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This Time Next Year

December 23, 2010

The second Jaclyn can see her family and all their mismatched chaos she's jogging through the airport terminal, throwing her arms around the first person she sees which happens to her grandma. "I've missed you all so much!" She gushes, noting the new shade of artificial red that colors her grandmother's thinning hair.

Her Papa Larry closes her in on the other side, locking hands with his wife, and trapping their laughter between the three of them. "Either you've gotten taller," he laughs pulling back to look her over before turning to Janet, "Or your grandmother's getting shorter."

"Probably the latter," her dad deadpans from behind. She pulls away only to crash into his side, knocking his camo ball cap off his head. "Like you have room to talk. Where do you think I get my average height from?"

"And where do you think I get it from?" He asked, eyes sliding over to his mother. Brad was the spitting image of Janet under his gruff facial hair and the blistering burn that seemed to exist on his skin even in the winter. Well, at least back when her hair was still dirty blonde they could've been twins.

That was why she always scrunched her nose when people said she looked like a Webber. Her grandfather stood tall at six foot with salt and pepper hair, and she was a replica of her father who was a replica of his mother. A person could look at an old picture of Janet and then a picture of Jaclyn and swear they were the same person living in different decades.

Protected under her dad's arm that dangled over her shoulder, Jaclyn was oblivious to the growing stares, and it was her mother's sharp gaze that caught on. With no warning Michelle was pulling everyone to a secluded area, Caleb who was attached to their mom's hip with a leash followed eagerly.

"Is that a leash?" Jaclyn asked, eyeing the harness that connected to Caleb's backpack and locked with at least three zipties.

"Yes."

"No."

Jaclyn smirked, eyes moving between Caleb who looked up at mom innocently, and Michelle who appeared to be yearning for a drink. "I'm not losing him." Again, but she didn't need to remind them of what happened last time for them all to understand.

"It's like I'm a dog," her little brother shrugged, but he didn't seem all that bothered by it. "Gonna get ice cream," he added on more to himself, but Jaclyn still grinned leaning down to ruffle his floppy hair.

"Do you want to tell your sister what you kept yelling on the plane?" Glenda asked, pulling forward from the group to come and hug Jaclyn. Her other grandma's white hair was styled to silky perfection and trimmed evenly just above her ears showing off her well structured face.

At the mention of his mischief Caleb perked up, pulling tightly at his leash to grasp the frays of Jaclyn's jeans. "This is your captain speaking, I have good news and bad news. The good news is we're landing immediately, the bad news is we're crash landing!"

They all laughed, and Jaclyn started herding them out the doors to the car that was waiting for them. She briefly caught her dad still laughing about Caleb giving the elderly lady next to them a heart attack.

Maybe William wasn't with her, but she was definitely going to enjoy her last Christmas with her family.

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December 23, 2010

"This may be a controversial statement, but I think Jaclyn Webber is more prepared to be a future princess than many of her predecessors-"

The men on the TV laughed, and Jaclyn was jarred from staring at the notebook in her hands to the TV. She didn't usually turn on the news, but her family was currently catching up on sleep, all randomly scattered across her flat, and she needed some background noise to keep her from going crazy.