Vanilla

※Vanilla 

※Chapter 1

Walking into my favorite ice cream shop,I was reminded that my lungs still hurt from the surgery I had just three days ago. At my side, my little sister Diane stared at me with a smile plastered across her face that seemed to make one appear on my own. Dad coughs as he sees that we are frozen to the ground, unsure of where to move. To be fair we were frozen from the pressure of picking just two flavors.

"Diane said that getting you some ice cream from Nice & Ice would be the best welcome back gift for the two of you little rascals," Dad says with a small smile as he takes out his wallet.

I looked over at Diane with a smile filled with joy and profoundness. Smiling, I nodded as we walked up in line, waiting for the line to move up. Moments like this was when I wish there were robots to automatically serve us without such things as waiting needing to exist still. Since my surgery a few days ago I have been more impatient then ever. Maybe it had to do with the fact Mom wasn't even there since the thought of seeing dad agin broke her heart.

Dad knowing I needed the surgery he offered to pay knowing very well Mom couldn't afford this since she used most of her money on her medical bills.

"Your tenth birthday is coming up April. Do you know what you want?" He questioned. We were now in front of the line.

"Can I get a vanilla and chocolate ice cream and a small cone?" I asked, with my voice a little crisp. My poor voice was still getting use to functioning, in the few days I didn't talk it seemed as if it got the idea it never worked.

"Sure." The girl replied. She then took my dad's and Diane's order. We walked to a small table with a nice view of the park that Diane and I always used to go to when we used to live here with mom and dad.

"So?" Dad asked, as excited as Diane and I on a Christmas morning. From the question we both look up knowing what SO meant. In few words it was come live with me leave your mother I can make it happen I have money. "We are both young but not stupid", I thought to myself.

"I want my family back," I said before I started eating my ice cream know that wasn't the answer he wanted.

...

※Seven Years Later※

As dad drove down the simple street I was welcomed to an all familiar sign. A smile came as my eyes danced on the beautiful letters that wrote out Nice and ice in pink and blue almost in a beautiful vintage touch. There were some good memories here in this old ice cream shop. My mouth watered just looking at it.

There were many people walking around the outside of the shop with their ice cream in hand. When I lived here I remember how it was unheard to dislike this place. My eyes darted to the sign on the front door that in big bold red letters said: "HELP WANTED." I was about to tell my father to stop the car but I refused to talk to him after what he did with Diane.

"You'll like it here, Courtney," he said with a fake smile, one much like his new wife and her daughter. "Yes, Courtney. You will not only like it, you'll love it I promise you," his wife told me as I'd try to convince herself more then me. Her voice was a high that I expected glass to break all around us.

"You'll love it Courtney." Vivian assured me, though I respect her a bit for not giving me a fake smile like her mother. I gave her a fake smile so that my father wouldn't bother me about being rude. I then turned back to the side of the road looking at kids and adults walking. Looking at my hands, I smiled seeing Diane's charm bracelet- the one she gave me before being sent to leave with aunt Trisha one town away.