All Ready?

Title: All Ready?

Main Characters: Charlotte O'Donnell, Cindy Slater, Jenny Pickford, Mary Jane Slater

Also Includes: Rebecca O'Donnell, Madison Slater, Ron Slater, Benny O'Donnell, Jodi Floyd, Randy Floyd

Location: The O'Donnell Household

Date: October 19, 1993

“Char, if you don’t quit squirming, I’m gonna take your ear off with this curling iron,” Cindy threatened, causing her best friend in front of her to freeze instantly. The other two girls, both messing with each other’s dresses, stopped to laugh.

Homecoming, such a big deal, right? Especially for a girl like Charlotte, or one like Cindy. Jenny and Mary Jane? Not so much, but they dealt with it. Hours were put into getting ready for one night, one measly dance. It wasn’t even as big as prom, but it was treated that way amongst the large combination of families. Whether the girls wanted to or not, they were being forced to go. Their aunts were persistent on that, and it didn’t help that their oldest cousin wanted just the same.

“Can’t you just hurry up? You’ve had me here forever! And I have the curliest hair!” Charlotte exclaimed, moving sharply to point to Mary Jane and Jenny. Upon doing so, though, her ear collided with the curling iron.

Cindy groaned loudly as Charlotte let out a shrill scream. She reached up, yanking the cord from the wall so she could set the iron down and tend to the burn. It wasn’t too bad, but Charlotte wouldn’t take that for an answer.

“Momma! I need ice! Cindy burned my ea-” Charlotte shouted, running halfway down the hall before she was caught on the arm by Jenny.

“Cool it, princess, I’ll get you the ice. I don’t want you complaining that everyone saw you early, because you just had to get your damn ice,” Jenny said, gently pushing Charlotte back down the hall before she started on her own. Though, she was caught just the same, by Cindy this time.

“Easy, chief. I know you’re not hot on these whole deal, but the three of you girls are the surprise, not just Charlotte. I’ll get the ice,” Cindy said, patting Jenny’s shoulder as she rolled her eyes.

As Cindy entered the living room, all of the adults looked up. She gave them all a small wave, chuckling to herself before explaining the whole ordeal to them. She looked over at her Aunt Becky, who was seated in her husband’s lap.

“You ought to teach your daughter to follow instructions, or she’ll end up getting herself killed or something...death by a curling iron,” she told the two before heading into the small kitchen for the requested ice. She got it quickly, wrapping a cloth around it for easier usage, before rushing back to see the girls.

Charlotte looked up as Cindy entered the room, taking her hand off of her ear as she reached to the ice. She brought it to her wound, letting out a small sigh of relief as all of the pain was taken away. “Thanks, Cind,” she muttered, falling back to sit down on her bed.

“Any time, but just listen to directions,” Cindy replied, chuckling as she went towards Charlotte’s desk full of makeup and other items. “Also, best not to sit like that, you’ll wrinkle your dress,” she added, nodding at her cousin.

Charlotte instantly leaped up, eyes wide at Cindy. She wanted to look perfect for tonight, and was willing to do anything to make sure that happened. She leaned against her bedroom wall slightly, looking over at Jenny, who was seated on Gilbert’s bed.

“You’ll wrinkle your dress,” she told her, trying to be considerate of her cousin. Though, with the look she was given, she could tell that help wasn’t wanted. She gulped, chewing her lip slightly before giving Jenny an apologetic look, only getting a scowl in return.

For the next fifteen minutes, all four girls were near perfectly silent. It wasn’t that they didn’t have anything to say, because they did, but they just didn’t want to be overheard. The walls of the O’Donnell house were thin, and they found that out the hard way. Multiple times at the beginning of the night, Jenny and Mary Jane had been scolded for cursing. Jenny got in trouble for talking too loudly, about inappropriate things. And the three were forced into having a very serious talk about not doing drugs or drinking, one that Mary Jane and Jenny surely weren’t going to listen to.

“Are we done yet?” Jenny asked, finally breaking the silence as Cindy finished her younger sister’s eye makeup. She didn’t much care for this kind of thing, nor did she have patience, so it was hard for her to tolerate. Thankfully, though, she had asked at just the right moment.

“That we are, Jen, that we are,” Cindy said, nodding at the three younger girls. She smiled at the masterpieces she had done up, glad that things had gone quite well in the shorter amount of time they had, since they started late.

Cindy led the three out into the living room, smiling proudly as she showed off her ‘models’. The parents all gasped, gaping at their nieces and daughters. In all honesty, the three girls turned out to be complete works of art, total beauty queens, whether they enjoyed it or not.

Aunt Becky had a camera in her hands in no time, taking pictures of nearly every possible combination. The three girls together. The three girls with their ‘designer’. The three girls individually. With their parents. With just their father. Just their mother. Every combination possible, Becky thought it up. She just wanted to capture the night as much as she could.

“I don’t even see why I have to go. I’m not even in high school yet!” Jenny exclaimed as the pictures finally stopped. She was in eighth grade, one below her two older cousins. She didn’t even want to go, so being forced to was not something she cared for. She could have been doing much better things that night!

“Here, Jenny, let me tell you a story of my first homecoming,” Aunt Madison spoke up, causing her niece to groan. “No, no, this is just explaining this bullshit and relating it to you. I feel your pain, believe me,” she added, chuckling to herself.

“When I was in ninth grade, I had no intentions of going to homecoming. Hell, that’s how it was with every dance. But unfortunately, your Aunt Rebecca, here, was gifted with mad begging and persuading skills, and so she forced me to go. And so when I was forced to go, I made your Uncle Slater go with me, and then we made your dad go with us, and of course your mom went with him. It was a big chain reaction, and that’s why you’re getting sucked in,” Madison explained, causing Jenny to roll her eyes, but nod.

“I still don’t see why I have to go,” Jenny said, not really getting the point behind it all.

“You’ll have a good time, I know I did, and I dreaded the whole thing! As a matter of fact, that dance I- wait…” Madison said, cutting herself short when she realized what she was coming upon saying.

“Babe, we didn’t even stay the whole time, we went off to-” Slater started, trying to jog his wife’s memory, but only to be cut off by Benny.

“Your aunt and uncle aren’t good examples, you’ll go and you’ll have a good time, okay? Okay,” he said, chuckling as he brought his arm around Rebecca. “It is one hell of a time, I do mean it,” he added, smirking down at Rebecca still.

Rebecca looked up at her husband, giving him a look as if he had lost his mind. “You went with Jodi to homecoming, so I don’t know why you’re looking at me and reminiscing. We did prom together, you hated me in ninth grade,” she said, slapping her husband across the chest.

“Oh yeah...Homecoming sucked-” he said, getting cut off by Jodi, who exclaimed ‘Hey!’ and jokingly took that as in insult to her.

From that point on, the adults started talking and remembering which dance was which. Memories from their good ole days were flying, and a lot of them were inappropriate. But none of them really paid attention to the kids in the room still.

“Guys, are you all ready?” Cindy asked the three younger girls finally, trying to distract them from all of the memories being shared only a foot away. She didn’t want to have them hear all of the tales of drugs and sex that their parents’ all shared. She didn’t even want to hear them! It was just best to get the girls to their dance already, and that’s what she did. The adults didn’t even notice them leaving, they were so caught up in their conversation.