LOGAN (Book One)

FORTY-SEVEN

Twelve years ago...

"Oh my god!" I squealed in my kiddy car seat, kicking my feet and jumping up and down until my butt hurt in the back seat of my parents' Honda Civic. "My very own iPad. I must be the luckiest girl in the world!"

"Now, honey, just because we bought you an iPad, you know the rules," my Mom spoke in a severe tone while I ignored the warning of it.

"Yes, mommy. Use only on the weekends and holidays. I know, don't worry."

"Love, let our princess enjoy her gift," Dad, with his British accent, made another turn on the curb on a tough rainy season. "She deserves it for being a model student. My little smart bumblebee."

Today is my birthday, a perfect day turning six years old, and it had to rain. I don't get why God had to ruin my day for me. My Mom said he was crying because he was happy about this special day.

My parents picked me up after choir practice, I was the youngest among the junior group at the church my family attended, and my Mom was one of those people who supported and helped the church for the poor. She told me God gave her a mission to help the needy who doesn't have much stuff. I help out sometimes by giving away old toys and clothes. Thea gave her used clothes and shoes, and Ares gave her old shoes too, but also he gave her exercise equipment.

So dull of him.

We head to Best Buy to buy the one I've always wanted. Since we purchased the device, it started to rain hard. My dad had to take a long way home to avoid reckless drivers. It only takes twenty minutes to get home.

"Jake, we can't spoil her with a brand-new iPad. We could have found a used one."

"I got a raise for teaching an after-school program, don't worry." My dad took my Mom's hand, bringing it to his lips, and I watched her cheek turn red.

I giggled, blushing and hiding my face behind the box of my iPad. "Eww, daddy, that's gross."

"Well, Gummy Bear, it's what adults who are in love do."

"One day, you will find a man who will show you, love," Mom added.

"No, she will find a man when I say she finds a man," Dad said gruffly. "Don't put things in her head, Dee." Saying my Mom's nickname.

"Oh Jake, one day she will be a grown woman and won't be your little girl anymore."

"No, she and Thea will always be my little princesses. Thea is only sixteen. I don't care who Ares dates because he needs to man up."

My Mom slapped my dad's arm and glared. "Hey, that's my baby boy. I don't want him to get a girl pregnant."

"Well, I don't want my baby girls to have babies," Dad argues.

Through the drive in this rough rain beside the broken radio, my music was my parents arguing back and forth about who could and could not date.

My older sister, Thea, sixteen and in high school, can never get a guy with her attitude, always getting into fights, and my older brother, Ares, the middle child still in middle school, just got suspended for punching a kid in the face because he told Mom and dad he felt like it. But the truth is he was sticking up for a classmate of his. He started going to the gym when our dad took him, and when he turned thirteen, he went there after school and on weekends for a year.

My parents are worried about him because he was never violent. He was a crybaby until one day changed and turned him into a bad boy. Mom said being bad can turn you into something even worse. I don't get it; I'm six. Why do I know?

While they talk and we are minutes away from

Home, my fingers caress the large white box with the picture of my iPad mini still inside. I had the urge to rip the plastic that still binds the chest, keeping me from opening it. I couldn't wait any longer and opened it, removed the plastic wrap, and pulled out the box, and my eyes glistened with excitement. I took out the iPad from the crate and turned it on.