Chapter 1

"Kevin Scott Richardson, you better put me down right now!" I screamed.

He was twirling me around and around. I was beginning to get really dizzy. We had been playing basketball and I kicked his butt, as usual, and I was planning on bragging to Brian about it. But he stopped me before I could.

"Oh, what are you going to do Shorty?" Kevin teased.

Kevin and I have known each other since I was a baby and Kevin was two. We lived across from each other's houses. Our mothers were best friends since high school. I was 13 and Kevin 15, we had spent every waking moment together.

He taught me how to play basketball and many other sports. But basketball was definitely my favorite sport and best sport. He also taught me how to defend myself from others. He used to wrestle with his brothers a lot and they would also pick on him. Then we would wrestle and he would tell me what not to do.

I was an only child and he had his brothers, but they were older. And they didn't particularly like having their little brother hanging out with them. So me and Kevin hung out a lot, along with Brian.

"OK! OK! I'll put you down, but you have to promise not to brag about your win to Brian. Okay?" Kevin asked.

"Fine. I promise. Now put me down!" I yelled.

He slowly put me down. As soon as I got myself balanced and got far enoguh away from him, I ran towards the house yelling. "Hey Brian! Boo lost the basketball game again and I kicked his butt!"

Kevin yelled, "Pumpkin, you better get back here!"

We had given each other these nicknames since we were little. Kevin called me Pumpkin because when I was little he told our moms that my head looked like a pumpkin and it stuck ever since. I called him Boo because when we were little he scared me in the morning. His hair was sticking got everywhere, and he said boo to me. So I thought he was Boo, so for the longest time I called him Boo because I thought that was his actual name.

I turned and yelled back at him, "You couldn't catch me if your life depend on it, Boo!"

Right as I turned back around, I ran directly into Brian. "Oomph!" I said as I landed on my ass.

I looked over at Kevin and he was rolling on the ground with laughter. "What's so funny ya big baby?" I questioned, while Brian helped me up.

Through his laughter he slowly responded, "You should have seen the face you made before you ran into Brian. And the noise afterwards when you hit the cement!"

"Yeah well, that really hurt!" I said, wiping my shorts off.

"Oh, are you okay Brian?" I asked, finally taking notice of Brian standing there laughing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just came you here to see what you two were yelling about," Brian said.

"Oh, we were just talking about how badly I kicked Kevin's butt!" I stated happily.

Kevin immdiately stopped laughing and pretended to pout.

"She kicked your butt again? You're the one who taught her how to play and she kicked your butt again!" Brian said laughing at his cousin.

I slowly walked over to Kevin and said, "Oh, okay Boo. You won," he looked up at me and smiled. "But I'm still better than you."

All three of us began to laugh.

You could've called us the three musketeers because we spent so much time together. Actually, most people who knew us did. Whenever you would see one of us, the other two wouldn't be far behind.

"Kids! Time for dinner!" yelled Ann, Kevin's mom.

"Well be there in a sec, Mama Ann!" I yelled back.

She smiled and went back into the house.

She was my second mother, so I called her Mama Ann. I had pretty much called her that since I was little. Kevin had the same relationship with my mom as I did with his. He called her Mama Joy.

Then we looked at each other and smiled.

Brian said, "First one through the door doesn't have to do the dishes!"

We looked at each other once again, got up, and rushed off towards the door.

Just before we made it, I yelled, "Look! There's Allison Wittington!"

Both of the guys stopped to look at where I had pointed to. I made it through the door and declared my victory. "I'm the champion, thank you very much!"

"Janel, that was so not fair!" yelled Brian and Kevin as they slowly walked towards the door.

"Allsion wasn't there! You lied!" complained Kevin.

Allison was one of the most popular girls in school and both Brian and Kevin had a crush on her. Well actually, about half the guys that went to school had a crush on her, so why should Brian and Kevin be any different.

"Oh, poor you! You didn't get to see yoru precious Allison!" I said sarcastically. "Now you two morons have to do the dishes!" I said, laughing at them.

We went into the dining room and sat down. Ann, Jerald, Jerald Jr. and Tim were already sitting at the dinner table waiting for us. I was spending the weekend with my second family because my parents were out of town. I probably would still have been there with them, even if my parents were home.

"So why are you three musketeers late?" asked Jerald.

"Well, it was my fault Papa," I said.

