2 - How We Met

Taylor and Hayden recall their past and becoming best friends.

Taylor

It feels like Hayden and I have known each other our whole lives, but it wasn’t until we were nine that I found out who she actually was. It happened at Rachael Lehmann’s birthday party. My mom pointed to the loud, chubby girl with brown hair and told me she was my half-sister. Way to procrastinate, Mom. I remember looking at Hayden and saying, “she looks crazy.” And my mom said, “That’s because she takes after her mother.” We were in fourth grade at the time, but never had the same teacher, so I saw her at school and knew her name but I never actually spoke to her. I hardly spoke to anyone except my family and our neighbors.

 

The rest of the kids were sitting at the picnic table talking and eating cake. I was sitting by my mom with my feet dangling off a fold up lawn chair drinking one of those juice barrels because I was shy and kept to myself. I asked my mom if I should go over, and she said it wouldn’t be a bad idea. So, I went over to the picnic table and sat down in the open spot next to Hayden. The other girls ignored me for the most part until Rachael looked at me and whispered something to Kylie Cummings. Rachael told Kylie that she didn’t know why I got invited because I was the weird girl who doesn’t talk. Kylie laughed and agreed with her.

 

When Caleb and the boys from school made me mad, I would simply charge at them, push them in the dirt, and start hitting them until they either pushed me off or started crying. Today, something stopped me from doing that to Rachael. It may have been because she was a girl, or because it was her tenth birthday, or because her friends were there. But for some reason, all I did was sit there with tears welling up in my eyes as she, Kylie, and three other girls named Elodie, Emilie and Maddie sat there and picked on me. Until the next moment, I thought Hayden may have been laughing at me too. Then I felt her grab my hand.

 

“You girls need to shut up! You’re hurting her feelings!” she said. They looked at each other and went about their business. A thought came over me. Before I knew it, I was leaning over the picnic table, grabbing the cake off Kylie’s paper plate, and smearing it all over Rachael’s face. I haven’t heard Hayden laugh that hard since that moment. The next thing I knew, my mom was coming over to me and dragging me back to the truck while Rachael sat there balling her eyes out and the rest of the girls laughed hysterically. Hayden gave me a goodbye wave and a little smile as my mom chewed me out the rest of the way home. Later, she told me she thought it was funny.

 

By middle school, Hayden and I were sitting together at lunch every day and walking to our classes together because we had the same schedule. We were inseparable, for the most part. I wasn’t allowed at her house because our moms hated each other. Some of the guys even tried to say we were lesbians, but Hayden shut them down really quick. She was very good at it. That was sixth grade. By eighth grade, Hayden had developed her triple D’s which caused most of the guys to magically fall in love with her. I stayed almost the same and the only guy tripping over me was Caleb. The feelings were not reciprocated, but I kissed him for a Slim Jim once. By high school, Hayden had her fair share of boyfriends. But the one who stuck by off and on since she was 12 is Tyler. He’s nuts and I hate him, but she’s attached to him. I guess she’s just waiting for someone better who will push her to give him the boot.

 

Hayden

My mom told me I was an only child and I actually thought I was until I started talking to Taylor. I officially met her at my friend Rachael’s tenth birthday party. After Taylor shoved cake in Rachael’s face, I knew she was different than all of my other friends. We started hanging out and became best friends by junior high. We both had the last name “Amberwood” so one day I asked her if we could possibly be distantly related. She told me that we were related; we were half-sisters. I remember the shock made me spit out my drink at the lunch table. I asked her who her dad was and she told me she didn’t know. I didn’t know who my real dad was either. I remember how mad I was when I came home that night. That was the first night I cursed in front of my mom because she lied to me about something so important.

 

The situation is awful and I don’t blame my mom for not wanting to tell me about it. Taylor is 3 months older than me, so that means our dad was with Kate, Tae’s mom, and then got with my mom a short time later. I still don’t know any of the details and I don’t dare ask. Tae told me that our dad cheated on Kate with my mom and he fled town after my mom told Kate she was pregnant with me. Ever since then, our moms have hated each other. Tae is barely allowed over because my mom doesn’t like “redneck trailer trash” in her house. I want to kill her whenever she says that.

Author's Note

I know it's short. Let me know if you think there's something I could add.

Reviews

[Krystal Nicole]

this was a very interesting chapter!! I liked how you explained how they found out they were half-sisters. I also liked how you talked about how different they were, something that really wasn't seen in the first chapter. The only thing I have a problem with is that I don't know if this chapter really belongs well as chapter two. I'm worried it's going to interrupt the flow of the book. It just depends on chapter three, but I think this might work better as a prologue or something. That's just my opinion. Great chapter!! I'm very eager to read more!!

[Samantha Grant]

Thanks so much for the feedback. Yeah, I'm not really sure how I should tie this in as I'm finishing up chapter 3 right now and it picks up from where chapter 1 ends. We'll see how it plays out.