Chapter 2:
Spencer, Clay, and Glen all sat around the kitchen table eating their fathers famous pasta. It was their mothers favorite dish that he could cook. They didn't have it very often because of that, but when pasta night came around, everyone loved and ate every single noodle and meatball. Arthur was the best cook around, hands down, everyone agreed. He always cooked at Thanksgiving, Paula would just ruin the turkey. At Christmas he made the most delicious mouth watering ham. School lunches were even amazing. Some people couldn't believe that he became a consoler for the troubled instead of a cook and own his own restaurant.
Arthur was always good with conversations and with giving advice; it had always been in his nature. He helps teens from being abused to drug abuse to bulimia. He's just an all around good guy. "How was the first day of school?" He asks all three of his children before taking a drink of water.
All three stayed quiet for a moment before Clay spoke up first, "It was good, I like it here and all of my classes. Everyone accepts me more I feel like they ever did back in Little Rock." Clay too always spoke good from the heart.
Before Arthur could speak, Glen spoke, "It was awesome! There are so many hot chicks here and I didn't miss basketball tryouts." He quickly took a bite of his dinner, "Oh which reminds me, I need to get a physical by the end of the week, Pops." He finished and continued to stuff his face.
"Glen slow down, there's plenty of food." Arthur said sternly and looked over at his only daughter, "What about you, Spencer? Did you make any friends?" And he only got a shrug for a response. "What happened?" He set his fork down and waited patiently for his daughter to tell him about her day.
Spencer sighed and continued to play with her food as she explained her day without taking a breath in-between her story, "Well I got lost, the school is huge. There's this girl in my class who is a complete jerk and all the guys here think that they're all that. There was only like, two kids who even acknowledged my presence. They're alright I guess. I sat with them at lunch and it was really awkward, the guy I think his name was Aiden or something wouldn't stop looking at me. The girl is cool though, I never got her name but apparently she's the daughter of some famous rock star, go figure." She finished and took a deep breath and continued to stare at her food.
All three guys all looked at her, "What's his name? I'll kill him." Glen said in a protective tone.
"Glen." Arthur said quickly. "Well it'll be better tomorrow, sweetheart, I promise." And with that, everyone finished their dinners and got ready for bed. It was a late night at the house for the Carlin's. Glen and Clay loved it here, but Spencer, she really missed it back home. For her, you can take the girl out of the country, but you can not ever take the country out of the girl. It's just simply impossible for the blue eyed blonde.
A couple of months passed and Spring break came around, a whole week off from school. The Carlin kids just couldn't wait, except this year, there won't be no annual camping trip because Glen has a basketball tournament that last all week. As for Spencer and Clay? They're either stuck at home or at Glen's games and neither one of them want to spend their week off at school.
Clay rolled off of the couch when a knock came from the door and looked at Spencer who sat in the recliner by the window reading a book, "I'll get it." And he walked by her and he got a smile out of her by the way he said it. When he opened the door, there stood a ten year old brunette girl asking for Spencer, "Hey Spence, it's for you." He called, "You can come in, she's in the living room." He moved aside for the girl to walk in and closed the door after her.
Spencer came running around the corner and stopped when she saw who it was, "Hey Ashley, what're you doing here?" She looked over at Clay and gave him the you-can-leave-now look and he laughed and walked back into the living room and replanted himself on the couch and continued to watch tv.
"I was bored, wanted to know if you wanted to go do something. I lost your number or I would have called first. Aiden won't be there." She stood there in the entry way and watched Spencer's eye smile which made her smile.
Spencer never once hung out with Ashley without her sidekick, Aiden and she was excited that it would finally be just the two girls, "Of course. We could go swimming, it's hot today." And then it was Spencer's turn to smile as she watched her friends brown eyes smile because she was actually excited that Spencer didn't care if Aiden was here or not, she wanted to actually hang out with just her.
The two girls ran upstairs and got changed to go swimming in Spencer's backyard where there was a pool. That's what all three kids demanded to have if they had to move two thousand miles away. Arthur agreed to get a house that had a pool because he was moving all of his kids in the middle of school to a whole new state and community. It was the least he could do.
The girls spent hours swimming and tanning in the lawn chairs up on the deck. They drank pink lemonade and talked for a couple more hours before Ashley's mom was calling asking where her daughter was. Both girls didn't want the day to end, they were having the most fun either of them have had in a long time. So Ashley begged her mom, Christine, to let her stay the night at Spencer's that night, which wasn't hard since she wasn't ever home. Christine would much rather have her daughter stay at the Carlin's any day than stay at home alone in such a big house with only the maid in the house who didn't speak one piece of English.
That night Ashley got to experience what a family dinner was, all that was missing was a mother figure, which neither girl had. She enjoyed having all of the company around the table instead of finding something out of the pantry and going up to her room and sitting on her bed eating something that was microwaved. She hadn't had a home cooked meal in years, not since her father left. "This is a wonderful meal, Mr. Carlin, thanks." She happily ate the delicious cheeseburger straight from the grill outside.
Spencer smiled to herself as she ate her favorite meal next to her new best friend. She could feel that they were going to be best friends for a really long time and that was something that made her happy. She didn't expect to find someone like Ashley when she moved out to California. She felt kind of bad for replacing her first best friend back home in Little Rock. But with just spending all of this time with Ashley today, she could feel that they were already closer than Spencer and Morgan were ever.
Ashley and Spencer laid in her room that night still talking about everything when Ashley started to get personal, "Can I ask you something?" Spencer looked over at her and nodded. Ashley focused on the picture on Spencer's nightstand of a pregnant blonde lady, "Who is that?" Spencer followed her gaze and landed on the photo.
She was quiet for what seemed like forever, "That's uh… that's my mom." She didn't look back over at Ashley. Talking about her mom made her emotional and uncomfortable because she never knew her. Her mom never even got to hold her in her arms after she was born, she was gone by then.
"Where'd she go?" Ashley asked in a quiet voice, knowing that she shouldn't have ever asked who was in the picture with her. She could tell that Spencer was getting really emotional on her and she didn't know how to handle that. Honestly it just freaked her out when people got emotional.
Spencer took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "She died when I was born. I never got to meet her." She stared up at the ceiling, she wouldn't dare look at Ashley.
Ashley laid there, looking at Spencer. She wished she would have never asked. She put a hand on Spencer's arm then and squeezed it a little and never said anything which made Spencer look over at her and she smiled. She didn't know why she was smiling, but something about Ashley made her smile, even when she was emotional. But she liked it.
