Thanksgiving 2008

"I want you guys down here in ten minutes!" Kyle yelled from the kitchen stairs, he heard a collective groan from upstairs.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Harry said cheerfully coming into the kitchen, clad in chef whites and a fluffy white hat.

Kyle looked him up and down confusedly "What are you doing?" he asked.

"It's my chef's outfit, nice huh? I've been waiting for a moment to wear this" Harry said smiling excitedly.

Kyle looked at him confusedly once again "Uh huh" he said "Now you know what you're doing with this turkey thing right?" he asked.

"Kyle please, I'm a straight A student with a 4.0 average, I think I know how to cook a turkey."

"ADAM, NEILSON AND BRADLEY J.!!!!" he screamed up the stairs.

"Alright!" Adam yelled from upstairs.

Bradley, Neilson and Adam came down the steps, still in their pajamas.

"What?" Bradley asked as they stood there, half asleep.

"What are you doing?" Kyle asked.

"What are we doing? You're the one down here screaming like a maniac at seven thirty in the morning!" Adam said irritated.

"We went over this last night, our dads are coming home today? We're cooking dinner? Its Thanksgiving?" Kyle asked.

"Its November?" Neilson asked.

"Yes! Go on, get dressed". They let out a collective groan "Now!" Kyle yelled.

"Alright alright we're going just shut up for god's sake" Bradley said to him.

"When did it become November?" Neilson asked as they trotted back upstairs.

~*~

Soon they all sat at the kitchen counter.

"Thank you for finally joining me" Kyle said "Alright assignments, Harry's in charge of the turkey."

"Okay please tell me everyone else sees what Harry's wearing right now right or am I just sleep deprived?" Neilson asked looking at Harry clad in his chef's outfit.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Bradley asked, Harry looked at his outfit.

"Its my chef's outfit" Harry said to him.

"You look like an idiot" Adam said to him.

"Alright, we're not here to insult Harry."

"Thank you Kyle."

"Even though he does in fact look really stupid."

"It's like you want us to make fun of you" Adam said.

"Alright, Bradley you'll do the stuffing..." Kyle said as Adam began to snicker.

"What?" Kyle asked.

"Stuffing" Adam said laughing.

"You're a sick human being" Kyle said, Adam shrugged. "Neilson start chopping up the vegetables, and Adam..."

"Will sit in the living room and make sarcastic comments" he said trying to leave the kitchen, Kyle pulled his shirt collar and pulled him backwards.

"Pie" Kyle said.

Adam snickered again "Pie" he said laughing.

"What is wrong with you?" Kyle asked.

~*~

Pots and Pans clanged together, the kitchen became stained with excess food splatter.

"Bradley, how's the stuffing?" Kyle asked.

"Uh...good...I think" he said taking a spoonful of it which was a chunky liquid.

"What did you do?" Kyle asked looking at it.

"I put the cream of whatever soup in it like you told me to!" Bradley said to him.

"Okay well just...it'll harden..." Adam snickered once again "Really?" Kyle asked "Just don't stir it."

"I wasn't stirring...I kind of dropped my gum..." he said Kyle groaned.

"Well that's not how you look for it" Neilson said pushing him aside and sticking his hand into the liquefied stuffing. "Here" Neilson said pulling out the wad of gum, his hand dripping with stuffing.

Bradley looked at him disgusted before shrugging and sticking the gum back in his mouth "Not bad" he said.

Kyle looked at both of them "Wow" he said in disbelief "Alright Adam, pies...Adam...Adam..." he said, noticing him sitting at the kitchen table listening to music and reading a magazine."Hey!" Kyle said ripping the buds out of Adam's ears.

"What?!" Adam asked.

"Where are the pies?"

"In the oven, god" he said taking his headphones back.

"Harry, turkey."

"Voila" Harry said taking a perfectly bronze turkey from the oven.

"Wow" Kyle said looking at it "Good job" he said.

"Thanks" Harry said before sticking a fork in it.

"What...what's wrong?" Kyle asked when he noticed the fork didn't go in all the way.

"I don't know" Harry said tapping it.

"Its frozen inside" Kyle said to him.

"How? I cooked it!" Harry said.

"For how long?" Kyle asked.

"The book said four minutes" he said, Kyle grabbed the cookbook and looked at it.

"Harry...that's four hours!" Kyle said to him.

"Oh...oops" Harry said.

"Mr. 4.0 grade point average can't tell the difference between hours and minutes?" Kyle asked.

