Conveniently Inspired

Chapter Thirteen

Friday night, it was decided that Kaden would give Skylar a ride home so they could get ready for the game together. If there was time left, they'd cram in some studying. This last part, Kaden didn't know of. But Skylar was going to help him pass the class, whether he wanted her help or not. In some ways, Kaden was more similar to her than he thought. For one, they both didn't like to ask for help. And she knew that could turn more toxic than good.

After class, he walked her to his car. It was a ford double seater pickup truck. Black. Somehow, it screamed Kaden Brooks. The bed of the trunk was filled with various sports equipment: lacrosse sticks, tennis balls, and to her dismay, failed tests and missing homework assignments. But it'd be rude to comment on the mess, so she zipped her lips.

"This is Sadie," he said, opening the car door for her. "Just so you know, the AC is currently broken, so we'll just have to suffer the heat."

"Can we roll down the windows?" she asked when he got into the driver's seat.

"Unfortunately, those are broken too. Jammed. I really need to take her to the dealership." He pulled onto the mainroad. They needed to make a pitstop to fetch Ben and Lena, and the local elementary school was only a couple streets down, so it'd be a short ride. "Alright" he said after a few seconds. His fingers tapped the dashboard. "Spit it out. Explain that scheming face of yours."

"Why does everybody sexualize their cars? It's weird. Nobody ever calls their car Bob or George."

"Hey, who said Sadie was a girl? Sadie is just Sadie."

"Why even name our cars in the first place?"

"Oh come on, you're telling me you never humanize your inanimate objects?"

"Oh, pull in here." As expected, the numerous school buses and parent vehicles clogged up traffic. Kaden honked at a car who wouldn't move at a four way stop sign.

"Ok, where do I park?" he asked. All the parking spaces were drop-off zones only, and they were all filled at the moment.

"Just stop here for a second. I'll pick them up and then meet you back out on the street."

"Sounds good."

Skylar hopped out and walked to the fenced-in kindergarten area. The other parents were mingling with one another, absently pushing strollers back and forth. On the ground below them were messy scribbles of colorful chalk. Little ones filed out one by one, and Skylar grinned as her sister waddled out. Their mother forced all of them to wear hats in the summertime. She didn't want her children to tan. As if it was some sin or something. So, Lena's sun hat, which was twice her size, sat firmly on her head. When Lena squinted upwards, those two dimples popped up. Ben used to be small and cute like that. She wished her sister would stay frozen young forever.

"How was school today?"

"Kathy wouldn't sit with me at lunch. And then Yousef proposed to me at recess. But he also proposed to Kathy, so that's why she didn't want to sit with me, and-"

It was like this everyday. Lena, at just six, came home with an abundance of detail-oriented stories. At just six, her little sister's life was already more eventful than hers.

As they walked down the path, Ben ran up to them. He was holding some binocular contraption made of toilet paper rolls. "Look what I have!"

When Skylar led them down the straight, where the black pickup was idling on a five minute street parking zone, Ben froze. "What are you doing? Home is that way!" His finger shot in the opposite direction.