1.15 - Family Time... Or Not

Nielson hadn't explicitly been avoiding his mother... but he did feel a bit uncomfortable when he finally encountered her at breakfast.  Although he shouldn't have been surprised.  It was Leisure Day which meant that she had the day off of work the same that he and Erika had no school.

"So, did you have any plans for today?" Danisha asked, starting up a conversation and breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Not really," Nielson admitted.  He had tried to invite Belisama out for today, but she wasn't interested in Leisure Day.  Too much sun and athletics involved for her.

"That's great.  In that case, why don't we all go to the festival together?" Danisha offered.  She'd been feeling guilty recently for not spending more time with her kids.  Perhaps that's why Nielson had ditched school like that.  This was her chance to fix that.

Nielson wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of spending the day with Danisha and Erika, but he didn't want to get into another argument with his mother so he shrugged and kept on eating.

"I'll go get the car then.  You make sure to get Erika up and dressed," Danisha announced when they both finished eating.  She then went to get dressed and head downstairs while Nielson reluctantly went to go wake up his sister.

"What's going on?  It's a holiday, isn't it?" Erika demanded, not thrilled at being woken up.

"We're going to the festival," Nielson informed her.  Erika sighed, but didn't fight with him for which Nielson was grateful.  Soon they were both heading out.

"So you're telling me I have to spend the day with you?" she grumbled.

"Don't make it sound so enjoyable," Nielson replied sarcastically, wishing the elevator would hurry up.

When they got downstairs, Nielson suppressed a groan that they were going by patrol car again.  On the other hand, Erika seemed quite excited... until Danisha told her she had to sit in the back.  "Why am I stuck in the back?" Erika whined, not liking the feeling of being trapped in the back seat.

"You're not old enough to sit in the front, dear," Danisha replied, waiting for both children to get settled into the car.

"This is so not fair," Erika grumbled, sulking in her rear prison.

By the time they got to the festival, Erika was eager to get away.  Not that she didn't like her mother, but she didn't want to spend any additional time with her brother and Danisha and Nielson spent all the time in the car talking to each other anyway.  She understood why.  Nielson was going to be graduating soon so Danisha was asking him about his future plans, but it was all very boring to Erika.

So when they got to the festival she seized an opportunity immediately.  "Hey!  I see a friend from school!" she announced before dashing off.

And although she was just using it as an excuse to get away from Danisha and Nielson, she really had seen someone from school and ran up to her.  "Hey Katie!" she called, stopping in front of the girl in pigtails.

"Oh, hi Erika," the girl replied, not seeming all that interested in her.  Well, they weren't really close at school, but Erika figured that she could entertain the other girl.  She'd been intending to befriend her anyway, since she was one of the more popular girls.  And a friend of Collin.

"So, did your family drag you here too?" Erika asked with a smile.

Meanwhile, Nielson headed straight for the skating rink.  He recalled going ice-skating as a child and figured that roller skating couldn't be any harder than that.

Of course, as he shakily got out onto the rink he realized that he could very much be wrong.

"This brings back memories," Danisha commented, joining Nielson in the skating rink.

"Yeah," Nielson agreed, glancing at his mother.

"Although, the last time you went skating I was pregnant with Erika so I couldn't join you," Danisha mused, enjoying the reminiscing.  "You've gotten a lot better since then," she praised as she watched Nielson gain confidence in his skating.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Danisha.  She was so busy paying attention to Nielson's skating that she lost track of her own footing.  "Woah... woah!" she exclaimed as she suddenly lost balance.  She tried flailing her arms to regain it but it was no good.

She winced as she landed hard on her butt, her hips not appreciating the sudden jolt.  Nielson tried hard not to laugh at his mother.

"Maybe you should leave the skating to the younger generation," he suggested with a smile.  Danisha simply glared at him and went back to work attempting to skate.  But by this point Nielson was rather bored with the monotony of going around the rink and decided to leave his mother to her clumsy attempts and find something else at the fair to do.

Nielson found the soccer field was empty so he decided to give it a try.  A quick stop off into the public restroom had him changed into gym clothes so that he wouldn't get his normal outfit too sweaty.

By that point, Danisha had realized that Nielson had left and she went to go try to find one or the other of her children when she was distracted by a rather noticeable woman.  She really wasn't sure if that outfit was appropriate for a family festival like this... and decided to talk to the woman since she looked so suspicious.

"Hello, my name is Danisha Gaul.  You are?" she prompted, trying to seem more friendly than suspicious as she approached the woman.

