Chapter 1, Part 1 - Dawn

As if being a high school senior isn't enough to take in, overachiever Dawn can't even get out of the house without a fight.

            “Dawn, have you seen my shirt?” Anne burst into my room, bringing with her the havoc that I had been trying to lock out.

            “Is that how you’re going to school?” I couldn’t help but stare. She was rummaging around my closet in only her bra. A black bra! Since when did my fourteen-year-old sister wear black bras?

            “It’s the new one, it’s white with pink stripes…” My clothes flew out behind her as she dug through the mess that was my fashion.

            “No, I haven’t.” I said. “Are you going to pick those up?”

            But Anne had already cast me an aggressive eye roll and flown back to the chaos of the first day of school.

            I gritted my teeth as I scooped shirts and skirts back onto their hangers. I hadn’t told my sister, but I had seen her shirt as early as that morning. It was tucked neatly under my pillow, exactly where I had left it. It was a regrettable fact that my favorite shoes were swimming somewhere under Anne’s bed, where she had kicked them after stealing them from me and “forgetting” about them, and I was keeping her shirt safe for her until she gave them back.

            Downstairs, things were only getting worse.

            As soon as I started towards the kitchen, I could hear Anne pitching a fit in the laundry room. Ever since she entered the teen years, she had developed a habit of giving our mother hell for every little mishap. Today, it was the fact that Anne’s backup clothes were still in the basket while mine were freshly ironed and set out neatly.

“That’s not fair! She doesn’t even care how she looks and you fall all over yourself to make sure her clothes aren’t wrinkled! What about me? I care how I look. I wake up three hours early to make sure I look as good as I do…” Anne launched into her usual speech about why she should receive the prodigal daughter treatment.

“Have to look good for senior year, sweetie,” Mom brushed past Anne and presented me with the blue short-sleeved button down I had gotten for my last birthday. It was the nicest thing I could wear without drowning in sweat or being accused of breaking the dress code.

It normally didn’t matter to me how I looked at school. I wasn’t out to impress anyone with my dazzling looks or superior fashion, I just wanted to get in and get out comfortably. That was usually accomplished by wearing my favorite pair of black pants and a hooded sweater. On random occasions, I’d put on a skirt and blouse and pretend to be professional all day, just for the sake of looking professional. But aside from that, I didn’t spend much time worrying over what to wear.

Today was only different because it was the last time I’d have a first day of high school. It was the last day my mother would see me off for school, trying to hide her emotions by pretending to be upset that her little first-born was getting so old. After today, senior year would be that much closer to over, and I would be ready for college. A year left before I could finally start my life.

“Here, Dawn, I made some extra crispy bacon for you,” Mom said, carefully moving the burnt bacon from the skillet to a plate. I was very close to touched, because I was the only one in my family who couldn’t eat bacon if it wasn’t crunchy. If it was soft, I felt too much like I was eating the skin off the pig, a thought that used to haunt me as a kid but had mostly subsided. My dad and brothers, being typical males, couldn’t understand that I couldn’t just pick something up and eat it, that it had to be a certain way. Because of this, I usually didn’t eat bacon with the rest of my family. Obviously, today was very different.

Today, I was a high school senior.

“Well, that’s just great,” Anne sneered. “Really touching. Now what am I supposed to eat?”

“You don’t even like bacon,” I pointed out. “There’s cereal and pop tarts in the closet.”

Anne grabbed the ends of her hair and shrieked. “It’s the principal!”

I don’t know what principal she was talking about. It was a special day for me, and Mom clearly recognized that. Anne, not so much.

My dad entered the kitchen and winced. “Thank God they’re going back to school,” he said to Mom, stealing some of my breakfast. “The bacon’s burnt!”

“Just the way Dawn likes it!” Mom reminded him. “Anthony, our little baby is a senior now!”

“Oh yeah!” He stole more bacon. “About time someone graduates, this house is too crowded.”

If by “too crowded” he meant “not enough room for his drum set and record collection”, then my dad was right. But the house really wasn’t that bad. Cal and DJ shared a room, Anne and I each had our own. My parents had their own bathroom, and my brothers were still young enough that they rebelled against taking regularly scheduled showers, so there wasn’t much conflict between the four kids. Of course, we also had a mammoth-sized white German Shepherd named Blitzen, who took up more than her fair share of space. But really, who was going to complain about that? We’d begged my mom for years to let us get a dog, with Dad doing most of the pleading.

“About time, I’m pretty sick of high school,” I added. It couldn’t be more true. I had been ready for college since middle school. 

As I finished breakfast and slipped in to the bathroom adjacent to the kitchen, I heard my parents whispering to each other.

“Do you want to tell her?” I heard Mom ask, but had no idea what they had in mind. I couldn’t make out my dad’s hushed reply. Figuring I would find out soon enough, I left it to time and focused on the mirror.

