Warm

18

"Don't be yourself."

Laura's advice sounded just about right.

"Yes," I replied. "So then who do I become?"

"Okay," Laura says as she clamps down on another piece of my hair, straightening it. "To his mom, well-" She tilts her head, "Well, you can't really not be yourself since you've already shown her who you are. So just be more polite, not too much, just normal."

"Right, right," I mumble as I try to stamp this into my memory. "What about his dad?"

"That's a different story. Dad's are more lenient when it's their son. His dad, you just have to be cool. Not too stiff but don't joke around too much. Find the middle ground."

"Find the middle ground," I repeat. Even if there wasn't such heat close to my head, I would still be sweating.

A knock at the door interrupts my parent lesson. Keanu pops his head through the door, "Ready?"

"Ready as she'll ever be." Laura gives a final comb through my hair. "It'll be fine," she slyly whispers in my ear.

I give myself a determined nod in the mirror and follow Keanu out.

I'm ready.

"I'm not ready," I tell Keanu as we park outside of his parent's house.

I knew Keanu's family was well off but I was not expecting to drive into a driveway that ran at least a mile long to a mansion expanding beyond the eyes can see.

This is supposed to be a neighborhood but I haven't seen another house in all this greenery. This humongous mansion is the whole neighborhood. And there is a lot of greenery. The lawn of the mansion itself is the size of my whole apartment building, decorated with bushes shaped like dolphins and golf sticks. A large garden of assorted flowers surrounds the lawn. A pool with shimmering water sits on the far side.

I have never been around such richness.

"Oh, I am poor," slips out of my mouth.

Keanu's nose wrinkles as he laughs at my comment, "Wait 'til we get inside."

If it wasn't obvious before, it's definitely obvious now that I have never stepped into a rich person's house. I gasp at everything that Keanu doesn't even blink twice at. How could I not gasp at the water fountain in the middle of what I think is the third living room? And the stairs, oh my goodness, the stairs. First of all, they're glass. Second of all, they just go up, I see no end when I look up. It just keeps going.

To top it all off, an elevator.

"Seriously? An elevator?" I mumble, somewhat jealous and fascinated with the mansion.

Keanu rolls his eyes, "I know, it's ridiculous."

But the weirdest thing in this house isn't the water fountain or random piano. It's the fact that I have not seen a single family portrait. There's no pictures of any family members hanging on the wall, any certificates or awards. Instead they are covered with really terrible paintings that lack any meaning whatsoever.

It feels almost like a Barbie house. Close to a normal house but something definitely missing.

Finally, after walking what felt like miles, we arrive at the kitchen where his mother awaits us at the end of a stretched, skinny table. What is it with the super elongated tables?

His mother walks up to us, of course, looking as sophisticated as ever, with expensive fur wrapped around her. I expect her to be cold, rude, and mean. Shockingly, she instead looks as if she pities me. Her eyes soft and her lips downcast as if something was tugging them down.