Sophomore Status

Chapter 4: Wanda the Cat

A few days of school passed and it was finally the weekend. I still hadn't met anyone accept for Lindsey, who was quite perky, and slightly annoying because of that, and Alyss, who I honestly hadn't figured out yet. Once again, Dad was wrong. It wasn't uphill from there, I was at the bottom of a valley, surrounded by very tall mountains. However, there was one other person that I knew about, which was William, or Will, as Lindsey calls him. I only wanted to meet him because Lindsey had talked on and on about him for the whole first week of school.

I laid in bed on Saturday morning, thinking deeply of these things. I didn't get out of my bed until about noon. I knew that Jason and Dad were asleep, because I didn't hear anything that morning, and usually, my brother was really loud when he woke up in the morning.

I stood up from my bed and made my way into the kitchen. I wrapped my pink fuzzy blanket around my body to stay warm. Also, I poured myself a hot cup of coffee to keep me warm, because Dad loves the air conditioning on high when he sleeps.

Just then, my cat, Wanda, brushed against the side of my leg, so I bent down to scratch her. She began purring.

"How's my little girl?" I whispered as I scratched my cat behind her ears and on her back.

She quickly dashed around the room and flung herself up onto the counter top next to me. I continued to pet her luscious black fur as I guzzled a hot mouthful of coffee, which warmed up my throat as it trickled down.

A few seconds later, Jason walked in and decided to start a conversation.

"Morning!" He said with an awfully jolly smile on his face.

"Hey." I gave him a tired smile because I could barely move my mouth. I was about to collapse and fall back asleep.

"Dad wants you to do the dishes, by the way." He told me.

"Um I think Dad wants you to do do the dishes, but you just don't want to." I said. He tried to get me to do his work a lot because he had just gotten this new video game for his play station four, and he didn't want a second to go to waste, when he could be playing his new game.

"Okay, okay, you caught me. I'll do them after I eat breakfast." He told me

It was already the afternoon and he still called it breakfast. By now it was already lunchtime, so I grabbed some turkey and cheese out of the bottom drawer of the fridge. After that, I sliced two pieces of bread from a loaf that Dad bought from the Lake Pines general market. I threw together a sandwich and placed it on the top rack of my toaster oven for about five minutes.

When the timer rang, I slowly pulled the sandwich out of the toaster oven and dropped it on a plate. Finally, I could go into my room, and eat in peace. However, just as I reached my bed, there was a loud knock on the door. Dad walked in.

"Your brother and I are going to the store. Would you like to come? We're only spending a half an hour there, because I have some work to grade later." He said to me.

I waited until he was finished to give him an answer.

"Sure, I'll change." I answered him.

"Okay just hurry. We'll leave in five minutes.

And so, I changed, and then we went to the store. I didn't get much, but I did get my favorite food, mini sweet peppers. Dad thought I was weird because I liked almost every food that has ever existed. I thought that it just made me an easier person to take care of, but Dad believed otherwise, because I was constantly buying more food.

After the short drive home, I hopped out of the car and ran inside with a few bags of groceries. Dad grabbed most of the groceries so that we wouldn't have to take a second trip to the car.

I set the bags down on the counter, grabbed my big bag of mini peppers, and charged for my room. I purposely jumped in the air and face planted onto my bed. Just then, I tilted my face sideways, so that my face was no longer pressing up against my black and white comforter. As soon as I got the chance, I stuffed a mini pepper into my mouth and chewed it up. I left the bag open so that I could easily grab more.

A few second after, Wanda squeezed her way through the small doorway, because I had left it open just the slightest crack. She strutted to the end of my bed and hopped on top, right next to my bag of peppers. I started to close my eyes and fall asleep, but just as I opened them back up, Wanda had already gotten to the mini peppers. She grasped an orange one in between her teeth and flew back off the bed, and out of my room. It was then that I realized I had forgotten to feed her that morning. She must've been hungry.

I felt terrible for not feeding her, so I got up off of my bed and poured some of her Fiber Kitty Ultra Mix into her blue bowl at the end of the counter. She ate every last pellet as if it were her last meal.

When she finished, I left the kitchen and went back into my room. I then decided to call Kennedy once again, because I hadn't called her since Monday after school. I had a small pink vintage land line in my room so that I could make phone calls. Everyone else just used their cellphone, but I like to to it the old fashioned way.

I dialed the number into the pink phone and heard the dial tone ring three times before anyone picked up.

"Hello?" She answered. Her voice was muffled through my vintage speaker on my phone.

"Hey" I answered back.

"How was your first week of school?" She questioned.

"It was okay I guess. I only know a few people and I really miss it up there." Answering that question had put me in a bad mood, so I popped a mini pepper in my mouth and chewed it while she talked.

"Well, my school doesn't start for another two weeks because it's a different state, so I will probably be calling you a lot."

I finished chewing my pepper and tossed the stem in the garbage.

"Okay, I don't have anything to do, which gives me time to talk to you." I told her. On the other line, I could hear some loud voices in the background yelling her name.

"Sorry Kate, I gotta go. Gramps wants to take Jenna and I to a movie. I'll call you tomorrow." She told me with a disappointed tone, and then we both hung up.

Kennedy had a little sister named Jenna, who was the sweetest thing. Sometimes, she made me wonder what it would be like to live with a sister. I wanted a sister more than anything. It's not that I didn't love my brother, but I felt that Jason and I couldn't connect as much as two sisters could. For instance, I couldn't give fashion advice to a boy, but I could give him advice on stuff like what type of flowers to bring his prom date or I could help him pick out a Christmas present for his girlfriend. It was difficult because girls do not see my brother the way that I do, so my advice didn't always work.

I laid on my bed thinking about having a sister, which only led me back to the road of my brother, which brought to my mind that his birthday was in two weeks. I had totally forgotten. Dad usually took us out for dinner when it was someone's birthday, or we went to a movie. However, Jason hadn't picked out a restaurant, which led to forget about his birthday completely.

While I was lying there, I mentally made plans to go to the store the next day to buy him something small for his birthday. Normally, I would order him something expensive online, like a new pair of shoes or some speakers for his room, but I had already spent most of my money on decorations for my new room.

I couldn't think of anything to get him. Maybe just a gift card would be fine. I was sure that he would love to spend his money the way he would like. After all, my brother and I were very alike.