Same as with my clothes, I didn’t put much time into my appearance. I almost always wore my hair pulled back, either putting all of it in a ponytail or just the top layer. I only wore concealer on days that my hormones caused me to break out, and rarely wore any other makeup. I didn’t have much against makeup; I just didn’t like to bother with it. It felt too much like I was painting my face, trying to trick people into thinking I looked different. But I didn’t have much to complain about with my normal look. My hair was naturally blond, something half the girls at my school would kill for. I had blue eyes that were perhaps a little too far apart, but they were blue so most people forgave them for it. My mouth probably could’ve used some chap stick, but I hated having sticky stuff just sitting on my lips. And my complexion wasn’t that even, it was yellow around my eyes and hairline, red on my nose and cheeks, and pinkish everywhere else. You couldn’t deny that it was kind of off, because my nose was very prominent. It was large and slightly crooked, closely resembling the nose of my Armenian grandmother, so I called it my Armenian nose. But I wasn’t ashamed of how I looked. It was my face; I had no choice but to show it.

There was scuffling out in the kitchen as I brushed back my hair. I heard whispering again, urgent now.

Thin shadows descended across the mirror, hovering by the door. Oh no. If they had to corner you in the bathroom, you knew it couldn’t be good.

“So…sweetie…you know how we’re letting you drive the car to school this year?” Mom started, trying to sound casual. It didn’t work; her voice was about to crack, I could hear her voice box straining to keep it under control.

“And we agreed from the start that you would eventually have to pay us back for it,” Dad said, his voice stronger and deeper than it had been earlier, a signal that he was being serious. Definitely not a good sign.

I put the brush on the sink and held on to the porcelain rim. My lips were aching; I could feel a scowl coming on. “I remember.”

“Well…” Mom glanced at Dad and then back at me. “Well, you’ve gone most of the summer with the car, and we’ve decided we need you to start paying now.”

“Okay…”

Dad opened his hands, a motion associated with peace and the assurance that the other person wasn’t hiding anything. “It’s only a hundred a month, to go towards your insurance.”

Not a terrible deal, if I hadn’t been broke. I was, after all, only in high school. I wasn’t qualified for anything that paid much.

“So you have to get a job. Actually, I can take you to get applications after school today, if you want,” Mom offered. She widened her eyes and tried a smile, looking hopeful. Not just hoping I would agree to go with her, I’m sure.

“You want me to get a job now?” I asked. They nodded, and I closed my eyes. School hadn’t even started and I was already stressed out. My teeth set to work on the inside of my mouth as I wondered how I was going to fit a job between everything else I had to do. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I have a lot going on this semester, psych meetings and piano…and you know, school…I’m gonna’ be really busy.”

Dad raised his eyebrows. “Well, we’re pretty confident in you. We think you can do it.”

“You definitely can.” Mom nodded. “Besides, it’s going to be pretty tough to get to all those places if you can’t drive there.”

“Job equals car equals your life may continue as usual.”

That was typical of my parents for you. Thinking they were so clever, cornering you into doing things you didn’t want to do, and then trying to make you feel better by making corny little jokes. I had never paid attention to if they were that funny or not when I was younger, but I was older now. I wasn’t amused.

“Fine, I’ll look for a job,” I snapped, grabbing my hair brush and storming out of the bathroom. “But I’ll look on my own, and not today. Give me a day to think about where I want to work.” Bargaining was never bad. My dad was a real estate agent, and he just liked to hear people say yes. Can’t make money if people don’t agree, so what’s a day or two? He shrugged at my mom and I was off the hook for the day.

“Hey Dawn! Have you seen my shirt?” Anne was stomping down the stairs, her arms twisted behind her back like an army general, her eyes in tiny slits. People said we looked alike, but she was rapidly getting taller than me, already 5’4’’ and still going. I had to raise my eyes slightly to look into hers.

“Didn’t I tell you no?” I pointed the brush at her, hoping it would chase her off. Why wouldn’t she give up on her stupid shirt? She had a million others.

In a liquid rush of fury, Anne whipped her arm around and shook the missing shirt in my face. “Does this look familiar to you? Because I found it under your bed!”

“No you didn’t,” I said coolly. There was no use in getting angry, that would just make it worse.

Anne’s eyes popped open, hardly able to believe I was denying it. “Yes, I did.”

“No. It wasn’t under my bed, it was under my pillow.” I just had to make sure she got it right. I hated it when people messed up obvious facts.

Anne wrung the shirt around her fists and screamed. “You’re such a b***h!”

“Maybe if you hadn’t stolen my shoes, I wouldn’t have stolen your shirt.”

“What shoes?”

“The heeled ones, the only nice pair I have. You wore them to that party you went to and never gave them back.”

“What are you --”

Mom poked her head into the hall and called “It’s time to go! Dawn’s driving!”

Anne shoved past me and clung to Mom’s shoulder. “I don’t want to go with her, she’s a bad driver!” she whined. “Can’t you take me?”

Mom just sighed and grabbed her keys. “Cal, hurry up! You have to leave!” she shouted. Turning to my father she said “Make sure DJ wakes up soon, at least one of them has to catch the bus today.” And then she and Anne scrambled out of the house.

Cal came shuffling downstairs, his jeans too baggy for him and his t-shirt too big, but I guess that’s the style these days. He looked at me with drooping, tired eyes, and I was just glad he wasn’t screaming at me.

