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Same thing as Chapter One: multiple posts, same chapter. All Chapter Two

My last two classes of the day are both art classes; I have sculpting with Jade and then drawing and then, finally, the day will be done.

I soon discover that sculpting involves the teacher, Mrs. Prominian, handing you a lump of clay, telling you to be "one with it", and then waltzing off, humming to herself.

"So she’s crazy," I whisper to Jade.

She stifles a giggle, and quickly wipes the back off her hand across her cheek to hide it as our teacher flounces past. She ends up with a smear or red clay down the side of her face. I dig into my clay, having no idea what I’m making. I don't think it matters though, because the class is between projects right now, so today is just "getting to know the clay".

Jade slides her chair closer to mine. "You want to talk about those guys you appear to be such good friends with?" she asks, grinning slightly.

I snort, letting the jibe pass. "You do, huh?"

"So badly! I mean, my gosh! Their both so..."

"Gorgeous?" I finish with a smile, remembering her word from earlier.

She remembers too. "Well yes. They are. You're going to have to accept that."

I hold up my hands. "I'm not denying it." I pound my clay into the table before continuing. "But, don't you think there's something... I don’t know, just a little different about the two of them? Like they're in on some big secret?"

"They’re high school boys,” Jade says. “How big could their secret be?”

“I don’t know,” I answer. “I’m just saying. They seem different. They talk different. They act different. Not much, but still. You don’t see it?”

Jade doesn't seem to want to talk about how different they are. At least, not how they are different in a weird way. "No. I think they are perfectly good-looking boys that obviously like you, so you should accept that. What I want to know is, do all boys from Arizona look like Crispin?”

I shake my head. “I lived in Arizona, remember? If all the guys there were that good-looking don’t you think I would have campaigned harder to stay?”

Jade nods, acknowledging the truth of the statement. Then she continues. “But I mean, did you see his green eyes? And his muscles? And how mature he looked?"

I stare at her. That's what had set them apart from the rest of the school. They both acted older than everyone else, like they had seen more. They held themselves differently. They seemed too mature to be in high school.

"What's up?" Jade asks. I’m still looking at her.

"Oh. Nothing,” I say hurriedly. “You just said exactly what I was thinking."

"You think Crispin is hot too?"

I shake my head slightly, grinning again. "Kind of, yeah." James' face comes to mind, his dark hair and stunning gray-blue eyes and crooked smile.

"I suppose James is pretty hot too," Jade continues.

"I suppose he is," I tell her.

"I know you think he is. I was sharing my thoughts with you."

Though I had just turned away, I look back over at her. "What do you mean, you know I think so? You think I think James Sable is hot?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, you kept staring at him. But you can have him. Crispin’s more my type."

“I don’t stare at him,” I protest.

"Oh come on Cara. It's fine. So you have a crush on a hot guy. It’s happened before." She raises her eyebrows at me when I don’t immediately respond. "It has happened before, hasn't it?"

I actually have to think about that. I’ve seen cute guys before. At my last school there was a surplus of them. But I’ve never really liked one before, not right off the bat like this. No boy has made me blush with just a look. I’ve never been truly intrigued by anyone the way I am with James, and Crispin too, I suppose.

When I don't answer Jade widens her eyes in surprise. "It's never happened before?" Her voice raises and a few people turned to look at us. Muttered conversations were going on throughout the room, and ours had been low key until that point. Jade sees their heads turn, and she quiets back down. "Well then, this is a big day for you."

When the bell rings, we all dump our clay into a huge bin at the front of the room. Jade and I run to wash our hands in the bathroom before our last classes. We part ways by agreeing to meet each other at the same entrance we came in this morning.

“Hang in there,” Jade says as she walks away. “There’s only one class left and then we’re home free!”

Since I’m not much of an artist, drawing proves to be a little painful for me. But my teacher is great, walking by occasionally and giving me pointers, not seeming to care one way or the other if I take them.

“Drawing is about capturing reality,” she says, “but it’s how that reality looks from your point of view, not mine or anyone else’s.”

