Chapter 2

“So ladies, how was your day?” Elaine asked her daughters as the family was sitting down eating dinner.
“Well, my day was good,” Morgan spoke first, “I have a lot of new cute guys in my class and they already love me. Unfortunately, there are some new girls in my class too. I can tell I don’t like them already.”
“Why is that? Is it because they’re prettier than you?” Michelle teased.
“That’s really funny, Elle. Like someone could be prettier than me. No, they were jealous of me. I was talking to the guys and I think a couple of them were their boyfriends, but I didn’t care.”
“You better watch yourself. One day, you’re gonna mess with the wrong chick, and she’ll knock the mess out of you.”
“Yeah, right. I think I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, ok, Jackie Chan. I’d like to see that happen for once. My day was pretty boring. None of the teachers gave any homework tonight.”
“Yeah, cause that’s really a bad thing.” Morgan sarcastically put in.
“Shut up, Morgan. Anyways, Mr. Rolle, the science teacher, said we’ll be going to an amusement park at the end of the year to learn about the physics coming from different rollercoasters. I’m pretty excited about that.”
“Maybe you should get a head start and go to an amusement park this weekend. We don’t want you getting another B this year, now do we?” her father added.
“Dad, it was one B. Sure, it wasn’t an A, but everyone else in the class did poorly.”
“Well, include yourself with the class because you did poorly alongside them. Having a B average is not acceptable. You could’ve done much better,” Ben boiled up.
“Dad, I was the only one with the best grade in that class. Besides, Morgan gets C’s all the time. Why is it that you never come down on her, but you never hesitate to always come down on me? No matter what I do or say, it will never be good enough for you,” Michelle abruptly stood up at the table, threw down her napkin, and walked off.
“Elaine, talk to your child.”
Elaine found her child outside angrily pacing back and forth on the porch. “Elle, I’m sorry that happened in there. I know it’s hard to believe, but your father does love you and he wants the best for you. He just shows it differently.”
“Mom, you and I know that’s bull crap. He can’t stand me, and the feeling is mutual. I can’t wait until I graduate and get away from this monstrous household. I’m taking a walk down the street, don’t wait up.”
Michelle stormed down the sidewalk. She had so many thoughts circling in her head like: “why does he hate me so much? He never gets on Morgan’s case. I can’t wait to leave this place.” The thoughts kept going and going, until she heard an elderly woman asking for help.
“Oh my, let me help you with that,” Michelle offered a hand to the older woman as she was carrying a boat load of groceries by herself into her suburban home. Once all the groceries were put away, the woman thanked Michelle and offered her a cup of tea and Michelle accepted. The woman explained that her grandson was visiting from Boston and she bought all those groceries to keep him occupied during his stay. Then she went into other stories about her family history and other things that Michelle didn’t care about, but didn’t want to be rude and leave the old woman alone by herself. So she decided to stay until the grandson came home. The old woman was just about to tell a story about the time she ran into pirates when she was interrupted by a Boston accent.
“Grandma, your door was unlocked. Do I need to get that fi…” he stopped mid-sentence when he saw Michelle sitting in the living room with his grandmother.
“Hi. I’m Michelle. I was walking and I saw your grandmother struggling with her groceries, so I helped her carry them in and put them away. I was just listening to her tell her stories.”
“Well, thank you, Michelle. My name is Mark,” he shook her hand, “that was very nice of you to do that for my grandmother. I’m usually home, but I had to go out for a second and get some things done.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. But I should get back home soon; it’s getting late and all. It was nice meeting the both of you.”
“Well, at least let me drive you back home,” Mark offered as he followed her to the door.
“That’s not necessary. I’m just around the corner, so I should be fine,” she continued down the street, “good night!”
It took Michelle three minutes to arrive back at her house after meeting her neighbors for the first time. It was already passed ten o’clock. She knew her parents were already in their room for the night. She didn’t feel like sleeping herself, so she decided to go into her sister’s room and tell her about her night.
“So details, girl. What did he look like?” Morgan asked sitting up in her bed after her sister told her about her productive night.
“He was about five feet eight inches, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and very muscular. He looked really good. He seemed very mysterious.”
“You got all of that from just a few minutes with him? Wow! He sounds very hot though. Did you give him your number or anything?”
“No way! I didn’t know the dude. I don’t just give out my info to complete strangers the way you do. I have more class than you in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Whatever. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to see him again before he leaves for good.”
“Yeah, and then I can send him your way. You’d be ok with that I’m sure,” Michelle responded with a fake smile.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. I’m goin to bed now. Good night.” Michelle exited her sister’s room for the night and climbed into her own bed, but no matter how hard she tried to go to sleep, her thoughts continued to stray to that mystery guy, Mark.