“Are you ready to go? I have to pick up Asia, too,” I warned him, and he shrugged. “Yes or no?”

“I was just kind of hungry, that’s all…” he hinted, and I shoved him in the direction of the bacon before grabbing my bag and running outside to start my car.

 

It was 7:14 in the morning. The bell for first period rings at 7:25, so I might’ve been okay if I had just gone straight to school. Instead, I was sitting outside Asia’s mini mansion, cursing her existence because she wasn’t outside waiting for me.

“I’m gonna’ be late,” Cal complained, and I snapped my fingers at him. I had gotten into the bad habit of snapping at my brothers when they bothered me, probably because we snapped at Blitzen to get her attention.

I honked the horn for the third time and glared out the windshield. If she didn’t show up soon, I was going to speed off and let her be late.

The passenger door flew open and a tall girl with flowing black hair jumped in. “Okay okay, drive!” Asia commanded, throwing her bag on the floor and grabbing at her seatbelt, but my foot was already on the gas.

“I am angry at you,” I said shortly, my foot pressing down harder. I had to drop Cal off at the middle school, and less than five minutes in which to do so.

“Por que?” It was Asia’s little way of diverting anger aimed at her. She’d say something in Spanish and hope that the other person would suddenly go from being furious to being amazed at her language skills. It didn’t work with me.

“Could you take any longer getting out of your house? I wasted about five minutes on that curb!” I raged through clenched teeth.

“Oh please. My parents wanted to take pictures for Michele and Jake, like they care.” Asia was the baby of her family, her older sister and brother being out in the real world, and her parents alternated between clinging to their last child and forgetting about her.

“Plus I have to get a job.”

Asia ran a hand through her silky hair, just to see if it could be any more perfect. “And, this is my fault why?”

“It’s not, it’s not. Just saying. Senior year is so important, and I have so much to do as it is, and they’re trying to make me spend half of my time doing some menial chore that will barely pay minimum wage. I have to pay a hundred dollars to my parents every month for this stupid car, and I don’t know where to start.”

“A bunch of places downtown are hiring. You’re not going to work at McDonald’s, are you? Just to warn you, I seriously can’t be seen with you if you do.”

“The way my schedule is, I’ll be lucky if I can work at all, anywhere. Who would want to hire high scholars anyway? We’re lazy and untrustworthy. I don’t know what my parents are thinking, expecting me to get a job and pay for the car right now.”

“So, so what? Get a job. It’s not like they’ll expect you to be there full time. And there will still be time to study and read and all that exciting stuff that you love, I promise.”

“Yeah, sure. You’d be singing a different tune if it was you who had to get the job,” I grumbled.

“And then so would you. My sweet Miss-Gives-Advice-But-Can’t-Take-It. Do you realize that this is a 15 mile-per-hour zone?” She smiled at me, assuming she was off the hook.

“Do you realize that Cal has to be in class by right now?”

I slammed on the breaks in front of Maple Creek Middle School, and Cal leapt out without saying a word. Without waiting to make sure he got into the school like my mom would have encouraged me to do, I was back on the road and pulling into the Juniper High School parking lot across the street. The senior parking lot was located behind the football stadium, about as far away from the building as you could get without leaving the campus. My designated spot was against a chain link fence, bits of cloth and paper stuck in it from football games past. I had barely stopped the car before I turned the key out of the ignition and shot out the door.

“I hope this isn’t going to be the norm, Dawn. I need more time in the morning than this.” Asia reminded me as we ran through the lot towards the school.

“Well gosh, Asia, I would hate to inconvenience you.”

“I know, that’s why I’m not mad at you. You didn’t do it on purpose. It was an…”

“Yeah, and now you need to shut up.”

“Just like it’s not my fault that you have to get a job!”
            “Just like you still need to shut up!”

You can believe I was thanking God when I remembered that my family always set clocks a few minutes fast for occasions like these. Students were still trailing through the halls, giving each other last minute “welcome-back” hugs before leaving for class.

“I’ll see you at lunch, okay? You have A-lunch, right?” Asia panted as we jogged down the main hallway.

“Yeah…A-lunch. See you then,” I gave her a backwards wave and continued going straight as she turned down a different hall. My first class was International Relations, something I was actually mildly interested in, and I didn’t want to miss anything. I turned at the end off the hall into a narrow passage against the outer wall of the school, known as the Secret Hall because there was the least amount of student traffic there, where there was no air conditioning in the old classrooms. Mine was in the corner of the building, a cramped little classroom with the seats arranged in a circle, a grey headed man writing on the chalk board in the front. The bell rang as I closed the door behind me, and I thankfully drooped into an empty seat. Senior year was under way.

Author's Note

There's a lot here that doesn't need to be, I know...I haven't touched this since Nanowrimo! Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Reviews

[Tim H]

Great characterization, very believable. I like the way you use dialogue and actions it really reveals a great deal about the characters. I found a typo: Who would want to hire high scholars anyway? should be high schoolers and forget spell check. While the characters are richly made, the story does lack a little in the description side. perhaps consider some descriptions of Asia, the car, and school peppered in the dialogue. The length is a bit long and here I am asking for descriptions. Nice story so far.