Chapter Twelve

“Congratulations, Katie. My parents heard your documentary on the radio. I never knew that you could play like that.” I heard that so many times the following week it wasn’t even funny. Despite my lack of friends, everyone wanted to hang out with me because I had been on the radio. Weird. Strange. Unpleasant.

        “Oh, come on, Katie. It can’t be that bad,” Kayla consoled.

        I rolled my eyes. “But it is. In another week they’ll have forgotten about it and moved on to the hockey team’s big victory at state. Go Bluejackets.”

        Kayla laughed. “We don’t even know if they’ll win. They barely scraped by in regionals.”

        “They’ve been crazy with their practices now, though.”

        “So has everyone else going to state.”

        “Don’t you have any school spirit, Kayla?”

        She laughed. “More than you, that’s for sure. I dress up for Jacket Jamboree and Homecoming week. You, my dear best friend, do not. Anyway, this is what we were talking about! You’re getting more friends.”

        I snorted. “Sure. If they were going to be my friends now just because I can play violin, I would have become popular years ago.”

        My phone vibrated then. I looked to see that Mrs. R, the teacher that watched us in the gym during lunch, was elsewhere, and I took it out. I was surprised at what it was.

        [I listened to your documentary on the internet. Good job, little sis. Love, Brad.]

        Kayla read it over my shoulder. “Aw! That was so sweet of him! I wish I had a big brother that would text me during school saying that he found my documentary on the internet.”

        “He’s always been like that, even with Mom and Dad,” I replied, smiling. Then I realized that I had said too much.

        “What’s wrong with your dad?”

        I looked at Kayla and shrugged. “Just things. Nothing serious. He’s just quirky.

        “Whatever,” she replied. It looked like she thought I was lying. Well, not like I was going to tell her the truth right out of the blue.

        After school there was a message on our answering machine. I pressed the button and listened to Henry. “Katie, great news. KAXE wants us to talk on a show with Don Flattamer. He’s got a special spot just for us! Usually he talks about plants and animals in nature, but the people at KAXE were just dying to hear us talk. It’s a Tuesday, Halloween. Hope you don’t mind that. Well, I’ll let you go now. Good-bye.”

        I pressed the erase button, hoping Dad hadn’t been there to hear it, but inside I was celebrating. They loved the documentary! My only problem was that I would probably have to talk, considering he said “us” and not “me.” What did they want to hear from a violin player?

        But there was one other thing on my schedule before that.

        Two weeks after school started, Henry knocked on my door. “Kathryn! We’re running late!”

        “You’re the one that couldn’t get here on time!” I laughed, grabbing my key and stuffing it into my pocket, pushing the door open.

        Henry was wearing a button up shirt and jeans, the only thing even resembling a relaxed style that I had ever seen him in. He was also smiling, and standing next to him was a woman, around thirty.

        “Hi, I’m Henry’s niece, Lily.”

        “Hi Lily. I’m Kathryn, but you can call me Katie.”

        Lily laughed. “I suppose Uncle Henry isn’t allowed to call you that.”

        “It just didn’t seem fitting for her,” he argued.

        “I’m sure it didn’t. Just like you hate Hank as a nickname.”

        He shuddered. “I just don’t like it. I’m sure it works very well for other people, and I don’t mean to offend any of them, but it didn’t seem right for my personality.”

        “Well, let’s go. Everyone’s waiting at Bimbo’s.” She ushered us out the door and into her very nice looking car. It was recently washed and silver. And it looked brand new. Of course.

        We hopped in and she turned on the radio. 93.9 WTBX. I didn’t bother to tell her that I hated that music. Instead, I just zoned in and out for the half an hour it took to get to the restaurant.

        Before we went in, Henry stopped me. “Now Kathryn, don’t be nervous. They’re just my relatives. They will love you well enough.”

        I nodded, but I felt slightly nervous. What if they didn’t like me? What would happen then?

        We walked through the door and followed to where Lily was sitting. It was a table of six, and the three others were facing the TV, away from us. Walking over to them, they turned. And I was completely shocked.

        “Mike? You’re related to Henry?” I asked, standing in front of him.

        He stood up and smiled, giving me an enormous bear hug. “You’re as tiny as ever, Katy. And yeah, he’s my grandpa. Grandpa Henry.”

        While this exchange was happening, Henry was staring and talking to Molly. “They know each other?”

        “Yes, Dad. Mike is her older brother Brad’s best friend. They’ve known each other for years. Katy lived with us for the first part of the summer,” his daughter explained, holding back laughter.

        Tyler, on the other hand, was free to laugh. “You mean you didn’t know that Mike and Henry were related, Katy?”

        “It just never came up,” I argued.

        Well, I can’t say I wasn’t surprised. 

Author's Note

I have to admit, this is so far my favorite chapter. Tell me what you think!