It only took a few minutes to get there, as it was just down the street. I stopped in front of the small old building, hooked my bike to my parents’ BMW coup and entered. There were a few people waiting, as those who filed for extensions needed to file by the fifteenth. And my parents thought I didn’t pay attention to the ‘real world’. Then it would get calm until the New Year came around, things would get even more hectic until April.
I took a seat in the lobby and waited for my parents. Pulling out one of the mangas I put in my backpack this morning, I started to read Oresama Teacher. Though it wasn’t sci-fi or fantasy, I found it to be quite entertaining. I personally would love to have Mr. Saeki as my sensei, but nevertheless, it was fiction.
After about half an hour of reading my manga, my parents were ready to go home. I climbed in the car, starving and excited to have leftover Chinese from Golden Crown that my parents had picked up the night before.
“How was your day, Meredith?” Mom asked as she got into the car. Again, they never called me Alice. It was like that part of me was part of a fantasy I was living in, as if ‘Alice’ was the artist in me and if they ignored it then it would simply go away.
I buckled my seat. “Fine.”
Dad started the car and backed up from the parking spot. “Dance too?”
“Yup.” It was a simple answer, I knew, but if I went into detail they would never understand. They didn’t think it was an accomplishment when I could perfect a brisé in point. Or the fact I could dance in point.
It was all meaningless fun to them.
“What are you doing this weekend? Are you going to go to Kate’s house?” Mom asked.
I thought about it. I didn’t have much homework so going to Kate’s would be a good plan. Then I could talk to her about Chase and Malcolm, maybe. But then again, she would think it was just because I liked Malcolm when really that wasn’t the case. This time. “Probably, I need to call her. I’ll do that when I get home.”
When we got home I called Kate and her mother said I could come over the next day for a sleepover. We decided we would meet at the downtown mall and hangout for a while, because that was really the only thing to do in Salem. There were also some fun antique stores downtown too that we had fun exploring, especially Engelberg Antiks. Last time we were there we found what looked like a secret society code book. It was pretty exciting and I still needed to do some research on what exactly it was.
Once I hung up the phone, dinner was ready, or at least the leftovers had been reheated. My sister Lilith was home from racquetball practice as well. She had her own car, a little green Volkswagen Bug, and could drive herself. Once she put away her stuff, we all gathered at the dining table.
“So,” Mom began as the clatter of utensils hit the plates, except for me since I was the only one who knew how to use chopsticks. “How was your day Lilith?”
Lilith ran her hands through her long, light brown hair, twisting it back into a pony tail. “It was great, physics was fun, chemistry was great. Eugene is such a great teacher and thinks I can study physics on a scholarship for sure.”
Eugene was an interesting teacher at our school. He got away with practically breaking every school code in his lab: allowing food during class, playing music, wearing Crocs… Those Crocs, I swore.
“That would be perfect. Then you can save up your college funds for a house.” Mom smiled.
“And I also beat one of the head boys at racquetball today,” she added.
“That’s great; teach those boys how to play.” Dad smiled.
“Coach says I should be able to get top ten in the girl’s division for state this year. I’m hoping she is right.”
“That would be fantastic, Dear, we are so proud of you,” Mom said. I tried not to cough. They were always proud of her. Her and Edith, our older sister who was in medical school at OHSU in Portland. She came home every once in a while when she had time, mainly to have Mom do her laundry for her.
“Meredith, how did you do on that math test you had earlier this week?” Dad asked.
Crap, they remembered. They always remembered. I poked one of the pot-stickers with my chopsticks. “I did okay.”
“So an ‘A’?”
“More like a ‘B’ minus,” I mumbled.
“A ‘B’ minus?”
Before he could lecture me, I held out my hand. “It’s fine, the final will replace the lowest grade. I will study harder next time. I already talked to the teacher and he said I shouldn’t have any problem getting an ‘A’ after the semester ends.”
My sister leaned over and whispered in my ear. “It’s because you spend so much time at dance and painting. If you gave up those useless hobbies of yours, you could spend more time studying.”
“At least I have a creative mind,” I snapped back. I really shouldn’t have said that because I knew it would just encourage her more, but I couldn’t help myself. I hated it when she treated my things as hobbies instead of being my passion and what I wanted to do with my life.
She moved back to her spot and
