Daisies

𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡

 Linvent is a small little state on the edge of everywhere, it seems like. We're smack-dab in the middle of all the bigger states, who are laughing at us, but really, we're the strongest of them all.

Linvent was founded because of the metal found in it's soil: linvent. The people who founded this state truly had great minds; the originality shocks me every time. I've lived in Linvent my whole life. Needless to say, my whole life hasn't exactly involved a lot of adventure.

Linvent is like Alaska. We are very underrepresented on maps. And puzzles of maps. And everything involving maps. Except we're about twenty times smaller than Alaska and I don't think anyone is calling us the little island by Hawaii. The fact that a girl in my grade made that mistake created a startling awareness inside of me that showed perhaps geography teachers are not doing justice to the modern students' mind.

Linvent and Alaska both have metal found in their soil. Linvent is a mixture of titanium, gold and diamond--the metal, not the state--which makes for one of the strongest metals ever found. I myself am not deeply interested in geology, but to each her own I suppose.

Like most states, Linvent has a rich neighborhood and a not-so-rich neighborhood. I've lived in both, and found that the rich neighborhood left a lot to be desired. Who doesn't let kids run around in bathing suits with a sprinkler on the front lawn? Our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Cocello. That's who. First they lectured me about showing too much skin and how inappropriate it was for a girl my age, and how I was trampling the lovely yard my mother had worked so hard on (hello, I have been doing all of our family's gardening since age four), then they called my mom and I got another lecture ending with the fact that I should not strive to ruin any reputations including hers and maybe we should just save water for the fancy neighborhood pool. All that happens at that pool are cranky old people yelling at you for making ripples in the water and moving their inflatable floating raft. Where are the kids? This is why I mostly stay inside during summer.

I sit up in my bed and glance at the clock. It's already getting close to eight. My Alexa lights up and someone calls my name. "Sapphire Evine, come down here."

"Why?" I ask grumpily, assuming it's Kiran.

"So I can give you a hug."

I sit straight up and race downstairs.

Standing in our front hall, Kiran grinning next to them like the fool he is, are my grandparents. And while they hug me and tell me how much they love me, and exclaim at how I've grown, they are the most important people in the world to me.

"I love you so much," I whisper.

No one hears.

They don't have to.