sweet tea. -tkam

bored.

-scout pov-

      I sat on miss mauide's front porch, resting my head on my knees, which I held close to my chest. It was a hot day, but all days were hot. I was a little bit hungry, a little bit thirsty, and a little bit tired, but both the heat and my mood made me feel too lazy to do anything about it. I watched as ants crawled around the old wood, carrying their loot above them.
         I wondered, As I shifted my bored gaze to my scuffed shoes, how a day could be so long. The memories of eating breakfast this morning seemed like ages ago, and atticus had only gone to work some few hours ago.
       Jem and dill had gone uptown with some change they had saved up and did their usual, left me behind. I knew atticus said Jem was just growing up, but he didn't have to go and be such an ass about it.
       Most times I thought words like "ass" exclusively in my head, mostly to avoid calpurnias wrath, or a swift tap on my hands from miss Caroline when in school.
   I wondered what in Sam Hill could make Jem so gosh darn sore with me all the time, when I didn't do nothin'. It hurt my feelings plenty, but more than that it made me angry.
      It seemed every day I questioned just HOW much I wanted atticus' approval, because each day it seemed to get harder not to knock Jem on his rear and give him a piece of my mind. Miss maudie was nice to me, and I usually enjoyed her company, and her cakes, but it just wasn't enough.
      I sighed as I got up from her porch. Dragging my feet on the rocks, I thought, what a pitiful summer. I had already played hopscotch by myself and spun around on the tire swing at least a hundred times. I had made a coloring to stick on the wall, and read a whole pile of books.
          I ate cake and miss mauides house and walked up and down by summer boundaries twice now. I was nearing the old radley house when I heard calpurnia calling me home for lemonade.
        I contemplated my big summer issue over lemonade real hard. I wondered how nobody seemed to help me in such a crisis, both Jem and dill were good for nothing jerks, and they left me All by my own in my time of need, and now I would never have a good Summer again. Ever.
        I huffed and set my empty glass aside to think a little more about my dilemma. I just needed a new friend, but I didn't really get along with most kids my age well enough to be close like that, like summer friends. And all the adults were too boring in their adult ways, plus, they were way too old to do much anyway.
       Atticus could always comfort me in times like this, but not in the way I want right now. Jem says what I want is a mama, but I don't think so, what does he know. I retreated in defeat to the treehouse, sitting in the corner with my knees to my chest as I looked out the window hole to my side.
       Now, all I had left to do was wait for the never ending hours to drag on until suppertime, until my bedtime, and until the next day to do the same thing again.
      Just the thought of spending my whole summer like this made me want to cry right then and there, but Jem said it was girlish to cry, and I didn't want to be girlish.
         Besides, I wasn't a baby, I was eight years old now, and eight year olds don't cry.