Chapter 2

Danielle

"Hello?" the irritated voice on the other side of the phone demanded.

"Hello, is Cassidy there?" I asked feebly.

"You've got her."

"Oh, um… hi, it's Danielle."

A pause. "Hey Danielle, what's going on?" she asked suspiciously. With every right too, she was probably wondering why the hell her boyfriend's little sister was calling.

"Oh, I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the park with Mark and I," I tried to say brightly, failing miserably.

"Did Mark ask you to call me?" She was still suspicious.

"No," I said, "I just figured maybe we could hang out, get to know each other?" I held my breath.

"Yeah… right, okay," she said reluctantly, "what time?"

"How about an hour from now?"

"See you there." And she hung up. It was common to expect such a lack of manners from Cassidy. She rarely gave anyone any kind of respect, a sort of arrogance I suppose comes from the years of every social outcast trying to be like her. I put down the receiver and fell back onto my bed. Why me? I asked. I didn't even really like my brother's girlfriend, it just seemed like a good idea. Now that I thought of it, I highly regretted calling. I would be seen as even more of a dork now that I seemed desperate enough to try and hang out with people I hardly knew or had anything in common with. Not that I didn't have friends, I hang out with Kayla a lot, but lately, she's been hanging out at this place called the Sharing. I went there for a while, but since she became an elite member, I've felt sort of shunned and quit. She's still in air cadets with me though, so we talk.

I sighed and sat up slowly. A mirror covered about half of the wall across from my bed, and I regretted having it installed. Having to stare at myself all the time wasn't the most amazingly fun thing ever.

"Dannnnnie." A squawking voice called from beside my bed.

"Magggggic," I replied affectionately. The gray parrot ruffled his wings.

"Food!" he screeched happily. "Magic wants crackers!"

"Magic is crackers," I said jokingly as I passed a baby cracker from the box on my dresser through the bars of his cage. Why did my mother insist on teaching my bird clichés?

"Bye Magic," I said as I walked to the door. But instead of walking out, I stopped at the mirror. Something had caught my eye. A glimmer or something, but it was gone. To convince myself that I wasn't going crazy, I ran my fingers through my excessively long brown hair and checked my outfit. I was wearing a huge tee-shirt, as in, extra large huge, and it dwarfed my tiny figure. Great, I looked even more like a sewing pin.

"Danielle!" Mark called, "How many eggs do you want?"

He was making breakfast? Sweet deal.

"Two," I replied. "I'll be up in a minute."

That was a lie. I was upstairs in about ten seconds. I sat down at the table casually, watching my brother cook.

"Want bacon?" he asked.

"Sure. By the by, we're meeting your girlfriend in the park at ten."

"When'd you talk to Cassidy?" he asked.

"This morning."

Mark's face hardened a bit. "Danielle, don't screw this up for me. I really like her and I want you to keep your nose out of this."

"It's okay Mark, I just wanted to get to know her. I don't know, for some reason I just wanted to call her."

Mark accepted that explanation wholeheartedly. It kind of creeped me out that he didn't ask any more questions, but if it works…

Mark brought two dishes of food to the table.

"So you really like her huh?" I said, hoping to provoke him. "You get all googley-eyed when you see her?"

"Yes, and can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why are younger siblings such a pain in the butt? Do they brief you before you're born or something?"

"No, it's little-sisterly instinct," I teased. "Have you kissed her?"

"We've been going out for a month Danielle, of course I've kissed her."

"Tongue or no tongue."

"You're getting a bit personal."

"C'mon, I'm just asking."

"Bite me."

"Okay." I leaned over, pretending to actually try to bite his shoulder.

"Hey!" he yelled, pushing his chair back in surprise and pushing my head away from him. "What are you, two?"

I batted my eyes mockingly. "Only if you want me to be, Marky darling."

"Okay, gross. You're just jealous because I'm going out with someone and you aren't."

"So?"

"So don't make fun of Cassidy, or I'll let her know and you can deal with her."

He had a point, an angry Cassidy was about as safe as an angry lion.

"Getting your girlfriend to fight your battles now?" I asked, refusing to give up. "What a shame, and I thought you were a guy."

"Damn rights she's fighting my battles," he laughed. "She can do it way better than I can."

We laughed and finished our breakfast, washing the dishes quickly and heading outside to the barn. We have a huge property outside of town because my dad has a trail rides business. We live next to a sort of resort area, and they give my dad most of his business. He also does horseback-riding lessons for groups of kids. We have a total of twelve horses. My horse is Snow White, a very appropriately named white horse. Mark's horse is named Killer. (He named it when he was six.) It's an albino: Black with a white mane and tail. Rare as it is, it was a child of mom and dad's first horses. Lots of people put offers on it but they gave it to Mark as a Christmas present.

I untied my horse. Most kids have bikes. I however, have a horse. My parents are so weird.

We rode into town, heading straight to Paula's house. There, we tied our horses in the barn and gave them some sugar cubes.

Paula's a good friend of my father's. They went to high school together and she works at the Sharing. She long ago gave us permission to leave our horses with her when we came into town. Luckily, she wasn't home. Otherwise we'd have to talk for about an hour and come inside for tea. Paula's so old-fasioned.

We walked to the park and met Cassidy there.

"Hey Mark," she said casually, but I saw her whole face light up when she saw him. It was so cute, except for the fact that it was my brother. She quickly tried to hide the excitement on her face.

"Hey Cassidy," he said. "You know my sister, Danielle."

"Yeah." She said shortly. "So, do you want to go to a movie later? I won tickets at the last dance."

"Sure," Mark said. He seemed distracted. "I'm going to go get iced cream, you two play nice," and he left.

"Well, that was interesting," Cassidy muttered, just before a sandy-haired girl plowed into her.