to pop." Nadia asked trying to look over the crowd of people; most
likely trying to get another glimpse of the mysterious couple. "You
seemed pretty upset." She continued, still trying to see over
everyone. "Yeah, but I'm fine now." I said as I let Katie's little
legs down to run around.
"That was my mother and her new husband." I said finally.
"Wait, what, say that again. That was your mom." She said in
complete surprise. "Yup, you heard me right. That was my mom." I
repeated. "Loren, Mia's here." She called out. Nadia seemed to
always find away to talk about something else when she wasn't
interested anymore. I guess that was just her thing; if it didn't
involve her then she really didn't want to know. Loren appeared
out of the crowd holding a small box.
"Hey Mia; Katie found you I see." She said pointing at the
feather that hung behind my ear. Her small stature fit her pink
fitted dress perfectly. Looking at her you wouldn't even think that
she had a daughter. Physically she looked great, splitting image of
Nadia just shorter. Although, I will say that Loren was much more
well liked by people, she was someone who truly cared about
others.
"Here, Mia, this is for you." She said, handing me the small
box. "What is it?" I asked taking the box in one hand and pulling at
the bow with the other. "The girls wanted to get you both
something for graduation. I think they chose well." She replied with
a smile on her face.
I slowly lifted the cover to reveal a beautiful
gold ring; shaped as a rose with a small red ruby in the middle.
"Oh my, this is beautiful." I said, admiring it's shine in the box.
I carefully took the ring out and held it up to the sun; the ruby
glimmered in the light. "It's absolutely lovely." I said, as I continued
staring at it watching it, glimmering in the sunlight. "Thank you;
thank you, very much; I love it." I said, with a smile as I slipped it
over my finger.
I watched it twinkling in the sunlight as I turned
my hand from side to side.
"Of course, you deserve it. You both do." Lila said, stepping
forward.
Lila was the next in line to be captain of the squad.
Nadia picked her just a few nights ago after practice. She wasn't
very tall but she did know a lot about gymnastics’.
She was pretty,
with shoulder length black hair, small slender face with green
eyes. Her family was one of the only Asian families in Hillside.
"Look, this is mine." Nadia said, lifting her hand, presenting her
own ring to be adorned. "Wow, that's nice." I said looking at her
heart shaped ring with a diamond in the middle. The diamond fit
her perfectly, always sparkling at every chance that she was
given.
"Yours was easy Mia; we all knew that we should get you a
rose ring, with a red ruby. Look it matches your roses, the colors
and all." Lila pointed out with a smile, while pointing at my bunch
of roses, now tucked tightly under my arm. "Oh yeah, I forgot I had
these." I said, with a slight laugh. "Thank you Lila; thank you to all
of you for such a wonderful gift." I said, looking around at the small
group of girls now surrounding both Nadia and I.
"We'll miss you
guys." Nadia explained. "Remember all of you, if you ever need
help for anything, we will always be around to help." Nadia
continued, as everyone leaned in for a group hug. The smell of
perfume mixed well with each other, as the smell of berries filled
the air surrounding our little circle.
"Hey Mia, come on it's time to go. Dad already left so you're
going to have to ride with me." Tucker said, from behind the group
of girls. "Oh, alright. I'm coming." I said, looking around, making
sure I didn't forget to hug anyone. My heart started to feel sad
knowing that this could very well be the last time I get to hug them.
"Hey Tuck. I didn't see you at the ceremony; were you in
there?" Nadia asked; now turning all her attention to Tucker.
Nadia always had a thing for my brother but he never showed any
interest in her. I didn't understand why, I mean I think she was his
type but he never responded to any of her advances. Which in a
way was kind of funny I guess. She was so used to getting
everything she wanted; but she never managed to bag my
brother. I kind of laughed to myself at the thought.
"Yup, I was there and I wouldn't have missed it at all." He
replied wrapping his huge arms around my neck. "So are you
going to Jim's party tonight Mia?" She said, still staring hard at
Tucker. "What about you Tucker, will you be there?" She asked,
with her puppy dog eyes. "Um, yeah, I guess we'll both be there.
So come on Mia, got lot's to do before the party." He said tugging
me backwards.
I got the feeling that he wanted out of there as
fast. I chuckled just thinking about it. "I know; I know." I said with a
smirk. "Alright guys; I'll see you all tonight." I said, right before
Tucker spun me around and pulled me through the crowd. "Geez."
I said, pulling my arm out of his tight grip.
"Dad invited mom and James to dinner tonight."
He said, as
we slowed our walk toward his truck. It was rather nice truck, for a
guy of his age. With all the off-road adventures offered here at
Hillside you would almost expect his truck to have more than a
few small dings, just as everyone else did; but nope not Tucker's;
aside from a little dent here and there, it was still in pretty good
condition.
"What? Why" I said, surprised at my angry tone. "Don't
know, but she asked if we'd like to have dinner with them first,
then dad gave them an invite." He answered, shrugging his
shoulders.
"Don't you think there's something wrong about that? I mean
she shows up like, years later; with a new husband for that matter.
She must have some kind of nerve to do this, let alone agree to
come to our house for dinner, even if dad invited her. She should
have said no." I began.
