Chapter 2!!!

     " Ahhhh, the joy of car rides!" said my Mom.
    " Mom it's 4 hours in to the drive , It's not really joy anymore !" I said .
    Everyone grumbled their agreement.
    " How about if we listen to the radio? We could choose a channel that we all enjoy." said my Dad.
   " How about 99.9 the wolf , you know , the country station?" asked my little sister Rachel who is 10.
   " No lets listen to jazz-!"
   " No, Rock-!"
   " No soft rock-!"
  " Same thing !"
  " How about a talk show ?"
 " I think we should listen to gospel" said my Mom innocently . Everyone groaned
" Well like dad said , We should listen to something we all enjoy , let's listen to the country station." I suggested. Rachel who usually hated me , looked at me as though she had never seen me before. Which probably meant that she will like me a little bit better. We turned on the country station and listened . Taylor Swift was singing White Horse . Rachel was delighted and even more happy when she found out that it was  Taylor swift Weekend and 99.9 the wolf would be playing nothing but Taylor Swift for two whole days. We  drove for about 6 more hours before we stopped for the night at a Super 8. When we walked inside our room I figured the place probably didn't have a whole lot of money. The carpet needed a vacuuming really bad, the comforters had holes in them and the blinds were broken. Rachel's first sarcastic remark was :
     " Man , this place is real classy. It's like a mansion in here or something."
     " Now Rachel, we don't have the money to afford a nice hotel room , but this will do." said dad.      
   " Come off it dad, this place is a dump..... And I LOVE it!!!!" said my little brother Steve who was 7.
   " Thank you Steve , now can everyone else have an attitude like that ? If you can't keep in mind that we are only staying for one night here.  Tomorrow we will wake up at 6:30 and eat some breakfast and try to leave around 7:30. " said my Dad. And with that everyone went to bed
    The next morning , we all woke up at 6:30 .  Everyone except Mary and I were taking forever , with finding fresh undies to falling asleep on the toilet. We (Mary and I ) Of course were the first ones done. So we got to have first breakfast. Mary and I had already had 3 bowls of cereal by the time everyone else came down . It was 7:15. They got to go breakfasts so we could leave and be going by 7:30.  Once everyone was in the car and comfortable, we got ready for the 2nd day of driving.

The Muffled Voice

chapter 1

“Please come with me to Texas?” I asked my best friend Mary Hanson.

“ It will only be for 3 months. We are going to stay at this really big old house that was built in the 1800s ! It will be so exciting!” I said hoping she would feel the same way.

“ No offense Julia , but 3 months with your family is a really long time.”

She was right . I have a 1 year old baby is sister , a 3 year old brother, two four year old sisters who are twins, 7 and 8 year old brothers , and a ten year old sister,and of course ,me All together , my family has 8 kids  .

“ Of course if you consider how boring my family is ,” said Mary slowly.

My heart gave a hopeful leap .

“ I think it would be a good experience to be with your family for 3 months. I'll come with you!” she said excitedly. “ Oh thank you thank you” I said while hugging her . “ I can't wait to tell my Mom!” “ I can't wait to tell my Mom either! I will call you with the results!” she said as she walked away. “ O K bye talk to you later.”

As I walked back to my New York City apartment there was a whole new feeling inside of me . It was something like overwhelming joy.

“ Mom guess what , Mary said that she will be able to come on the trip with us !”I said excitedly

“Does she know that we are driving because it will be around 3 days”. she asked .

“Well , no , but I will call her and tell her.”

“ Well if she still wants to come even when she knows that we are driving  she can come with us.” said my Mom and then she turned back to feeding the baby.

That night as I went to bed, I prayed and got this feeling that something very exciting was going to happen in Texas. The next morning everyone packed their bags and got ready to go . My Mom asked me to help the twins pack their bags so I did .

pack their bags. Soon the door bell rang. I went to answer it.

“ Hi Mary !” I said as I hugged her.

“ Hi Julia!”

“ Are you ready to go ?”

“ Oh yes I am ready and excited ! I just need you to make me a promise, I don't have to change the baby's diaper because I am not part of the family right?”

I laughed “ Of course you don't have to changed her diaper!”

We laughed and talked some more until it was time to get in the car . As soon as we were all comfortable we were on our way.