"I'm Katelyn Missouni.  Are you here for an autograph?" the woman asked.

Ah, a celebrity.  Well, now the outfit made more sense.  "No.  Actually I'm looking for reports on suspicious activity," Danisha confessed.

"Really?  Then I'd like to make a report.  I think I have a stalker," Katelyn informed Danisha, looking at her expectantly.  Danisha sighed inwardly.  This wasn't really the sort of situation she was hoping for... but she'd do her duty as an officer so she got out her notepad and began taking down Katelyn's statement.

Meanwhile, Katie had left so Erika had to find something else to occupy herself with.  She found the face-painting booth and decided to give it a try.  Perhaps a bit of art would enhance her perfection...

Unfortunately, when the artist handed her a mirror she found that the design detracted from her perfection rather than enhance it.  Reluctantly she paid the man before exiting the booth, resigned to have the hideous marring on her face until she could get home and wash it off in the shower.

As she looked around outside of the booth she caught sight of her brother up on the stage.  Apparently he had just set off some of the fireworks.  She wondered if he was allowed to do that.  Then again, she doubted her brother would do anything if it wasn't allowed.

Seeing how happy he looked with his fireworks made Erika feel a little bit annoyed.  So she decided to do something about it.

"Hey, Nielson!" Erika called, trying to catch his attention.  It took a minute but he did finally look at her.

"Your guard's down!" Erika informed him, grabbing a water balloon from the supply bucket that was right next to the stage.  Apparently this was where they held their water balloon fights too.  And there was no way she was going to pass up the opportunity to nail her brother.

Nielson was shocked when he saw Erika interacting with him.  Although when he saw what she was trying to do, he wasn't that shocked.  Still, he couldn't help reacting.

"You really think you can hit me?  Just try!" he called back, taunting her.

Although Nielson quickly came to regret that.  He had no idea what accuracy his little sister had... or the strength of her arm.  When she hit him with that water balloon (and she hit him on her first try) it sent him crashing to the ground and left him completely drenched.

He groaned as he listened to Erika's enthusiastic laughter.  Well, at least this was one instance where he actually managed to make her happy.  Although, for some reason he wasn't happy.

Nielson was going to get her back, and had even dashed for a water balloon himself when he heard his phone buzz.  "Time out," he called to his sister as he quickly pulled it out.  It was from Belisama, so he immediately ignored Erika, much to her annoyance, and turned all his attention to his phone.

"Hey.  Did you end up going to the festival?" Belisama asked over the phone.  Nielson smiled at the sound of her voice and enthusiastically began describing his day.

"Of course, I would have had more fun if you'd been here," he confessed with a smile.  Erika made a gagging noise at those words, but he just ignored her.

By the time that Nielson got off the phone with Belisama it was dark.  "Hey, have you seen Danisha?" he asked Erika, realizing that it was really past time that they headed home.

"No, and the patrol car isn't parked in the lot anymore," Erika replied.  She'd gotten tired of waiting for him to get off the phone and had gone to look for their mother, only to find her no longer at the festival.  It wasn't a big surprise.  Something had probably come up at work.  Erika completely understood that.

Nielson was less understanding as he scowled before turning his attention back to his sister.  "All right, let's get you home then," he replied with a sigh, ushering his sister to the street so he could flag down a cab.  Despite Erika's protests that she could take care of herself he still made sure to get her dinner.

"I thought you didn't like salads?" Erika asked as he set down two plates of salad at the table.

"I never said that.  I just don't like eating it all the time.  But as long as I was making one for you I figured I'd make one for myself too," he replied with a shrug.

Danisha, meanwhile, had been called away from the festival because of work.  Katelyn had insisted that Danisha make the report on her stalker immediately and had insisted on coming with meaning that Danisha had to drive both of them to the police station on the holiday.  By the time she got back to the festival it had shut down and neither Nielson or Erika were anywhere to be found.

When she finally got back home she found both of them asleep in their beds.  Their dishes from dinner were still on the table so she knew they'd had dinner.  So she gathered up the dishes to wash them before going to bed herself.

"So much for spending time as a family..." she muttered before sighing heavily.  If she was making progress on her husband's murder she wouldn't be feeling quite so guilty... but although she'd successfully nailed other criminals in her new position she'd yet to find anything more about the person who had killed her husband.  Even after accessing the evidence file from that day.


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This chapter was a bit more light-hearted than the last.  Although poor Danisha just really has a hard time connecting with her kids it seems.  I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.  Next chapter you'll get to see one of the Gaul's age up so look forward to that! ^^