Here's a little taste of a series I conceived in the student pickup line when Genius Kid was a sophomore in high school. Now he's an Army specialist with a little one of his own on the way.
So yeah, this has been sitting on my laptop for a while.
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Penny Hudson guided her white minivan into one of the five free parking slots in the Oakfield Recreational Center, trying to ignore the slight pain right behind her eye sockets that had been plaguing her since yesterday afternoon. The trees around the soccer fields had turned from green to gold and orange since last week’s games. Brilliant leaves gleamed against the dark clouds to the west. The falling barometric pressure from the incoming weather front was probably the cause of her headache.
It would be a race between the soccer teams finishing the last round of games for Saturday afternoon and the storm threatening to put an end to park’s activities. No sooner had she put the transmission into park, her daughter Justine yanked the back door of the vehicle open, jumped out, and raced up the sidewalk toward the park gate.
And left the dang van door wide open.
“Puberty, thou art a heartless bitch,” Penny muttered under her breath. Their relationship seemed to disintegrate when Justine turned twelve this summer. The last thing she needed was a major mother-daughter meltdown in front of the other snooty parents and the resulting clucks and advice.
Francine was the only stay-at-home mom who would acknowledged Penny, Wila, and Dani. Her daughter Brittany was a better player than Courtney Lasser’s son, and Courtney ruled the parents of the Oakfield Soccer League with the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove.
Which meant Francine was persona non grata with the other moms, so she hung out with the other three outcasts.
The crisp fall air and the scent of burning leaves mixed with aromas of the four coffees in the drink carrier sitting on the front passenger seat. Children’s shouts and cheers followed on the wind. She stabbed the button to close the back door. Thank goodness, she managed to talk Gene into the top package with the power doors when they bought the van. Otherwise, she might be tempted to slam the head of their oldest child in the manual doors of her old mini ute.
Penny tucked her purse under the driver seat and collected the drink carrier. With the chill wind and the overcast sky, she was glad she remembered her sweatshirt. She pressed the locking button on her fob. The minivan beeped, its lights flashed, and she shoved the fob into her front jeans pocket.
A brand-new minivan, one she didn’t recognize, was parked near the entrance to the stands. She felt a little sorry for the owner. Courtney and the rest of her stuck-up crew would definitely mock the puke green color. She started to pass it when she spotted the gold Saint Christopher medallion hanging from the rearview mirror.
And the dark-haired woman with her head leaning against the steering wheel.
Penny walked around the van and knocked on the driver side window. Dani Elante jerked her head up and wildly looked around. Penny stepped back as her friend popped open the door.
“You okay?” Penny handed the Valencia double mocha from her coffee shop to Dani.
She took a deep breath of the steam that wisped from her cup. “Yeah. Nothing military school wouldn’t fix.”
Penny rolled her eyes. “Puberty. God’s punishment for one night of fun. If it makes you feel better, Justine began breakfast with the announcement that I needed to start buying her tampons.”
“In front of Gene’s dad?”
“Yep.” They started walking toward the aluminum torture devices the Oakfield Park Service referred to as audience stands. “I then got a lecture from Edward about how it would be my fault if Justine got knocked up before she graduated because I was too permissive with my hippy lifestyle.”
Dani laughed. “But you’re the epitome of capitalism.”
“But according to him, I’m un-American for dressing of a plain cup of joe.” Penny chuckled along with her friend.
Brown and yellow leaves crunched beneath their feet as they walked up the sidewalk to the entrance. They both paid the token one dollar to enter the gate. Courtney’s second in command Helen Chow made a point of glaring at their cups from Penny’s coffee shop while she took their cash, so they made an equal point of ignoring her. A bottle of antacid couldn’t redeem the burnt sludge served at the league’s refreshment stand.
Penny climbed behind Dani to the top of the stands where Wila Ardale had claimed their usual spot. “I see you joined the minivan brigade.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Dani grumbled.
Penny snorted as she handed Wila her white chocolate mocha. “Yes, you did. Chuck was being a cheap ass, and you should have called him on it.”
Dani bristled at the criticism of her father. “It’s temporary vehicle until I can save up for another pickup.”
Penny tilted her head. “His idea of temporary involved you working at the insurance company.”
Danielle winced at that remark. “Marty needs the help.”
Penny snorted a second time. “And every time you try to quit to finish your degree, your dad lays a million reasons on you not to leave, and your brother gives you a raise. When are you going to start living your own life?”
“I like working there.” Dani’s statement sounded half-hearted. “Besides you’re the one saying I didn’t do my fair share of carpooling, so a minivan makes sense.”
“At least mine’s not vomit green,” Penny mumbled into her cup.
Wila leaned over and gave Danielle a knowing wink. “Don’t let her rattle your cage. She’s just saying that because she keeps losing her minivan in the sea of white ones at the mall.”
Penny scowled at Wila. “At least I don’t need to make a spectacle of myself with that bright red atrocity you choose.”