"Well, I'd like to think she just wants to try
to make things right." He said cutting me off, in her defense. "Yeah
right; by showing up today. Yeah; that will fix everything."
I said
as I hopped into the truck.
"Are we really going to Jim's party tonight?" I asked, placing
the roses on the seat next to me. "Um yeah; I thought you wanted
to go. By the way where did you get those?" He asked, pointing at
the roses. "Oh yeah; I go them from Jon via Steve." I said, with a
chuckled looking down at the beautiful flowers.
"Jon huh. Yeah, I
did run into the boys out front earlier while the ceremony was
going on. Um; so what's that?" He asked, with his eyes fixed on
my hand. "Oh yeah, I got this from the squad. Isn't it pretty?
Nadia
got one too but she got a diamond." I said, as I lifted my hand up
so the sun would catch the ruby, twinkling red beams of light into
his eyes. "Ah; well when you're ready to cash it in, I know of a few
guys who would pay some good money for precious gems." He
laughed, as he started his truck and headed toward the school
exit. "Yeah right Tuck in your dreams." I laughed back, holding on
as he made a sharp turn out of the school.
At that very moment I couldn't help but tear; as an
overwhelming feeling of sadness passed through my heart. This
was the last time that I would leave this school as a student.
I
took a long hard star at the school, it's old buildings, old football
and track field.
I even caught a glance of some teachers crying
with students.
It felt weird to see all of my classmates still saying
their goodbye's; as the reality of growing up sunk in.
I really didn't care for my mom, nor did I really care for her
new husband. I really didn't know either of them. I was never a
person who judged a book by it's cover, because that is what I
was taught since I was a kid; but I guess because James was with
my mother it was automatic that I felt this way about him. Maybe it
was the way he looked, or even the way she looked at him with
that twinkle in her eyes. My dad always told me that it was
important to never judge someone without even giving them a
chance.
I guess I could be more open to meeting him, or the both of
them for that matter. I mean he never did anything to me, well
directly at least. But there was just something about him that I
didn't like.
Maybe I was jealous or something; I don't know,
perhaps I was just jumping to conclusions and he really was a
nice guy. Perhaps I shouldn't hold my mother's faults against him;
after all he wasn't around when she left us anyway. I thought, as I
gazed out the open window, admiring the passing trees.
We got home a little before six o'clock and dad's truck was
already there.
I could tell that Lily was just about done with
dinner. The entire house smelled like broiled steaks and
potatoes; with a heavy scent of garlic and black peppers; needless
to say the house smelled great.
My dad met Lily about two years
ago, but it was like they were meant to be together. They were
always goofing around, making each other laugh, and playing
jokes on each other.
Although we never heard them say it in front
of us; we did see it often; Tucker and I knew that they were in
love.
"We're home." I announced; as I swung the old screen door
open, letting it hit the back wall hard. I shrugged my shoulders in
hopes that it wouldn't break. I smiled at the thought, that it might.
"Mia. Congratulations." Lily said, as she put down the napkins on
the table and hurried over toward me; in her cute yellow sun dress
with huge flowers surrounding the bottom, I always thought she
looked like a sunflower when she wore it. I chuckled softly to
myself as it crossed my mind.
Lily was a very kind lady. She wasn't very tall in fact she was
about the same height as me.
She had short brown hair that she
always wore down, and it was always brushed perfectly, pulled
behind of the ears. Her light peach colored lips matched her pale
colored skin and her round light brown eyes. She was my dads
complete opposite; I guess that's why they made such a great
couple.
Although, when the arguments started, kindness, went
out the window and she always won the fight. I smiled every time I
heard them arguing.
I took notice immediately, that there were three extra seats at
the table, but the smell of the food grabbed my attention quickly.
She put her arms around me and gave me a big hug, squeezing
me a little. "You go on and freshen up, your dad said that we're
going to have some guests tonight." She said as she spun around
and headed back into the kitchen. "We sure are." I murmured.
"Yeah; that sounds good." Tucker called out slamming the screen
door shut making his way toward the steps.
"Hey, I don't think so. I'm first." I yelled, now running toward
the step. I pushed Tucker on the side as we both reach the stairs
at the same time. Tucker tumbled over dad's work shoes that
always sat at the bottom of the steps. "I'm the graduate, I'm first." I
said laughing, hurrying up the steps. "Yeah, yeah. This won't be
the case come tomorrow Mia, you can count on that." He said,
also laughing, with his sarcastic tone. "Hey; hey you two stop it.
I'm so going to miss this; when you two are all grown with your
own children doing the same exact thing; I'm so going to laugh at
you both." Lily called out from the kitchen laughing hysterically.
My brother and I were always really close. All our lives it was
just my dad, Tucker and I, until Lily got added into the mix.
She
never really tried to be the step mom, she was more like an older
sister or an older friend who just so happened to be with my dad.
Dad always tried his best to do what he could for us, but it really
wasn't much. We had what we needed, but couldn't always get
what we wanted. But in the end; Tucker and I were just fine with
that. Lily made things a whole lot easier when she came into the
family. She really helped me out a lot; household chores, laundry,
shopping; not to mention being there for me.
