Baby, it's California! (Open)

[jon]

The first thing Jon felt was the impact of 90-plus pounds of muscle, hair and enthusiasm. The dog was in the air before he had time to say her name. Jon's ass hit the grass-dirt ground, his arms filled with wiggling, whimpering pit-bull. Ramona squeaked and whined and snorted, washing his face with several frantic passes of her long pink tongue. The pitbull was beside herself. Jon chuckled, rough-housing with her there on the ground while he waited for the rest of his family to advance.

Today it was just his little sisters, Tessa and Margaret. Tess was a tall, slender girl, with a boyish body and a round, pretty face framed by a short, choppy mane of black hair. She had huge blue eyes set over the same nose that Jon had inherited from their father. It seemed too large in context with the rest of her, but the girl's smile balanced it and kept her looking charming. No conventional beauty, by far, but she still managed to turn heads now that she was getting into the later years of high-school. Jon was not a territorial man, by nature, but when ever he imagined her at the boy's soccer practice -- which she participated regularly -- it put a frown on his face.

Margaret -- Maggie -- was Tess's senior by two years. She smiled often and was very warm, if not a little awkward with strangers. She dressed almost exclusively in yellow or green. She obsessively collected Star-Wars action-figures, like Jon, and she was one of the top-five swimmers on the school team. She'd been identified with down-syndrome at an early age. Jon had scuffled with a couple kids more than once on the playground on her behalf, though she'd learned to hold her own by the end of her Freshman year.

The two girls joined him on either side as Ramona's glee slowly ebbed. He pulled the pitbull, slobbering, panting, woofing, into his lap and subdued her with a couple drum-beats on her big chest. "So how'd you guys like the show?" He was still sweating after the set. Love of An Orchestra had been in good form, and they'd let him off from merch-tent duty to see to his family.

Tess threw her arms around him, mashing her lips against his cheek. "I loved it," she chirped, grinning broadly. "You guys sounded awesome and your singer's insanely hot." She loved to make him blush. Jon face-palmed her and gave her a gentle shove. She flopped dramatically to the ground, her long-legs peddling the air. Maggie patted his knee, smiling as wide as her sister had.

"I liked the drums," she said, leaning into him and petting him between his shoulder blades. Maggie wasn't great with strangers, but she loved being affectionate with people she knew -- male family members especially. "They were really--" she clapped her hands in a brisk staccato beat "--tappy. And stuff." Jon smirked, grabbing either girl under a large arm and pulling them into a tight bear-hug.

"Well I'm really glad you guys showed up. Tour's been insane. I needed some family-type drama for once. What's going on back home? Have the bats started coming out yet?"

"No," Tess shook her head, rocking up onto her feet. "No. Not yet. Dad says another couple of weeks. Jon, come-on, I'm like starving. Come show us where the food is, brother, and then we can go take Ramona out with the soccer-ball or something."