Of course the first thing I did was break out the phone to take snapshots and send them off to my girls back home.
There was a tinge of sadness when I was finished doing that, but I squashed it before it could bring me down again. Dad had promised that we could go back to visit sometimes so I would hold onto that.
For the next couple of days there was a flurry of unpacking and finding things, losing things, panicking because we thought we’d left something that we just couldn’t live without behind.
We dropped into bed at the end of each night exhausted. Dad was pretty excited about his new office and the new people he would be working with, and mom was playing social hostess to all the housewives who kept dropping by with welcome baskets.
I had yet to see anyone my age and my brother was already tearing at his chains, he can’t go too long without playing with pigskin.
Mom had set up salon visits for us for the Saturday before school started. I flirted with the idea of cutting my hair but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Mom had never got my hair cut, not once. She was an old hippie throwback I guess, so I wore my honey blonde hair straight down my back to the top of my ass.
I got lots of compliments on it wherever we went, and the truth is, I really loved it and was proud of the fact that it had never been touched.
It was full and lustrous, so in the end I just had it washed and set. The curls wouldn’t last too long because my hair was thick and heavy, but for the day or two it will last I could enjoy flipping my bouncy curls over my shoulder like a twit.
Chapter 2
SIAN
“Okay, you kids remember to look out for each other today. It’s a new school so there’s bound to be some adjusting to be done.
Jared I want you to keep an eye on your little sister.” Dad arched his brow over my head like I didn’t know that those words were code for ‘keep any interested males at arm’s length until I’ve vetted them.’
“Dad, quit it, I can date now remember?”
“Yes I know pumpkin, but just because we gave you the green light there that does not mean you get to choose.”
“Dad there’re so many things wrong with that statement, my court appointed lawyer could drive a semi truck through it.”
“Oh-ho, you haven’t pulled the emancipation card since you were about ten.” He ruffled by beautiful curls and I slapped his hand away while mom grinned and ushered us out of the house.
Dad and her were taking Maggie to her new school together. I remember those days and sometimes missed them, days when mommy and daddy stood between me, and the world. And all those pesky little things that scared you.
Suck it up Sian you’re a big girl now. “You ready squirt? I was thinking since it’s our first day and everything that maybe we could ride in together.” My brother the dweeb hugged my shoulders and led me out of the house.
I guess I hadn’t done a good enough job of hiding my angst. It’s one thing to stand in front of my mirror and pontificate about what I would say and do if anyone got on my bad side, but quite another to actually be walking into the unknown.
“Fine you can drive us in today, but no football talk, my ears are about to bleed.” The boy eats sleeps and lives the gridiron.
He came by it naturally, since dad played in high school, college and the league for a few years before he went the business route.
Dad was smart. He’d played long enough to make a few million before moving on to what he really loved.
Mergers and acquisitions was his thing and apparently he was very good at what he did, because we’ve never gone without. And now he was doing even better. With a new partnership and a lovely raise, he was pretty much set.
Jared on the other hand was all about the pigskin; he had no plans on doing anything else. Though mom and dad made it very clear that he had to pay as much attention to his studies or he’d be benched.
Dad said that since he was in a better place than his own dad had been when he was that age, it’s easier on Jared to make the choices he wanted to make and he’d back him; but he had to do his part and prove that he can be responsible.
Me, all I had to do was be a girl. Dad is as old fashioned as they come. Mom, Maggie and I are treated like the princesses that we are and I don’t think any of us would have it any other way.
***
I was spared any talk about football because my brother for all that he’s brain dead ninety percent of the time, is a very cool big brother.
He knew I was nervous about what I was about to face. For boys it’s easy, they just show up, grunt at each other and fall into friendships.
Add some sort of sport to the mix and it’s a slam-dunk. Me on the other hand, was going to have to find my footing. But I’ve already worked out my strategy.