Personally I don’t think the bowl of fruit I’ve been assigned to draw is supposed to look like a bunch of blobs from anyone’s point of view, mine included, but I just smile and thank her. She seems to know what I’m thinking, because she says with a wink, “I’ve always thought pears were a blobby-looking fruit anyhow.” And I decide this class will be all right.


Max follows Jade and I to my house when school gets out.

“It’s a mess,” I warn him, unlocking the front door.

“Oh, like he cares,” Jade says. “Max lives in a state of perpetual messiness.”

“Hey, I take offense to that,” Max tells her, acting insulted.

“That was the general idea,” Jade replies, smiling.

I usher them into the kitchen and put Jade on cookie duty, pulling the dough out of the fridge and once again hunting through the maze of cardboard boxes to find our spoons and a cookie sheet.

Max and I clear off the counters and table, then he begins handing me anything he can find and I either find a place for it in the kitchen or toss it in an empty box to be put in another room.

Once the cookies are in the oven Jade helps us too. And as we work, we talk. After all, we have entire lives to share with each other. They tell me about Shawnee Mission East: the students and the teachers and the classes, which rules to watch for and which ones no one cares if you break.

I tell them about the states I’ve lived in and the people I’ve met. We share the names of our first crushes and our oldest friends. Jade hesitantly explains how afraid she is for her father, who’s fighting overseas, and how her mom the lawyer is having a hard time handling it. Max tells me about his single mom who spends too many hours at the hospital, where she works as a nurse, but how she never wants to ask for more time off because they need the money. And about his douche-of-a-stepfather that she doesn’t have the time or money to divorce but who luckily isn’t around very often.

And, for the first time, I find myself venting about my parents to someone. About how they constantly move us from one place to another, with no regard for Sophie and I and the lives we’re trying to build. How my artist mother thinks the movement is good for her creativity and my father, the renowned professor, thinks that he can get all kind of new angles on his research if he doesn’t stay in one place for too long. About how worried I am for Sophie because we don’t stay still long enough for her to make real friends and she doesn’t have a way to stay in contact with the friends she does make.

“I just don’t get it. They don’t know what to do with children or how to be parents, so why did they have us? And why won’t they try harder?” By now I’ve given up on the kitchen and am sitting at the big wooden table, head in my hands.

Jade finishes emptying her box before she comes to sit with me. She offers me a cookie.

“That sucks,” she sums up.

I nod without looking up.

“But you seem to be doing a pretty good job, despite the roller coaster that is your life.”

“I wish my life didn’t have to be a roller coaster.”

“Well, roller coasters come to an end.” Jade says, continuing the metaphor. “Eventually you get to hop off and let somebody else take your seat. And you get to walk away and never ride again, if you choose. But you could grab a friend and jump right back on. You could enjoy it.”

I look at her for a long moment. “Do you just ever feel like you don’t belong? Like maybe you were made for something else and no one has bothered to tell you yet?”

“I think,” Jade tells me, “that people belong wherever they are. You belong here because you’re here now. And you belonged in Minnesota before that. And, what was it, Texas before that?”

“Arizona,” I correct her quietly.

“Oh right. That one. Well, the point’s the same no matter where you were. It’s where you belonged then, and this is where you belong now.”

“So, what, the universe is conspiring to eventually lead me exactly where I’m supposed to be? No matter what?” I ask.

Jade pushes the whole plate of cookies at me, though I haven’t even eaten the first one and smiles softly. “Yep,” she says simply.

I take a moment to stare at her, overwhelmed, then I stuff a cookie in my mouth and spring up to help Max, who is trying to put my mom’s fine china in the cabinet with the rest of our plates.

And we move onto lighter subjects. The topics of bands and books leads to movies, which leads to us talking about hot actors and beautiful actresses, which leads us back to crushes in general, which leads us to Max’s senior crush Abigail.

“And why do we like her?” I ask the two of them.

Max is taking his embarrassment out on the empty boxes, tearing the packing tape off the bottoms and folding them up before he throws them into the hallway.

“I don’t know,” he says.

“Oh please,” Jade tells him. She yanks her hair up into a ponytail and turns to me. Her eyes are glinting mischievously. “I know why. If he won’t tell you I will.”

