Authors Note: Anything in Italics are journal entries.
June 21st. Exhile to Siberia. I mean New Jersey. Is there a difference? I can't tell. Isn't Siberia the place they send you to die? And from my experience, Ocean Grove isn't that much different. I think the median age is eighty-five with a life expectancy of, uh-eighty-six. Sounds about right to me.
Thanks mom, thank you for buying me a one way ticket to hell. I mean grams and gramps mausoleum, where it smells like desiccated socks. Oh, I'm sure they're thrilled too. It'll just be one great summer of Chinese torture for all of us. Who cares anyway? Nobody. Actually, maybe Ocean Grove is the perfect place for me.
In fact when I get off this bus, I should just walk over to the pier and jump. End it all. Goodbye world, goodbye New Jersey! The truth is, if I weren't around, it would solve everyone's problems. Mom could really focus on saving marriage number nine, and my grandmother – well, she could spend her whole summer making those sea shell things, and gramps could finally finish fixing up that boat of his.
Yeah, grams definitely wouldn't care if I weren't around. I swear she has some serious anxiety issues. Maybe I should give her some of my pills. That's what I should do, make it easy on everyone. If I weren't here they're lives would be better. There's only one person who might actually care, but dad isn't around anymore.
While, waiting for this boring bus ride to end, I had found my amusement. There was this guy snoring next to me with his mouth open. Every so often, I'd place a piece of newspaper on his tongue. When he finally woke up, he began coughing, trying to spit out the paper. Absolutely hilarious.
"Busses suck, huh?" I asked.
A few minutes later, I stepped off the bus. Hello, New Jersey! Good times, good times.
"Hi, sweetie!" Gramps greeting me.
"Callie, how nice to see you," Grams said.
"Gramps, grams, hi," I said uninterested. "You folks don't look so bad, in all things considered."
"Hello to you to Callie," Grams said in response to my snarky comment.
"Yeah, hello, hello," I said. "We all know why I'm here, no need to act thrilled about it."
The car ride to their house was less than entertaining.
"We're glad to have you, we really are," Gramps said.
"Yeah, well I didn't really plan on spending my summer in Jersey, in what might as well be a nursing home," I said.
"Well I guess you're glad to be out of school for the summer right?" he asked.
"If I cared one microbe about school," I shrugged, "I guess, yeah, it'd be some kind of relief."
"Well your mother said you were on the honor roll all year, even graduated a year early," he reasoned. "That's terrific. You should be proud of yourself. You'll get into a good college."
"Sure," I said sarcastically.
The fact is, I'm gonna kill myself before I turn eighteen so itt doesn't really leave much time for an undergraduate degree. See, I've been making this list of all the different way you can die: self-immolation, falling from a great height, I don't know about electrocution. I hear that your heart actually cooks and you puke up your melted guts.
At the same time, I've been making this list of things I wanna do before I die for instance, I wanna eat a bug, just to say that I did. Um, I wanna get into a fist fight with a grown man- don't ask. I wanna learn how to really paint. And maybe get a tattoo. As soon as I choose my method of death, I'm gonna cross as much off of my to do list as I can, and commit some kind of grizzly suicide. Voila! They won't have Callie to kick around anymore.
"Come on, Greta," Grams said as we pulled up to the house. Not that I'd ever admit it out loud, but the house wasn't that bad. Kind of cute in a way.
"Well look who it is, you certainly have grown up to be quite a pretty young lady, despite all that make up," an old lady said, walking up to me.
"Ms. Petcheski, nosey old bag," I muttered.
"What's that?" she asked turning her hearing aid up.
"I said isn't this heat a drag!" I said louder.
"A drag?" she asked. I nodded my head, annoyed. "Hey! Did you hear about that huge hunk of space junk that landed in some old ladies home, just about a month ago. Right here in Jersey!"
"Jersey?" she asked shocked. Of course she believed me.
"I mean the universe is just loaded with," I whispered so she couldn't here me. The second she turned her hearing up all the way I shouted, "Bam! Instantly vaporized."
When she glared at me, I deemed my mission complete and walked away. The second I stepped into the house, I saw seashells, everywhere.
"I left all your things upstairs sweetie," Gramps said walking by me. I nodded my head and made my way to my room. What a surprise it was to find seashells in there too. Not.
The first thing I did was open my suitcase and pull out all of my journals. There wasn't much hiding space available, so I just chose to put them under the mattress. As I was hiding them, I heard a meow, and my old cat came out from under the bed.
"Pernelli!" I said picking him up. "What's it like living with the mummies of Guanajuato? Do you ever get used to that smell? Hmm? You don't care, as long as someone feeds you and scoops your litter. It's a pretty good deal. What life are you on anyway?"
Gently, I set him down. I could hear a teapot steaming through the vent on the floor and realized I could also hear my grandparents talking about me.
"I'm trying not to be judgmental, Joseph. But she's a handful," Grams said.
"Oh, Katherine, it's only three months," Gramps said. "September will be here before you know it. You know who she reminds me of at this age?" he asked.
"Karen," she answered. Shocked, my head went up and hit the table.
"I am nothing like my mother! Nothing!" I shouted through the vent.
Awhile later they called me down for lunch. Can you say awkward? My knee kept bouncing just waiting to get out of there.
"Hey Gramps, can I bum a twenty?" I asked, chewing on my food. Just as he went to pull it out good ol' Grams stopped him.
"Greta, we have rules in this house," Grams told me. "I assume your mother told you about them."
"Yeah, I'm sure she did," I smirked, "But I'm also sure, I wasn't paying attention."
"Oh, well, then listen to me," she began. "Now you can have a very nice summer here, but it won't be without structure and supervision. Now, if you want to have spending money, you're going to have to get a job. And there will be a ten PM curfew. And you're not permitted beyond the town lines, especially not to Asbury Park. That's no place for you. So does all of that sound fair to you?"
"Let me tell you how this works:" I laughed, "I go where I want when I want with whom I want. And I don't come home until I want to. Now that's how it works at Karen's. So if you've got a problem with it, take it up with her. She's the one who dumped me you two anyway. Okay? Let's just do each other a favor, and stay out of each other's way. This summer will be over before we know it. Deal? Deal."
Author's Note:
Sam and Dean should be coming up in the next chapter. Please review and subscribe! :)