The Hudson Boys

Chapter one

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Oh please, Jessica, you're being overdramatic yet again," my father huffs, obviously not very pleased with my reaction.

"Your sister needs help and this is the best place for her.  This is the right decision.  I'm sorry, honey."  My mother had always been the kinder parent.  I sighed; her compassion makes it kind of hard for me to stay mad at her.

Kind of.

"You're sending me across the country to live with a family I hardly remember and you expect me to be okay with this?!" I ask in disbelief.  My parents have always expected a lot from me, but this was definitely taking things to a new level.

"Really, Jessica, you're being selfish.  We raised you better than this.  You're 19 years old, start acting like it!"  My father gets up and leaves my room, not without slamming the door behind him first.

I turn back to my mother.  She's looking at the floor, tears forming in her eyes.

"Please mom, don't make me go," I beg.  "Let me come with you!  I'll stay out of your way.  You won't even know I'm there, I promise!"

"Oh honey," my mother sighs.  "It's not that simple.  Your father and I have to attend meetings and sit in on many sessions with your sister.  I'm sorry, but this is what's best.  "And who knows, maybe you'll really enjoy your time with the Hudsons!  You always did when you were younger."

"Mom that was when I was five.  Things are different now.  I barely even remember them."  It's true.  Every summer my mother and I would fly to California so we could spend time with her best friend, Claire, and her family.  My father never wanted to come, saying that he would rather "golf with his buddies than spend some time with one of my mom's girlfriends." 

My mom and Mrs. Hudson were childhood friends, and remain friends to this day.  That's why we would spend our summers with the Hudsons.  
But for some reason we stopped going.  All she would say when I asked why we stopped going was that it became too much.  We no longer got to spend our summers with Claire and her family and no would tell me why.  Every time I brought it up and asked about why we just stopped going my parents would pretend like they didn't hear me and that was that.  I no longer spent my summers with the Hudsons.

But as life would have it, it seemed that I would be spending another summer with them.

And I wasn't very excited about it.