Below the Sky

Part 1: Chapter 1, Lila

Chapter 1. Lila

Part 1

"Girl, you get your ass inside and help me get the house ready. Our guest will be arriving soon." I groaned, and dragged myself out of the grass. My mama loved to yell at me, ordering me around and telling me to do this and that. I preferred laying in the green, resting my always sore muscles and hiding from my family.

 I was from a family of five. I'm the oldest, at seventeen, with my younger brother Oliver at fifteen and my sister Maya taking up the rear at fourteen. We were a collective bunch of siblings, my sister more staying to herself, and me and my brother being inseparable. Our friends and family always said that we could have easily been twins. The way that we clung to each other, never letting go. After my siblings there was my mama and papa. My papa was a lawyer, a darn ass good one too. He didn't like to take no for an answer, and stood up for the cases he believed in. The only problem with his job was that he was always, always working. With all that working taking up his schedule he could never find time to fool around with his family. My mama went to college for business, and had a job years ago, but then she had us. With the tasks of being a mother and running a household, it's hard to continue to work full time too. I kept trying to convince her to jump back in it, but then we got our puppy, Dash. I loved our dog with my entire heart, and don't honestly know what I would do without him. With a crazy puppy, and three kids, it was very hard for my mama to get back into work, but maybe someday I'll be able to convince her. 

We had a quiet, peaceful life. Every summer, my papa would take in an apprentice, someone to watch what he does, an aspiring lawyer. Last summer we had Louisa. She was a bitch to put it the simplest way. She didn't care about me, Maya, or Oliver. She only cared about her stupid job, and getting her way all the time. It had been like this every year. An apprentice came, the apprentice left. They were always boring, mean, or too friendly. One summer though, all of that was about to change. 

My family lived in the rural parts of upstate New York, but there was some civilization near us. A small town about fifteen minutes away supplied us with all our groceries and necessities, and there was even a small college, Upstate Community College, about ten minutes from our home, near the town. No one out of any of my siblings had plans to attend that college, but it was a nice school and many people travelled to it to learn every year.

"Lila, if you don't hurry up and come help me get the house ready, you're not leaving your room for the rest of the summer!" At mama's last threat, I hurried myself inside, and helped her make the beds.

Later that night, I laid in bed, reminiscing about the days work of preparing the house, and wondering what the new apprentice would be like. I knew that she was a woman, and that she also wasn't that much older than me. 20 years old, my papa had told me when I asked about her one night in the study. He had been siting in his chair, smoking a cigarette, and examining the days paper. "Papa, what's the new apprentice this summer like?" I had asked him. "She's young, only a few years shy of your age sweetheart. She's also smart, but that's all I could get out her college papers."

With that I had fled to my room, thinking about her and wondering if she would be sweet, or an evil bitch like my papa's last apprentice.

Now I stared at the ceiling, looking at the little cracks. I wondered when she would arrive. We already had the guest bedroom set up. It was across the hall from my room. The guest bedroom also had its own bathroom, and I thought that would be nice for her, to not have to share a bathroom with a bunch of complete strangers. I hoped that she would arrive in the morning, at a time not too early so I would have time to compose myself. Alas, my wish was not answered when I suddenly heard our doorbell ring.
"That's her, that's her, she's finally here," mama singsonged as she rushed to the door. Oliver and Maya both ran out of their rooms too, and we all stood there at the bottom of the stairs, waiting to meet this new apprentice.