Chapter 3
It was approaching six o'clock as Luke and I finally decided to leave the park. We'd been walking around for almost three hours, reminiscing a little, but mostly just getting to know each other all over again. It was such a nice change to have someone be so interested in ME as opposed to my brothers and sister. Luke seemed genuinely fascinated by the things that I told him about myself, from my fear of caterpillars to my closeted love of country music. The funny thing was, he seemed to share a lot of my interests. When we got home, no one else was there, and we sat in the living room and continued our chat.
"So, tell me more about your friends. This Angie seems like a nut!" Luke laughed.
"Yeah, well, she is. She's like, I don't know. A train wreck. When I first met her, I thought she was one of the most obnoxious airheads I'd ever known. She was in my chemistry class at the time...she hung with this really snotty group of girls who were teasing Becca. I didn't know Becca either then, it was when we'd just moved back to Long Island. Anyway, they would harass her in the cafeteria, between classes...and it was pissing me off because she seemed like such a nice girl. So one day, these girls dared Angie to run up to Becca in the hall and knock something out of her hand, some sculpture she did in art. I overheard the whole thing, so I ran ahead to warn Becca. I was too late, I got to Becca just as Angie did, but I managed to grab her before she grabbed the sculpture."
We were both sitting on the couch, facing each other, and Luke was really getting into the story. "Wow, Supergirl to the rescue, huh?" He laughed. "You're getting violent in your old age."
I threw up my hand and playfully tapped Luke's shoulder. "I didn't hit her! I just asked her what her problem was, and told her that if she knew what was good for her she'd leave Becca alone."
"Ok, I understand how you became friends with Becca, but how did you work your magic on Angie?"
My magic? I felt an inevitable hotness rising in my cheeks, which I tried to suppress. "I didn't really have to do anything. I didn't set out to be her friend. I guess she started to realize that her friends were a bunch of losers, and decided to make some new ones. She targeted me," I said with a slight laugh. "Interesting postscript to that story...you remember Mike's friend Eddie?"
"Vaguely."
"Angie's his half sister."
Luke broke down then, laughing hysterically. "That doesn't surprise me!"
Just then, my dad came through the door. "Hey kids, how was the science fair?"
We were still laughing at that point, almost to the point of tears, although I wasn't sure why. The whole thing about Eddie and Angie being related wasn't THAT funny. But there was just something about being here, and really relating to someone the way I couldn't relate to Mike, Carol, or Ben. For the first time ever, I felt like someone really GOT me. And it was a really nice feeling.
"Kids?" my dad continued. "How was the science fair? Hello?"
"Oh..." I managed to calm myself down. "I won first place again."
"That's great Chrissy!" He looked pleased. "I'm proud of you, again."
"You should have seen the camera she made, Mr. Seaver. It was amazing," Luke said.
"Camera?" Dad asked absentmindedly, as he sorted through the mail, and placed it in piles on the hutch. "What camera?"
Luke's face fell. "Her science project. She made a solar powered video camera. I...I assumed you knew that."
I stood up abruptly. "No. My parents don't pay attention to anything I do." I stormed through the living room and past my open-mouthed father. As I started up the stairs I called to Luke over my shoulder. "Thanks for coming to the fair, Luke! At least SOMEONE did!"
"Chrissy, wait a minute!" My dad said, but I was already upstairs. I slammed my bedroom door behind me and collapsed onto my bed, tears rolling down my face. This is ridiculous, I thought to myself. I don't cry. What is wrong with me? Not five minutes ago I felt so great...better than I'd felt in a long time. What happened? I felt guilty about running out on Luke like that, but what else could I do? I stood up and walked over to my dresser, where Mr. Blowhole still sat, a little worse for the wear, and only having one eye. I know my parents are busy, I told myself. They have important things to do, more important than to come to some stupid science fair.
I grabbed Mr. Blowhole and sat back down on the bed. I sighed. "What am I going to do Mr. Blowhole?" I paused. "I'm talking to a stuffed whale. Wonderful."
There was a knock at my door. I was expecting it to be my dad, until I heard the voice say, "Chris? Can I come in?"
"Mike?" I stood up and opened the door. Sure enough, there stood my oldest brother. I looked at him incredulously. We hadn't lived in this house very long, but in that time I don't think Mike had ever been in my room.
He looked through my doorway. "Hey, nice room."
I continued to stare at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well...can I come in first?"
"Yeah." Mike came in and I closed the door behind him, and then sat back down on the bed, looking at him expectantly.
He noticed a poster on my wall. "Hey," he said, "I didn't know you liked Aerosmith."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, " I retorted, rolling my eyes. "Why are you here?"
"Geez, someone's testy. If you must know, I came over to see Luke..."
"Figures," I muttered under my breath.
"What is with you?" Mike asked accusingly. "Dad said you ran up here crying for no reason, and now I come up here to talk to you and you act like a jerk!"
