The Pie Theory

01| Apple Pie

01| Apple Pie       

 EMILY IS THE seemingly normal one of our group. She plays the trumpet, takes piano lessons, wears those white socks with the ankle-ruffles and tucks her perfectly straight hair behind her perfect ears. But, for some reason I dwell on often, she's the weirdest of us all. For example, last year when our class went to the movies for a field trip the power went out and we were stuck there. Shy, quiet, and believably normal, Emily jumped up in front of everyone and acted out skits until the bus came back.

I love Emily's father. His name is Ralph and he's just about the coolest adult I've ever met. He works from home as a secretary, but his dream is to be a chef. Not just a chef though, a pie chef. I swear there is not a pie in this world he cannot make. Apple, cranberry, pumpkin, chocolate--I've seen it all in their kitchen. Emily has no siblings, only a skinny cat called Ostrich. The only problem is Emily's mother, Maeve. She is the most depressed adult I have ever met and she rarely comes out of her room. We only really see her when Ralph makes pies, she loves them to bits. Sometimes she even smiles while she eats.

We don't visit Emily's house much because we don't like to disturb her mother, plus we'd rather spend time at Carlina's house--she lives by the beach and Andrew's cafe. No, the cafe is not called "Andrew's Cafe", it's Waterside Cafe, but this really cute guy she likes called Andrew works there. Though his name tag says Andy. We always try and make time for cappuccino's and Andy .

Carlina lives with her grandmother who is insane and her creepy older brother Roberto. Her grandmother is a masseuse and owns her own shop in the basement. Sometimes, when she isn't home, we go down and look at all the candles and lotions. Once we spread some weird herb lotion on my arm and it was red for two weeks. Carlina is of Mexican descent and it really shows in her grandmother, who insists we call her Granny Mimi. Carlina's parents, Joseph and Marley, are zoologists who are always away. I think I've only met them twice.

Me, I'm the boring one. I live in a grey house that sits next to about twenty other houses that look exactly the same cascading down either sides of the road. I hate living there too. Emily may not live near the beach, but at least her house is blue and very different from the other houses near it. I feel like I'm on drugs when I walk to school, seeing every trash bin in the same spot, every thinning wire fence--the only thing separating the closely packed houses--and each blonde haired, blue eyed family smiling like dolls. We are one of those families, but only to the public. My mother, Claudia, is very worried about what everyone thinks of us, but my father, Harold, could not care less. I personally just want to stay as far from my house at all times, which is why I spend most of my time at Emily and Carlina's houses. My older brothers, Tom and Jerry--my parents are way too lame--, love living where we do. They say it impresses the girls at their collage, but I think those girls are just interested in--

"Angie, what are you writing?" Emily poked her head over her copy of Girls Magazine.

I shut the book before she could read it, she and Carlina would have a good laugh at me for it--it wasn't like me at all. I thought all the stupid 'Secret Diary' crap was dumb and just a cry for someone to read your deep and personal thoughts.

"It's just something for school." I said, happily using the fact that I was the only one of us who was in Mrs. Webster's English class last year.

"No," Carlina groaned, her voice was muffled underneath her arms though as she lay face down on a towel, "Don't even say that word."

I giggled a little, looking over the people and out at the water. I was pissed off that I wasn't able to find my bathing suit through all of my brothers' expensive boxers that morning. The water was doing that thing where the waves were soft and then crashed just when you were comfortable. I'd asked Carlina if I could borrow hers because she never swims anyway, just tans--which makes no sense because she's already the most tanned of us all--, but she was worried Andy might show up and she wanted to look nice. Emily had snorted and proceeded to make fun of Andy and say that he couldn't go to the beach, on account of him being a ginger and all.