staying the night (jay)

The car journey went by pretty quick. As usual I spent most of the time playing on my Ipad mini. I did end up staying at dad's with Thia and Tiana rather than at my brothers with Sam and Noaba. I did feel kinda bad for leaving them like that—I was supposed to be the pack leader—but I knew they'd be alright, Addison would take care of them, and it was only for one night.

Dad's house wasn't very big, and there were only two bedrooms. I guess it would've been enough for just dad and Tiana, and sometimes Rose. We didn't do much when we got there, only try and decide whose room we'd be staying in.

"I wanna be with Tiana." Thia insisted, and Tiana was more than happy to accept. I wouldn't be allowed in, as they put it, the girl's room though, so I had to share with dad.

"I'm going straight to the hotel. Don't wish to intrude."

"Don't be silly." Said Thia. "You're part of the family, aren't you?"

"Well it's either the Hotel or we turn your room into a three bed-room, and I don't think that's big enough for three."

"Never mind." She and Tiana said at the same time.

Rose laughed. "Besides I'm already booked. I gotta go, see ya tomorrow."

With that she left the room, leaving dad alone with these three children.

"So" he said, rather awkwardly, "Shall we unpack now, or wait till we get to the Hotel?"

We all went up to the rooms we'd be staying in to unpack.

Even though he didn't have anyone to share it with, dad still had a double bed. Or at least it looked like it was a double. It could've been just very big. I wondered if he'd expected me to sleep in it with him that night. I wouldn't've minded if he did, I'd heard about quite a few young boys who'd slept with their daddy's. There wasn't much storage space, but I only needed enough for a pair of pj's and an outfit for the next day.

We had dinner almost immediately after we'd all unpacked and went to bed almost immediately after that. I would've stayed up a little longer playing games, but dad said we needed to get our rest, and it was getting a little late. Despite the size, dad hadn't expected me to sleep in the bed with him. There was a small camp bed at the foot of his. It wasn't very comfy, and it took me ages to get to sleep. When I finally did, I was woken by strange noises from Tiana's room next door. It sounded as though they were awake and talking.

Although I knew I wasn't supposed to go in their room, I couldn't help investigating. When I opened the door, I saw that Tiana's room wasn't all that big, like Rose had said.

It was big enough for one and just big enough for two. There was a bunk-bed near the window, and behind that a desk, and on the desk a T.V. Tiana was fast asleep on the lower bunk, but Thia was on the top, watching the telly. When I came in, she looked at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked her in whispers.

"I couldn't sleep." She whispered back "Anyway you're not supposed to be in here."

"I heard noises. I thought you might be talking to someone."

"I've just said, I couldn't sleep."

"But aren't you afraid you'll wake Tiana up."

She shook her head. "That'll be alright, she went hours ago. And I don't really think she'll be able to hear it from down there." She gestured to the lower bunk. We both laughed.

"What you watching anyway?"

"Nothing really, just flicking. Oh, but that looks pretty cool." She said, looking back at the telly. Some guy with a strange looking face had just made it change shape to dodge something that had been thrown at it. It did look kinda cool. I ended up staying and watching it with her. It turned out to be the first episode of some Star-Trek series. We didn't even watch for an hour, and Thia had already decided that the guy who'd made his face change, Odo they'd called him, was her favourite character.

"You don't even know if you'll be able to watch anymore of it, or even what channel it's on."

"Really, don't you pay attention to the adverts at all? It's CBS action that it's on. Anyway, chances are it'll be on other channels as well. It didn't say it was exclusive."

I rolled my eyes.

We did end up watching the whole episode, and Tiana only woke up once during it. At that time all she said was that Thia should be sleeping and not have the Telly on, then went back to sleep herself. She didn't even realise I was in the room. It was hard to stop ourselves from laughing, so as not to wake her again.

When it was over, I went back to dad's room, onto dad's bed and went to sleep there. I had a feeling he wouldn't mind that as much as me staying up all night watching telly—And in Thia's room as well.

When I woke up, dad had already gone down to breakfast. Nothing much happened that day. We drove to the Hotel, which wasn't that far. This time we had a choice between two rooms. One for four, one for five. We wanted to be in a room with just me and my pack, but dad said we needed an adult in the room, so we decided to split it to boys and girls: me Sam, dad and Addison to one room; Thia, Noaba, Tiana, Rose and Angeline in the other.

My other sisters, Roha and Helinda, were sharing with Sarah the other side of the Hotel. The baby was in that room too.

I got to see him once, but Addison wasn't allowed in that room. I think they only let me in because I hadn't seen my nephew yet. They'd called him Tommy, but I call him Tomsta.

Although that was how it was during the night, in the day me, my pack and Tiana were in one room, while the adults had the other. Except Sarah and Addison. They weren't allowed to see each other till the wedding. It was a lot more fun that way. Dad often came in to check to see how we were doing. During those times we pretended we were being very good and quiet.

When he was away, though, we just mucked about, doing what we liked as long as it didn't end up breaking anything. And we caught up with Tiana, who's already noticing differences from when we lived in England.

"Jay, is it my imagination, or have you got a slight tan since you went to America." She said.

"Oh, I'd be dead Jealous if you had."

"Why. If I can get I tan, I'm sure anyone else can, Thia."

"You're called Thia now? Last I looked you were calling yourself Cyn."

"Maybe, but I've always been Thia in America."

"You've only been there two months!"

Towards the evening Thia started scanning the T.V in the room for that Star-Trek series, and she found it, and we watched it together. That was probably the only time we were all quiet and still for longer than a few minutes.