"Darcy came back home. She wanted to surprise us. Isn't that considerate?" Considerate? It was anything but considerate. Why did Darcy have to come home at a time like this? Now, almost everything in my life is getting shook-up, and my least favorite sister (supposedly) just had to show up.
I think she is embarrassed by me. Wait, check that. I know she is embarrassed by me.
Daddy rolled his eyes and took a sip of his tea, but then decided it wasn't to his liking and put it back on the coffee table. He noticed me looking at him, so he made a funny face and motioned to mother, then made a chocking motion. No one noticed but me. I had to fight a smile. If I smiled, I'd sell Daddy out, and we didn't do that to each other.
Ever since Darcy went to a third world country to help children, all mother could talk about was 'Darcy is so smart.' She only passed the tenth grade because I helped her with her homework. 'Darcy is so pretty.' Couldn't argue with that, she did have a nice facade. Or the real kicker, 'Darcy is so pure.' Pure like an oily rig at a mechanicals shop. There's no telling what Kenyan man she's been gallivanting around with.
Here I am, with contraband in the form of chocolate. I knew my hair was a mess because of Declan large, long, digits running through it. My clothes still clung to me in a desperate attempt to warm their wet selves. Oh, I'm such an embarrassment. I wasn't skilled in the ways of smooth lies like Darcy. She had perfected it like a skeet shooter would perfect their aim.
How I would love to be a skeet shooter, breaking little plates in midair. Hopefully, one of the plates would be the color of the dreaded walls in this dreadful house. The other one would be a picture of me dressed up like a hooker, with Declan dressed like a pimp.(He would be a cute pimp.) The other would have Darcy's face on it, but I digress.
Darcy looked me over. I noticed her eyes darting from my hair, to my fair skin, to the candy in my hands. She was taken aback at the confection.
It isn't like candy is blood. I'm no vampire, but in their eyes, I may as well have been part of the Cullen family. A very blood thirsty member. They may think that I can't resist the urge to feed, so I have to break out of the house in the middle of the night and feed on unsuspecting Christians. I'm a Christian, why would I eat one?
I wished Declan were here, holding my hand, but sometimes, you can't have what you want.
I sat down on the couch next to Darcy and gave her a half-hearted hug. "You grew up." She said. I could hear a bit of disdain in her tone, but I decided to ignore it. A row with the Queen of Helping Kenya wouldn't help my position. It was like I was playing a one-sided game of chess, and I was about to loose.
"Clare," mother started. I gripped my candy a bit tighter. It was mine. I couldn't let her take it away from me. "Throw away that poison and ask your sister how she's doing." I looked at the Hershey bar for a moment. "Clare, I said throw it away." My mother looked angry. She does that when I don't listen to her.
She will be a very angry woman for a while. I took a bite of my candy.
"No."
Checkmate. No do overs, no take backs. I had won, and she couldn't do anything about it. My mother took a deep breath and held her hand out. "Give it to me." Was I a child who wouldn't stop smacking her gum?
"No. It's mine.'
"Yes, but your in my house." Mother said.
"Mom is right, throw that stuff away. Where did you get it form anyway?" said Darcy as she ran her finger over the coffee table as if she were looking for dust, even though I knew that she knew there wouldn't be any. I thought being in a third world country made you humble, but some people never change.
"A friend." I stated, smiling at the memoire of Declan's fumbling hands. Soft, fumbling hands with long, gentle fingers.
"Alli?" I rolled my eyes. Mother didn't like Alli. She wanted me to stay away from Muslim people. Alli's parents knew I'm not allowed to have sugar. How could someone be so . . . well, such a hypocrite. This was a ploy to get Alli in even more trouble than she already was with her parents. The poor girl was in the dog house for getting back with Johnny. Sav had gotten concerned for her, so, he ratted her out. I felt sorry for her, but at the same time, I agreed with Sav. Now though, after what I did in the middle of a Degrassi's main drag, I can't say much.
I was happy Darcy wasn't around when the K.C. drama went down. She would have told on me out of spite.
I wasn't that bad of a sister. Sure, I teased her and annoyed her a bit, but I looked out for the little booger. She made good choices because the people around her were making good choices. She was the same way with the bad ones.
"No. Alli knows she can't give me candy." Bitch. It was simple, my mother was being a bitch. She knows that Alli's parents know that I'm not supposed to eat sugar. Just because they knows doesn't mean she won't give it to me. I usually get goodies when I go to the Bhandari house. Alli's mother loves to bake.
"A boy?" I could lie to her. I could tell her that I took it from a nice, white, middle-aged person in an unmarked white van. That the nice, white, middle-aged man in the unmarked white van offered me a ride home, and I let him drive me. The police would be here before you could say 'sex offender.'
I don't like to lie. "Yes." I forced an innocent look across my face. I didn't want to let her get a rise out of me. No explanations, no excuses, just sweet little me and the troll didn't want me to get over the bridge.
