Chapter 1:
Mary Anne is a seventeen years old, and she just cannot seem to get along with Sharon anymore. Sharon is always bragging about what Dawn and Jeff are doing in California, but she still treats Mary Anne as though she is a stranger! Mary Anne is getting tired of that, and in her own way is demanding some respect! She is not going to take it anymore!
Mary Anne had awoke with a start, determined that this day would be different than the others. All that she was starting to look like was a spoilt brat. Sharon was speaking to her, and she was not responding. Her father, who noticed what was going on, was trying not to take sides. Although he felt that Mary Anne should give Sharon more respect regardless, he already had that chat with Mary Anne and it would now be up to her, to follow through.
Sharon was at the stove turning over an egg, when Mary Anne came in, on that Thursday morning. It was not as though she was headed to school, because they were having a three-day vacation. So she would be home on Monday as well. Sharon had looked so vulnerable, to Mary Anne, and so hurt when she had looked up and saw Mary Anne standing there, and had quickly turned away. She was not in the mood to take mistreatment from Mary Anne today, so she did not even eye her. Mary Anne was very sensitive to other people, and had noticed that her stepmother had looked so hurt, and so she had decided to be a little nice.
"Hi," She tells her stepmother.
Sharon had looked honestly, so touched that Mary Anne spoke to her, that she looked at her with bright eyes, and responded back to her: "Hello, Mary Anne, how are you doing this morning?"
"I'm fine! And you?"
"Great! I'm fixing some eggs. Would you like some?"
"No thank-you. I think that I will have some French toast this morning," Mary Anne says, pleasantly.
Sharon only snorted, but kept her face pleasant, and went back to fixing her eggs. Mary Anne felt that the snort was because Sharon had heard the comment before that Mary Anne did not like her cooking, and was acting as though she did not want to eat anything that she had cooked. Well, too bad! Mary Anne really did not want any eggs, and did not feel that she had to suck up to Sharon just because they were going through some rough times right then.
"So, did you hear from Dawn yesterday?" Mary Anne was curious to know.
It had seemed as though ever since she and Sharon had drifted apart, so had she and Dawn. She knew for a fact that there was a few times that Mary Anne had hurt Sharon's feelings, and Sharon, while crying, had told Dawn about it, so maybe Dawn was a little slighted by Mary Anne's attitude. O well! Like mother, like daughter.
"I heard from her!" Sharon all of a sudden perked up: "She's doing great! She-" Then Sharon had felt herself babbling once again about her precious Dawn, and her voice drifted off to say only: "Um, yeah, doing great!"
Mary Anne smiled inwardly to herself. Finally! Sharon realized that Dawn is not the beginning and end of Mary Anne's life. She did feel a little badly that she was acting so jealously, but in all honesty, why didn't Sharon try to make more of a conversation, by asking more about what was going on in Mary Anne's life? She did not, and she hardly ever did, and therefore, Mary Anne was not going to encourage Sharon to continue talking about Dawn. The way that Mary Anne was feeling, was equivalent to 'whatever'. She went to start making her French toast, by gathering up the milk, eggs, bread and cinnamon, when she felt Sharon looking at her. 'What is wrong with this lady?' Mary Anne thought to herself, but was now feeling slighted, and did not bother to ask.
Her father Richard came through the kitchen door, and saw his two favorite girls in there, together, and really got a good feeling inside: "Morning," He told Mary Anne, patting her shoulders, and walking over to Sharon: "Mmmm………..love the smell of eggs in the morning!" He tells Sharon.
'What's wrong with my father?' Mary Anne wondered, to herself: 'What is so special about eggs? He's just sucking up to her. As usual………..' Mary Anne bitterly rolled her eyes, to herself.
She began to wonder why her father and Sharon had all of a sudden became so quiet, and turned around to see them kissing. 'Ugh!' Mary Anne thought to herself: 'I am trying to make breakfast here!'
"Mmmm…………..Richard, I love you so much!" Sharon told him.
"I love you too, baby," Richard said, hugging her even harder.
"Errrr!!!!" Mary Anne had screamed inside. It was almost as though Sharon had wanted Mary Anne to know that she loved her father so much, and she would be with him forever, at all costs. Well, as long as she did not talk much about Dawn and Jeff and act as though Mary Anne did not exist, it was all good.
"Did you tell her, yet?" Mary Anne hears her father ask Sharon.
Mary Anne did not hear Sharon's obviously whispered response, and so she had just waited for somebody to speak up.
"Mary Anne," Her father had spoken up: "We have-" Quickly, her father had thought of a nice format to present the sentence to her: "some news to tell you!"
"Pretty exciting news," Sharon could not help but chime in.
Richard looked at Sharon in no particular fashion, but long enough for Sharon to stay out of the conversation, before turning back to Mary Anne's back: "Dawn is flying in tomorrow!"
"What?!" Mary Anne did not know how to feel.
"My birthday weekend," Sharon spoke up, again, pretty happily: "and Dawn is coming, as well as two of my very dear girlfriends, and we all- and you too Mary Anne, are all going to have so much fun!"
Once again, Mary Anne was slighted. Why was she the last person to find out about this? All of a sudden, she did not feel like being at home, at all, and including for the whole weekend. I wonder what Kristy decided to do for school break, she wondered to herself.
"Aren't you excited, Mary Anne?" Sharon asks, blushing. She was embarrassed, because she knew what Mary Anne was thinking: Why did she just find out?
"I didn't say anything, earlier, because I did not want to ruin the surprise of Dawn coming home," Sharon said.
Right. And if her father did not mention it, then maybe Sharon would never have said anything! Gosh. Mary Anne was just sick of it all!
"Aren't you excited about your step-sister coming home for a visit?" Richard asked Mary Anne.
Mary Anne turned to him with a fake and exaggerated smile and nodded her head very visibly for both of them to see, before putting the eggs back into the fridge: "I had forgotten that Kristy asked me to come over for breakfast this morning. I'm going now. I'll be back later," Mary Anne did not know if the last sentence were true, but she figured it was a whole lot easier than arguing about when she would be back.