Bradley snickered "You're stupid" he said.

"I am not!" Harry said.

"What do we do now?" Kyle asked.

"Alright just calm down, we still have plenty of time, I'll just put it back in the oven".

"Neilson come on, can't you cut them smaller?" Kyle asked Neilson.

"I'm going to cut something...and it won't be the vegetables" Neilson said holding the knife towards Kyle.

The phone began ringing "Adam can you get the phone please?" Kyle asked, Adam sat at the table, his music still playing loudly in his ears "Adam...Adam..." Kyle said looking up, he went towards the living room.

"Phone's ringing" Adam said, Kyle glared at him.

"Who is it?!" he asked angrily answering the phone.

"Well Happy Thanksgiving to you too" Brian said.

"Oh hey, what's up?" Kyle asked.

"Something wrong?" Brian asked.

"Oh no just Adam being completely incompetent as usual!" Kyle yelled into the kitchen, Adam raised his arm up to flip Kyle off.

"Its taking a little longer at the airport than expected we might not make it back until tonight" Brian said to him.

"Oh thank god" Kyle said breathing a sigh of relief.

"Excuse me?" Brian asked.

"No, I mean that's bad...I think" Kyle said he heard more pots and pans clanging together in the kitchen.

"What's that?" Brian asked.

"What's what?" Kyle asked.

"That noise" Brian said.

"There's a noise?" Kyle asked.

"Alright what's going on? What are you guys doing?" Brian asked irritated.

"Nothing! what makes you think we're doing anything?" Kyle asked. Bradley screamed from the kitchen,

"What was that?" Brian asked.

"What was what?" Kyle asked.

"That sounded like Bradley screaming" Brian said.

"What? No! He's fine, listen I got to go, have a safe flight!" he said hurriedly hanging up the phone.

"They alright?" AJ asked.

"I have no idea" Brian said looking at his phone confused.

"What happened?!" Kyle asked.

"Ow ow ow" Bradley said over and over as Neilson wrapped his hand up in a dish towel.

"It was an accident!" Neilson said frantically.

"What happened?" Kyle asked.

"Neilson sliced my hand open!" Bradley said.

"I was cutting the potatoes I wasn't paying attention" Neilson said.

"Obviously!" Bradley said to him.

"Are you okay?" Kyle asked.

"No! I have a gaping hole in my hand!" Brian said.

"Alright, Neilson take him to the emergency room" Kyle said.

"Alright come on" Neilson said grabbing Bradley's injured hand.

"Ow!" he screamed before hitting Neilson.

"Sorry" he said, Bradley glared at him as they left the house.

"Thanksgiving dinner for idiots" Adam said as he sat at the table.

"You are not helping here" Kyle said to him.

"This was a stupid idea! The five of us cooking are you insane?!" Adam asked "I'm surprised we haven't burned the house down by now!"

They heard a loud beeping noise and looked around.

"What's that?" Kyle asked, smoke billowed out from the oven.

"I spoke too soon" Adam said.

"My turkey!" Harry said as they opened the oven and coughed as the smoke filed out, Kyle reached in and grabbed the roasting pan and opened the lid to reveal the turkey now black and crispy.

"Pies didn't fare too well either" Adam said dropping the two black pies on the counter.

"I give up" Kyle said sitting at the counter "Why is it that every time I have a good idea it turns out like this?"

"Kyle, your heart was in the right place...I don't know where the hell your brain is though!" Adam said to him.

"Well excuse me for thinking that our fathers deserved a nice Thanksgiving meal after working so hard."

"You know what's a nice Thanksgiving meal? Pizza! In front of the TV! Watching football like last year!" Adam said grabbing his cell phone and dialling.

"What are you doing?" Kyle asked.

"What we should've done in the first place" Adam said "Mommy?" he asked whimpering.

~*~

Neilson sat in the waiting room of the hospital, he watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on a TV mounted on to the wall when a doctor came back out with Bradley.

"He okay?" Neilson asked.

"He should be fine, there was no major damage involved" the doctor said, Neilson noticed the goofy expression on Bradley's face.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Just gave him a little something for the pain, here give him one every 4 to 6 hours or when needed" the doctor said handing him a bottle.

"Okay lets get you home" Bradley began to laugh and snort.

"This is Neilson" he said to the doctor, wrapping his arm around Neilson's shoulders, Neilson looked at him. "He's my best friend...ain't he pretty?" Bradley asked, squeezing Neilson's face.

