...smile because it happened...

#1- Adelyn

"Please...please please please please?"
I have been pleading for weeks at this point to be allowed to get my learners permit.

"Absolutely positively not." My mom has been definitive about this since Day 1 of Me Asking.

"But mooooooom...why not?
I am stubborn when I get my heart on something.

"Honey, you could get hurt, or killed."

My mothers irrational fear of me spontaneously dying while driving was getting on my nerves.

"Mother. Have I not proved to you throughout the past 15 years, three weeks, and one day that I am the most responsible amazing little angle in the world?"

"Jamie. Let's be real here. You just aren't going to drive right now. Maybe when your father comes home he can teach you ok?"
The conversation was over and there was nothing I could do about it, god I hate mothers sometimes.

I walked out of the kitchen and started up the stairs. On the walls, all the way up the stairs, is my mothers shrine to every family event that has even happened. Not that I would ever admit this to her, but I like the walls of pictures, they remind me of when I was little and my world was perfect; that's really nice sometimes.

As I was walking up the stairs on this particular day, one picture caught my eye. It's of me, my mom, and my dad, at a 4th of July parade about 8 years ago. It was so long ago but I can remember that day like it was yesterday.

My mom and dad are on either side of me, smiling and looking at the camera. My blond hair is blowing across my face and I am laughing. My mom is in a white shirt with blue and red stars and blue jeans. Her hair is usually pulled back in a pony tail but just for fun that day, she decided to keep it down; it is blowing across her face like a larger version of me. I am wearing a little red, white, and blue knee length dress with these little adorable Ruffles on the bottom hem and I have about 752 red, white, and blue bead necklaces around my neck. My dad is in his uniform, looking very official with his military buzz cut and huge body. Dad is smiling though, in his tough military, but kind way.

That day was the day before my dad left for the first time. When I was 6, he enlisted in the military. When I was 7, he was shipped of to Afghanistan or Iraq or something. I saw him once when I was 9, for two weeks when he came home for Christmas and then again when I was 11, for three days when he came home for my birthday. I haven't seen him since.

My dad and I aren't allowed to video chat except for once every month or two but we email a few times a week, whenever he has access to a computer. I miss him so much and the one thing I wanted for my birthday, which of course, I didn't get, was to have him at home with me.

I stopped staring at the picture on the stairs and walked up the rest of the way to the second floor. When I got to my room, I catapulted myself onto my bed. Then I rolled over and grabbed my phone. I turned off WiFi and Cellular Data so I wouldn't get any texts or anything, plugged in my earplugs, and turned on my music.

{---}

"Jamie! Come down here, dinner is ready and we have guests." My mom called out to me, and I groaned. I hate having dinner guests, they are always so lame.

I pulled myself out of bed and glanced in my mirror. I looked presentable but definitely not too eager. Excellent.

I walked downstairs and before introducing myself, I take in the night's worth of dinner guests. There was a lady siting next to my mom. She has puffy black hair that was pulled back with a shiny purple headband. Next to the women sat a girl who looked about my age. Classic. My mom was trying to make me socialize more. Well let her try, it wasn't very well going to work.

"Jamie!" My mother exclaimed. "This is Paige and her daughter Adelyn! Paige and I are volunteers at the library together and when I found out that we had daughters the same age, well I decided that they simply must come over for dinner!"

"It's so kind of you to have us over!" Paige exclaimed with enthusiasm equal to if not greater then that of my mom's.

"Hey." I said, addressing Adelyn.

"Hi." She said.

"Well! This is fantastic! Let's get started! My mom said happily.

I slid into the empty seat next to Adelyn and ate my lasagna quietly. Adelyn did the same, while our mothers chatted on about library fundraiser stuff and junk like that.

When I was done eating, my mother suggested that I show Adelyn my room so we walked upstairs. I opened the door and sat down on my bed, gesturing around me. "My bedroom." I said.

"Awesome." Adelyn said.

"You don't want to be here do you?" I asked, smiling slightly.

"Nope. Mom made me come. We're new to the area and she wants me to make friends." Adelyn said, giggling.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I've lived here all my life and my mom is still trying to make me find friends. I said.

Adelyn nodded and walked around my room, looking at my stuff. As she walked by the book case, she ran her hand over a book I am reading, Full Court Quest.

"Do you play basketball?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah I play for my school." I said, nodding at the arrangement of trophies on another shelf. "I love it but my mom had tried to make me quit a bunch of times. She's scared I'll get hurt or something dumb like that. You play?"

Adelyn laughed a little and said "No, I wish. I have absolutely no athletic talent at all."

"Well." I said.

"Well." She said.

"This is awkward." I said.

"Yeah."

{---}

After Adelyn and her mom left, I sat down at the kitchen table. "Did you and Adelyn get along?" My mom asked.

"I guess but we have nothing in common." I said.

"That can't be true. My mom started to clean the dishes and glanced over at me.

"Mom, we are like polar opposites."

"Honey, I just want you to have friends."

"I'm fine."

"I know but you don't seem happy!"

"MOM. Let me deal with my social life on my own ok!?!" I yelled and then stomped off up the stairs.