Max, apparently, is not going to tell me.

“Fine.” Jade sits on the counter and begins her story. “We used to be friends with this guy. In high school, he turned into this huge jock so we gave up on him eventually, but freshman year he was really popular and he got invited to all these parties. Therefore, we did too. And Abigail Bell was at practically every single one.

“People’s favorite game to play was Spin the Bottle. Don’t ask me why. I didn’t participate. But one time Max did. And every time he or Abs would spin they would get each other. Abigail started going on and on about how it had to be fate. But she was pretty smashed at that point, so by the next day she didn’t really remember any of it.

“But Max did! And, being the superstitious oddball that he is, he too is now convinced that it was fate’s way of showing them they are meant to be together.” Jade finishes her story and looks at me like she’s waiting for applause. I don’t give her any. She hops down from the counter and continues, “Of course by now I’m pretty sure it’s just a normal old crush. He just won’t admit it.”

“I do admit it. All the time.” Max scowls at the two of us. “I only believed that fate thing for a couple weeks,” he explains. “Jade was just never able to let it go.”

I’m about to tell him that it’s no big deal when I hear someone trying to open the front door. Then there are some loud voices, and Sophie bursts into the house, crying. She sees me and immediately stumbles over and buries her face in my shirt. I hold her tight, bewildered.

“Cara, I am so sorry.” Mrs. Finch has followed Sophie into the house. “I tried to calm her down before we got here but she just kept asking for you.”

“What happened?” I ask. “Sophie, are you hurt?” I turn to Mrs. Finch. “Is she okay?”

Mrs. Finch looks flustered. “It seems as though she got in a fight at school. I couldn’t get much more out of her.” She looks at the front door like she’s planning an escape. “I’m so sorry,” she repeats, “but I have to go. Rodney is waiting in the car.” And with that she rushes out.

I stare after her for a moment in disbelief, and then I turn my attention to Sophie. “Soph. Sophie, please look at me. Are you okay? Can you tell me what happened?”

Jade taps me on the shoulder and hands me a tissue. I nod at her gratefully before she retreats, backing up to continue emptying boxes with Max and giving Sophie and I some semblance of privacy.

I sit cross-legged on the floor and pull Sophie into my lap, passing her the tissue. I rock her back and forth until her sobs subside and she can speak.

“I d-don’t want to go to school with Rodney anymore, Cara. P-please don’t make me go.”

“Honey,” I say softly, “can you please tell me what happened?”

“H-he told all of the kids that my parents don’t l-l-love me enough to drive me to school so his mommy h-has to do it.”

I feel a surge of fury that a fourth grader would be so cruel. And Sophie continues:
“So I hit him. Only he hit me back and ripped my shirt. So I hit him again and the teacher got mad at me. Cara, he d-didn’t even get in trouble.” Sophie starts to cry again. “She didn’t believe me. She t-thought I was lying.”

I draw her close, shushing her. She rests her head on my shoulder. I feel her tears staining my shirt. It seems ridiculous that a fourth-grade playground fight could get me so worked up, but I guess when it’s your darling little sister taking the brunt of the blow it’s hard not to.

I notice the torn shoulder of her favorite shirt.

“Jade?” I ask quietly. She rushes over and sits next to me. “Can you sew?”

“Yeah, pretty well,” she responds, looking sadly at Sophie nestled in my arms.

“Hey, Soph? Do you want to go upstairs with me and change shirts? Than we’ll find the sewing kit and Jade can fix that one?”

“No!” Sophie cries. “I don’t want to wear this shirt anymore! He’ll just rip it again. He said it needed to be torn up because no one likes Pokémon anyway.”

I was going to have to have a serious talk with Mrs. Finch about her son.

I give Sophie a long, tight hug before I stand her up and walk her up the stairs. “Well
I do want it fixed,” I tell her. “It’s my favorite shirt that you have. And I’m sure there were plenty of kids that loved it that just didn’t say so. Now come on, darling.”

Sophie changes quickly into the plain t-shirt I hand her, and then we go back downstairs and I sit her at the table with the cookies. She eats one unhappily. Normally she would eat three in a heartbeat.

