Zac and Ginger left Riveted before Taylor and Kris did, and ended up in the back of the car for a good hour before they went home. Kris and Taylor were already home by the time they got there, and Kris was just getting ready for bed. It turned out Ginger's bed, a queen, would have to make due for both Kris and Ginger for the whole summer because Kris insisted she wouldn't be sleeping on the floor for three months. Ginger was fine with it, but she knew if Zac or Taylor ever walked in, they'd been getting walked in on just about every single night.
The next morning Ginger woke up at eight o'clock and went downstairs still in her pajamas. Redoing her hair, she went into the kitchen where Zac and Taylor were already awake. Kris was just getting up as she'd left the room so she'd be down soon. She took a minute to remember where the mugs were and got herself a cup of coffee before sitting down in front of Zac and Taylor at the kitchen table. The kitchen table was obviously just for a few people to sit and chat over coffee because it wasn't very big.
"Oh, you look so beautiful this morning," Taylor said to Ginger. She gave him a look.
"Bite me, man-whore."
"She's not good in the morning, is she?" Taylor asked Zac.
"She's plenty good in the morning," Zac muttered. Taylor smacked him on the back of the head.
"I wasn't talking about that!" Zac smiled.
"Neither was I." Ginger was not paying attention. "No, she's not exactly a peach in the morning, especially after a long night like that."
"Hello friends!" Kris said excitedly, walking into the room.
"Now she," Taylor said, "is a morning person." Kris walked to the pantry, but stopped before opening it.
"You people don't do, like, family breakfasts, do you?" she asked.
"No, Kris, feel free to plow into whatever you find in there," Taylor said.
"Score." She opened the pantry and pulled out a box of Special K cereal. "Hey!" Kris said. "It's my cereal! I'm special, and my name starts with a K." Taylor's eyes narrowed and he turned to Zac.
"It does?" he whispered. Zac nodded, a large grin on his face. That was something he'd definitely have to rub in Taylor's face later on.
"You guys have Special K?" Ginger asked, suddenly brightening up. "Dude! That is the best cereal ever! Kris, pour me a bowl."
"Pour your own damn bowl, bitch," Kris said. "I'm not your slave."
"Please?" Ginger asked, batting her eyelashes.
"Yeah, right, if Taylor's eyes don't work on me yours sure aren't. Come over here and pour your own. And show me where the bowls are." Ginger walked over and got out two bowls and two spoons and the milk out of the refrigerator. "Whoa, you guys drink whole milk?" Kris asked, making a face.
"No, that's Taylor's milk," Zac explained. Upon seeing the confused look on Ginger and Kris's faces, he continued. "Taylor needs special milk because he's so damn skinny. There's other stuff in there."
"Oh�okay." Ginger put the whole milk back in the fridge and got out the skim milk that was more to her liking. In a minute the two girls were sitting at the table eating their Special K. Diana walked in the room and was surprised to see four teenagers awake so early in the morning. She immediately looked at Ginger.
"The least you could do is not show off those ugly monstrosities of yours," Diana said, glancing at the exposed tattoo on Ginger's arm. "It might influence the children." Without another word, she walked over to the pot of coffee. Furious, Ginger dropped her nearly empty bowl on the table. It made a loud clanking noise and drew attention from everyone but Diana.
"You know what, Diana, it's eight o'clock in the morning. I'm in my pajamas and frankly I don't even own more than three items of clothing that would cover the 'ugly monstrosity' on my arm. I am not trying to influence your children in any way, and if any of them ask I'll make sure to tell them that I deeply regret getting the blasted thing, but it's there, it's a part of me, and it's not going away. Now I have been nothing but nice to you since the moment I met you and you've been nothing but a bitch to me. I'm sorry if you don't like me. I haven't given you any reason not to, but if that's your deal, fine! It's okay! Not everyone's going to like me! But the least you could do is bear with me for a little while because I love your son. If I have to put up with your shit for the rest of my life, I'll do it. But I won't be quiet about it anymore."
Diana turned around and looked at Ginger who was awaiting an answer. "Well," she said. "Good for you." Diana turned and left the room. Ginger let out a furious breath.
"That is it. I've had it with her," she said. "The next time she says something like that to me, I'm hitting her."
"Ginger�" Zac started.
"No! Don't try and stop me either. I have to spend at least a year with that woman and I am not going to sit around and let her speak to me like I'm a terrible person! I'm not!"
"Well going off on her like that definitely does not help," Kris muttered. Ginger shot her sister a look. "I'm just saying�"
"You do that a lot, don't you?" Ginger asked. Kris stuck out her tongue. "Well�anyway�how is everybody? Did everybody have a good time last night?" She got a few mumbled positive responses. "Hello? Is anybody awake yet?"
"Yes, Ginger, we all had a lovely time last night. We should do it again," Zac said as sarcastically as he could.
"We should," Kris said, too into the back of the box of cereal to pick up on his sarcasm. "That was fun." Ginger glanced at Taylor.
"No�no I don't think so," she said.
"Honestly, it was a lot of fun, though," Taylor said. Ginger bit her lip. She'd been there less than twenty-four hours and Taylor was already starting up his old tricks. If Kris weren't there, last night would have been a lot different. Ginger wasn't even sure if she would have gone home with Zac.
