We snickered in the late hour
We snickered in the late hour. It was at least 2 in the morning and thoughts of how devious my brothers and I were being ran through my minds. After a successful attempt to steal a forbidden book, perhaps if it wasn't forbidden to us children such a large and dull covered book wouldn't have interested us in the least, we stayed up into the morning hours to venture into the stories it told.
"This is a bad idea" my older sister muttered to us in the utter silence.
She was met with four pairs of eyes but the attention was quickly stolen from her when we heard loud, angry, footsteps coming towards us down the hall.
"Quick! Get into bed!" my older brother demanded in a harsh whisper as he shut the book and slid it underneath our armoire.
We all scurried towards our beds. My brothers and sister made managed quickly while I grabbed the candlestick off the ground and took a deep breath to blow out the small flame that burned on the tip of the wick. The air got caught in my throat as I saw the door open, a small crack of light pouring in from the hall.
The air hurried out of my lungs and the flame went out before anyone could enter the room all my siblings and I shared.
Whoosh.
I often remembered the experience of stealing the book. That was one of the first times my siblings and I felt justified to do something that was against the house rules. Well rules quickly turned into laws and we were turning into regulars at the police station. Like now for example, I was sitting in the principal's office.
I crossed my arms over my chest as I listened to Mr. Teri lecture me. My poor distressed mother sat next to me, the color was draining from her face slowly. Something I don't understand is if I get in trouble with the police why should I get in trouble at school too? I mean today is Monday morning; I was arrested Sunday morning so it wasn't even a school day!
"You've been suspended twice, Ms. Frusciante" Mr. Teri stated, "You've missed so much school that you're sure to fail the eleventh grade, not to mention that you're barely a D in all your classes except physical education where you are an F student. It seems that you're working more on your criminal record than your school records".
Yes, my last name is Frusciante. No, I'm not related to John.
I shrugged and my mother slapped the back of my head.
"Haven't I taught you better? How dare you take this so lightly!" she yelled.
Mr. Teri sighed, "Obviously your daughter is the problem here, I don't question your parenting skills, Mrs. Frusciante".
"Please call me Naomi, or Ms. Berci" my mother smiled weakly.
I made a face, were they flirting? During a parent-principal meeting?
"I think I might have something that would help your daughter, Naomi" Mr. Teri said.
"What would that be?" my mother answered.
"A foreign-exchange program, she'd spend 4 months in a different country and maybe that would teach her a lesson" Mr. Teri suggested.
Four Months?! In a different country?! Hell No!
"Can't you just give me detention till I graduate? Or maybe suspend me for a month? Or expel me or something please Mr. Teri anything but that!" I begged.
"Ms. Frusciante seems to agree that the exchange program is a horrible punishment." He said and looked to my mother for agreement.
"Mom! Please, if you love me you'll let me stay here" I begged.
She was silent; all that could be heard in the room was the clock ticking. She played with her bracelet and then glanced to the clock.
"How much would it cost?" she asked and I groaned in defeat.
"All you would pay for is her transportation to the other country, if you need financial help I'll see what the school and the receiving family can do. I'm sure we can all benefit from a little time away from Ms. Frusciante" he commented.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" I snapped.
"Christina!" my mother scolded.
I held my tongue from cursing out my mother.
"Alright then, I will make arrangements and Christina will be departing the country soon then" Mr. Teri smiled kindly towards both of us.
"Thank you, Mr. Teri" my mom said.
"Please, call me Bernard" he responded, "Perhaps we can see each other under some better circumstances once Christina has been taken care of?"
"Perhaps" my mother responded kindly, "But, I don't think my time is quite up yet."
We all turned and through the window on the door leading into the office we could see one of my two younger brothers sitting in a chair and chewing gum.
"Kyle" my mother mumbled before I started walking to the doorway.
I quickly spun around and pointed accusingly at Mr. Teri, "You stay the fuck away from my mom when I'm not here ok, Bernard?"
"Christina!" my mom scolded once more but I just glared at my principal.
"Ms. Frusciante, please don't have me bring in security to escort you out of my office. Your brother already caused enough grief for Mr. Vale." Mr. Teri responded.
Without another word I turned and left the office, spying my brother sitting in one of the small plastic chairs children who misbehaved were forced to sit in. I stopped in front of my brother and held out my hand.
"Gum" I demanded and he slapped a small square into my hand.
"So what did they say?" he asked.
"They're shipping me off to another country" I scowled.
"Oh, damn. Sorry." He frowned, "Do you think you'll be sent somewhere really shitty like South Africa or Iraq?"
"Dunno" I shrugged.
"Do you think you'll be able to get out of it?" he asked.
"Maybe, I've considered committing suicide or maybe getting sentenced to a few months in prison" I smirked.
"Hmm prison, cause there you could be in the country and we could go visit you" my 14 year old brother just told me I should get sentenced to jail, wow.
"Thanks for the advice, so anyway why are you in here?" I asked.