Max stays in the kitchen with her while Jade and I search the dining room for the sewing kit.

“She knew,” I say furiously, talking about Mrs. Finch. “She knew her son was the reason Sophie was bawling, and she just ran out. What kind of parent is she? She couldn’t just own up or explain it to me before she waltzed out the door?”

I notice Jade, who looks like she’s struggling for words. I look at her questioningly.
“I’m sorry!” she bursts out. “Cara, I swear I had no idea. I only met Rodney once, when he was five. I didn’t know he was such a little-”

“Jade!” I cut in. “Jade, it’s alright. I know it isn’t your fault. I’m not blaming you.”

“It feels like my fault,” she sighs. “If they hadn’t ridden together than he’d of had no idea that her own parents didn’t drive her.”

I’m suddenly and unreasonably angry with my parents for not sticking around to take Sophie to her first day of school themselves. But I don’t say so. “Jade, it sounds like this kid would’ve found something to tease her about no matter what.”

“I guess so.” She digs around in the box by her feet. “Here it is,” she tells me, pulling the kit out and showing it to me.

“Great, thanks.”

Jade runs upstairs to get the shirt that I left on Sophie’s bed while I head back to the kitchen. Max is trying to get Sophie to speak, but she’s only giving him one-word answers.

“Soph, I’m sorry honey. We didn’t know Rodney would be so mean.” I tell her.

“I know,” she says in a small voice.

“We’ll figure something else out for you, okay? You don’t have to ride to school with the Finch’s again.”

“Okay.”

Max and I leave her be and finish the kitchen. We find my dad’s tools and hammer nails into the wall for pictures, hang artwork and old family photos on the fridge, and soon everything has a place. Jade sits with Sophie and works on fixing the sleeve of her shirt. Neither Max nor Jade show any signs of leaving me yet, even though dinnertime is rolling around.

“Sophie, what do you want to eat tonight?” I ask her.

“Do we have spaghetti?” She’s still using the same small voice.

“We do indeed. Coming right up.”

Max finds a little radio in one of the remaining boxes and sets it on the counter, tuning it to some alt-pop station. He and Jade and I all begin singing along with the songs, inventing our own dance moves and using kitchen utensils to act out the verses while we cook. We get Sophie to smile and even sing a few times, which is the whole point.

When the doorbell rings I hand the spaghetti off to Max, ignoring the nervous look on his face when he glances at the boiling water, and go to answer it.

There’s a handsome, dark-skinned boy that’s probably about eighteen standing on the front step, along with a striking little girl that looks about Sophie’s age, with caramel-colored skin but bright blue eyes.

“Hello. Can I help you with something?” I ask. I can hear Jade howling along with a song behind me (I assume it’s another attempt to make Sophie laugh because Jade actually has quite a good voice).

“Does Sophie Weaver live here?” the little girl pipes up, looking at me hopefully.

“Yes ma’am, she does,” I answer. “Do you know her?”

“Uh-huh. She’s in Mrs. Philips’ class at school with me.”

I wince when she mentions Mrs. Philips. The young man notices. “Pardon us. Is this a bad time?”

“No,” I answer hastily. “I’m just not sure anytime is going to be a good time right now. Sophie is a little…”

“Upset?” he finishes for me.

“Yes. She is. So you know what happened?”

I was asking the older boy, but the girl answered instead. “Yeah. Rodney was being mean to her, so she hit him!” She sounds proud. I find myself liking her.

“I’m Sophie’s older sister, Cara,” I introduce myself.

“Hi Cara. I’m David Anthony. This is my little sister, Isa,” the older boy says.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I say politely. “Do you want to come in?” I stand back and hold the door open for them.

“Sure, only for a moment then,” David says. “Sorry to barge in on you like this.”

“It’s no problem at all,” I tell him. “We’re just making dinner.”

“Are your parents here?” he asks, looking around at all the boxes scattered through the hall.

“No, I’m sorry they aren’t. I’m not sure when they’re coming home tonight.”

Sophie pokes her head around the kitchen doorway. “Cara?” she asks. She freezes when she sees I’m talking to people. “Sorry,” she says.

