Okay I am back! Second chappie in as many days..feel lucky? Ha, I had fun with this. And I know Max is a bit out of character no griping at me, I will tell why in later chaps. Okay on with this story!
~Imp
Okay so I didn't exactly specify where my sister and I were. Coming into Colorado, we drove through Breckenridge and a little town, pretty much a gas station, a diner, and a scattering of houses, called Fairplay in the Buffalo Mountain, on the other side of Pikes Peak. About thirty minutes away is the town of Buena Vista and an hour and a half up the road is Breckenridge. But we kept on driving, two hours down into Manitou Springs, just down the highway from Colorado Springs. Ella and I live in Colorado Springs. What joy for me. We would go to Vista High, home of the Hawks.
Mom, Valencia Martinez, was chattering away with Jeb in the front seat. Jeb was Ella and I's father, Ari's dad, Christopher Jenkins, was arrested an accounts of abuse, alchol and substance mis-use, and DUI. Mom divorced that bastard when Ari was two months old, fearing for her son.
Couple months later and she met Jeb, got pregnant with me and Ella, and refused to marry Jeb point-blank until Ella and I were throwing footballs at age five. But Ari was the best big brother ever. Uncle John on Jeb's side, taught Ari how to play football when Ari was seven. And Ari came home to the backyard where my sister and I were always playing with the family dogs to teach us what Uncle John had taught him.
When I wa younger, I wasn't very social due to bad kindergarten and first grade experiences. I was fairly laid back in second grade and in third grade I started taking karate. The only person I socialized with aside from my siblings was my friend Anna. She lived on a farm close to ours and came over one day in kindergarten to smile and say hi. We'd been friends since.
"Hey Max." Ella was waving her manicured hands in front of my face. I blinked lazily, and pushed her hand from my face.
"Yes oh so lovely twin of mine?" Ella giggled and held up her cell phone.
"Ari's wanting to talk to you." I snatched it out of her hand faster than you could say roasted desert rat.
"Hello?" I asked quickly. My big brother laughed on the other line.
"Now your nose is out of your book." He laughed at me.
"Shaddap Ari." I snapped agitatedly. More laughter, and he brushed my comment aside.
"So Maxie, are you coming to parent's day?" he asked me.
"Hell yeah. I wouldn't miss it big bro." It was college ball's big day for parents to see kids before matches and Hell Week, after pre-season. Ari had gone three weeks early to set up and meet coaches. He was a legend in Minnestoa, and I knew he'd become a legend nationally too.
"Good, Good. There might be a party I can smuggle you two in, and some meatheads I want you to know." I smiled.
"Only if, you have people of your own you want me to meet, little Wallflower." He teased me endlessly. "I told you I couldn't protect you forever. Hey, you could apply to Auburn and be my freshie!" I knew he could hear me roll my eyes at his childish clapping.
"Only if you get a girlfriend." I replied in a snarky tone. Ari grumbled.
See that's what I love about my big brother, if he has a girlfriend that Ella and I don't like, he lets her off easy. I love ruling his life at times.
"Hey Maxie I got to go. Call you tomorrow." And he hung up on me. Love you too brother dearest.
I closed my eyes and tuned out my family and their psychotic ideas to drag me into a living Hell.
And here I was thinking they were supposed to be on my side.
Some family I have. Sheesh, I may as well go in a hand basket.
Okay so I was a little over dramatic when I said I was going to Hell. The neighborhood was a maze, and our house was, dare I dream it, awesome. A clash of Victorian, and colonial, kind of. Plantation columns held up the front porch, a few wooden chairs set out with floor pillows. The front door was a dark wood inlaid with chrystallized glass. The front hallway was a lighter wood than the front door but led to a wide space, a foyer of sorts, with a dark wood staircase on the right hand side of the wall. Jeb's study was on the left hand wall, almost directly after the front hallway, and I could see the kitchen doorway in the back of the front hall. And in a corner at the back of the foyer, was a doorway leading into what I presumed the living room. Well, the back wall was entirely glass, a fireplace, bookcases, and an electric guitar stand. A mini-bar was tucked away and it also led to the back patio, the willow tree, and the pool. Okay so, maybe a bit better than a Minnesota farm, just a little.
"Max, Jeb has something for you and Ella." Mom whispered softly from the doorway. I followed her and Ella into the front hallway, where Jeb was kneeling next to two beautiful German shepards.
"Wow, thanks Jeb!" Ella squealed, throwing herself down in front of those beautiful dogs. I knelt down, and Jeb released the Germans.
"Both are neutered, one male and one female." He spoke softly.
"This is great Jeb, really, truly awesome." I held out my hand for the sniffing dog.
"They are puppies, two years old and need a lot of care from you." he warned. I nodded, Ella squealing like a five year old with the romping pup.
"Which one is this?" I asked him. The light caramel and dark chocolate coat was shedding over my fingers.
"This is the male. You name them." He took my mother's hand and led her to the living room.
"Alright Athos, what do you say we find the park, huh?" I asked him. And darn it if his ears didn't go straight up as his tail thumped the floor. I smiled at him.
Pffft, man's best friend my ass. Girl's best friend is more like it.