"Yeah we need to leave, come on, thanks again doc" Neilson said.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" the doctor yelled as Neilson pushed Bradley towards the exit.

~*~

Kyle, Harry and Adam sat at the kitchen table with the burnt turkey in front of them, Harry was picking pieces of it off.

"You know once you get past the burnt part...its not that bad" he said.

They slowly turned to look at him menacingly, Harry slunk down into his chair in fear. The door opened and Neilson came in, pushing Bradley ahead of him.

"Okay, here we are" he said to Bradley, sitting him down in a chair.

"He okay?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah he'll be fine" Neilson said.

"What's wrong with him?" Adam asked, Neilson pulled the bottle of pills from his jacket pocket and shook them.

The door opened and Melissa came in "Okay, first thing's first...someone want to tell me why the HELL you guys thought you could make Thanksgiving dinner by yourselves?" she asked.

They all turned to look at Kyle "Oh alright fine, it's my fault" Kyle said.

"Okay, this is what we're going to do, Kyle I want you to throw all this food away, Harry start cleaning up the kitchen, Adam, start doing the dishes, Neilson take Bradley upstairs and put him down for a nap" she said. Adam began to snicker.

"Really not the time honey" she said to him "Come on let's move!" she said to them as they jumped into action.

~*~

The front door open and Vicki blew in "I just got a call from the hospital they said Bradley was in the ER" she said to Melissa.

"Yeah don't worry he's fine, he just had a little mishap when they boys tried to make dinner".

"I'm sorry...my son was trying to cook?" she asked.

"Yes...it's as bad as you think it is, but as long as you're here, maybe you can help" Melissa said to her.

~*~

That night the guys stepped up on to the front porch of the house.

"I am never flying on Thanksgiving again" Howie said.

"Wait a minute" AJ said before Brian opened the door.

"What?" Brian asked.

"Listen" AJ said as they all went silent.

"I don't hear anything" Howie said.

"Exactly!" AJ said to him.

"He's right, no music, no screaming, no fighting"Brian said.

"Oh my god they died!" Nick said.

They opened the door, the living room was immaculate, a fire burned in the fire place.

"Oh this is not good" Howie said.

"Someone broke in, killed the boys and cleaned up" AJ said as they looked around.

"Hey look who's home" Kevin said coming in from the kitchen with a wine glass.

"Hey" they said to him happily as they all exchanged hugs.

"What are you doing here?" Brian asked.

"Came home for the holidays" Kevin said taking a sip of wine.

"Hey welcome home" Vicki said coming into the living room.

"Hey" Brian said to her "Wow, what's going on?" he asked.

"The boys have a surprise for you" she said.

"Drink anyone?" Kellie asked coming into the living room with a tray filled with glasses and wine.

"Whatever this surprise is I like it so far" Howie said as she filled their glasses.

The boys set the dining room table, Bradley sat with a goofy expression on his face.

"I feel good" he said laughing.

"Yeah I bet you do" Neilson said patting his head.

"Hey guys they're here" Kyle said running in, they all stood together.

"Whoa" Howie said as they filed into the dining room.

"Surprise!" they said.

"Hey! Dad's home!" Bradley said.

"Wow look at this" Kevin said coming into the dining room.

"Complete Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings"
Kellie said bringing in a plate with a giant golden turkey on it.

"You guys did all this?" AJ asked.

"Well we tried to" Kyle said.

"They really did you're lucky this house is still here" Melissa said sitting at the table.

"Everyone have a seat" Vicki said as she, Sasha and Melissa brought other dishes into the room while Christina brought in another bottle of wine.

Brian looked over at the bandage wrapped around Bradley's hand, he picked it up and looked at it "Do I want to know?" he asked Vicki.

"No" she said as he dropped his hand back down on the table.

"Neilson did it" Harry said as he sat across from him at the table, Neilson threw a dinner roll at him.

"Hey! None of that!" Sasha said to him.

"Yeah you can bully each other tomorrow" Nick said.

"Should we say grace? Kev?" Vicki asked.

"Sure" he said as they all held hands "Dear lord, we want to thank you for bringing us all together on Thanksgiving, we thank you for the food in front of us and we thank you for the boys who were thoughtful enough to plan it for us and thank you for their mothers who stepped in and kept the house from burning to the ground, amen"

"Alright" Howie said.

"Lets eat" they said before passing dishes around, that night the table was filled with laughter and love.