The Redemption Stage (Book 2: The Second Chance)

The Beginning of Fun (2) Mel

Today was the day I left, I was happy, surprisingly, to be leaving the place I called home, temporarily of course.

"Mel, can we talk to you for a second before you go?" Mama Robinson, aka the mother, aka Mom, called from downstairs.

I hurried down and saw that they were sitting around the table, in front of them was a jar.

"Mel, Dad and I have decided it would be a good idea to give you this, you were closer to Mase than the rest of us and we wanted you to take this on your trip." Mom handed me the jar and I teared up a bit.

"Thank you." I barely got out before I took the jar and ran upstairs, careful not to spill anything... That would be tragic. I placed the jar safely on the small table I had in my room and grabbed two of my suitcases and struggled trying to get downstairs. I got the first two and was already breaking a sweat.

"Wow..." A voice said from behind me, it was Joy. "I came here to help you but now I'm not so sure, watching you struggle is honestly hilarious." She said and grabbed the duffel bag for me. I grabbed my other suitcases and headed back downstairs. I ran back up really quickly and grabbed the jar, making sure it was sealed shut, I put it in a small box to carry with me during the trip.

"What's in the box?" Joy asked me curiously.

"My brother, wanna hold him?" I said to Joy, smiling. After a year, it was easier to talk about Mason's death, easier to joke about it... It may have been morbid but it was better than crying at the very thought of him.

Joy rolled her eyes at me and we grabbed my suitcases outside to the car that was waiting. It was Joy's mom van, I mean mini van that she got for her birthday, but Jax drives it since Joy is a horrible driver... I mean she crashed a golf cart into the only tree within a two mile radius of her, with a passenger. Yeah, she's not living that down.

Once everything was in the car, the four of us piled in and got comfortable, it's a five hour drive to our destination in New Hampshire, where we're going to go camping for a few days, we planned to go as far as Ohio. Luckily Jax was driving so none of us had to worry about getting in an accident.

The Peters and my parents were waving at us as we drove off to the rest of the world. I was the only one to sit in the very back, so I could lay down if I wanted. Joy was sitting in the middle in front of the driver's seat, if she wanted to recline her seat she wouldn't get in anyone's way. Grayson sat next to Jax in the front, the passenger seat. Joy and I planned this out for ultimate comfort.

I fell asleep an hour in, we were all really tired from a night of endless packing and stress. I laid down in the three seats and closed my eyes, it was a bit small since I was 5'8, but I made it work. I was shaken awake by Jax, the sky was a beautiful color orange.

The car was parked in a parking lot, a sign at the entrance of the lot said "New Hampshire Official Camping Grounds" there was a small path with a few trees to curtain a small clearing where we would set up our camp. It's not the most official camp, but it's something.

The four of us grabbed blankets, snacks, and the two tents and followed the trail into the clearing. We found a soft little patch of grass to lay around. Jax and I set up the tents and Grayson and Joy got wood for the fire.

It was harder than it looked, especially when two people who had no experience whatsoever setting up a tent before tried it. We got up the first tent within an hours time.

"You all are a disgrace to all campers and scouts everywhere." Grayson said, shaking his head at us. Grayson was a boy scout, his pack goes camping once a month.

"You wanna, oh I don't know, help us instead of looking at us like were awful?" I said sarcastically to him. Jax was trying to hold the tent together and Joy was laughing at him. "Even I can tell you're not doing this right." I said to him, laughing along with Joy.