Chapter 3 – Tash Edwards

I rolled over in my bed to face the clock. 9:43 AM. It was still too early for me. I had a hangover from a party I was at until past midnight. My girlfriend, Katherine, had been with me. She'd crashed in my room (even though it wasn't serious at all between us) and left about an hour earlier.

It was easy to see why I was so tired. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was useless. I was awake.

"Tash!" One of my younger sisters, Kara, was calling me. "I'm making toast with Amaryllis, but she keeps messing it up! And Wesley keeps teasing Dirk!"

Damn those two, I thought as I sat up. Always getting in trouble, making me lose sleep…

"Coming!" I yelled back. I pushed off my blanket and got dressed in a pair of jean cutoffs, a mint green tank top, and my blue flip-flops. As I pulled my hair out of its messy ponytail, our two dogs, Cooper and Royce, rushed towards the stairs. Kara followed them closely, her long blonde hair flowing out behind her.

Our entire family had the same white-blonde hair and dark brown eyes. However, I'd put neon purple, lime green and hot pink streaks all through mine. It got me grounded for a week, but I used permanent dye, so my mom couldn't make me remove them.

"Tash, please help us out," she begged as I walked down the hallway towards the kitchen. "Mom already left for the restaurant, and Dad took Griffin to physical therapy. And Dirk's crying because Wesley hit him, but he won't stop hitting him! And Amaryllis burnt the toast - again!"

"Sorry sis," I said, checking my phone. "I have to cover Marcy's shift at the restaurant, then I have a date with Tony, and after that I have to go to a party with Kent."

Kent and Tony were two of my boyfriends, as was Jake. That does mean I'm dating four people at once. I like them all, so whatever. I don't know if they know I'm cheating though.

Katherine did mention that she saw me kiss Jake when she drove past my house. Shit, does that mean she knows? What if they all know?

"Tash!" Kara stopped and glared at me, hands on her hips. "You're the only one they listen to, though! You have to help!"

I sighed. "Get Dirk watching TV and have Wesley take Cooper on a walk," I ordered. Our brown lab wagged her tail when she heard this. "And if Amaryllis burns the toast, don't let her make it. Give her some cheerios or whatever. I'm late."

"When will you be back?" Kara looked at me worriedly. "Mom has to work late tonight because some couple booked Lilly's Grill for their wedding reception, and Dad's going to be busy with Griffin all day. I can't babysit all day. I'm only eleven."

I sighed again. She was capable of "babysitting" them. Kara was more mature than I was.

"Fine. I'll cancel with Tony. But I'm not missing that party tonight, and Marcy needs me to cover her shift."

"You're too young to be working!"

"I'm going to be sixteen in two months. I can handle a shift waitressing at Mom's place."

As the oldest, I had to be responsible, and that meant helping out around the house. I had to skip to cover for my best friend because she had to go visit her niece yesterday and wouldn't be back until an hour before her shift ended, and Kara always got mad when I wasn't "being the responsible one." I didn't want to be responsible, and I wasn't.

I mean, I got a tattoo when I was fourteen.

"That's not a word."

"I don't give a damn, Kara," I said as I entered the kitchen. She moved to set things back in order.

"Don't cuss."

"Don't fucking boss me around, then." I loved teasing her.

"Fine. Just go, it opens in ten minutes."

I glanced at the clock above the sink. 9:51, indeed ten minutes before Lilly's Grill opens for the day.

"Shit," I muttered. "I'll be back around two, okay?"

"Don't cuss!"

"Bye, Kara!" I ran out the door and onto the sidewalk, grabbing my bag as I left. It had my emergency Lilly's Grill shirt in it for when I had to work unexpectedly.

Mom's restaurant was very successful and had been open since before I was born. It was on the other side of town, but only eight minutes from our house – and that was on foot, too. My hometown of Brass Lake, Iowa, was ridiculously small. There were only two elementary schools, a middle school, a high school, and a preschool, plus two grocery stores, about five gas stations, a movie theater, three restaurants, four neighborhoods, a bunch of shops, and the lake.

