, Lily, Presley, and Anna."

I noticed Stacey mouth something after hearing Anthony's name....

Pamela stood up and said, "Paulette's always been the child loving one. I am Panela, and my children are Jake, Stacey, Kayla, and Kyle." She thought for a second and then said, "Oh yeah! Our last name is Cass. I also have a husband. He's Bob."

"Shush!" Bob said. "It's Robert!"

I still called him Bob.

"Now," Martha started again, "I want to suggest something to you! I was wondering if any of you wanted to stay for more than two weeks?"

Yeah, of course! It's not like two weeks isn't already a freakishly long reunion!

I did have fun there, but still. Most reunions are like a day.

Mom glanced at Dad, biting her lip.

"I might not be able to take off anymore work," he said.

"Oh, just leave us here! We'll have Pamela drop us off on her way back to Illinois! They did bring two vehicles! I'm sure we'd fit!"

"We'll have to talk this over."

"Of course."

The sun began to set as we ate and by the time we were all done, it was dark out. Everyone went to get ready for bed even though it was only like 9:30. I suppose that's late enough for the kids. I sat in the hammock and played Temple Run until I was tired, and by then, everyone was already asleep.

I finally headed over to our blue tent for the first time since I'd set up my sleeping bag. It was isolated in a corner, away from the four sleeping boys and Anthony.

I took off my shoes and crawled inside my sleeping bag. I began to feel immensely tired. I let my head fall on my pillow-

Crunch.

What the heck?

I ripped my sleeping bag open and picked up my pillow. Using the light of my phone, I looked inside.

Chips.

There were chips in my pillow.

My favorite kind, too - nacho cheese Doritos. It had to have been Stacey. How could she? I'd never ever waste perfectly good chips on her, especially Doritos.

Irritated, I unzipped the tent and threw the pillow out. There'd probably be ants all over it in the morning. Better there than in the tent. Meanwhile, a small part of me wondered how she figured out that my sleeping bag was the Lego Movie one.

I turned to go back to my sleeping bag. There, were my pillow once was, was a sheet of blue construction paper, with words made out of my tiny pieces of shredded paper.

Nice try, it said.

Oh, it's on.