I called Jerald, Papa, because he was practically my dad since I was little. He used to paly with me outside when my dad was busy. Also, he treated me like his daughter, since he wasn't fortunate enought to have one. Kevin would complain because Papa would spoil me and not him. But for some reason, Kevin didn't have the same relationship with my dad. Kevin just called him Jerry. Actually, no one was close with my father, except for my mom of course. He was friendly, but not that close.

"You see were racing and the first one through the door wouldn't have to do the dishes. It was a tie during the race and then I yelled at them to look at Allison, who they have a huge crush on, and she wasn't there. They both stopped to look and I won!"

"That's my girl! Give me high five!" said Jerald, happily. "That was very smart of you!"

I smiled and stuck my tongue out at the boys.

"Dad, how could you take her side? She cheated and now me and Brian have to do the dishes," whined Kevin.

"Yeah, Uncle Jerald. That was obviously cheating. She should do the dishes!" exclaimed Brian.

"Well you two goof balls lost concentration on the race and went directly towards the girl. So who's fault is that?" asked Jerald while laughing.

Both guys went to speak, but they didnt know what to say. We all laughed at them.

There was never a dull moment at the Richardson's house. Almost always, Jerlad, his two sons, and me would always gang up on Kevin and make fun of him. It was always the highlight of the dinner table.

After dinner, I sat at the table talking to the boys, while they cleared off the table and did the dishes.

"So Janel, what do you want to do tonight?" Brian asked.

"Why do I always have to think of something to do?" I asked.

"Oh come on Pumpkin! You know you have an idea of what you want to do," Kevin said.

"Hey Boo, can we go out to our club house and spend the night in there?" I asked.

"Sure, why?" Kevin asked.

"Oh, because I feel like watching some scary movies and watching you and Brian make fools of yourself while you two sing and dance. And most of all, eating as many M&M's as possible! Does that sound good?" I asked.

They laughed at me and Brian asked, "What is it with you and M&M's?"

"It's all of Kevin's fault. When we were little the only candy Boo would give me was M&M's. He said that I could choke on other candies, so that's the only candy he would give me. Now I'm addicted to M&M's. 'Hi my name is Janel and I'm addicted to M&M's," I said.

We all started laughing and they continued to make fun of me.

"Okay guys, hurry up here. I know you guys aren't that smart, but it doesn't take a moron this long to wash dishes!"I said.

"We are finally done your highness! No thanks to you!" Kevin said.

They finished and we went into the family room. We started to pick out all of the scary movies that we could find. I was sitting on the ground looking into the movie cabinet.

"Now!" I heard Kevin yell, and before I knew it I was being attacked. "Brian you hold her, while I tickle her!" Kevin yelled.

Brian held my arms down, while Kevin inched closer to me.

"Oh no! Not the Tickle Monsters Boo and Bri!" I said, pretending to be frightened.

"Oh yes, it's us. And you've been a bad little girl!" Kevin said, moving in closer.

Then they both started to tickle me, while I wiggled around trying to get away from them. I could barely yell for help because I was laughing so hard. My stomach hurt so much from the laughing and I was beginning to cry. Papa came in and watched them tickle me.

"Papa, please help!" I yelled while laughing. "I'm going to go pee in my pants if they don't stop!"

Both Kevin and Brian turned to each other and made a disgusted face, then they immediately stopped. They let go of me and moved away.

"See you didn't need my help. You could get them off of you by yourself," Jerald said while laughing. He looked around at the room and saw that we were picking out movies. "So are you three headed out to the club house?"

"Yeah. That's okay, right Dad?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, it's fine son. Just don't stay up too late and not too much candy," Jerald said, smiling at me.

"We promise," all three of us said in unison.

After Papa left we continued to gather movies and candy. Then we went outside to the club house that Papa had built for us. It was our little house that we lived in when we wanted to escape our house. It was also our own little place to hang out.

We stayed up all night long watching scary movies. Then the most exciting part of the night, well actually it was my favorite part, maybe not the most exciting. But it was when we had food throwing contests or actually food catching contests. I was the champion at catching M&M's in my mouth. Brian and Kevin would throw them to me and I caught every single one. I could never let an M&M go to waste. Kevin was pretty good at catching them in his mouth also. Brian wasn't very good, but he would pick them off the ground and still eat them. Then he started to get sick from all the chocolate, so I finished off the rest of his M&M pile.

Then we had other contests that the guys were good at, and not me. The guys would sing and dance while I would be the judge. I put on a cassette while they would sing into their hair brushes and dance around on the bed. They would get candy as prizes, and I would hand them a trophy that Kevin had gotten from football, when he was little. Then they would make a speech. Finally, about 5 o'clock in the morning we fell asleep.