The next few months flew by faster than kites in the wind, days soaring by with the seasons. Before Amando knew it, they were skimming through May and were well on their way to summer.
On this particular day, a cold front blew through the small town of Applemonkey, neutralizing the rising summer heat and making for some wonderful weather. However, rather than making the most of the temporary coolness, Amando sat inside his room, working endlessly on his Minecraft mansion that he had begun all the way back in February, and when he finally finished in the afternoon, he threw his hands back from his keyboard and sprung in his chair.
A satisfied grin on his face, he marched downstairs to treat himself to some cookies as a self-earned prize. He went into the pantry, pulled out a package of Oreos, and sat in front of the TV watching Spongebob.
The creamy crunch of the cookies in his teeth threw him suddenly back to that bizarre day during winter break. He remained entirely perplexed on the whole incident, and whenever he thought about the loss of all that food and his mother's alarming defensiveness, he often found himself cringing.
A few days after the incident, the day prior to Christmas Eve, Amando had been molding a snowman in his front yard, watching Mrs. Daisyshine work merrily across the street, when the garage door started to open, and Lisa pulled into the driveway in her bright teal Sedan. Mrs. Daisyshine, of course, noticed Lisa's car, and waved joyously in her direction.
"Hey, Lisa!" She called. "Hey! How have you been? I haven't gotten to see you in a while! Are you decorating this year?"
As Lisa climbed out of the car, she threw the door shut behind her, a cigarette between her lips. With a trail of smoke following her, she ignored Mrs. Daisyshine and walked swiftly into the garage. For a second, Amando thought he saw his mother lift a certain finger in Mrs. Daisyshine's direction.
"Lisa, hey, Lisa! Can you hear me?! Did you like the cookies?!"
And the garage door to the house slammed shut. Mrs. Daisyshine squeezed one of her hands in the other, and her eyebrows knitted together. "Oh, that poor Lisa... Working so much must be exhausting..."
Amando continued to sit on the couch, carelessly piling Oreos into his mouth until the package was more or less empty, and he had a tummy ache. His stomach cursing at him, Amando sauntered over to the pantry and stuck the Oreos away. He then went to go turn off Spongebob when he heard a descending clamoring at the stairway. He turned to see his sixteen-year-old sister, Tamara, flouncing around at the foyer in a faded blue bathing suit, of which he remembered Lisa picking out at a thrift store last summer.
"Ugh, I'm gonna be so f***ing late," she stormed, yanking open bins of shoes in the hallway. Tamara got down on her knees and dug through the boxes of footwear, tossing behind her flip flops, sneakers, and heels of all kinds. When she was unsuccessful, she cursed and shoved the shoebins away.
"Whatcha lookin' for?" Amando asked, watching her devastate the house like a tornado.
"I'm going out to the pool with some friends and I can't go until I find my f***ing sandals," she groaned. Her dark brown, blond-tipped hair flew around wildly as though she were being whisked away by a hurricane.
"Why do you need 'em so bad?" Amando inquired.
"Not right now," she hissed.
Eventually, after much more cursing and turning the house upside-down, Tamara found her beloved sandals hiding right in plain sight in front of the stairs. She stuck her feet into strings, its sparkling gems refracting colorful beams onto the walls. She ripped out her phone and hastily punched something into it when she let out a loud lament. "Ahhhhhhhh, s***, I forgot to do my chores," then she turned to Amando, and he could tell what was coming. "Can you cover me? I'll pay you five bucks."
"Fine," Amando said with some reluctance. He was still awaiting around sixty dollars from his sister after the past hundred-something times. Without thanking him, Tamara rushed out the front door into some car.
With a sigh, Amando collected all the shoes that Tamara had left scattered across the floor and put everything back into his place. Then, he did the dishes, the laundry, and vacuumed the living room on his sister's behalf.
After doing his sister's work, he began on his own, and headed out the front door to take out the trash. But, as he went across the driveway to the trash bin, Amando heard something.
Judging from his knowledge from the cartoons he watched, he assumed the sound belonged to a violin, and he sat there a moment listening to its beautiful, melodical strokes. It seemed to be coming from behind Mrs. Daisyshine's house. Did the lady happen to have some sort of secret musical career?
After dropping the trash into the trash bin, Amando made his way across the street and onto Mrs. Daisyshine's magnificently-managed lawn, which was bursting to the brim with spectacular mounds of golden marigolds, flourishing lilies, popping pansies, rose bushes that were so vibrant they looked to be painted, and many more, just as it was every year. He went over to the side of Mrs. Daisyshine's house and peaked over her fence to see that the musician was not Mrs. Daisyshine, but her daughter, Lily.
Amando had never really spoken to Lily, but he had seen her getting out of Mrs. Daisyshine's car every now and then. Lily was around Amando's age, with a petite figure, boney elbows, and straight blond hair of the same shade as her mother's. Her hands flowed seamlessly around her instrument, producing music of such high quality that it made Amando think it was coming from somewhere else.
He hung on the fence for a few minutes, watching the girl orchestrate so harmoniously until she reached a pause in whatever she was playing, and Amando decided to say something.
"I like your playing," he said.
She jumped at the sound of his voice, her head whirling around to face him.
"Um... Hi?"
"Is that a violin you've got?"
In just a moment, she regained her elegant manner, erasing all traces of surprise from her face. "What does it look like?" She disdained. She grabbed the bow and stroked a few notes before Amando interrupted her again.
"You're Lily, right? I'm Amando!"
"Amando?" She scoffed. "That's kind of a dumb name."
"Well... My mom said she was going to name me Amanda, but since my sister's name is Tamara, she thought it'd get confusing, so it's Amando."
Lily let out a burst of laughter. "That's the stupidest name for a boy I've ever heard."
Amando's cheeks pinkened as he sunk a little on the fence.
"You can go away now," Lily ordered, motioning him away with her bow. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
"I mean... yeah, but—"
Lily cut him off with the playing of her instrument, the melodies now almost condescending. Amando tried to talk over her playing, but she only drowned out his words by upping her volume.
"Can you teach me how to play?!" He shouted, and she stopped.
"Why would I ever wanna do that?" She shot him a confounded glare.
"I have money!" Amando offered. He plunged a hand into each pocket, hoping to find some cash he'd forgotten to put in his piggy bank, and came out with three dollars and some coins.
He held the change up where she could see it, lifting it in the air like the Statue of Liberty.
"How much?" Lily's face was skeptical as she stood up, went over, and took the money.
"Three dollars and forty-five cents, I think."
"I can count," she retorted. Amando watched as she did. When she was done, she said, "I'm gonna need a total of five."
"Gotcha!" Amando said. He hopped down from the fence, ran into his house and into his room, found two dollars, then returned to the fence and gave it to her. She smirked as she counted her profit. "I'm kinda busy today, but I can tomorrow. Sound good?"
"Yeah!" Amando blushed.
