“Yes ma’am. I understand.”

“None of that ma’am stuff. It makes me feel old.” She smiled.

I returned the smile, and it felt great.

“Want to hear something exciting?”

“Yeah,” I waited for her to answer.

“I think I may have found you a job.”

“What, seriously?” I asked excitedly. That frightened/anxious feeling washed over me, and I was instantly curious. “What kind of job?”

“I figured that you would have a hard time finding something with no experience, so I pulled some strings. My dear friend Trish is the Librarian at the public library in town. She has a couple of college students who work for her, and one person just quit last week. It’s not a fancy job, and it wouldn’t pay much, but it’s yours if you want it.” Her eyebrows peaked as she waited for me to respond.

The library would be perfect for me. I mean I didn’t know much about the job itself, but I loved to read. Not to mention all the quiet time. It sounded perfect. “I’ll take it. It sounds like the perfect job for me.”

“Yay,” she bounced in her seat. “I thought so to. I will call her first thing in the morning before I leave for work and let her know. She may want to see you, but it’s only about five blocks from the house. It’s a nice walk.”

“Perfect.”

A smile was plastered to my face for the rest of the ride home.

When we got to the house I was surprised. It wasn’t at all like I’d pictured. I expected the houses to practically be sitting on top of each other, but they weren’t. They had yards and the brick homes were beautiful; all very similar, but older and almost historic like. I loved it.

She gave me the grand tour of the place. It was two stories, and both bedrooms were up stairs. Each room was very spacious and had its own bathroom. Nothing compared to my bedroom back home. The cream painted walls was soft and inviting. It was a lot to take in all at once, but I couldn’t wait to spend some alone time in there. I sat my bag on the bed, and followed her back to the first floor.

It was so nice. There was a large kitchen that opened to a dining room, another bathroom, a large living room, and a utility room. There was even a sunroom off the back porch. I could already tell that it would be my favorite place. I could imagine myself out there with my notebook, scribbling away.

Poetry was my biggest love.

Several nights I would write to escape, and over the years my writing had just become second nature. I loved it like I loved the color green, and almost as much as I loved fried chicken. That was a whole heck of a lot. I wasn’t exceptionally good at it, but I didn’t mind. No one else would see it besides me anyway.

“I hope that you’ll make yourself at home, and I don’t ever want you to think that you can’t stay here. You’re welcome here as long as you want. I get pretty lonely sometimes, so it’ll be nice having you around.” Her voice was genuine.

“Thanks Aunt Darcy.”

“Of course honey. I’m going to start supper. There are plenty of things in your room that you might need. A new toothbrush, and all your bathroom goods, and I put my old laptop in the top dresser drawer if you want to keep up with the outside world.” She winked.

It sounded unusual when she said the words, “outside world.” What would I know about anything or anyone outside this house? I was clueless. I would never use her laptop, but it was a nice gesture. It wasn’t as if I were leaving any real friends behind besides the animals. The only friend I had back home was just an acquaintance, a stranger that I had seen only on occasion. Our parents had dinner together maybe once every few months, and she and I would hang out. We rode horses and played with the dogs. She seemed nice, and was truthfully the only person in the world I had ever considered a friend. I didn’t know much about her except her name. Molly Rogers. I wouldn’t even know how to contact her if I could. We had a computer at our house that was used for several things, but talking to friends wasn’t one of them.

Maybe I was deprived of things in my childhood, but I never felt that way. I was never exposed to very much, so I never really knew what I was missing out on, or if I was missing anything at all. I liked it that way. The simple life suited me just fine.

Aunt Darcy pulled her apron off the hook hanging next to the pantry door, and I cringed a little at the sight of it. The ruffled edges and light pink color, reminded me of my mother. That woman would have slept in the dreadful thing if she could have. I swear she was constantly cooking or baking. She hardly ever left the kitchen. Seeing Darcy pull it over her head made my stomach knot up. I could barely look at her.

“I’m going to go and take a shower and clean up, then I’ll come back and help with supper. If you want?” I said trying to rush away quickly.

“Sounds good.”

I nodded and turned towards the stairs. I could hear the distant sound of her humming as I climbed the stairs fleetingly.

After the long bus ride, I was tired and stinky. Well, I couldn’t really smell myself, but if I had to guess I’d say I was.

I took the stairs two at a time.

2

Jackson

For the second day in a row I was late for basketball camp. The team was hosting a day camp for the local kids, and it was mandatory for us to be there especially the starters. Coach was going to flip his lid. Playing chauffeur to my baby sister was going to cost me the starting spot on the team. The spot I’d worked too damn hard to earn. It was all going down the drain because she couldn’t decide which pair of shoes she wanted to wear to work. I swear I’d love to strangle that girl sometimes.

Mom and Dad promised me that they’d make sure Kennedy’s car was out of the shop this week. But when they called the mechanic he had mysteriously found five more problems under the hood. Go figure.

I see now why my older brother Tucker moved out the first chance he got. If I had a job instead of playing basketball then I’d move out too.

My cell phone dinged with a text message just as I pulled into the parking lot. I didn’t have time for it. I tossed it across the seat and into my gym bag, and rushed to get inside.

Through the windows of the gym door I could see that Coach had his arms crossed over his chest with a whistle in his mouth. I burst through the door in a hurry. I didn’t even bother explaining. He wouldn’t have listened anyway. I ran over and joined my team along the far wall making sure that I didn’t even make eye contact with him. I didn’t have to see his face to know that he was staring. I could feel his eyes burning holes through the back of my shirt.

“Dude, where you been? Coach is going to slaughter you.” Jeremy, one of my teammates nudged my arm.

“I had to give Kennedy a ride to work again.” I bent down and tightened the laces on my shoes.

“You should have called me man. I would have given her a ride.”

He was way to enthusiastic when he said ride, so I elbowed him hard in the kneecap.

“Ouch, damn.”

“She’s my sister.” I growled, standing back up to face him.

“And she’s hot.” He jumped back out of arms reach so that my fists wouldn’t reach him. “She’s eighteen man. Get a grip.”

“Drop it.” My look was serious, and I meant it. He needed to keep his snide comments to himself. It’s not like I was trying to get with his sister. Not that I would. She was weird, and her glasses were as thick as coke bottles. I wouldn’t be caught dead with her. It’d be social suicide.

It drove me crazy when the guys talked like that about Kennedy. I knew that she was grown, and beautiful, but they didn’t even try to hide their attraction. They threw it up in my face. It infuriated me to the point where I wanted to bash their faces in.