Chick, Chick, Chick

Chapter 2

2

The afternoon settled in, and I sat in the living room at home, mulling the day over while I watched something on truTV with my mom. Haelie seemed familiar to me somehow, but I just couldn’t place it. I simply couldn’t.

“Hey, Mom,” I said, finally realizing I needed to mention it to Mom at least once, “guess what.”

She turned away from the television screen for a moment. “What?”

To explain, my mom and I looked nothing like each other. She had dark brown hair, but mine was blonde. She had hazel eyes, but I had blue eyes. Her skin was even much paler than my own. We had absolutely nothing in common with looks, but she was still a pretty woman for the age of 39.

I beamed a smile at her. “We got a new kid in the school today. Her name’s Haelie. I had to show her around today, since nobody else volunteered.”

“That’s nice of you, sweetheart.” My mom’s gaze was back over to the television.

I fought a sigh, she almost never listened to me or really looked at me when I had something to tell her. I suppose it didn’t really register to her. “Yeah.” I sunk into the couch. “What’s for dinner?”

“We’re having sandwiches tonight, hun. Sorry; I’m not feeling good enough to cook. I had a long day at work.”

Sandwiches, of course. Mom’s go-to dinner if she was tired. “Okay.”

I got up from the couch and slid over into the kitchen. I got out the bread, the peanut butter, and the Nutella, throwing a quick sandwich together. I was more hungry to eat something that didn’t come from the cafeteria at school.

I went into to my room and tore my sandwich half, munching at it while I propped myself up on my bed. My phone buzzed.

hey babe

It was Ray. I smiled.

hi ray

u want to go somewhere?

sure

k b there soon

k i’ll be waiting

I was glad I kept my shoes on. I finished my sandwich and hopped off the bed, grabbing my purse. I carefully checked the sheets and then bounded to the living room. Mom was still watching truTV, so I only bothered her long enough to tell her I was going out with Ray for a little while. She nodded in response. She didn’t really care if I went out with guys. She didn’t care about much.

I walked outside and waited on the sidewalk for Ray to pull up in his nice Ford truck. It was a pretty quiet afternoon. Kids were playing in yards, but they weren’t yelling. I smiled. My community was pretty nice.