“It’s okay,” I say, “come on in here. Do you remember meeting Isa Anthony today at school?”

Sophie looks closely at Isa and then nods slowly.

“You have on a different shirt,” Isa tells her. “Where’s your other one? I was going to ask you where you got it. I want one.”

She couldn’t have known it, but Isa just said the one thing that Sophie most needed to hear. A slow smile makes its way across Sophie’s face. “Really?” she asks.

“Yeah! I have all kinds of Pokémon cards at my house. Your shirt was so cool!”

“Do you want a cookie?” Sophie asks her. “We have some in the kitchen.”

Isa looks at David for approval before she follows Sophie back into the kitchen. I hear Sophie introducing her to Max and Jade as “her friend from school today”. My wonderful friends don’t question her, just welcome Isa into the kitchen warmly.

“Would you like a cookie?” I ask David, smiling.

He smiles back, but before he answers Max calls my name. “Hurry,” he adds.

I gesture for David to follow me. Max is watching, horrified, as the water on the stove boils over the pot. I grab a potholder from the drawer we just put it in and rush over to pull the pot from the stovetop. It instantly stops bubbling.

“I probably should have thought of that,” Max says, watching me.

“Yeah, probably,” I agree.

“Ah, well. Spaghetti saved!”

I laugh, emptying some of the water into the sink and drying the burner as best I can before I put the pot back on.

“Wow, it’s like the Iron Chef in here,” I hear David say from the doorway.

I chuckle, but Max and Jade whip around to look at him when he speaks.

“David?” Jade says in a strangled sounding voice.

“Hey there guys,” David says, suddenly looking nervous.

“Oh, good,” I say, “we’re all friends. Hey Sophie, do you want to take Isa upstairs and show her all your Pokémon cards? Maybe you all can trade sometime.” I give her our look, the one that means “please listen to me, just for now”.

So Sophie and Isa dash upstairs.

“So, what’s happening in here?” I ask the three remaining in the kitchen with me. Max and Jade still look shocked and David looks uncomfortable.

No one answers me for a long moment. I wait.

Finally Max speaks up. “You remember Jade’s ‘why Max is in love with Abigail speech’?”

“I do,” I answer.

“This is the jock- no offense David- that got us invited to all those parties.”

“Oh!” I say, looking over at David with a smile. “You’re the jock! That… actually isn’t too surprising. You look like one. What do you play, football?”

David nods. He looks a little unsure about where this is going.

“That’s what I thought,” I continue. “You have that whole tall, dark, and built think going on.”

“You forgot handsome,” David tells me.

“It was implied,” I say.

David relaxes a little and takes the seat Sophie vacated moments before. “How are you guys?” he asks Max and Jade. I turn around to finish making dinner, trying to let them talk, but I can’t help listening.

“How are we?” Jade manages to answer. “How are we? You mean, since you dumped us for your football buddies? Since you got popular and started ignoring us? Since you-”

“Yes.” David cuts her off. “Since then.”

“We’re great thanks,” she says sullenly, picking her sewing back up.

“How’s life going for you, Dave?” Max asks him. “I mean, I realize that being popular and well known by the whole school has to be difficult, but apart from that.”

I almost whack Max over the head with my spoon, but I remember that I’m pretending not to listen so I refrain.

“Guys-” David starts, but Max stops him.

“No dude. You sold out on us.”

I thought David would get angry, would try to defend himself, but he is quiet for a while. When he does speak again, he sounds tired. “I know,” he says. “I know what I did, and I’ve regretted it ever since. I just got so caught up in being known, for the first time in my life. In being popular. But I’m tired of it, I really am. I love playing football, but I hate myself for letting you both fall by the wayside. I’ve wanted to make things right with you for a long time, I just didn’t know how.”

“Apologizing might be a good start,” I say without looking at any of them.

“Right,” David says. “I am sorry, guys. I really am. By the time I realized how much I needed you two in my life it was too late to go back to the way things were. I know that doesn’t excuse it or make up for it, but I do hope it helps.”

I turn around to see how Max and Jade react. They both look a little stunned, and neither says anything immediately. Then, Jade drops Sophie’s half-completed shirt. I’m surprised to that her eyes are wet. “Damn it David,” she whispers. “Do you know how much we missed you?”

