Shade in the Summer

Chapter 1- Wednesday, June 30th, 1999

That last, glorious summer after graduating high school...

That last, glorious summer where you say your final farewell to your childhood...

That last, glorious summer where you don't have to think about the future and what it may yet bring...

That last, glorious summer where, for the last time in your entire life, you can just be yourself, relax, and enjoy your life...

I woke up to the noise of a chainsaw being revved outside my house, I stumbled out of bed and looked out my window. There cutting logs-probably making one of his wooden models, some furniture or just cutting wood for no reason -was my white trash, red neck, cheap beer drinking, fat, stereotypical American neighbor, DC Chet. He was on the bad side of fifty as he would say, balding and had a brownish greyish goatee with milky white skin, he had a moon size beer belly from the thousands of beers he's been drinking since he was about ten. He wore some shooting club trucker cap, a red and black plaid shirt with some unknown stains splattered on it, baggy blue jeans, and some brown hunting boots painted with dry mud on the sole. In his hand was his trusty old chainsaw, he looked up and spotted me.

"Howdy Ford, how ya doing?" He yelled in his thick accent.

"Oh, a b-bit tired but wide a fucking wake now" I shouted back with a stutter, wiping sleep from my eyes. I've had my stutter and rhotacism since I could remember. They have got better over time, I mean when I was younger, I could barely say anything correctly or without stuttering. Now a day you can't tell as they don't come up as much, they only really come up when I'm nervous. The only thing that gives it away now is my accent is weird and different from everyone else's, this was because my speech therapist had a Texas accent, so I picked up a bit of his speaking pattern.

"Hahaha you're welcome partner" he chuckled going back to chopping his wood. I looked over at my twin brother Flynn, somehow still fucking sleeping with drool coming out his mouth. I put my boombox on and sang "You get what you give"-my favorite song- as I went and got ready. I finished up and went to the door as I opened it, I saw Flynn and my twin sister Franchesca, both looking as happy as I was when I got kicked out of my party for pissing in my sink. I moved past them to get to my and Flynn's room to get changed. I put on my white Tommy Hilfiger t-shirt, some blue skinny jeans which were faded from the many fall, scrapes, and bumps they've been through, some white Adidas shoes that were scuffed all over and had worn-out soles, and of course my lucky leather bracelet that my older brother gave me. Then I did my hair, I had light oak brown hair which was medium length and styled like Shawn Hunter from "Boy meets world" since my crush had a crush on him, I had lightly tanned skin, ice-blue eyes that people said were my best features since my iris were like crystals according to my friends and was averagely built, I had a small scar on my right eyebrow from my brother kicking me in the face with a football boot when we were younger because I got the baseball card he wanted, I also had my Mom's oval face shape and a Greek nose. I then picked up my cigarettes and silver scratched zippo lighter and went downstairs, passing a naked Flynn running to his room as Franchesca stole his towel for her hair. Downstairs I saw a note on the middle of the kitchen counter, it was from Mom and I was able to translate something about her being late home from work from her shitty writing. I poured myself some frosted flake with some spoonfuls of extra sugar and sat down on the couch just as Flynn came downstairs. He was wearing a black Adidas t-shirt, white Nike shorts, some black running shoes that were worn and coated in old dry mud stains from his runs in the woods, and his dark blue Dallas Cowboy cap that he wore backward and had a tuff of his hair peeking out. Flynn was a lot like me, he had the same ice blue crystal eyes and light oak brown hair but it was short and spikey. The two main differences are he had had our Dad's long, strong, well-defined face, roman nose and was well built like a small bull from all the football he played, he also had a red mark under his left eye from when I got him back for kicking me in the face...by kicking him in the face. Flynn was the captain of the football team, all his life he was extremely sporty. When we were younger, sometimes he would just run until he literally couldn't breathe. He also wasn't the smartest since every time since he first collapsed from running nonstop, he would do it again and not expect the same.