Definitely NOT Love At First Sight 2

The thunder’s vibration shook the house. A flash of lightning sent a shiver up my spine. I wrapped my blanket tighter around me. Deathly afraid of storms, I was freaking out inside while I watched Annie for the hundredth time that summer.

The movie was just about to get to the part where they all sing It’s The Hard Knock Life when the TV screen went black. I immediately heard a frustrated cry upstairs.

“Cadence? What happened?” Throwing the blanket off of me, I got up from the couch and ran upstairs, into Cadence’s room.

“The power just went out! My computer turned off, and so did my lamp! UGH!” Cadence threw her hands up in the air and I shook my head. I moved onto Ariana and Bebe’s room.

“Mom! We were in the middle of finishing our homework on our computers and they just shut off! So did our light!” Ariana pouted while Bebe just sat there, trying to turn her computer back on.

“The power went out, girls. It’s what happens when there’s a storm.” I rolled my eyes and slowly made my way to my bedroom, where my husband stared at his phone screen. While I crept in, he just barely lifted his head to look at me.

“What’s up?” Hunter shifted himself and sat up straight. I sat down on the edge of the bed.

“The power went out. All three of the girls are kind of freaking out. I thought that maybe once the storm stops we could go out in the backyard and camp. Remember when we did that when we were kids?” I smiled at the memories of camping out in the backyard with my sisters and parents. We had the best times. 

“Yeah. That’s a good idea.” Hunter yawned; he had been working twenty-four-hour shifts and relaxed in bed any chance he got. It didn’t bother me at all; he was relaxing so he could go back to work to provide more for us.

---

“But Mom! I don’t wanna! The ground will be all wet! And it’ll be so hot!” Cadence followed me around the house, complaining, as I gathered everything we would need to spend the night outside in a tent. It felt like as the years went by, my daughter just got more whiney.

“I don’t want to hear it! You are going out there with the rest of your family whether you like it or not!” I stared her straight in the eye and she stomped away, back up to her bedroom. 

“There you are, Mom. Do you happen to know where my sunglasses are?” Bebe came running up to me, still looking around.

“In the pocket of your blue jacket that’s in the coat closet.” With a quick “Thanks!”, Bebe was off again to grab her sunglasses.

“MOM! WHERE’S MY SLEEPING BAG?! NEVERMIND!” I rolled my eyes at Ariana. Her and Bebe both were always forgetting everything. 

“Hey, Vic? Have you seen my Nike hat anywhere?” Hunter came walking into the living room from upstairs.

“You’re wearin’ it.” I raised my eyebrows as Hunter took his hat off, then stared at it for a second.

“Oh. Well, do you need any help?” Shaking my head, I turned on my heel, went into the dining room, then sat the pile of blankets I was holding down on the table.

“That was a lie. What do you need me to help you with?” Hunter watched me as I whipped a notepad out of my jeans pocket. I had written a list down of things that we had to collect to camp earlier. 

“Uhhh… To be honest, I need you to get all of the food and drinks. I wrote it all down right here.” Hunter took the paper from me and nodded.

“Sounds good.”

---

“Dinner is ready!” The girls and I rushed to Hunter, who was taking burgers, hot dogs, and corn off of the grill grate. Since we were “camping”, Hunter and I decided that we wouldn’t use anything electric. As a result, we had to cook our food over the bonfire.

“Mm! That smells so good!” Ariana rubbed her stomach and we all laughed.

“Yes, it does! Can we eat right now?” Before any of us could answer, Bebe grabbed a bun and put a burger patty on it. We all watched as she squirted about a gallon of ketchup on it, and laughed more when she took a huge bite.

“What?” Bebe looked at us with a questioning look and I shook my head.

“Here’s a plate, Be..” Hunter handed Bebe a plate, then she sat her burger down on it.

“Thanks, Dad.” My heart warmed at hearing Bebe say “Dad”. Even though she had been saying it since the day Hunter and I got married. Bebe ran off to sit back down at the picnic table. Everyone else (including myself) got their plates piled up. We joined Bebe at the table and no one said a word until all of the plates were practically licked clean.

“Well, it must have been good since all o’ our food is gone. I know I feel completely stuffed.” Hunter rubbed his stomach and sighed.

“For sure. But, I do still have room for s’mores.” Cadence smiled and walked over to the tent with Bebe. They climbed in, leaving just Ariana, Hunter, and myself at the table.

“Are ya gonna have s’ mores, too, Mom?” Ariana turned her head and looked at me. I couldn’t resist her pleading look and nodded. All she wanted to do was make mine for me.

“Go ahead.”

“Yay!” My daughter jumped up from the table and ran to the tent, climbing in to grab the s’ mores ingredients from her sisters.

“You know, this was a great idea. Getting away from technology, even for a night, is probably going to be good for the girls. They rely too much on their phones.” I shook my head.

"Honey, I think that we rely on our phones just as much as they do." Realizing what I said was true, Hunter nodded, then we both busted out laughing.

---

My family and I sat around the fire pit, enjoying the warmth that the bonfire gave off. Cadence bit into her third s’ more, while the twins just rubbed their full stomachs.

“Alright, girls, come on. I want to do something with you guys.” I looked up at Hunter, who was getting up from his lawn chair. He glanced at me with a smile on his face. Although I didn’t know what he was doing, I knew that it would most likely be fun, so I followed him over to the center of the yard. There was a large, soft, grey blanket spread out on the grass and Hunter sat down on it. I sat down next to him.

“Girls, come over here.” At that moment, I realized what Hunter was planning and waved the girls over. Cadence licked the melted marshmallow off of her fingers and sauntered over to us. She flopped down next to me, then Ariana and Bebe came over and sat down as well. 

“Alright, now lay back and just look at the stars. The clouds. The moon. Just look.” I laid down, followed by Hunter, then Ariana, then Bebe and Cadence. The five of us stared up at the stars and I looked for constellations.

“Hey, Ari? Do you know what this is called? What we’re doing right now?” Ariana continued to stare at the stars while she thought about Hunter’s question.

“Let me help you out here, little sis. The word ends in ‘-gazing’. Now try to guess.” Cadence smiled in the dark at her little sister and I smiled, too.

“Uhhh...Oh! I know it! Stargazing!” The five of us erupted in cheers and laughter, then settled back down and gazed some more. It was picture-perfect.