David stands up and draws Jade to him. And Jade wraps her arms around him too.
I grin.

Max still looks a little wary, but I think Jade is softening him up.

“You all are ridiculous,” I mutter. Secretly I’m thrilled. Jade has made many vague references to the good friend she and Max used to have. Apparently they all used to be inseparable. They told each other everything. So I’m glad he’s back in their lives. And he’s in mine to now, I suppose.

“Not to break up your little reunion,” I say, “but David. Why are you here?”

“Yeah, Dave. Why are you here?” Jade echoes. “You clearly didn’t come to see Max and I.”

“No, that’s become an added bonus,” David says, smiling down at her. “I’m actually here because I wanted to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Weaver.”

“Oh,” I say. “Well… Look, David, they’re not here. And probably won’t be soon. So, I can give them a message or something, if you want.”

“Sure, that’ll work,” David says. “My... parents, they saw what happened with Sophie this morning. Or, more accurately, they saw Sophie crying when she left and Isa explained what happened. And they figured that Sophie probably wouldn’t want to ride to with Rodney Finch anymore, and that your parents probably wouldn’t want her to have to.”

“Your parents were right,” I tell him.

“I figured. Rodney’s a brat. Always has been.” I laugh at his matter-of-fact-ness.

“So,” he continues, “my dads were thinking they could start driving her in the mornings. That is, if your parents are okay with it and she and Isa get along.”

I didn’t mention his slip up, because he evidently didn’t notice he’d made it. “Oh my gosh, David,” I say instead, “that would be great! Thank you so much! And I think she and Isa are going to be fine.”

“And you’re sure your parents will be okay with it?” David asks.

“Why wouldn’t they be?” I say.

He looks a little flustered. “Oh. No reason. Just making sure.”

“You’re not going to ask about his ‘dads’?” Max says.

“Well I wasn’t, but thanks for that,” I answer, frowning at him.

David looks really uncomfortable.

“It’s alright dude. You said it, not me,” Max informs him.

“Really?” David asks, looking back at me.

“Yeah. Sorry. I wasn’t going to tell you,” I say. “I don’t care, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Thanks. That’s… good to hear. But will your parents care? Are they…? Will they want their daughter being driven to school by…?”

I let him in on a bit of my life since he let me in on his. “David. When I say my parents aren’t here much, I really mean they’re not here. Practically ever. They leave before I get up in the morning and don’t come back until about midnight at the earliest. So it doesn’t matter if they’re okay with it, really. I am, and I’m the one who’s been making these decisions for Sophie for a while now, so if your dads want to drive her, that would be fantastic.”

David looks relieved.

“If Jade doesn’t mind, we’ll just bring Sophie by your house before we head to school in the mornings,” I continue.

“Jade, you got a car?” David asks her.

“Sure did!” Jade replies. “It’s the cute little Land Rover out front.”

“Little?” David says with a smile. “It’s nice.” He looks like he’s about to say more, but he doesn’t.

“Did you ever get that F-150 you wanted?” Jade asks.

“No. No, I didn’t. We used the money for… something else.”

Jade doesn’t push him for information. You can tell, in the way that Max and Jade handle conversations with him that they know David inside and out. He strikes me as a private person, now I see it’s for understandable reasons, and they know exactly when they can ask for more and when to let him fall silent.

“Well, since we’ll be bringing Sophie over now, if you ever need a ride just let me know,” Jade says to him.

“Jade, that would be wonderful,” David tells her.

Jade smiles.

“Dinner’s ready!” I call out. I hear Sophie and Isa shuffling around upstairs, and then hurrying down.

“Is, you and I have got to head out now, alright? But Sophie coming over tomorrow to go to school with you.” David looks over at Sophie. “That is,” he says, “if you want to ride to school with Isa and my parents.”

“Yes!” Sophie exclaims. She appears to be back to her old self.

“Bye Sophie,” Isa says happily.

I walk she and David to the door. “You know you can stay for spaghetti if you want, right?” I ask David quietly.

