Scott Blue in March 1986 POV
"Scott!"
"Scott Blue! Get down here!"
Since I don't have a middle name, Lesley likes to use my last name when she's angry at me. I was in the upstairs bathroom looking for the dental floss and it took me thirty minutes exactly and I'm so ticked that I can't find it anywhere.
"Coming!" I yell back, not exactly looking forward to whatever I'm needed for.
Lesley seemed to be scrubbing down the kitchen table with a towel. Well, there's nothing Lesley does quite better than cleaning, but if I'm needed while she's still cleaning, this has to be important. She rings out the towel over the sink while saying, "Scott, I just got off the phone with Principal Raines-"
"What!? Principal Raines is nothing but an old hag. Why is she calling you? She hates anyone who actually makes sense in this world."
"Ah, ah, ah, Zip it. Zip it. She says that she caught you running in the halls ten times last week."
Ten times? That was probably true, but a lot of kids run in the hall, and there's this safety rule that you're not allowed to run in the halls, but everyone ignores it.
"Principal Raines also said that if she catches you running one more time than you will be forced to be on the track team for a whole week."
"A whole week!? How does she even know anyway? She hides in her office all day!"
"Scott, listen to your adults. Principal Raines was very lovely and delightful when she was on the phone with me."
"Well, yeah, of course she was pretending to be delightful."
"Scott, you argue with me one more time, and I'm sending you grocery shopping." Lesley says in a overall serious voice, with a little smile.
I notice her little tiny smile, so I say "What!? You're joking!"
"Yes, I am, go water the plants on the front porch." Lesley laughs as she points to the back door, "The watering can is in the shed."
"I know."
"Good, I'm glad you know."
The rusty old garden shed with the broken door is the worst place in the whole world to lose something because whenever it's windy in the night, all the items in there get scattered and sometimes broken, and of course, of course the bright green watering can is empty, so I have to refill it with hose water.
I couldn't just use the hose to water the plants, because Lesley has a weird problem about it. She doesn't trust me, even though I'm her nephew. She thinks that I'll accidentally spray the over the fence at the houses next door, which she thinks will get her in trouble. It won't!
To our left, lives Marcela and Royal and my second cousins, and to our right, lives our other neighbor, Keith, who usually sings musical songs in his opera voice alone in his yard, and he probably doesn't mind us.
I sat down on the moist grass to refill the stupid watering can just as I hear a round object hit the ground with a singular thud.
I turn around and with a sigh, I throw the basketball back over the fence. My cousin Roy was just trying to get my attention.
Roy is Marcela and Royal's youngest child, he's eight, a whole year younger than me. He thinks that I'm really cool for some reason, so he tries to be my partner in crime whenever he finds out that I'm doing anything. Even though he's really bad at school, and can't ride a bike without falling over, he's still my favorite cousin. Mostly because he's the only one who doesn't bully me.