"No reason? Yeah, that's right. It's a wonder that anyone in this family even notices I'm here!" I stood, and now I began to raise my voice. "I guess being ignored is no reason to get upset or cry, right? And I guess sending you up here to talk to me instead of coming up here himself was the best way to go, seeing as you also never seem to notice me either!"
Mike began to raise his voice as well. "Dad couldn't come talk to you because him and Luke had to go to the college! Ben had some kind of accident or something, I don't know, I guess Dad got the phone call right before I got here, and as he was leaving he said I should come check on you but he didn't tell me why."
I stopped short. "Ben? Is he okay?"
"I don't know...I don't think it was serious." Mike was staring at me, a perplexed look on his face. "What do you mean I ignore you?"
Every emotion came crashing together at once, with panic and worry about Ben being the icing on the cake. I picked up Mr. Blowhole and flung him at the mirror on my wall. It came crashing down. Then the waterworks started, full force.
Mike just stood there shocked for a second. "Chris...Chrissy?" I collapsed onto the bed, and he sat next to me, and hugged me, which surprised me. "What is going on with you?"
"Nothing," I sniffed. "It's just growing pains."
"I've seen growing pains," he said, "and this ain't growing pains."
"Look," I said, "can we just go find out what happened to Ben?"
"No, not until you tell me what's wrong with you. I've never seen you like this."
I stood again, the tears subsiding. "That's just it, Mike."
"What's just it?"
"No one ever stops to notice ME. Do you know that Luke is the only so-called family member that has taken any interest in me in a long time? Mom and Dad don't notice a damn thing I do anymore, unless I'm getting in trouble, and even then they just make some offhanded comment about how ironic it is that I'm a cross between Mike and Carol! And you and Carol have absolutely zero interest in my life...it's like you still look at me like I'm four years old, and every time I try to talk to either or you it's some kind of huge annoyance to you! As for Ben, at least he doesn't treat me like a child but half the time we get along worse than you and Carol ever did!"
Mike listened to my little speech, dumbfounded. "Chris, I had no idea you felt that way."
"There's a shocker."
"Ok, you can cut the sarcasm. I'm being serious. You're right. I guess I never really noticed that you had grown up. You not just my baby sister any more. You're an actual person." Mike looked genuinely amazed by his newfound realization.
"Yeah. I AM an actual person." I started to let my guard down slightly, as I saw Mike begin to finally understand.
"Hey Chris?" he asked. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
I smiled. "I'm not sure. I was thinking maybe a reporter, like Mom used to be. But the more I think about it, I'd rather do something with my hands. Maybe I'll be an engineer."
"Really? Because I thought you wanted to be an actress."
"Yeah, I did. When I was nine." I was a millisecond away from rolling my eyes, but decided against it.
"Oh," Mike's face fell. "I used to want to be an actor."
"Yeah, I remember. I was really surprised when you went into teaching instead, before you went into advertising. But I'm glad you did." I smiled.
"Oh yeah?" Mike asked. "Why is that?"
"Because that's when you met Luke, right? When you worked at the school."
"Hey, you're right. You know, I'd actually forgotten how I'd met him." Mike laughed. "You really like him, don't you, Chrissy?"
I had a feeling we were getting into dangerous territory here. "Well...yeah. I guess I do."
"Well, I'm glad. I guess..." Mike looked downward, almost guiltily. "I guess he's like the brother you always wanted."
"No," I laughed, "he's definitely not that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, Mike, that I'm glad you're my brother." I got up and hugged him tighter than I ever had. "And I love you!"
Mike laughed and hugged me back. "Hey do me a favor though, Chris. Next time something's bothering you, talk to someone about it, instead of taking it out on old Mr. Blowhard."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, okay Mike."
Mike and I got to the college just in time to find Dad, Ben and Luke in the campus television studio, and Dad was grudgingly making a check out to the studio manager. I walked up to Ben and smacked the side of his head.
"Ow!" he yelled. "What was that for?"
"Because I thought you were hurt, that's why!" I shook my head at him. "How did you come to drop a camera off the top of a ladder, anyway?"
"I was working on a special effect for my project," Bed said. Just then, two coeds with low cut blouses walked by.
Mike nudged Ben and whispered to him, "You were getting cleavage shots, weren't you?"
Ben grinned. "You know it."
Mike slapped the side of Ben's head. "You're such an idiot!"
I laughed.
Dad finished up with the studio manager, and walked over to us, putting his checkbook back into his jacket pocket. "Mike, I want Chrissy and Luke to ride home with you. I want to talk to Ben alone." And with that Dad grabbed Ben by the collar of his jacket, and dragged him out of the studio.
"So..." Mike began, obviously reveling in the fact that HE was not the one in trouble, "anyone up for ice cream?"
