Desperately wishing that her friend hadn't shown up, Jessica waited patiently as her father greeted Chris at the door.
   She noticed him rubbing the back of his neck, and explaining that his mother was called in to work because someone was sick so she couldn't join them tonight.
   Wincing, she tried not to think of what her family would read into that reasoning. She smiled weakly at him, when her father invited him inside, returning her smile he took the seat next to her on the couch.
   "Dinner's almost ready," Mr. Hanson announced as he moved on towards the kitchen to see if anything else needed to be done.
   "I'm so sorry," Jessica whispered. "I tried to get you out of this. I tried so hard not to let it even happen!"
   Chris laughed lightly and shrugged, "It's not so bad, Jess. It's actually kinda normal, and I sorta expected it… just thought it woulda happened a little bit earlier that's all."
   His shoulders shrugged again, "When your parents made no mention about it earlier, I thought it was cool."
   Her lips twisted, "It's my brother's fault actually. My parents didn't mind until his started flipping out over it all."
   Nodding, Chris leaned back some and looked around the living room. "So… I thought you had a large family."
   Jessica laughed, "I do."
   His eyebrow quirked, raising the hoop that was threaded there. "Really?" He looked around again and whispered loudly, "Where are they then?"
   Pointing to an empty chair she answered, "That's Tay…" waving towards the doorway she stated, "and that's Avery holding Zoë…"
   At his confused look, she laughed again. "I made a deal with my parents that I get to basically… prep you for dinner alone. And some of my siblings purposely left, just so that they wouldn't have to be witnesses or anything."
   His look was so comical Jessica grinned brightly, "I forgot to tell you, things can get pretty … wild around here." Her head shook, "and we usually call on one of the others to back us up."
   Chris laughed at that, "Must be fun. Since I'm an only child, I didn't even get the fun of playing older brother and telling my younger siblings what to do or anything like that."
   Jessica rolled her eyes, "Since I'm one of the younger kids of my family, and had older siblings, don't expect me to feel bad for you about that."
   Relaxing they talked more about what it was like being in a large family, and a small one. Having your own bathroom and standing in line for it at midnight and being number four…
   "Dinner's ready."
   Looking up, Jessica tried not to feel her stomach sink. "Thanks, Mom," she replied standing up. "I'll show you to the bathroom, so that we can wash up."
   Pushing himself off the couch as well, Chris nodded silently and followed behind her. "Am I really gonna get the riot act, here?" he murmured his eyes darting around him as if waiting for an ambush.
   Jessica felt her face warm. "You'll be asked a lot of questions I'm sure," she answered honestly.
   Warily, he accepted it and sighed softly as he washed his hands after her and then followed her back down the hallway and towards the dining room.
   Seeing Taylor, Natalie, and Zac already sitting down and waiting on them Jessica felt her blood boil noticing that Zac had purposely tried to set it up to where Chris would be sitting between him and their father, across from their mother, and nowhere near her.
   Glaring at him, Jessica took the seat between him and their father, giving Chris the seat next to her mom and Natalie.
   "So Christopher," Mrs. Hanson started as she passed around the salad bowl. "What do you plan on doing after high school?"
   He smiled politely as he accepted the bowl and dished out his serving. "I plan on going to ITT tech actually. I've got a couple of relatives who fly around all over fixing computers for some major corporations, and they can get me into their line if I have the right qualifications. My cousin Geoff just got back from a six month stint in France."
   Taylor leaned back in his chair and grinned over at Jessica who was smiling to herself as she picked at her green beans and popped one in smoothly when he winked at her.
   "He also tutors Fridays and Saturdays at Sylvan, he's in the Big Brother program, and on Sunday mornings he teaches CCD at his church."
   Chris looked down at his plate, and tried to stifle his laughter. "That's… all true," he murmured.
   "What's your GPA, Chris?" Taylor asked, only to jump slightly when Natalie stepped on his toe with her heel.
   "It's mostly a three point eight-three point nine right now. It went down from a four point because last month I missed a week of classes."
   Zac sat up in his seat. "Out partying on senior ditch week?" he questioned slyly.
   Chris shook his head, "Nah. My mom was out in California having surgery."
   The milk he just drank caught in his throat and he sputtered. In a flash, Chris was standing behind him, forcing him to lift his arms, and patting his back.
   "You okay?" he asked once Zac stopped coughing and gasping.
   Trying like mad not to turn around and glare at him, or worse yet hit him, Zac nodded tightly. "Yes. I'm fine. Thank you."
   Patting his shoulder once more, Chris moved back to his seat, his face slightly troubled. "I'm sorry if that bothered you, Zac," he apologized. "It's just I've grown so used to working with mentally handicapped children that they panicked when they swallowed wrong so I had to learn to work almost immediately."
   Closing his eyes to the explanation, Zac nodded again trying to wave him off. "It's okay. Everything's fine."
   "So, Jess tells me that you work, Chris." Mr. Hanson commented, as he grabbed for his tea glass, wanting to break the newly formed silence.
   Chris nodded, as he swallowed his bite of food. "I work at a grocery mart right now, and only part time because I'm still under eighteen."
   Mrs. Hanson tilted her head a little, "Oh? How long have you been working?"
   "I've been working since I was about thirteen, but I've only been at the grocery store for a couple of weeks. When I was in California my old job had to let me go, so I had to get this one."
   Grinning at her plate, Jessica refused to lift her head until she would stop feeling so giddy. This was going a lot better than she had thought possible!