Hey guys, so over Christmas break I will be writing this short story as a special Christmas treat. 🙂 Anyway I’ll try to keep up with As the Sun Peeks Through the Trees as well, just keep you guys busy. There will probably only be a couple parts to this one (I’m thinking three or four but we’ll see.) Hope you enjoy!
My name is Holly Bush. Yea, I know I have great name, you can thank my parents for that one. My parents who thought it was ok to leave their little two year old on the side of the road. Their two year old who’s was just starting to walk. The two year old who could smile, who could more or less talk and who could grab things. The two year old who was my sister. And I couldn’t do a thing to save her. Anyway I’m dwelling on the past too much. Right now I’m in foster care and it’s absolute paradise. Please notice the sarcasam. I’ve been in foster care since my parent’s left my sister on the side of the road, which was like 10 years ago. (In case you were wondering I was 5 when my sister was abandoned, which makes me 15 now.) I’m living with a foster family and it’s not the worse place ever to live, I mean I could be living in a valcanoe or something… Or on the side of the road. I was sent to foster care because my parents didn’t want me anymore and they said I was too big to leave on the side of the road. I didn’t like them all that much. They drank and smoke so they always smelled bad and there was always a cloud of profanity hanging around them and they seemed to enjoy slapping little girls around so it didn’t make them very good company. The house I live in is small, I share a room with one other girl my age and she is a clean freak (like the rest of her family). Of course I’m not so they spend most of their time yelling at me to clean up my stuff or to orginize my homework or something like that. Actually one telling me to make my bed right now… I wonder why they even care if my stuff is clean or not.
I get up and look at Josie, she’s 14 and yet she still bosses me around. Her brown eyes harden and she pulls on her stringy red hair as she scowls at me. Even her freckles seem to be mad at me. I take note how they almost seemed to be organized, like everything else she owns.
“Mom said you had to make your bed, this morning!” She crosses her arms and gives me a look of defiance. “It’s dinner time and you still haven’t made it! I sometimes worry for your mental sanity Holly. You know that being sloppy will mess with your brain right?”
“Maybe with your brain but I really don’t mind if not every single little thing is it it’s place. Besides I have to go somewhere soon.” The last part is a total lie but Josie doesn’t seem to know why I’m lying or not. Anyway I could go kill time a Starbucks or go walk around and looks at the Christmas lights. That’s always kinda interesting, see which neighbors are trying to compete whith each other but putting up the most Santa blowups and Regindeer cutouts.
“Fine. I’ll make your bed for you. Have fun with your boyfriend.” Josie sighs. I cringe on the inside when I hear her say boyfriend. I forgot I told her that I had a boyfriend, I made him up. He made a good excuse for getting out of the house. I think I said his name was Wyatt or Hunter or something like that.
“I have no clue why you want to make my bed but by all means go ahead.” I shrug and walk out of the room and through the hall, picking up my backpack along the way. I find Josie’s biological mom, Marissa, reading on the couch to the other two girls. The other two girls I live with are 5 (twins of course) and they are almost as bad as Josie when it comes to cleaning. I’m the only foster kid in the house and it’s kinda obvious because I look so different. While Marissa, Josie, Jordan and Jill (the twins that Marissa’s reading too) has brown eyes and red hair, I have raven black hair and blue eyes. And while they all have freckles I have clear pale skin.
“Where are you going Holly?” Marissa asks, looking up from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. She’s always super worried about me and sometimes I’m convinced she’s sewn trackers in my clothes. She hates when I go out when it’s dark and if I do it’s always with someone or I have to tell her exactly where I’m going. But tonight I’ll just have to tell a couple more lies so I can wander, because I’m not very good at staying in one spot.
“Starbucks, with a friend.” I reply, trying to sound bored. What Marissa doesn’t know is that I have aproximately ZERO friends. I tell this lie only because Marissa has been considering for me to get a therapist and the last thing I need is a shrink. I just don’t get along with people in general. Especially after what happened to my little sister. When I was five I had a few friends but it was only so I wouldn’t be made fun off being antisocial. I’m telling you little kids are pretty mean, not matter how cute they try to be.
“Then here take a few bucks for a drink and be careful.” She hands me a couple crumpled dollar bills and I shove them in my jean pocket. Wow, this is going way better than I expected. “And don’t stay out too late.”
