Tangled Tracks on Side B

Chapter 2

I had to wake up earlier than normal that Thursday to finish studying for that day's history test, I had tried my best the previous day to stay up late to do it but that hadn't been enough.

I grunted at my phone when the alarm went off, but unsurprisingly that didn't make much of a difference in my fate.

When Mom Laura came to wake me up for breakfast and found me at my desk she offered a sympathetic smile and squeezed my shoulders.

She put her lips on my head to look over it and see which offending subject was forcing her baby up early and hummed in understanding before leaving a kiss on my head and going back to the kitchen.

"Why can't we just take the car to school?" Nate was bringing the same old motion to the breakfast table once again.

I closed my eyes and let my head fall back in exhaustion.

"We can't have you each in a car and I don't want to hear arguing over who gets to take it," Mom Amelia explained for probably the millionth time.

"Gabe had the car in high school," Danny pitched in.

"And he was the only high schooler, the three of you were little and everybody had different extracurricular activities, he even drove you to soccer when Nate was at swimming class and Angie at something else, remember? it was out of necessity."

"We almost never got to drive him to school as we do with you guys whenever there's the chance," Mom Laura added.

Fair, annoying, but still fair.

Maybe I would've gotten the car once the boys went off to college.

-

The history test went fine that day but it reminded me that I had to come up with a better schedule for myself, I couldn't spend nearly as much time as I wanted to on my music cassettes if I wanted to keep up with my school work while also being a decent athlete.

I was having lunch with a few softball teammates and listening to the usual flow of gossip when something caught my attention.

"What do you mean they were fighting over her? Doesn't she have a say?" I asked Bailey.

"I'm telling you, she's a magnet for trouble, there is always some dude ending up in detention for her."

Way to put the blame on the girl for guys being stupid.

I eyed the cheer captain everybody was talking about a few tables away.

Sadie Gordon.

She was definitely at the top of the chain when it came to popularity, I was surprised neither of my brothers had dated her yet.

She was gorgeous.

She had tight light brown curly hair and hazel eyes. Her smile was always big and bright and she seemed to be a magnet, but not for trouble as much as for everybody's attention.

She was tall and had light brown skin, a small button nose, and high cheekbones. She was actually taller than most of the other girls on the cheer team, around the same hight as me, but that didn't stop her from making captain, she must've truly been good. I knew it was not a role assigned lightly.

I looked back at my lunch the second her eyes left her friend group to roam towards my general direction.

She couldn't have noticed I was looking at her.

"Who's Danny dating now?" Maya asked me, bringing me back into the conversation that had probably jumped through so many other different topics since I had zoomed out.