Ginger finished her breakfast in silence before she went upstairs to take a shower. While she was occupied the rest of the family got up and migrated downstairs to fix themselves breakfast. Kris finally got to meet the rest of the family and had already taken a shine to Jessica by the time Ginger walked down the stairs, dressed and ready for the day.
"Hey stranger," Ginger said to Jess just as Kris was joining Zac in the living room watching television. "Where've you been?"
"Well, now that it's summer a couple of friends and I went out, and then there was a party last night�"
"What are you doing going to parties?" Zac asked from the living room. Jess turned around.
"It was a birthday party, if you must know," Jess said, huffing. "Not like the parties you go to."
"Zac goes to parties?" Ginger asked.
"Only when Tim Jones throws them, and they're hardly ever home when it happens. But yeah, he and Taylor have gone to a couple. Ike never goes because he's not a partying type."
"Zac's not a partying type," Ginger said.
"Oh yes he is," Jess said, laughing. "You should see him�comes home the next morning, his eyes are all red and he's throwing up everywhere�Mom hasn't caught him yet but damn, if she did�"
"That's enough, Jess," Zac said.
"What?" she said. "It's true and it's funny as all hell." She turned back to Ginger. "He gets so plastered at those parties." Ginger was staring at the back of Zac's head in disbelief.
"Excuse me," Ginger said, giving a hug to Jess before going to the living room. "Since when do you go to parties and get drunk? How much do I not know about you?"
"Um hi?" Zac asked, giving a small wave. "I'm Zac, remember me? We met at a party in which I had a beer in my hand that I didn't drink just because you weren't." Ginger paused a moment before plopping down next to Zac on the couch. "Do you not remember that at all?"
"I remember," Ginger said. "I just kind of forgot about it for a while." Zac rolled his eyes. "I don't know, you just don't seem like the type to me. I don't see you going to parties with your friends and getting plastered then having a massive hangover in the morning."
"Hey, Taylor's four hundred times worse than I am."
"Taylor doesn't get drunk," Kris said from the recliner on the other side of the room. "Does he?"
"Let me put it this way," Zac said. "If you consider me getting plastered at a party, there are not words to describe how drunk Taylor gets. And Taylor isn't a good drunk, either. He's an asshole when he's drunk. If there's something wrong with you he'll be the first to tell you about it. He'll tell you anything you want to know and some stuff you don't. He doesn't get hangovers as bad as I do, though. He'll throw up once, pour himself some coffee and be fine. Me, I'm asleep until noon and then I'm throwing up the rest of the day." Ginger smiled, trying to imagine that. She'd never seen Zac drunk and she really didn't plan on it. A sober Zac was bad enough.
"Wow," Kris said. "That's crazy."
"You guys get drunk, don't you?" Zac suddenly asked. Kris shook her head. "You don't?"
"No," Ginger explained. "I mean Kris'll have a few and act kind of squirrelly the rest of the night, but we've never gotten drunk, like don't remember the night before hugging the toilet bowl drunk."
"What about you?" Zac asked.
"I never touch the stuff," Ginger said. "Everybody in my family has either been an alcoholic, a drug addict, crazy, or married to one of the three. No, I never drink." She shook her head. "Well�there was the one time at Kris's house where I two Smirnoff Ice's, but that was it."
"Ooh, you're such a rebel, Ginger," Zac said. "Two? In one night? Man you must have been paying for it the next morning. Wow."
"Shut up," she said, hitting him. "I have reasons for not drinking."
"I know you do." Ginger immediately quieted, thinking of her brother. "I respect that. I really do. God knows I don't have the balls to stay sober while everyone else is drinking." Ginger sighed and put her head against Zac's shoulder. "Ike's coming over for dinner tonight with Roni so it's going to be extra crowded here. He wants to meet the both of you."
"I've met Ike before," Ginger said. "Haven't I?" Zac shook his head.
"I don't think so."
"How come?"
"Because I'm a horrible, horrible boyfriend," Zac said, a smile on his face.
"Hey�you said it." She sat up. "Kris, what are you doing?" Kris looked up from her Cosmopolitan magazine.
"Um�reading a magazine maybe?" she said. "Is there are crime against this now?"
"Maybe when it's my Cosmo and I haven't read it yet," Ginger said. Zac groaned. "Give it to me."
"No! I was reading it!"
"Give it to me!"
"You both know that's a whole bunch of shit, don't you?" Zac asked. Ginger gasped.
"You did not just knock on my Cosmo!"
"Okay, okay�continue." Ginger grabbed the magazine out of her sister's hands and opened it up to read just as Diana came into the room. Ginger didn't notice until Diana looked at the magazine and read the title.
"What are you doing reading that garbage?" Diana asked. Ginger looked up.
"Excuse me?"
"What is an eighteen-year-old girl doing reading Cosmopolitan magazine?" Diana asked.
"Well, Diana," Ginger said, "I'm just figuring out the best position in which to have sex with your son." Zac's eyes grew and he scooted away from Ginger, who gave him a look. Diana, shocked, walked out of the room. "Well I took care of that."
"Yeah, and now she will never let us be alone again," Zac said.
"You're a big boy, Zac," Ginger said, turning the page, "you can do what you want."
"Not for another five months until my birthday." Ginger rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever."
"See what you get for taking my Cosmo?" Kris said.
"Shut up," Ginger snapped.
"I'm just saying."
"Stop saying that!!"
Kris smiled.