Danielle sighed. “I miss my pick-up.”
“You’re damn lucky that drunk driver didn’t kill you. A truck can be replaced.” Penny took another sip of her coffee. “But you and Mark can’t.” She immediately regretted her words at Dani’s bleak expression. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
Dani waved her free hand and sniffed back the threatening tears. “It’s not like I haven’t been thinking the same thing. Wila can tell you what a mess I was at the scene.”
“Actually, I was more worried Sergeant Park would end up arresting you for murder the way you were beating on the driver.” Wila peered over her shoulder at Dani’s new minivan and chuckled. “Let me guess. Chuck took the best deal on the lot.”
Penny was thankful for the sort-of change of subject. She’d first met Dani shortly after her husband Heath had been killed by another drunk driver. Dani had sat in Penny’s café, staring blankly at the wall while her plain black coffee grew cold. The two women had bonded while Dani tried to put her life back together.
Francine Coy-Astin plopped down next to Dani. “Neal told him he could order a pick-up in whatever color you guys wanted.” Her hot pink manicure contrasted with the olive green liquid in her reusable drink bottle. She must still be on her juicing cleanse.
Penny handed Francine her double French vanilla espresso. She popped off the lid of the coffee cup, unscrewed the cap on her juice, and poured the espresso into the juice.
“Why can’t you drink coffee like a normal person?” Penny said as Francine screwed the cap back on and shook her bottle to mix the contents.
“Because I care about my health and my family’s health.” She took a drink of her noxious-looking mixture. “It’s why none of my family caught that crud you brought back from Florida.”
“Yeah.” Penny rolled her eyes. “I specifically brought back the plague just to infect the entire town.”
She sipped her pumpkin spice latte. The caffeine helped her headache, but the wind picked up, driving dead leaves across the field and sucking away the warmth she got from the hot milk and coffee. The coaches gathered their teams for their pre-game huddle. Justine’s face puckered into a pout when Coach Cordero named the starters who ran out to take their positions.
Justine stomped back to the bench and dropped on it dramatically. At least, the coach had called and discussed the fight between her daughter and Kenny Lasser. Cordero said he would have benched Justine for taunting Kenny at Thursday’s practice regardless of any threats from Courtney. He refused to reward poor player behavior. His even-handedness when it came to the players was one of the reasons Penny loved him as a coach.
The referee placed the ball on the field between the two teams and raised his whistle to his lips. A horrendous boom behind Penny drowned out the referee and his whistle.
Everyone looked behind the bleachers in time to see a jagged fork of lightning split the boiling black clouds rushing in from the west. So much for beating the storm. Another crack of thunder pierced Penny’s ears. Both the refs and the coaches starting blowing their whistles and yelling for everybody to clear the fields.
Francine rolled her eyes. “And I skipped hot yoga for this.”
“If you want to stay up in these aluminum stands and be electrocuted, fine!” Wila stood. “But get your scrawny ass out of my fu—” The rest of her insult was drowned by another crack of thunder.
A blast of cold wind with even colder splatters of rain obviously changed Francine’s mind. She jumped up and headed down the steps. Heaven forbid the weather ruined her perfectly highlighted blond coif.
Dani hung on to her coffee for dear life as she scrambled down as well. Penny followed, praying the rain didn’t cut loose. The last thing she needed was to slip on wet aluminum, tumble down the bleachers, and break her neck. She stepped onto the concrete, and heavier drops splashed on the slab that anchored the metal.
“Come on, Mom,” Justine yelled. She took off for their vehicle, not pausing to make sure Penny followed, Dani’s son Mark right behind her.
“Nice to know they’re concerned about our welfare,” Dani muttered.
Penny held up her keys and jangled them. “But it’s not like they can get in without us.” They laughed and jogged after the kids.
“See you at girls’ night!” Wila waved before heading in the direction of her painfully bright red ride with her son Derek.
Francine said nothing. She was too focused on grabbing Brittany and racing for their own vehicle.
Justine shrieked as the heavy drops turned into a deluge and yanked futilely at the back door latch. On the run herself, Penny hit the button on her key fob to unlock her minivan’s doors. They were both soaked to the skin when they dove into the van.
“This just sucks!” Justine leaned over the center console to shout in Penny’s ear. “Look at my hair! I spent an hour straightening it, and now, it’s going to frizz!”
Penny rubbed her temples with her fingertips. The slight headache she’d chalked up to the incoming storm grew worse. “Please don’t yell at me.”
“I’m yelling because-because-b—” Justine jerked back. “Oh, my god! Get the door open! I’m gonna be—”
Penny’s fingers couldn’t move fast enough. Despite Justine’s effort to turn aside, vomit shot all over the minivan’s center console and the right sleeve of Penny’s sweatshirt.
Including the cup holding her unfinished pumpkin spice latte in the minivan’s cup holder.
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