“Ok see ya later.” I walk out the front door and as I tramp across the lawn in my black converse I punch the blowup snowman that stands in our front yard. I walk to Starbucks and but myself a drink then sit down as I pull out a peice of paper. I look around and glance at the Holiday decorations. (Notice how I say holiday and not Christmas, I wouldn’t want to offend anyone.) Then I start to draw. Ever since I was 5, I’ve only been able to draw one single scene. A baby in a grease stained box and a old crappy car driving away with a little girl’s tear stained face pressed up the back window as she begs her parents to go back. Oh how I had loved that baby. I took care of her and when I was at school I found a lady who could take of her. Then I paid the lady with money I had stolen out of my mom’s purse, she was going to use it for gambling anyway. I even named the kid, I taught her how to talk and how to smile and how too… I feel wet ugly tears fall down my face. I curse and wipe them away.
“Oh Lily,” I mumble quietly. That was what I had named that little girl with big blue eyes and her wild head of black cruly hair. Lily. Suddenly someting whips me out of my thoughts. Someone was touching me, I turned, ready to hurt someone. I find a boy my age looking at me. I scowl at him.
“What?” I ask so harshly he flinches. He quickly removes his hand that he had put on my soulder and trys a smile.
“Uh I- I mean- You were- I was checking to see if you were ok…” He quickly crosses his arms and seems a bit jumpy. “I think I go to school with you.”
“I don’t know. I go to school with a lot of people.” He does look fimilar now that he says this. His green eyes have a little bit of some kind of silver color weaving through them which looks awesome and his brown hair is swept back into a something like a tidal wave. I suddenly remember where I’ve seen him. “Are you that guy who’s really good at running or something?”
“Uh I’m on the track team, yes.” He sits in the chair next to me. I eye him wairily. He just invited himself into a conversation. I don’t want to talk. “It’ll be nice to have a break though won’t it?”
“I’m not on the track team.” I think he’s referring to winter breka which is in 2 days but I’m going to give him a hard time. Maybe he’ll go away.
“Yeah I know that, I was referring to school.” As he talks I rack my brain for info on him, gossip, rumors, facts and whatever else that’s related to him. I think his name is Jason, he lives in a big fancy house and his dad owns a clothing company or something… And he’s the cheer captain’s girlfriend. He’s a classic disney channel character.
“So on break, will you hang out with your girlfriend?” I blurt this out and want to kick myself when I say it. But it does get him a little flustered so that’s good.
“What? No. I don’t have a girlfriend.” He blushes and I arch an eyebrow.
“Whatever, I have to go.” I get up and start collecting my stuff. Then I walk out the door and start to head to the library.
“Wait!” I turn and find the guy holding out a peice of paper. I quietly curse when I see that it’s my drawing. “You forgot this. It’s really cool. You should join the art class. Anyway my name’s Jason. What’s yours?”
“My name’s Rapuzel.” I say quickly, another lie. I’ll have to make sure I don’t get too mixed up with all of them. But why did I lie about my name? I don’t even know why. He scrunches his brow and starts to say something but I’m already walking away. I decide to go home. People are too much work, I have a ton of homework to do anyways. I pull the hood of my gray sweatshirt over my head and quicken my pace. When I get home the little girls are in bed and I have to make sure I stay quiet. Since Marissa is in her office probably with some classical music playing, I can sneak into the room that I share with Josie, of course Josie is reorganizing her closet (for the second time this week.)
“Hey Holly. How’s Arron?” That’s what I said his name is… I come with a quick excuse.
“He’s moving back to Canada.” I try to sound bummed but really I wouldn’t care if my imaginary boyfriend was moving to the surface of the sun.
“Canada? I thought you said he just moved from Africa?” She turns to face me and I bite my lip.
“Oh yea, uh his dad got a new job there and it pays better.” I take out my homework and start working on it. It’s a take home test for math. I use my signature method, the guess and hope method.
“Bummer. I’m sure you must have a couple other guys in line for you right?” She starts mubling something about her shelf space so I leave her be. I think sbout that guy at Starbucks, Jason. He was very popular at school, therefore he was probably a jerk. And he probably was a talker. Correction, he is definitly a talker. I hate talkers.
2 hours later I’m still working on homework and soon I give up and go to bed. I sleep on top of the covers so that I don’t mess up the hard work that Josie had done. At least I don’t have to do it tomorrow and besides Marissa keeps the heater on all night so I won’t be cold. My eyes close and I find myself asleep three minutes later. My dreams consist mostly of my parents. Them hitting me, them hitting Lily or just them. Sometimes I dream of the coming back for me, that’s always a werid one. Mostly because Marissa trys to scare them away with a frying pan and Josie tells them to put on clean clothes and to take a shower. At least I know that my foster family will scare away any creeps that come to get me. I don’t mind my foster family, it’s just. They are not my family. And they even though they try they will never be my family.
We'll Be Fine 
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