LOCKED WITH YOU | JENLISA FF

-2-

Jennie's heart hammered in her chest as she waited for a voice on the other end to pick up. Even after a minute, there was no response, which was strange because Lisa always picked up after the first ring, especially if the call was from her. There was no way Lisa couldn't hear a cellphone alarm going off around her neck unless her mental retardation was worse than Jennie assumed. But then again, that was just Jennie reassuring herself that Lisa was home and taking a nap, maybe.

It wasn't like she particularly cared about Lisa; she was more than concerned for her own life should her stepsister be wandering around and something happened. Her mother would have her head for that; after all, half of her life was centered around Lisa and Jennie didn't understand why. It was always Lisa this, Lisa that. Buy Lisa some new shoes! Let's take Lisa out for dinner! As an only child suddenly adjusting to having somebody else take all of her mother's attention, Jennie was just seething with jealousy.

"Hey, coach, I don't think I can make it to practice today, something came up." she said after some contemplation. She knew the season match was just around the corner and Jennie couldn't afford to miss a practice, but she was left without options.

She took the town bus home and sprinted from the bus stop to her home, then ungracefully burst through the front door, completely out of breath. The front door was, as she remembered, unlocked. Too riddled with panic to care about taking her shoes off, Jennie dumped her duffel bag beside the shoe cabinet and wandered in, calling Lisa's name.

Her heart sunk into the pit of her stomach when she saw the girl sprawled out on the living room floor as she left her, safe and sound. The tension in her shoulders slipped through and Jennie almost lost the strength in her locked knees.

"Jennie, the phone!" Lisa beamed, getting up and abandoning her notebook and pencil to show her stepsister the black screen. The battery was dead. Judging by how Lisa was pressing the 'Home' button repeatedly to make it light up again, Jennie didn't think she even knew that cellphones ran on electricity. To Lisa, the whole world was simplified. A cellphone was just a strange, miraculous device that connected her to Jennie with the push of a button.

"No wonder it's dead, you dummy, you called me at least a hundred times," she scowled, taking the lanyard off of Lisa's neck (she had to tip-toe because the dummy was so tall), "I told you to call me only if there's an emergency."

Lisa wordlessly sat down on the hardwood floor again, picking up her notebook that had pages and pages filled with rudimentary letters and sentences. Like a child learning to read and write, Lisa was learning the same thing, only she still couldn't write her own name without someone pronouncing it to her at least ten times. Now on her stomach, Lisa held a pencil tightly in her hand and looked up at Jennie expectantly.

"La. Li. Sa." she repeated with a sigh, taking off the blazer of her uniform, "If you write the 'sa' backwards again, I'm going to kill you, La. Li. Sa."

Lisa nodded and bowed her head, gaze stern and focused on the many boxes covering the page. Carefully, she printed out the first syllable of her name, then the second, and when it came to the 'sa', she paused and stuck her tongue out in concentration. Her hands were getting clammy from over-thinking; if she had thought any harder, steam would have escaped her ears. Finally, he presented the page to Jennie who took it in her hands and folded one page behind the spine.

"You wrote the 'sa' backwards again!" Jennie rolled her eyes and threw the notebook at Lisa's chest, "You can't even write your own name, how stupid are you? It's Lalisa, idiot, not Laliso!"

She turned away before she could catch a glimpse of the dejected expression on Lisa's face, unable to ignore the guilt that pushed up to her throat. She hadn't meant to yell, but she was so frustrated after the day's event that he wanted nothing more than to sleep it off and hope Lisa would be gone the next morning. With her around, she couldn't even invite her friends over like she used to or go out to play after school hours because it was her job to supervise Lisa.

Jennie sighed, heading into her room to change. "Let's go for a walk."

Going for a walk meant one of two things: going out for ice cream, or visiting their family's floral shop. The shop had been her grandmother's, but when she passed away a few months ago, Jennie's family was left with the small space. At first, they thought of selling or renovating the shop, but they decided to keep it around, for memory's sake. Plus, Lisa liked it. She spent hours taking care of the flowers because there was little harm she could do unless she was clumsy enough to break some pots here and there. After school, Jennie would open up the shop and take care of the business aspect of things while Lisa stayed in the back watering and trimming flowers.

She also made some nice bouquets, which was surprising because Jennie didn't think Lisa could do anything that required thinking. If only Lisa wrote her name as efficiently as she arranged flowers, she wouldn't have another complaint.

The two of them didn't walk side-by-side on their afternoon stroll because Jennie didn't like being mistaken for somebody related to Lisa, let alone associated with her. But, whenever Jennie clicked her tongue, Lisa would catch up a few feet behind her with her head turning left, right, and all around, fascinated by the sights and sounds around her.

Once she had the steel garage opened and things assembled for the day, she looked at Lisa putting her work apron on and wondered how it was possible for someone to be so different in two places. With a work apron on, hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and framed glasses on the bridge of the nose, Lisa looked just like a girl straight out of a manga; the flower-girl sort that always worked at flower shops. The resemblance was even more profound when Lisa was leaning over the rows of potted flowers with a spray bottle in her hand.

Jennie, on the other hand, had no interest in flowers and stayed behind the cash register. It was why she kept a stack of Naruto comic books at her side, just in case she'd get bored, which was too often.

Business was always a little bit slow on the weekdays, while weekends and holidays were hectic. People died and celebrated things everyday, so there was always a handful of orders for funeral wreaths, baby shower bouquets, and the occasional proposal flowers that a brave man would come to order for a lucky lady. Jennie hardly knew the names of the flowers, so she always left Lisa with the job of arranging them. It kept the idiot busy.

Jennie would read the order to Lisa, who would arrange a bouquet in less than thirty minutes for it to be delivered by an errand service or picked up by the paying customer. Most of the time, the orders included roses, carnations, or various kinds of lilies which were an all-time favorite.

Of all flowers, Lisa liked the Baby's Breath flower, the tiny, white, and clustered flowers that were usually arranged with roses to give the main attraction a popping aesthetic. Jennie didn't know why the other female liked them so much, but she did, and always added more of the Baby's Breath than normal florists would in her bouquets.

"Sixteen roses, wrapped in a gold bow. Make it nice, Lisa, the customer's proposing to his girlfriend in an hour."

Lisa had the bouquet ready in thirty minutes, the roses shaped in a heart with Baby's Breath flowers clouded around the red center. She looked pleased with herself as she handed it over to Jennie, who was jotting down a note to go with it in the nicest handwriting she could write.

It was then that a call came to her phone, and Jennie held it between her cheek and shoulder while Lisa went back to watering the flowers.

"The PC Room? I'm kinda busy right now..." Jennie trailed off, "Hey, you know, on second thought, I'll be there in ten, don't start the round without me!" She hung up, suddenly very busy with the thought of playing League of Legends with her friends in a PC Room that was only a few blocks away from the shop. If Lisa stayed at the shop and she came back in an hour so, there was no harm done, was there? After all, it was highly unlikely that a customer would show up at five in the afternoon asking for flowers.

"Hey, Lisa, I'm gonna go out for a bit to get some ice cream for us, stay right here, okay?"

Lisa nodded, puzzled as she watched Jennie leave in a hurry.