"I poured ink all over my teacher's desk during break" he smiled.
"Nice" I smiled back and we high-fived before I walked out of the office.
I walked towards my mom's silver Volkswagen and sat in the passenger's seat while playing with the radio.
Why was in the principal's office you ask? Here, let me retell the story.
It was Saturday night. There were little words being exchanged by all of us. By us I mean my older brother and sister. My two younger brothers were forced to stay at home because unlike when we were 7 and reading books in the dark this was much more serious. Not something for 14 year olds.
My sister didn't warn us of this being a bad idea. It was around 11, this area of Sicily was densely populated with apartments that would sell for less than what it would take to furnish them. Thankfully most people chose to either leave the area on a Saturday night or stay inside so the streets were nearly empty.
We were deep in an alley. My sister fidgeted, she always thought before she did something. But my brother and I just did. And at the moment we just did a few lines of cocaine. Generally I chose not to do this, so don't jump to conclusions. But my sister just got a record deal and perhaps the family wouldn't be so poor anymore if she became famous.
What a way to celebrate.
Suddenly a bright light came towards us. At first I was afraid that it was a car, but it was worse. It was still a good 40 yards away from us so my brother and sister ran towards the fire ladder. My sister was nearly half way up when my brother was maybe on the third step. He turned and pointed to me.
"Come on, Christina!" he demanded in a harsh whisper.
I grabbed the small bags of cocaine we had and tried to go after my brother but the light was too close. My brother made it to the top and became invisible as he laid down on the roof with my sister. I threw the bags into a trash can and hid behind it, I didn't breath.
The light lingered, but no one made a sound. But I knew someone was here. I was trapped, and didn't know what to do next. It was maybe a yard away now, but it couldn't have noticed me moving the trash can or my siblings running up the ladder. I heard a snicker and I let my breath out. It was over.
The light shined on my face, and I squinted upwards. I saw dark blue behind the light, it was a police officer.
25 minutes later I was sitting in the police station, my hands handcuffed behind my back.
"I was doing cocaine, not trying to kill someone. Could you take these off?" I asked boredom and sarcasm heavy in my voice.
"You have quite a record here, Ms. Frusciante. It says you turned 16 just a few months ago and yet you've been arrested." He said, "We can't arrest you for being drugged up, but you're going to have to be picked up by a legal guardian."
"Yeah, I know how the procedure goes Officer" I sneered.
"One phone call" he handed me the phone while taking off the handcuffs.
My mom arrived 15 minutes after I called her. I was sitting in a cell, a sight that probably struck horror into her. Her second daughter sitting behind bars for the second time. Like having a repeated nightmare. I smiled weakly.
"Hey mom" I said.
She didn't respond, her lips were pulled into a straight line and a grim expression was displayed on her face. There was silence for a few minutes, even the police officer respected her and gave her a few minutes to process what she was seeing.
"I'm extremely disappointed in you" she finally said and it felt like being slapped across the face.
My phone starting vibrating in my pocket and when I saw who it was I felt anger rush through me.
"Hello?" I answered rudely.
"Hey Chrissy! How did it go?" My idiot brother asked.
"Mr. Teri is enrolling me in a foreign-exchange program and mom agreed, I'm being shipped away to a different country for four months!" I nearly yelled but tried to contain my anger.
If it wasn't for this asshole I wouldn't be in this situation. I wouldn't have been out on Saturday night with my siblings snorting crack. I would have maybe gone to the movies or went shopping with my normal, sober friends as opposed to my druggie brother and nervous wreck of a sister. Hell I wish I would have just stayed in and read a book or watched TV or something! Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, I should have been smart enough not to go out with my siblings that night.
Still, it's easier to just blame my brother.
"My deepest apologizes, little sister." Saul, my brother, commented, "You shall be missed."
"I'm not dying, Saul." I sneered, "I'm going on a vacation".
'To hell' I wanted to add but held my tongue, I'm sure that would be over-exaggerating.
"So, did he tell you where you're going?" Saul asked.
"Nah, probably somewhere really bad though. Like somewhere they send all the badass kids" I chuckled.
"Whenever you're going I'm scared for you, you're going to get like eaten or beaten or go clean on the family" Saul stated.
"Eaten maybe, beaten perhaps, go clean on the fam never" I responded quickly.
"Have you talked with Gianna?" Saul asked.
Gianna is my older sister, the nervous-wreck one. She had gone to go talk to her manager today about her brand new record deal. The one I mentioned earlier. Gianna used to sing in chorus at school and church and performed in all the school plays so of course performing was in her future. She had decided she wanted to be a singer, which I'm sure won't work out, but enough about her.
"No, did you?" I asked.
"Not yet, she seemed a little nervous this morning though I think something is wrong." Saul mumbled.
"Alright I think I see Mom coming, I gotta go Saul" I lied just to get off the phone.
"Ok, later" he said before hanging up.