“Thanks, but we’ve got a family dinner tonight. Dad One is cooking.” David grimaces. “Should be interesting.”

I laugh. “Well thanks then. For everything.”

“It was nice to meet you, Cara. See you soon.” I watch as he helps Isa put her helmet on and they hop on their bikes. I wave, and soon they’ve disappeared down the street.


After dinner, Jade and Max help me clean up and then they have to leave too.

“What a crazy day,” Jade says as they’re leaving. “First the hot senior boys and lunch, then Sophie’s little tiff with Rodney, now we’re reconciled with David?” She gazes at me gleefully. “I knew being your friend would be fun.” And with that she skips off the porch and down to her car.

Max is shaking his head after her. “What a weird one.” He turns to me, smiling. “Thanks, Cara. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow is going to be like,” he says with false cheer. I elbow him and he chuckles.

“I can’t re-introduce you to an old friend everyday. I’m good, but not that good,” I say.

I stand in the doorway until they both drive off. By now it’s time to get homework done, because if I don’t do mine than Sophie won’t do hers. The two of us settle down together in the newly straightened kitchen.

“It looks good in here,” I muse, taking it in now that it isn’t full of people.

Sophie looks a little troubled. “Sorry,” she eventually says. “About my meltdown earlier, I mean.”

I glance at her fondly. “Honey, it wasn’t your fault. I’d have been just as angry as you. No one minded. Though saying you didn’t want your shirt anymore was a tad dramatic.”

She manages a giggle.

“I need to talk to you real quick,” I tell her. Sophie puts her pencil down and places her hands in her lap, looking up at me expectantly. “Wow,” I say, “anything besides homework, huh?”

She grins and nods as I continue. “Soph, since you’re going to school with Isa tomorrow, I just want to let you know something. David told me, and I don’t want you to be surprised when you get to their house.” I’m not really sure how to explain the dad situation to her. I change tactics. “Okay. Sophie, do you know what it means if someone is gay?”

Sophie nods slowly. “I think so. It’s when a girl is in love with other girls or a boy is in love with a boy, right? I heard mom and dad talking about it one time.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly it,” I tell her. “David and Isa’s parents are gay. Which means that they have two dads instead of a dad and a mom.”

“Okay.” Sophie waits for me to say more, but I think I’ve said all I need to say.

“That’s all,” I finish. Sophie picks her pencil back up and begins her math assignment. “I just didn’t want you to be surprised or to bring it up with them or anything,” I say.

Sophie looks up at me and shrugs slightly. “Well, does it matter that they have two dads?” she asks seriously.

“To some people it might,” I tell her. “But it doesn’t to me.”

“Than it doesn’t to me either,” she says simply.

When she looks back down and starts writing, I marvel at the acceptance and innocence children have. Not many adults would handle the situation with the same grace that Sophie just did, and I’m so proud of her.

She notices me watching and frowns. “If I have to do my homework, than you have to do yours too,” she announces.

I shake my head at her bossiness, but I get out my history book and start reading, though I spend more time staring the pictures than I do the actual text.

And when it’s time to go to bed, I, like I always have, get Sophie ready and tuck her in. I see her listen hopefully for the front door, and I feel a surge of frustration at my parents when I see her face fall at the silence of the house.

“Good night, little lady,” I say softly. “Love you.”

“I love you too, Cara,” she answers.

“Someday they’ll be here more,” I tell her. “I promise.”

And when I shut the door to her room and enter my own, I wonder how I’m going to keep that promise.

END OF CHAPTER TWO

This is turning out to be a great story. I love the characters, which is a sure-fire way to keep me interested. Little Sophie is adorable. Cara (and I hope this doesn't offend you) reminds me a little of Bella from Twilight. Very mature, kind of a loner, but very friendly and headstrong. I feel for both of them over their parents' absence in their lives. Its obvious Cara has been forced to grow up faster because of the situation, which is good that you give such a plausible reason for her advanced maturity. I'm wondering if perhaps Jade will end up with David. I think she might have a crush on him. lol.

I thought that too when I wrote Cara- she's a little Bella-y. But I think she has to be for the story to work, and hopefully she'll become more her own character as the story goes.