It was approaching six o'clock as Luke and I finally decided to leave the park. We'd been walking around for almost three hours, reminiscing a little, but mostly just getting to know each other all over again. It was such a nice change to have someone be so interested in ME as opposed to my brothers and sister. Luke seemed genuinely fascinated by the things that I told him about myself, from my fear of caterpillars to my closeted love of country music. The funny thing was, he seemed to share a lot of my interests. When we got home, no one else was there, and we sat in the living room and continued our chat.
"So, tell me more about your friends. This Angie seems like a nut!" Luke laughed.
"Yeah, well, she is. She's like, I don't know. A train wreck. When I first met her, I thought she was one of the most obnoxious airheads I'd ever known. She was in my chemistry class at the time...she hung with this really snotty group of girls who were teasing Becca. I didn't know Becca either then, it was when we'd just moved back to Long Island. Anyway, they would harass her in the cafeteria, between classes...and it was pissing me off because she seemed like such a nice girl. So one day, these girls dared Angie to run up to Becca in the hall and knock something out of her hand, some sculpture she did in art. I overheard the whole thing, so I ran ahead to warn Becca. I was too late, I got to Becca just as Angie did, but I managed to grab her before she grabbed the sculpture."
We were both sitting on the couch, facing each other, and Luke was really getting into the story. "Wow, Supergirl to the rescue, huh?" He laughed. "You're getting violent in your old age."
I threw up my hand and playfully tapped Luke's shoulder. "I didn't hit her! I just asked her what her problem was, and told her that if she knew what was good for her she'd leave Becca alone."
"Ok, I understand how you became friends with Becca, but how did you work your magic on Angie?"
My magic? I felt an inevitable hotness rising in my cheeks, which I tried to suppress. "I didn't really have to do anything. I didn't set out to be her friend. I guess she started to realize that her friends were a bunch of losers, and decided to make some new ones. She targeted me," I said with a slight laugh. "Interesting postscript to that story...you remember Mike's friend Eddie?"
"Vaguely."
"Angie's his half sister."
Luke broke down then, laughing hysterically. "That doesn't surprise me!"
Just then, my dad came through the door. "Hey kids, how was the science fair?"
We were still laughing at that point, almost to the point of tears, although I wasn't sure why. The whole thing about Eddie and Angie being related wasn't THAT funny. But there was just something about being here, and really relating to someone the way I couldn't relate to Mike, Carol, or Ben. For the first time ever, I felt like someone really GOT me. And it was a really nice feeling.
"Kids?" my dad continued. "How was the science fair? Hello?"
"Oh..." I managed to calm myself down. "I won first place again."
"That's great Chrissy!" He looked pleased. "I'm proud of you, again."
"You should have seen the camera she made, Mr. Seaver. It was amazing," Luke said.
"Camera?" Dad asked absentmindedly, as he sorted through the mail, and placed it in piles on the hutch. "What camera?"
Luke's face fell. "Her science project. She made a solar powered video camera. I...I assumed you knew that."
I stood up abruptly. "No. My parents don't pay attention to anything I do." I stormed through the living room and past my open-mouthed father. As I started up the stairs I called to Luke over my shoulder. "Thanks for coming to the fair, Luke! At least SOMEONE did!"
"Chrissy, wait a minute!" My dad said, but I was already upstairs. I slammed my bedroom door behind me and collapsed onto my bed, tears rolling down my face. This is ridiculous, I thought to myself. I don't cry. What is wrong with me? Not five minutes ago I felt so great...better than I'd felt in a long time. What happened? I felt guilty about running out on Luke like that, but what else could I do? I stood up and walked over to my dresser, where Mr. Blowhole still sat, a little worse for the wear, and only having one eye. I know my parents are busy, I told myself. They have important things to do, more important than to come to some stupid science fair.
I grabbed Mr. Blowhole and sat back down on the bed. I sighed. "What am I going to do Mr. Blowhole?" I paused. "I'm talking to a stuffed whale. Wonderful."
There was a knock at my door. I was expecting it to be my dad, until I heard the voice say, "Chris? Can I come in?"
"Mike?" I stood up and opened the door. Sure enough, there stood my oldest brother. I looked at him incredulously. We hadn't lived in this house very long, but in that time I don't think Mike had ever been in my room.
He looked through my doorway. "Hey, nice room."
I continued to stare at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well...can I come in first?"
"Yeah." Mike came in and I closed the door behind him, and then sat back down on the bed, looking at him expectantly.
He noticed a poster on my wall. "Hey," he said, "I didn't know you liked Aerosmith."
"There's a lot you don't know about me, " I retorted, rolling my eyes. "Why are you here?"
"Geez, someone's testy. If you must know, I came over to see Luke..."
"Figures," I muttered under my breath.
