When Barbie Takes Over

33- New Roomies

Chapter Thirty Three:

New Roomies:

“’Kay, I’m heading home,” Garrett announced, resting his elbows on the back of the couch between Alice and I. He had just spent the last ten minutes helping my mom move things back as Dad did something else. I guess Garrett had done all that he could and was going home to help out his own family now.

“Bye Gare-Gare!” Alice said without looking up from the two dolls she had in her hands.

“Bye, and thank you again for helping,” I said twisting my body so I could see him better. Alice mad a annoyed grunt when she realized I wasn’t focused on our Barbie game anymore.

Garrett gave me a small smile. “No problem,” he said. He stood up and started towards the back door.

“Garrett,” Dad called out from the hallway. He stepped into the room carrying a roll of duct tape.

“Yeah?” Garrett asked.

“When you get home can you get your mom to call me? I need to run something past her,” Dad said.

“But weren’t you just at… Yeah sure,” He said shaking his head. “What’s it about?”

“You don’t need to know quite yet,” Dad said.

“Can I know?” I asked, butting into their conversation.

“No.”

“I’ll get her to call you, anytime?” Garrett asked.

“As soon as you remember,” Dad said. “Now go home and help your mother instead of dawdling over here.”

Garrett lips formed a small smile and he complied with one last ‘goodbye’.

“Bridget, I found a big enough piece of cardboard and I’m putting it over your window,” Dad said once Garrett was gone.

“Okay.”

“I’m going to call the window people and see when we can get you a new window, but I don’t know how long of a wait it will be.”

Horrors of how cold my room would get with only a glorified piece of paper protecting me from the outside chill passed through my head. I started shivering just at the thought.

“That’s fine.” It had to be, it wasn’t like I had a choice in the matter.

“No it’s not,” Dad said with a sigh. “I don’t want you sleeping in there.”

My eyebrows came together in confusion. “Then where am I supposed to sleep? With Alice?”

We had a spare room, but it was more of a storage room than anything else. All the clothes and toys I outgrew went in there, and then Mom went through there periodically to see if there was anything that fit Alice. The spare room was also where Alice kept a lot of her toys and games, so they were piled on every surface.

I guess if I want to sleep at a reasonable temperature tonight, I’m either cleaning and organizing; or sleeping with my little sister who takes up a lot of room for such a tiny person.

That wasn't appealing either, I really liked having my own space, but I guess Alice might need comforting tonight after everything that’s happened today. If I was already supposed to sleep with her it would make things easier.

“No, not with Alice,” Dad said. Oh god, he’s making me clean the spare room. The room is probably a disaster with the earthquake having toppled everything.

“I have another idea,” Dad informed me.

“Oh? And what is it?” I inquired.

“I was thinking that maybe-” The phone rang cutting Dad off.