"Finally!" Mini shouted out to no one in particular and threw herself on the hallway couch. "I thought this day would never end." She closed her eyes and tried cutting the annoying voice of Madison out of her head.
"Okay, this is probably a dumb question to ask but here it goes... Hey Mini! How was your first day of school?"
Mini opened her eyes and glanced over at her older sister Marcy who was smiling widely at her.
"Crap," Mini mumbled as a reply.
"Yeah, everything is crap to you, right?" Marcy said sarcastically and sat down on the couch. "Teenagers and their little problems, I tell you…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mini said. "And by the way, who are you to talk? You're a teenager too, in case you forgot."
"And in case you forgot, dear little sister, I will be turning 20 in just a few months. That's a long way from 16, you know."
"I hate it when you do that," Mini muttered.
"Do what?"
"When you start acting all… you know! Grown up and mature. It's like you're 40 or something. Why can't you just be my 19-year old sister I need to talk to right now?"
Marcy just smiled.
It was true Marcy was trying to act much older than she really was, mainly because she took most of the responsibility around the house at the time of their mother's breakdown. Nobody had asked her to, but that was Marcy in a nutshell. Always putting other people first, and being the most helpful and friendly person one can imagine. When she graduated from high school earlier that year she had had big plans just like her older sister. With her grades and presence she could have applied to any college she wanted to, but things being the way they were, she decided to take at least one year of to spend time with her mom. For Mini, that had been good and bad news. Bad because now she wouldn't be able to get her hands on Marcy's big bathroom which she had counted on getting when Marcy was moving out, but good because now she didn't need to deal that much with their wreck mother.
"Alright, tell me then," Marcy said, eying her younger sister. "Why did you not love going back to school and all the evil teachers, boring lessons and tons of homework?"
"It's not like that." Mini said. "I don't care about the lessons or any of that. My problem is that all the people I love are at home, and I don't have anyone to share anything with at school."
"So what you're saying is," Marcy said while scratching her head. "That you don't love Popeye?"
Mini laughed. "That's not what I'm saying, but Popeye has all her friends at school…"
"So do you"
"The thing is, I don't. They're not real friends. They're just stupid and shallow, and I'm so sick of it!" Mini blurted.
"Alright, calm down," Marcy said. "Take a deep breath."
"Aww, what am I going to do, Marce? I can't stand hanging around with those people much longer, I'll go crazy."
"So, get to know new people! Get new friends to hand out with," Marcy said and smiled. "It'll work out."
"That's easy to say," Mini said with an unhappy laugh. "Nobody wants to be friends with me unless they're trying to get in to the popular crowd by kissing by ass. I've too mean to people."
"Believe me honey," Marcy said. "It'll work out."
She stood up and gave her sister a hug.
"I have to go out to do some grocery shopping. Will you be okay?"
"Yeah," Mini said. "I'll be fine."
"Great!" Marcy said with a wicked smile. "Then you wouldn't mind taking Cara out for a walk? I'm exhausted and nobody else is home."
Mini groaned, but pushed herself off the couch. "Yeah, why not? It will clear my brain."
"Yeah, besides," Marcy said. "It's time you start taking some more responsibility around here. So as for tonight, I have decided a few chores for you do to. For example…"
"All right, I'm going, I'm going!" Mini cried and rushed out of the room to get the family dog.
Cara, a two year old black and white Border Collie, was originally Mini's birthday present two years back from her father. But over the years she had grown on the whole family, and everybody loved her. From Mini's point of view she was the best dog in the world and although she didn't understand, Mini confided in Cara in a lot of matters she couldn't tell anyone else.
At the moment, they were walking down St. Francis Street and Mini was telling Cara about her day.
"And then Madison gave me a ride home, and not one second during that whole ride would she shut up. Honestly! It was all blah blah about her, and then some shit about me and Aaron what's-his-name. Like I could care less! I swear, sometimes I just want to…"
She stopped talking while she spotted two people she recognized, guys from her school. She didn't know them personally, in fact, they had never said more than two words to each other, but Castle Rock was a small town and everybody knew everybody. And their names were Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance.
Mini didn't know very much about them except the Chambers guy was from a bad family and everyone had always advised Mini to stay away from those people, especially her so called friends, who Mini were sure would run in the other direction if they spotted a member of the Chambers family.
'But I'm not like that,' she tried to convince herself in her mind. Maybe this was also a good start to meet all the new people Marcy had been talking about. So she smiled nervously at them and said "Hi."
"Hey," Gordie replied and eyed her. "Were you just talking to your dog?"
Mini blushed and gave out a nervous laugh. "Umm, kind of, maybe?"
Cara, who was not at all happy with being held back, desperately tried to get to the strangers. When Mini wouldn't let her, she gave out an unhappy bark to get noticed.
"Well, he's cute alright," Gordie continued and bent down to pat her. "What's his name?"
"We should get going, Gordie," Chris suddenly said loudly, before Mini had a chance to answer.
"Okay," Gordie said, a bit surprised. "Bye then."
"Bye," Mini said. Chris didn't utter another word, but seemed to be in a hurry to leave. He obviously didn't want anything to do with her.
"That's how well it went for me to try to meet some new people, Care Bear," Mini muttered to Cara, who's tail wagged back and forward as she watched the boys disappear.
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Sorry it took so long to update, but I've been away everywhere and haven't found the time. Hope you don't mind things moving a little slow, but I think we need to get to know Mini and her family before she starts getting all invovled with Christopher... Hope you like it so long!
