This is for the Southern Hemisphere

Ama watched her father inhaling deeply the "fresh sea air" with more than a bit of annoyance.

Back home it was snowing. Snowing! Snowmen, snow angels, and well thrown snowballs right at Hobart's head.

But Ama's parents had decided that a trip down south would be a better idea. It would be something different, and a learning experience she could share at school.

A family vacation-- like for real. Trapped with her parents away from friends with nothing to do but play in the sand without snow. She could've played in sand at home. You know, once she scraped the snow out of the way and stuff.

Really, Ama knew what this was about. Her father had lost his job. He'd been one of two policemen (Hobart's father being the other), and he'd lost his job. Luckily Ama's mom ran the only clothing shop in town, so they were doing great, but her father was at a loss for what to do.

He'd gone more than once to see the mayor, but it couldn't have gone well.


He still didn't have his job back.

Ugh. This was going to be a long week!




"Ama, what're you doing?"

"I'm going to hunt for bugs."

"Don't tell me you brought your entire bug collection."

"What? It's not like it's large. And they're all in the case anyway."

Ama's mom rolled her eyes. "Oh Ama. What if the glass breaks? You'll have dried bug parts everywhere."

Not that the case would break. Ama was not a kid. She was almost a high schooler. She knew how to take care of stuff. But that might actually be kinda awesome to see dried bug parts and stuff-- like when she found old flies on the window sills that had been dried to dust by the sun.

Her mother got her working on finding cool shells in the sand to turn into jewelry while she stood around being embarrassing with her father.



Really embarrassing.


Oh my god, so embarrassing!


Her parents acted like two kids who'd never grown up. Seriously. How old were they?



When her parents were being less embarrassing, they were taking in the local sights and eating local food.

Ama was dying; it was so hot! It was like summer.

"So, Mom, Dad, does this mean that for Summer we'll go to the mountains?"

Both her parents laughed. They thought she was kidding!


When they weren't taking in the sights, Ama was being accosted by locals who were intent on showing her how to do this weird little move.

"Uh, yeah, like this?" Ama halfheartedly imitated her.

"No dude, put your heart into it!" The woman's smile widened. "You have to mean it!"

"Uh, okay. Maybe next time."

"I'll keep an eye out for you!"



The plus side was that Ama totally had her own hotel room all to herself. This small taste of freedom was a lot like being a high schooler, she thought. It was kinda a cool and kinda scary. She could feel responsibility hanging around the corner.

Hobart was already in high school. He'd told her all about it. It didn't sound too bad, but Hobart said it was a lot of work and some of the kids were a little scary. Course, he was really the only freshman, so everyone was older than him. And his fathers had seen fit to give him more responsibility on the farm.

It kinda sounded sucky now that she thought about it. Responsibility and work and reading big books. Ama would be perfectly happy painting forever and having ice cream for dinner.

She giggled at the sound of the official sounding knock on the door. The bellhop from downstairs presented her with a large bowl of ice cream sunday and asked if she'd like anything else. She smiled and handed him the money her mother gave her for his tip.


Luckily, Ama's mother laughed when she saw what was for dinner. It was sort of the plus side of having young parents who acted like big kids. They were gnerally game so long as, you know, no one was hurt and she didn't do anything dangerous.

Maybe her parents weren't so weird or embarrassing. Her mom did make some awesome sand castles that had all the kids on the beach envious.


And maybe it was a little gross that the possibility for a little sister or brother was always present. But well, it could be worse. Ama's own cousin Melanie had been taken recently by her own mother. Ama had heard her father telling her mother that one night when she wasn't supposed to be listening. (Okay, maybe she wasn't ever supposed to listen.)

But her parents really seemed to love each other, and they did love her very much.

**************************

Uhm, whoa! I am quite rusty. Or maybe it's just that I am SO not good at writing stuff on the fly. I really need to take my time with it, but what the hell. *throws caution to the wind has it spray back in her face*

I think I am finally ready to END winter! I only have a few more events, so I need to focus and finish so I'll be ready for The Samantha Bradshaw Project!