Jalen watched the class of kindergartners run around Maria’s backyard. She’d invited the twins’ entire class, and to her surprise, all but about four of them showed up. She was happy that Maria had been kind enough to allow her to use her backyard. Jalen couldn’t have imagined trying to have this many kids at her apartment.
She had forgone having a costume party since Halloween was the following evening, and she didn’t want all the parents worrying about having to wash any costumes that got dirty. Instead, they’d thrown a fall-themed party.
Her sisters were all manning different areas of the backyard that was set up with tables, along with Maria, and her husband, Clint, who’d gotten roped into doing the wagon ride. Landon was doing face painting, and the kids loved that. Kodi ran the bag toss game, where the kids could win small prizes. Mikal managed the photo booth, taking pictures with the old Polaroid camera that Jalen had found for her birthday last year. Maria was working the magnetic fishing game, while Jalen was manning the snack table.
Some parents had elected to stay, and they were mingling with one another or helping with the festivities as well. However,most of them had dropped their kids off, opting to take advantage of the free babysitting services.
Jalen was filling up juice pouches she’d bought to put the punch in when someone approached her. She glanced over, giving the newcomer a smile before focusing back on the task at hand, being sure not to waste any.
“You need some help over here?” he asked.
Jalen didn’t actually need help and had been enjoying the peace and quiet. Well, as much of it as you could get at a birthday party. However, she didn’t want to be rude and decided that the help would make the job go by more smoothly and faster.
“Sure. Thank you.”
“No problem,” he responded, using some of the hand sanitizer that she had sitting at the edge of the table. He then grabbed some pouches and started filling them. “I’m Rick,” he introduced himself.
“Jalen. Nice to meet you,” she replied, sealing the pouch.
“So, how’d you get roped into being here? My sister asked me to bring my nephew since she had to work. Though a party with a bunch of screaming kids isn’t how I wanted to spend my Saturday afternoon,” he told her with a chuckle.
“Well, it’s only a few hours. I’m sure you can still do whatever you want after it’s all said and done,” she responded.
“Right. Of course,” he stated, and Jalen glanced at him before filling another pouch. She could see him trying to backpedal in his mind. “So, which one is yours?” he questioned.
She nodded her head toward the twins. “The birthday girls.” She then nodded her head toward each of her other sisters. “And them.”
“Bullshit,” he stated. “The twins, yeah. But the other three. I mean, at least one of them is a teenager, and you are not old enough to be her mother.”
She simply shrugged at him. “I have good genes.” She saw Kodi approaching them, and she smiled as her little sister got near. “Hey, baby,” she greeted. It was what she usually called the teenager when she was trying to get out of something. It was essentially their code.
“Hey, Mom,” Kodi held up the bucket that had once held prizes. “I’m all out of prizes. Each kid got two.”
“Okay. Will you tell Landon to wrap up the face painting? We’re going to give out treat bags and pouches. It’s time to wind the party down.”
Kodi nodded, setting the bucket on the table before turning and going in Landon’s direction.
“I’m going to go grab my nephew,” Rick stated.
“Thanks for the help,” Jalen told him, keeping her eyes on the task at hand.
She finished up the bags. Preparing to hand them out, so the children could head home, and she could clean up Maria’s backyard.
Jalen was dressed in her Moana costume, with Nathan and Omari holding either of her hands. They were at a Halloween festival downtown. It was the first one being thrown, and she was honestly thankful for it. It saved her from having to drive all around to find places for them to trick-or-treat. Though the twins had still insisted on doing it on the way to the festival.
When they had arrived, they’d had to park about two blocks away in the old train station parking lot. At the entrance, they were each given enough tickets to participate in the games and booths once apiece. Jalen knew she wouldn’t use them, so she split hers between the twins, while Kodi gave all but three of hers to Mikal and Landon.
They’d been walking through the festival for a little over an hour, and it was going on eight. Jalen had decided that theywould stay until about eight forty-five, and then they would head out. The girls had school tomorrow, and she knew from experience that it was not a good morning if the twins didn’t get enough sleep.
“Jalen?”
Looking around for the source of the voice, she saw Alynn approaching her. She glanced back to where the twins were, with Kodi shooting water guns at a target, before turning her attention back to Alynn.
“Hey, Alynn,” she greeted.
“I thought that was you,” the little girl stated before hugging her. She hugged her back.
“Are you here with your dad?” she questioned when the two of them pulled apart.