Basically everybody knew everybody, and I was the party girl with weird hair and a tattoo of a Rubix cube. Nice, right?

But since there were only about a hundred people in my grade level, I had at some point hooked up with everybody and kissed almost all of those people. And that was including all the straight girls, too.

That was about as much of an adventure as you could have in Brass Lake, second only to a day on one of the three small islands right in the middle that were technically illegal to go on. The police really didn't care about a bunch of teenagers crashing on an island for a night as long as we didn't set anything on fire, so we were good. There was a party there tonight. It was on the biggest island, Beaver Ruin.

My favorite was a woody island, the middle-sized one, called Eagle Cry. It had a big clearing in the middle and a little inlet for parking boats.

The one nobody ever went to was tiny with dense bushes and called Thrush Hollow. Sometimes, though, on hot summer days when we were on one of the bigger islands, we'd dare each other to swim over there and explore. Every time, though, we all ended up jumping in the murky water right behind and swimming the short distance across the shallow part between the islands to join them and run, laughing, through the bracken, getting eaten alive by the mosquitos and scratched by branches but not giving a damn about it because we were having fun.

About a minute away from the restaurant, I dashed off the sidewalk and ducked behind some tall bushes. I pulled my shirt out of my bag and tugged it over my head, fixed my hair, and ran the rest of the way to Lilly's Grill, where I began my shift.

I left sweaty and tired, holding a to-go cup of diet Coke in one hand and my bag in the other. It had been a major lunch rush with lots of tourists (people actually came to Brass Lake by choice to go boating) and I ended up about an hour later than I was supposed to be. Kara yelled at me when I got home. I ignored her and sat on the front porch.

My phone started to ring, and I answered it without looking.

"Hello?" I said.

"Tash, where the hell are you?" It was Tony.

"Sorry, I had to work at the restaurant today, and Kara made me cancel so I could babysit the little ones. I though I told you."

"Well, you didn't." Tony was the most dramatic of all my boyfriends. I swear, he was worst than most girls.

"God, babe, I'm sorry. It was kind of a short-notice thing."

"Whatever, Tash."

"Tony, I made a mistake, okay?"

"You're probably just going to blow me off again for that party with Kent."

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"You told me." Oops.

"I did?"

"Yeah."

"Well, sorry. You know how it is with me."

"I know you're cheating on me with three other guys."

"Actually," I said awkwardly, "Katherine's a girl."

"Whatever, Tash. I don't even know why we're still dating."

"Because I like you! And I want to be with you! I do! I just want to be with other people too, okay?"

"Bye Tash."

"Wait, Tony, can't you come over?"

He paused. "Maybe."

"See you at my place in ten."

"Okay. Bye."

After Tony left half an hour later, Wesley ran outside with an envelope in his hand. "Tash, it's for you!"

I grabbed it from him and tore it open. Yes! I got in!

"I'm in, I'm in, YES! Best day ever!" I could finally say adios to this hell of a place!

"You mean the contest?" he asked. Everybody knew about it from my long fights with my parents about letting me go if I got in. Eventually, they gave in, since they thought it would be a "good learning experience" for me.

"Yes! I'm in! And I'm leaving next week!"

"Go pack, then, moron."

"Right!" Goodbye, Brass Lake! All thoughts of Tony, Kent, and the party left my head as I ran upstairs. All that mattered was that I was finally out of this place!

A/N: Keep those OCs coming, guys! I still need 23 characters to fill up every single empty spot! And I changed it, so I can allow THREE submissions per author! That means you can submit, one, two, or three characters! (And here's a secret: if you submit, you're guaranteed a spot in since I need so many more people.)

And by the chapter where all the cliques arrive, which should be chapter 12, you can vote for your favorite clique on the poll on my profile! Very important to the story!

I'll keep the chapters coming so we can get to that point as soon as possible. I'm having just as much fun writing this as you are reading it (hopefully).

xox wild and broken eyes