Four Seasons

Chapter 2 - Autumn

“Summer! Autumn! Let’s go, it’s time to go read a chapter of Proverbs.”

Hearing Camellia’s cheery voice this early in the morning always got on her nerves, it was way too early for that.

“Do we really have to go?” Autumn quietly asked Summer.

She watched Summer sigh and sit down on the bed she had just finished making.

“Yeah, unfortunately, I promised her last night, if you didn’t want us to do it, you should have supported me yesterday morning when I said I did not have the time to do it,” Summer replied pulling on her boots. 

“I am tired, I want to sleep,” Autumn argued as she glanced at her watch.

Her first lecture for the day was in three hours, she had wanted to rest a little more before starting her day, she had only gotten three hours of sleep before she had to get up and bath while the water that Summer had boiled was still warm.

If electricity wasn’t a problem she would have just heated her own water later, but she really didn’t have a choice.

“Maybe if you came home a little earlier and got some proper rest you might not be so tired right now, but what do I know,” Summer shrugged and walked out the room.

She was obviously still pissed about the time that Autumn had come in early in the morning but Autumn thought that she should be used to it by now.

Unlike her sister, Autumn loved going out at night and enjoying her time with her friends. While Summer wasn’t like Winter, who rarely ever left the house at all, except for school, she definitely did not like partying and dancing. She was more the movies type and she preferred to just hang out with friends. She didn’t do much drinking either, and Autumn always liked a good drink at the end of the day.

And it wasn’t like she was asking her sister to pay for any of these things so she really didn’t know what Summer’s problem was. As was expected of her, she always made sure to pass all her courses and had never carried over any courses as her sister required of her.

She was also helping out with paying her fees with all the freelance web design jobs that she did. Most of her friends were not working yet, but Autumn had made sure to get little jobs here and there to help out her sister since her parents died.

So what if at the end of the day she needed to just cool down and enjoy life a little bit? She had been a responsible teenager for way longer than most of her friends, and considering she was paying for her fun time, she deserved it. 

Rolling her eyes, Autumn got up from her own bed followed after Summer, wishing she could have a cup of coffee to warm herself up. Tea was just not her thing. But sadly, if she wanted to go back to sleep, she couldn’t have her coffee just yet. She would just have to make do.
 

It would be too bad for them if she fell asleep on them.

“Morning all, so today is day two and we are reading Proverbs 2,” Camellia announced with way too much enthusiasm for Autumn.

She noticed that Summer was still busy moving around the kitchen and smiled to herself, knowing this had not been an easy compromise for her sister.

Unlike Summer, who was always busy working on something or the other, Autumn had actually kept up with church and often did her bible reading. Not that she went every Sunday, but she always made sure to go to at least one service during the week if she could not go on a Sunday.

She often took Camellia and Winter with her on Sundays when she could. She did so not only because she wanted to attend church, but also because sometimes they needed to give Summer some space to either rest or work on whatever project she had going on at the moment.

She couldn't take her sisters put partying, so church it was.

She grabbed her own bible, which Camellia had put on the table. It was required of her to follow along with the reading, so that's what she would do.

What she really wanted was for them to get it over and done. She could do her own bible reading in her own time. Summer needed this more than anyone else in the house. Everyone else had no problem reading on their own.

The proverbs thing was cute though. The wisdom part of it was important.

When they had been challenged at church to follow through with the reading like that, she had promised herself she would try it out. She might as well get it over with right now since she was already up. She just wished it did not have to be in the morning when she wanted to sleep.

“Okay, so after the reading, everybody gets a chance to share with us what verse spoke to them the most,” Camellia added, making both Autumn and Summer groan because it meant they had to pay extra special attention.

As far as Autumn was concerned, it was too early for this.

But again, it was better to just get it over with than to give Camellia and Summer one more thing to hold over her head. She was beginning to wish that Summer had stood her ground and not given in to the pressure. Hindsight and all that.

As her eyes ran over the words as Camellia read, she chose the best verse for her to be able to explain to the others if that was required of her.
 

When it was her turn, they were going from the youngest to the oldest, she chose not just one verse, but verses 3 – 6.

“If it is from the Lord where wisdom, understanding, and knowledge comes from, then whenever we pray, I think we need to ask God for them because we need them to make important decisions in our lives.”

Autumn turned to look at her sister as she finished speaking to let her know it was her turn and was surprised at the look she saw on Summer’s face.

She hadn’t expected to find her concentrating so much.

“And Summer, what’s your verse?” Camellia asked.

Taking a deep breath, Summer seemed to think about it before she responded.

“I would say for me it’s from the first verse to verse 11, not just one verse, like Autumn said, the whole asking thing, but I mostly like how from 9-11, they talk about how you will know what is just and right. How you will know every good and fair path. That sounds really nice, I want some of that, I want the protection that comes with wisdom.”

Autumn noticed that Summer was not even holding a bible and she wondered how she remembered all of that.

Maybe she had practiced beforehand and chosen the perfect verse before they started? She almost seemed engaged and Autumn had to give her props for some good acting and just how accommodating she was being to Camellia.

Truth was, for a long time, Summer had been so disconnected from everyone’s needs, but especially Camellia’s. Being the youngest, Camellia required much more attention than the rest of them, especially since she was almost a teenager.

It was a good thing that Summer was upping her game and paying more attention to Camellia instead of always being on Autumn’s own case of coming home late. 

She really hoped that this stuck and it would lead to Summer being on her case less and less in the future.

God, please give her wisdom and show her that she is better off spending more time, and attention on Camellia, than she is concentrating on me and what I do, she prayed silently.