I’ve watched enough teen shows and read enough teen lit, not to mention been on the other side of this situation to know, you don’t go to them, you let them come to you.
My brother had already been to the school, because he had to meet with the new coach and some of his teammates or something. His report had been as was to be expected.
‘It’s fine; it’s a school like any other.’ His only interest had been in the playbook and the season lineup, no help at all.
We pulled into the parking lot fifteen minutes later and it was like culture shock. The kids where we came from had well to do parents as we did. I was accustomed to seeing Pathfinders and BMWs in the student parking lot, along with a Mercedes here and there.
Their dress style was flashy for our town, you know, keeping up with the video chicks and Seventeen Magazine. But this, this was beyond what even I had expected and I have a huge imagination.
There were Ferraris and Lamborghinis for lands sake; and would you look at that? Somebody owned a Phantom and in my favorite color, if I could ever afford one. Well my favorite unless I could get it in baby pink.
I looked down at my little denim skirt and my Ralph Lauren limited edition button down with pearl buttons and felt meh.
Jared sensing my unease squeezed my hand and dragged me along behind him. I was too caught off guard to give him my usual lip about acknowledging my presence in public.
I was beginning to feel underdressed and kind of new girlish. Of course I could feel the stares and hear the whispers on the wind but I wasn’t feeling brave enough yet to make eye contact.
So much for being able to hold my own, what the hell happened? These were not teenage girls the way I knew teenage girls.
I’ve never seen so much cleavage and crotch shots outside of one of Jared’s freaky magazines that he kept hidden under his mattress.
Jared had stopped in front of some other pigskin drones apparently, and was introducing me around. Somebody mentioned something to him about Jace not being here yet and the conversation went on from there to football of course.
I fielded a few looks from some of the other girls that passed by but no one approached. When the bell rang I almost clung to my brother like I did that time when I was five and Jimmy Clem pulled my ribbons from my hair.
I remember Jared had knocked his lights out back then. But this was high school and I was a big girl, and my brother was so excited about being here, I couldn’t spoil it for him.
“I’ll see you after class Jared.”
“Listen, sis, if anything happens you come find me okay.” I almost cried; he was being so sweet.
“Nothing’s going to happen bro don’t worry about me, see ya.” I walked down the hallway pretending to be reading the sheet of paper in my hand but what I was really doing was hiding my anxiety. I want my mommy.
***
By the time I reached my first class I was feeling the strain. Having always been part of the in crowd since middle school or even before then, it was a whole new experience being the new kid.
It wasn’t so much the prestige that abounded here among the young Hollywood heirs, that I can match, no problem; my closet was more than ample enough if I was so inclined.
But it was more the sense of not being one of them. My dad was not a big time movie star or studio mogul, though his money was just as green as the next guy’s. But I got the sense that here it was about more than wealth and hot cars, it was a totally different atmosphere than what I was accustomed to.
And then she walked in and I felt the shift in the air. I don’t know why, but one look at this chick and I felt like laughing. Not because she looked clownish or anything like that, but because she had attitude coming off her in waves, I know the signs.
Chapter 3
BELLE
High school is the worse place for a sixteen-year-old girl with growing pains; I mean think about it, you're cooped up with twenty or thirty of your so-called peers.
Everyone is judging and critiquing everyone else, everything you do comes under a microscope, and heaven forbid you're anything bigger than a size four, well then you're just not worth the air you breathe.
I'm a size ten and I have no interest in starving myself into a lesser size. Apparently that's considered teenage suicide to think like that, bleh.
My mom says I'm as beautiful as ever, and my dad says I'm his golden princess and father knows best. I have a full head of the wildest hair you've ever seen in your life.
It's red, not fire engine red; what does mom call it again? Oh yeah, auburn, with hints of chestnut and wine.
To top it off, this mess is all curls, like Shirley Temples circa nineteen sixties curly. My eyes are the brightest blue I've ever encountered, that didn't need the help of glasses to protect them, that's how I got my name.