How could she miss the nice, shiny, expensive car pull up in her driveway? I will never know, but daddy saw it. I could tell by the smile that played itself across his face.
My father is a strange man. He loves Fran, my mother, and he loves me, but he never really cared for Darcy. Somehow, he sees what mother can't. The favoritism, (or in the very likely account that I'm the spawn of my father and the lady down the street, nepotism) was clear as crystal to him, whereas it was like stained glass Church windows to everyone else. I know it's wrong to desecrate a church, but I wish someone would smash those stained windows. I would pay for the new, clear ones. What's the point of windows you can't see through?
Darcy got up and started to walk across the awful carpet. Her shoes contrasted with the color. Her bright, white shoes. Just like Fran Edwards' mental illustrations of her. "I'm going to get my stuff out of the car." I wish she would get in her car and leave.
"Be careful, sweetie, don't over extend yourself." She said through her glare at my, sweet, innocent, defiant self. I could see that she was gritting her teeth inside her mouth.
"I won't. I didn't take much to Kenya, and brought even less back. They don't have many cloths over there, and I lost weight, so some of mine got too big. Got to pay it forwards." More like get a free vacation through a Church. Darcy might be the favorite in Mother's eyes, but daddy wasn't afraid to put his foot down. Things had started to get turbulent.
Mother waited until Darcy walked out the door. "We'll talk about this later."
Daddy rolled his eyes again. I walked over and sat on the couch. The silence started to become sharp, like some ancient person making an arrowhead. I felt as though I was the one who was supposed to be getting cut, but I felt fit as a fiddle. A Stradivarius. I smiled, and finished off my candy.
"Clare, where are your glasses?" Shit. Oh shit. I had told myself that I wouldn't forget to get them out of the street, even though they were scratched. Broken glasses are better than no glasses. By the time the rain let up, I had gotten used to the changed vision, . . . and the make-out high I was still on.
"I lost them." That wouldn't get me off the hook. I looked to dad. He nodded his head in understanding. He lost his glasses all the time.
"Well, I'm not buying you another pair." said mother as she crossed her arms over her little breasts. Good. I don't want her stupid, tainted glasses. I'd rather jump out of my second story window that take anything from that horrid woman. My fledgling, possible, love affair is much better than sight! Give me love or give me death!
I can't even see my mother's face clearly. I wish she would buy me some new glasses.
Darcy walked back in the room with her hands loaded with luggage. Two rolling suitcases, one carrying suitcase, and one large, overstuffed purse.
She had left with one suitcase.
"Clare, go help her with her stuff." I drug myself off of the couch and took her carrying bag. "You can take more than that. Don't be a sloth." I'm not a sloth. I've done more in the last two hours than she have done all day.
I've finished my history project with Alli, let Declan brake my glasses, gotten a smoothie, walked to the Dot to get that smoothie, bought the smoothie, made out with a man, gotten wet, ate chocolate, and a lot of other, important things.
I took one of the rollers and lugged it up the stairs. I followed Darcy all the way down to the end of the hall. That's not right. She opened my bedroom door. That's not right.
"I have got to settle into my room. Take your junk out."
"Darcy, this is my room now." The room used to be hers, and I had to take the small room at the end of the hall. Then, she left, and mother made my room into the guest room. Much to mother's dismay, I can't sleep with the guests, so I moved into Darcy's old room.
Move your feet, lose your seat. Bad rhyme, good policy. "Why don't you just take the guest room. It's already cleaned out."
"It's too tiny. I couldn't fit all of my stuff in it." She couldn't fit all of her stuff in this room, just more of it.
"Too bad. You moved." I said in an angry tone. Darcy had always been rude to me. I think she thinks that she's entitled to all that I have because she was born first. I'm glad she is the oldest. (I still don't think were full blooded sisters, but that's beside the point.) I wouldn't want to come out of Fran's private parts first. There would be more pushing involved. I would have fought to get out of my mother's. . . ugh. . . I can't even think about her . . . ugh.
"I don't care. I was here first." She dropped her purse on my bed. "Besides, you know mom would side with me." I'm not stupid. Of corse I know. Darcy is a bit stupid.
"You can't just roll in here and take whatever you want. You lost seniority."
I had to distract her wit something aesthetic, like a good view. This room had a good view. This room was almost perfect. The only thing wrong with it is that it's far away from the bathroom.
Bingo.
"Fine, I'll just get to use the bathroom. It'll be so much easer to get to now."
"What are you talking about?"
"My new room is right next to the bathroom." With that, the stupid little humanitarian girl sprinted to the guest room and threw herself on the bed. Just to remind her determine attitude, I ran to the room and told her with a corse tone "Get off. That's mine."
"Not any more." Putty in my hands. I wish she would bounce like silly putty. I'd throw her around the room until she was covered in carpet fibers, but she's the cheap knock of putty that doesn't bounce.
