Just keep on smiling. That’s what I had to remember. I would never know if the camera was on me or not. I was standing on a float in the middle of New York City, on Thanksgiving Day, in the Thanksgiving Day parade. I was going to be singing “Santa Baby” and announce the arrival of Santa. This was a most auspicious day. When we turned the corner to see the Macy’s store, I started to panic. But I couldn’t just abscond in a corner; I had a job to do. As we approached the large red mat I started to relax. I have been to bigger venues than this; except those weren’t on live TV. Oh no, I am panicking. Relax June, you can do this. This is not an arduous task: just sing like you usually do. I am June Parker the greatest pop singing sensation of 2008! Then the loud speaker went off and my big debut came.

“And now presenting……June Parker singing Santa Baby!” the announcer shouted.

Ok it was my time to shine. With the cue from the director, I sang the first two words, “Santa Baby….”


It went great. I didn’t mess up or anything and everyone cheered for me! I thought I heard maybe someone revile me but I am not worried about it. At least I had a lot of people cheering. And it wasn’t even that cold outside. So far this day is going great. And I even get a nice reprieve from this chaos, to go to the hotel and get ready.

When I got back to my luscious hotel room I plopped down on my king size circular bed. Right now all I needed was some peace and quiet. Ah, this is nice.
*Ring, ring* Aw come on! And who else could it be than my own mother.

“Hello?”

“Honey, how did it go? I was watching from across the street.” My mother asks.

“It was fine.” I say grumpily.

“Did something go wrong? Did someone hurt you? Did the float hurt you? Cause I could call them…”

My mother is the exact opposite of pompous. I mean she cares about her makeup and hair, but she surrounds her life around me; her little star. She will always ask my opinion first and she will never do any thing without me. If I get a paper cut during a photo shoot, she’ll sue them. If I find that my pictures make me look shorter, she’ll fire them. She is one of those people who will not do anything for themselves, just for others. But she does it not for the poor or sick, she does it for me.

“Hello…June…are you there?”

Whoops. I have got to stop daydreaming like that. I’ve been doing that a lot lately.

“It was fine. Nothing happened.”

“Well good,” she said happily. “You have to get packed, soon. We are leaving in a half an hour.”

“What!” I yelled surprised. “Where are we going?”

“Why we’re going to Key West. You don’t remember? I told you last night over dinner.”

Oh. “Uh…Mom…I was texting Morgan during dinner. Sorry…” Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.

“Well fine then. I don’t care. Just get packed. I am coming to get you now.”

“No! Wait! Man, she hung up!”

Well this wasn’t going to be good. I already had plans. She is going to freak out when I tell her that I am going to her mother’s for Thanksgiving dinner. You see my mother does not talk much to Grandma May. They got in some big fight a long time ago, and they haven’t spoken since. Well, I still have to pack either place I go to. It’s going to take a long time to disentangle this dilemma.


Well, that went better than accepted. Except the part where she said that I had tried to hoodwink her and leave her for good. That one took a lot of explaining to do. But I convinced her that I can stay with my Grandma May for the entire Thanksgiving holiday. I have met my grandma some times but not my entire family. The only people that I believe that will be there are my cousins Alexis and Rex. But I haven’t seen them in what I think was five or six years. I wonder how they are. I wonder who else I will meet on this Thanksgiving Day.
Currently I am in my limo going down a small street in New Jersey. It is so rural and cute; all these small houses in perfect straight lines. They all look exactly the same. I wonder how I will find ‘a small, light blue house, with a white picket fence’ that my grandma explained in her letter. Oh wait. I think I see it. Oh my Gosh! It is so cute! I am thinking of letting my limo driver park down the street so they don’t think I am so fancy.
“Driver just park over here, please.” I shout to the front.
My body guard gets out and I, in a simple short dress and leggings with black ballet flats, get out and walk down the sidewalk to the little blue house.
“Um…hey Bob,” I say to my bodyguard. “I would rather you just sit in the limo. Drive around somewhere.”
“But miss, I just can’t leave…”
“No its fine; they’re just family. How bad can they be?”
I walked up to the little house and rang the doorbell. I hoped that I did not have a very huge and loud family. Although, I did not want an inanimate family either. Ok Here it goes. I can hear them opening the door.
“Hello?” said some one.
“Hi…Um…I’m June. I am here to see my grandma.”
I looked up to see this guy dressed in all black with piercing and long black hair. Gosh! This guy almost scared me half to death. Beyond all that black, I think I saw my younger cousin, Rex. I remember him as a little intrepid boy, always wanting to play with big kid games.
“Rex? Is that you?” I asked cautiously.
“June? Oh, my Gosh! It’s June! Come on in. I thought I never see you again!”
“Yea, I didn’t think I’d see you either. I didn’t even think I would be here!”
He brought me into the family room where I saw all different kinds of people. Most were normal looking except for Rex and this little girl that was all decked out in clothing with my face on it. Wow. This girl was dedicated. Everyone started to realize that a newbie had arrived. They all looked toward me. For once in my entire life, I was speechless. But then an old woman came in from the kitchen, and I knew this was my Grandma May. She looked at me and her face lit up. She walked toward me, gave me a big hug and said, “Welcome Home, June.” I started to tear up. She really loved me for who I was, not for my talent. I actually was wanted.
Then the silence was broken with a blood curdling scream
“IT’S JUNE PARKER!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!!” the child said with a voice that sounded like would have never come out from a little girl.
I let go of my grandma a stood straight up and said, “Yes, I am June Parker. And yes I am your relative. I do not think I have ever met half of you, but I am here and I am staying for dinner.”
The little girl came over and started to hug my legs until her mother pulled her off. Then everyone came up to meet me.


I had never met so many aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives in my entire life. The little girl who screamed was my cousin Lucy. She said she got over that I am a star, but I know she’s not. I saw my cousin Alexis. She is just like her brother, but not Goth. They have the same personality. I have a total of four aunts, five uncles, seven girl cousins and six boy cousins. And this is only on my mother’s side of the family!

Now we are going to eat. The food was all handmade and it looks delicious. We all said a prayer, in which I have not done in a long time. I wish my mom was here. But she has her problems, so she can fix them. We prayed for everyone that was not here to day. I even heard my grandma pray for my mom. That surprised me. But now I am digging in to the best food I have ever tasted. I think it’s because it was made with love.