Spring Broke
Day Zero — Saturday
“Mom, dad. Hayley’s here.”
Nellie Tomlinson came out from the kitchen. “Already? Oh my, honey, we’re going to be sad to see you go.”
“It’s only for a week, mom.”
“I know.”
“Besides, next year, I’m going to be away at State and then it’ll be a lot longer than that.”
“You don’t have to remind me about that. I know.”
George Tomlinson stood off to the side watching his wife and his daughter. “I don’t see why she couldn’t just spend Spring break here with the rest of us,” he grumbled.
“Now, George,” his wife scolded.
“Da-a-a-addy!” said his exasperated daughter.
And off to the side, Hayley Martee just stood and watched. “Don’t you worry, Mr. Tomlinson. There’s going to be four of us and we’re all going to be together, so it’ll be fine.”
“It’s not you girls I worry about,” the man grumbled. “It’s the boys. I was a boy, too, once. I know what they want.”
That drew a smile even from his wife. “Now George, we’ve been over that before. Now come on over here and give your daughter a hug and a kiss good bye.”
George was still grumbling as he shuffled over to his wife and daughter and then he gave Tammy a big hug. “You be good, okay?”
“I will daddy.”
“And remember, I don’t want to see you showing up on any of those Girls Gone Wild videos or anything like that.”
“Daddy!”
“I know. I know. Just humor me, okay. Promise me you won’t do anything like that.”
“I won’t, daddy.”
“All right then. You got everything. You got your plane tickets and the reservation information for the hotel?”
“Right here in my bag,” the girl said.
“All right then,” the man said gruffly. “Your mom and me, we’re going to miss you, but have a good time, okay.”
“I will,” Tammy promised.
The three of them hugged and then the daughter moved away. “I’ll see you guys in a week,” the girl said.
“We can’t wait,” said her mother.
“Now,” Hayley asked when the two girls were finally alone in her car, “tell the truth. Did you really bring what was important?”
“What,” Tammy Tomlinson asked with innocence. “You mean like suntan lotion.”
“Don’t get cute with me,” Hayley said. “You know what I’m talking about.”
Tammy grinned. “I know what you’re talking about and yeah, I got them.”
Hayley grinned back. “Then I think we’re ready to go.”