"What is with you?" Mike asked accusingly. "Dad said you ran up here crying for no reason, and now I come up here to talk to you and you act like a jerk!"
"No reason? Yeah, that's right. It's a wonder that anyone in this family even notices I'm here!" I stood, and now I began to raise my voice. "I guess being ignored is no reason to get upset or cry, right? And I guess sending you up here to talk to me instead of coming up here himself was the best way to go, seeing as you also never seem to notice me either!"
Mike began to raise his voice as well. "Dad couldn't come talk to you because him and Luke had to go to the college! Ben had some kind of accident or something, I don't know, I guess Dad got the phone call right before I got here, and as he was leaving he said I should come check on you but he didn't tell me why."
I stopped short. "Ben? Is he okay?"
"I don't know...I don't think it was serious." Mike was staring at me, a perplexed look on his face. "What do you mean I ignore you?"
Every emotion came crashing together at once, with panic and worry about Ben being the icing on the cake. I picked up Mr. Blowhole and flung him at the mirror on my wall. It came crashing down. Then the waterworks started, full force.
Mike just stood there shocked for a second. "Chris...Chrissy?" I collapsed onto the bed, and he sat next to me, and hugged me, which surprised me. "What is going on with you?"
"Nothing," I sniffed. "It's just growing pains."
"I've seen growing pains," he said, "and this ain't growing pains."
"Look," I said, "can we just go find out what happened to Ben?"
"No, not until you tell me what's wrong with you. I've never seen you like this."
I stood again, the tears subsiding. "That's just it, Mike."
"What's just it?"
"No one ever stops to notice ME. Do you know that Luke is the only so-called family member that has taken any interest in me in a long time? Mom and Dad don't notice a damn thing I do anymore, unless I'm getting in trouble, and even then they just make some offhanded comment about how ironic it is that I'm a cross between Mike and Carol! And you and Carol have absolutely zero interest in my life...it's like you still look at me like I'm four years old, and every time I try to talk to either or you it's some kind of huge annoyance to you! As for Ben, at least he doesn't treat me like a child but half the time we get along worse than you and Carol ever did!"
Mike listened to my little speech, dumbfounded. "Chris, I had no idea you felt that way."
"There's a shocker."
"Ok, you can cut the sarcasm. I'm being serious. You're right. I guess I never really noticed that you had grown up. You not just my baby sister any more. You're an actual person." Mike looked genuinely amazed by his newfound realization.
"Yeah. I AM an actual person." I started to let my guard down slightly, as I saw Mike begin to finally understand.
"Hey Chris?" he asked. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
I smiled. "I'm not sure. I was thinking maybe a reporter, like Mom used to be. But the more I think about it, I'd rather do something with my hands. Maybe I'll be an engineer."
"Really? Because I thought you wanted to be an actress."
"Yeah, I did. When I was nine." I was a millisecond away from rolling my eyes, but decided against it.
"Oh," Mike's face fell. "I used to want to be an actor."
"Yeah, I remember. I was really surprised when you went into teaching instead, before you went into advertising. But I'm glad you did." I smiled.
"Oh yeah?" Mike asked. "Why is that?"
"Because that's when you met Luke, right? When you worked at the school."
"Hey, you're right. You know, I'd actually forgotten how I'd met him." Mike laughed. "You really like him, don't you, Chrissy?"
I had a feeling we were getting into dangerous territory here. "Well...yeah. I guess I do."
"Well, I'm glad. I guess..." Mike looked downward, almost guiltily. "I guess he's like the brother you always wanted."
"No," I laughed, "he's definitely not that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, Mike, that I'm glad you're my brother." I got up and hugged him tighter than I ever had. "And I love you!"
Mike laughed and hugged me back. "Hey do me a favor though, Chris. Next time something's bothering you, talk to someone about it, instead of taking it out on old Mr. Blowhard."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, okay Mike."
Mike and I got to the college just in time to find Dad, Ben and Luke in the campus television studio, and Dad was grudgingly making a check out to the studio manager. I walked up to Ben and smacked the side of his head.
"Ow!" he yelled. "What was that for?"
"Because I thought you were hurt, that's why!" I shook my head at him. "How did you come to drop a camera off the top of a ladder, anyway?"
"I was working on a special effect for my project," Bed said. Just then, two coeds with low cut blouses walked by.
Mike nudged Ben and whispered to him, "You were getting cleavage shots, weren't you?"
Ben grinned. "You know it."
Mike slapped the side of Ben's head. "You're such an idiot!"
I laughed.
Dad finished up with the studio manager, and walked over to us, putting his checkbook back into his jacket pocket. "Mike, I want Chrissy and Luke to ride home with you. I want to talk to Ben alone." And with that Dad grabbed Ben by the collar of his jacket, and dragged him out of the studio.
"So..." Mike began, obviously reveling in the fact that HE was not the one in trouble, "anyone up for ice cream?"