Scrape

The moment that the minute hand hit the 12, marking the time exactly 3:25, five minutes before the bell, Amber excused herself from her biology lab and ran to her old, red car, probably on its last leg. She had decided that she would drive it until it broke down on the side of the road. She turned the key and buckled her seatbelt as she rolled out of the parking lot and zoomed over to the Elementary school. Despite leaving school early, she was already five minutes late to pick up her sister. She arrived to find her sister waiting near some other stray children who ran away when they saw Amber pull up to the school. She had her pink and sparkly Sleeping Beauty backpack sitting next to her. Her head– covered in messy, short blonde ringlets– was down as she sat on the school's front steps. She was looking at her feet, swaying them back and forth with her toes poking out of her velcro sandals. They were sparkly too.

"Bri, come on!" Amber yelled from the curb.

"You have to come sign me out! Otherwise they think you're kidnapping me!" Sabrina cupped her hands over her mouth to make her strained voice louder.

"Don't say that so loud!" she put her car in park and speed-walked her way up the long and far too narrow pathway that led up to the front doors. Her flared brown denim jeans brushed together with each purposeful step. The school had two teachers on duty to watch the kids whose parents were late to pick them up. Sabrina wasn't normally part of that group, and the teachers both glared at Amber as she walked by, silently scolding her for being tardy.

"Why do I feel like I'm in trouble? I thought Elementary schools were supposed to be welcoming and friendly!" She whispered to her sister, who saw the whole exchange as well. The two of them giggled as Amber scribbled her signature. As they walked back through the entrance to the school, it became obvious that Sabrina was walking with a strange shuffle for some reason, causing her sandal to squeak against the vinyl floors.

"What is wrong with you? Are you limping?" Amber stopped in her tracks and held her hand out to stop Sabrina as well to visually examine her. Everything seemed fine.

"No! I'm totally fine. Sorry." Her innocent eyes were convincing. Amber slowly allowed the two of them to begin walking again, still keeping an eye on her little sister out of the corners of her eyes. Sabrina, who was finishing 1st grade in a couple of months, was still to young to be in the car without a booster seat. Amber had made sure to put it in her car before her parents left town. Amber took her sweet time driving home, followed every rule, even waiting a couple of seconds to go after the lights turned green. Sabrina complained about it taking too long, but there was no way that Amber was going to get into trouble while she was in charge.

Once they got home, the time until dinner passed quickly. Amber sat on the brown, wrinkled leather couch in their living room to work on her research paper about Strawberry Poison-dart frogs, a topic her zoologist father encouraged her to choose. She didn't care much about it though. Sabrina was soon running down the stairs and into the living room complaining about her tummy rumbling. She stood with a pouty lip, slumped shoulders, and walked up to her sister with heavy stomping feet. She didn't even have to say a word before Amber met her with an answer.

"Chill out, I'm making macaroni and cheese for you," Amber shut her laptop with one solid clap, and stacked her textbooks before setting them all aside. She popped a bubble with the gum she was chewing once more before spitting it out upon arriving in the kitchen. With each step she took, her hips moved with attitude. She felt like the whole house was hers. With mom and dad away, she was in charge. A great sense of responsibility and maturity that just wasn't there when they were home. She knew she had to make sure everything went according to plan.

"You better make it runny like mom does," Sabrina demanded. As she spoke and skipped around the kitchen, her hair bounced around, just barely brushing the top of her shoulders.