Sweet Iced Tea

Chapter 14

Thursday, September 25th

I open my eyes a crack and feel the other side of the bed for Cora. She's not here.

That girl. She's always been an early bird, and I was too before I became a teenager. Nowadays I could sleep through the nuclear apocalypse.

I climb out of bed and stretch, releasing a small groan. Rubbing the sleep from of my eyes, I slouch into the kitchen, where Cora bustles around, whistling the 'Human Again' song from Beauty and the Beast. She grins at me in a sunshine-y kind of way.

I scowl at her. "What are you so happy about?"

She widens her eyes innocently. "Well, someone sounds like hormones this morning." She states, and turns around to pull a box of cereal out of the cupboard.

"Shut up."

She sets down a bowl for me and hands me the cereal box. "Here you go."

"Thanks."

I run my hands through my hair and pour myself some cereal.

"Are you going to school today?"

"I have to. I missed school day-before-yesterday."

She raises a dark eyebrow. "Well are you going like that?" She points at the clock. "'Cause it's almost seven."

My jaw drops, and I quickly abandon my breakfast to get ready. Cora's voice rings out behind me.

"You didn't finish!"

I pull a red shirt off its hanger. "I didn't start either!" I step into a pair of jeans, put my rat's nest of hair into a topknot, and come back out.

Seven o' five. Josh will be here to pick me up in five minutes. I gulp down my cereal, stuff my phone into my back pocket, and hug my sister. She pulls back and surveys me critically.

"You look like hormones too."

I bat her shoulder gently and walk out the door.

Josh pulls up as soon as I get off the porch. I climb right into his truck, not bothering with formalities, and toss my bag into the back seat.

Now that I'm settled in the passenger seat, I ask him the first thing that comes to mind.

"Have you started the books?"

He shakes his head. "No."

"Are you going to read them?" I groan.

"Probably not. I don't have much time for reading right now. I made a deal with someone that I'd train six horses to rope in exchange for a favor, and I have to finish training them in two months."

"Where are they?"

"The horses? Or the books?"

"Books."

He opens the center console. There they are, all three, 'neatly' placed. I'm never giving him my books again.

"Okay." I take them out, bend the edges back to the original state, and put them back in my bag, that I have quickly fished out of the backseat.

It is so hard not to be irritated right now. He bent my books.

But I forced them on him, so I don't have a right to be frustrated.

He seems to notice my irritation and doesn't speak for the rest of the ride.

♡}¤{♡

When I get home, I have to try very hard not to be crabby to Grace. She won't stop talking, and I have an essay to write.