He did have rules, didn’t he? And what happened to me in LA had nothing to do with my aunt, or where I lived. I was sure he’d never see it that way, so there wasn’t a point in defending myself or my geography. My dad had placed me in a tight little box, and as far as he was concerned, that’s where I would stay. Also, something told me his sentiment of me “having a good day” was more for formality than anything. I didn’t believe he actually cared to wish me well. I was an obligation, his daughter, and he had to say things like that.
He started to walk off but stopped. “Let me know if you hear anything about your sister. You know, kids talking or whatever?”
Yes, I’d definitely tell the one person what he wanted to know about the very reason I stood in this house instead of on the way to my own school. Paige not being here now had everything to do with him and absolutely nothing to do with me.
Dad’s lips turned down. “Though, don’t you get your hopes up. She’s probably dicking around like she always tends to do. She’ll make her way back when she feels like it. Have fun waiting around while she gets her shit together.”
I’d blanch if this wasn’t expected, my sister “dicking around” to the point where even my aunt wasn’t concerned anymore. Paige and my dad got into things so much that her just up and leaving had become old hat for years since she came to live with him. It wasn’t unheard of for me to wake up with my sister on my aunt’s couch or even sleeping in my desk chair after she took a red-eye to get away from him. It also wasn’t unheard of for her just to leave town and ghost for days on end after she and Dad truly let into each other. She just needed space sometimes but she always popped up…
She’d never been gone an entire summer, though.
Two
The school uniform rode up my ass like a son of a bitch, a literal atomic wedgie which I endured the entirety of the trip inside a chauffeured car. Maywood Heights was a smaller city, but not a sleepy town by any means. People were alive and well, maple leaves of gold and umber tones being raked up in yards the size of football fields. What I’d dubbed as McMansions followed one after the other, a far cry from the graffiti apartment complexes and litter-filled streets I came from. I didn’t live exactly in the city, a suburb, and people didn’t care about their shit like they did here. I had a feeling they might have given awards out for some of this landscaping.
Jesus.
Paige never talked about where she lived much during her visits. Sure, she talked about the basic shit, who she was sleeping with or the crap that went down with her and Dad, but the actual town, not so much. Crossing my legs, I attempted to adjust my skirt again, bracing myself for the day to come. When Paige moved away, we’d been in different grades. I mean, she was a year older than me at nineteen, but her tendencies to miss classes and I guess “dick around,” as my dad would say, placed us both as seniors this year. At least, she would have been if she were here. The school had been told about this from what I understood. Though, my dad tended to keep his dirty laundry on the DL. As far as they knew, Paige simply wouldn’t be attending school for the time being and his other daughter, me, would be finishing out her senior year here instead.
“Windsor Preparatory Academy, Ms. Lindquist. Would you like me to pull up right to the doors or is the start of the quad to your liking?”
Passing through gates with a crest comprised of orange and navy sections, another football field presented itself in the form of the quad. These people had a quad, many other chauffeured cars such as mine dropping off students with navy and sun-kissed ties, as well as pleated skirts that rode just as mine. These girls seemed to be used to it, though, the tights. Rosanna actually laid out knee-highs for my ass, but I wasn’t having that. Putting up with nylons, I adjusted those, directing Hubert to take me to the main doors. The other kids seemed to get out early to meet each other for a longer walk, and hiding like a little bitch gave me time to gawk at them a little behind tinted glass.
What have I gotten myself into?
My plan was simple, be here and make myself known until my sister rescued me. She had a tendency of doing that, playing savior whenever I needed her. There’s a reason she’d been so quick to leave with Dad, take the brunt of his parenting and keep the focus off me, and I wasn’t unaware of the sacrifice she’d made all those years ago. Her dealing with our strict and sometimes cold father meant I never had to. She’d been there for me by ironically leaving me, so if I came here and word ultimately got back to her about it, she would be back.
She always showed up for me.
Hubert stopped in front of the large oak doors, and after handing me a bag filled with books, he directed me to see the headmaster first. There, I’d be told my schedule and instructed where to go. Basically, the baby bird would be thrown right out of the nest and into the prestigious halls of Windsor Prep.
“Your father instructed me to give you this card as well,” he stated, handing me plastic over