The week before break, my roommates and I anxiously bought tickets online to go see Mockingjay Part 1 on Friday night. We were super excited because we had read the books. After a quick trip to Cafe Rio, we set off for the movie theater. We accidentally drove to the wrong Cinemark. Who knew there was one in Orem and Provo? Thankfully, we still made the movie before the previews. Besides that minor inconvenience, we enjoyed ourselves. We had all read the book, and the movie producer had not strayed from the story we loved.
Fast-forwarding to Tuesday morning, I arrived at my grandma's house in South Jordan. "We should go see Mockingjay!" I quickly acquiesced to my grandma's request; I love my grandma, and she does so much for me. I could go see a movie I enjoyed twice. "Let's go see it tomorrow; I think your Aunt Lauren will be somewhere else. It will just be us.
Wednesday morning rolled around. "Rachel," my grandma said, "It looks like I'm going to have to stay here and wait for the guy to come turn on the fireplace since it's Thanksgiving tomorrow. Lauren and Paul would love to take you to the movies." I agreed. I had nothing better to do anyway. I was slightly nervous. Even though my Aunt Lauren is very nice and fun, she married a jerk.
We set off for the movies, just my aunt, uncle, and me. I sat in the back seat like a child. When we got to the movie, Paul started to pay for my ticket.
"Paul, I can pay for my own ticket, it's no big deal," I said.
"It's fine, I've got it," he shot back.
"No, really," I said. He bought my ticket anyway.
"You can get drink refills," he said. "They're only like a dollar each." He was referring to the giant reusable mugs we had brought with us from my grandma's house.
We walked toward the theater, getting our tickets ripped; we continued to the concession stand, easily the worst possible way to spend money as a college student. "We should get a large popcorn!" Lauren said. Now I was confused. Am I supposed to pay for the popcorn too?
I sheepishly handed the worker my sleek orange debit card. There goes a whole hour of head lifeguard hours.
"Paul, no," whined Lauren. "We were going to get the popcorn." That's right. My uncle stood there motionless, like he was watching paint dry.
Lauren repeated herself several times. We just slowly walked toward theater #12 and found our seats. Finally, my aunt felt so guilty that when she went to refill the popcorn, she came back with money to pay me back with. "Now I can enjoy the movie," she said. The whole movie I just wanted to cry. The day before Thanksgiving, I was spending the afternoon with almost complete strangers. Yes, I had grown up knowing all of my aunts and uncles, but I only saw them sporadically, maybe once or twice a year. I just wanted to be home, not watching the same movie again.
"When are you coming up to grandma and grandpa's today?" she asked.
"Well, when I'm done working out, I'll drive up," I said.
I can't wait for you to get here so I can tell you about how we're going to be bad on Saturday morning. In Aunt Shirene language, "bad" does not really mean bad. Bad means lame or pathetic. I still love her, but that is the nicest way of putting it.
I was cautious as I drove up to my other grandparents' house. I feared the worse for my Saturday morning. I arrived, and not ten minutes later, my crazy aunt came into the kitchen. "Did you tell Rachel about Saturday?" asked Shirene.
My grandparents hadn't had the heart to tell my what awaited me the next morning.
"We're going to go see Mockingjay. I'm going to come pick you up at 6:40 tomorrow morning. The realtor that sold me my house rented out the theater, and if we get there really early, we can get a bunch of free stuff. You should have seen it last year, they had those free mugs and draw-string bags. Are you kidding me! On my last real day to sleep in before finals, you want me to go see a movie that I've already seen three times--at 6:40AM! This sounds like one of those things where she's already gotten tickets and I can't say no.
My aunt continued her monologue. "I know you've already seen it. But it will still be fun. Seriously, they have great free stuff.
I couldn't believe my ears. I felt melancholy the rest of the evening. I already felt like I could quote the movie. I couldn't do this again.
Dutifully on Saturday morning, I arose at 6:15, putting on my most comfortable pair of running tights. My bones groaned as I walked upstairs from the guest bedroom. And at 6:38, there she was, picking me up just like she promised. I trudged out to her old green car. I wish Shirene would get a boyfriend or some friends that she could do nutty things like this with. I'm not cut out for these shenanigans.
After we arrived to the movies, she grabbed the reserved tickets. I watched in shame as she bought a large, refillable popcorn, at 7:00AM. One wasn't enough though, because she pulled out a plastic Walmart sack. Right in front of the cashiers, she dumped the bucket in the bag and asked for a refill. I think you really can die of shame.
"Stop looking at me like I'm crazy, Rachel."
Then you shouldn't be acting crazy. I'm not sure how my dad was raised in the same family as you. I mean, he's basically normal.
I followed her to the theater. Luckily, these seats were electric recliner seats. I sat down, turned the chair into a bed, sent some "your sister is crazy" selfies to my dad, and zonked out.Shirene kept coming out and in the theater with random free junk. Eventually my grandparents showed up. She dragged them into this too. After being borderline unconscious for twenty minutes, the movie was starting. I went back to sleep for the first quarter of the movie, until all of the action
woke me up again. At least by now I knew where all of the explosions where and when Peeta decided to strangle Katniss.
Before I knew it, the show was over. We walked out of the movie and used the bathroom.
"We should go to Sills and get scones," my grandpa said.
There's justice in the world. And I bet I can take a nap when grandma does later.
On Sunday afternoon, Bailey and McKenna, my roommates, cousins, and best friends showed up at my grandparents'. "You didn't know she was going to do that? I'm sorry hun," McKenna started. "Everyone else knew. That's why we didn't show up until Thanksgiving part 2 this afternoon.
I think I'm having a brain aneurism. You do for family. You do for family. You do for family...
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