But unfortunately my Mom really did come in 10 minutes and with Kyle. Kyle sat down in the backseat; obviously he had received a terrible punishment if he wasn't even going to brag about how much trouble he had just gotten in.
"How'd it go, Kyle?" I asked.
My mom started the car and there was just an awkward silence to answer my question.
"Well?" I was becoming impatient with this child.
"Aren't you going to tell your sister what your punishment is, Kyle?" Mom snapped angrily.
"I got detention for three weeks…" he mumbled.
"And?" she asked.
"I lost 10 points…" he said.
In my school you need at least 60 out of 100 points to graduate, you start with 100 and work your way down.
"Which means?" she asked.
"I can't graduate unless I take summer school" he finally spat.
I burst into laughter, "I knew it was coming! Your first year of summer school! Oh my god if only I would be in the country to see this one go down!"
"Speaking of you leaving the country, Mr. Teri is letting me pick the country. You have three options Christina." Mom told me while stopping at a red light.
"Go ahead" I said.
"Buenos Aires, Argentina" she said.
"Nope" I responded quickly, "Can't speak Spanish."
"Brussels, Belgium" she sounded a little more enthusiastic about this one, "You know your great grandfather was from Belgium".
"Ehh" I responded, uninterested, "Can't speak Dutch."
"Fine" she rolled her eyes, "Your last option is a very small city in New Jersey in the United States:.
"Hmm I've never been to the U.S. before and I can speak English" I said.
Italian, the language I've been speaking throughout the last few conversations, is my first language. Considering I live in Italy that seems pretty sensible but I picked up English through TV, magazines, school, and people. Not easy.
"That's very far, Christina…and you know I don't like the American lifestyle. You'll become lazy" she frowned, "and start acting like an American. You'll lose your pride in your country."
Hearing my mom in English would have sounded something along the lines of, "You lose pride in country". But thankfully I can speak fluent English.
"I'll be fine, Mom" I said.
-Joshlynn POV-
I came home from another day of school. It was pretty cold here in Wyckoff, New Jersey during January so I was anxious for Spring to finally get here. The small kitchen of my two bedroom home was warm though and I dropped my bag near the breakfast nook.
"Hey Mom" I smiled as I leaned against the island.
She had her back to me and was stirring something in a large saucepot.
"Hey, sweetie" she said in her usual sweet voice, "How was your day?"
"Normal, I got a B on my science test" I sighed.
"Congratulations!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"I could have done better" I said rudely but then I realized I didn't address her compliment, "But thanks, so how was your day?"
"Good, I got a call from a man named Bernard Teri." She smiled.
"What did he want?" I asked while opening the fridge door.
"Well, he's a principal in a high school in Sicily, Italy" she said, excitement creeping up in her voice, "And he said he has a student who would be very interested in participating in a foreign exchange program".
"Wow! Italy?!" I exclaimed, "That's the farthest we've ever gotten!" I exclaimed, "Oh my god I wonder if it's a girl or a boy."
"It's a girl, and her name is Christina Frusciante." My mother explained, "She's only a few months older than you so she's already 16."
"But Mom, if we accept her then doesn't that mean I'm going to go to Italy in a few months?" I asked happily, I've never left the country before.
"Sweetie…I know that with all the other children you got to go visit their homes later but Christina is…different" she sighed.
"Oh…so I can't go to Italy?" I asked, disappointed.
I know I should be happy that we are participating in the exchange program for another year, I love meeting new people and learning about where they come from and since I'm an only child it's like having a sibling for a few months, but I kind of wished that we would take in someone else.
"Perhaps it would be better if I didn't tell you…that way you couldn't judge her." My mother said, trying to take a precaution.
"No it's fine, I want to know" I sighed, I wanted to know why I couldn't travel to such a fabulous country as Italy. I wanted to know what made this girl so different that she was preventing me from going on vacation this year.
"Christina is..." she hesitated, as if the words were hard to say, "Well she's always getting into trouble. Not only with her school but with the law."
"Oh so she's like a felon?" I asked.
"Not exactly, she hasn't hurt anyone too seriously. She's just always causing problems and rebelling and skipping school and getting into fights," as she was saying this her voice was getting quieter, "and she's a drug addict."
"A druggie?!" I exclaimed, "You…you can't allow her into my house."
"Joshlynn, this girl needs us. And who knows, maybe she'll be a great friend." My mother said, optimisms slipping into her voice.
"Maybe" I shrugged, "I'm going to go do my math homework ok, mom? Call me when dinner is ready."
"Alright I will" she whispered and I took the stairs two at a time.
Once I was in my room I thought about telling my best friends about this Christina Frusciante but decided against it. She would be going to my school, and what if my friends told someone who told someone else and soon no one would give her a chance. She'd just be the criminal drug addict from Italy.
I wonder if she even speaks English! Maybe I could tell one person, just one. Not about how she is a druggie or a criminal just that she is coming from Italy soon. I know just the person too!
Kevin Lucas.