Riding with the boys

Riding With The Boys 1

Chapter One

"Here we are! Home sweet home!"

At the sound of my father's overly cheerful voice, I glanced up from my laptop and away from the English paper I had yet to finish, and looked out the back window of my family's Escalade. Sure enough, the Welcome to Roget Hills, Michigan, sign had passed us by. The vacation was officially over, and we were home.

It was sort of bittersweet, I guess. I was happy to be home and ready to see my friends, but my family had just spent the second half of Christmas break in Antigua, where it was 80 degrees and we had barely seen a cloud the entire time there. Here, the skies were milky white, and at least two inches of snow already covered the ground with more still falling.

And being home meant I also had to face the reality of my unfinished English paper. Luckily, the flight from Antigua to Detroit was five hours and I'd had enough time to get a start on my paper. The book, The Great Gatsby, I'd read in about four nights in my family's bungalow, and I had to admit, it had been a really good book. But seriously, who was going to write and entire four-page paper on The Great Gatsby while vacationing in Antigua?!

Exactly.

I wasn't really worried about it, though. I did my best work when pushed for time. I was a last-minute person and it usually worked to my advantage.

Next to me, my twelve-year-old sister, Olivia, yanked her ear phones from her ears and looked out the window. "Thank God. I am so glad to be back."

My mother turned to face us. "Liv, didn't you have a fun trip?"

"I had a great trip," Olivia said. "But I missed my friends."

My mother turned to me. "How about you, Sophia? Did you have fun?"

"Yes," I sighed dramatically. "In fact, I wouldn't object one bit if daddy turned right around and drove us back to the airport. I could use another two weeks in the Caribbean."

My mother chuckled, tucking a dark curl behind her ear. "I wouldn't either. I'm happy to be home, but I would certainly trade going back to work Monday for another two weeks of blue skies, and eighty-degree weather."

"I'll trade with you, mom," Olivia offered. "You go to school for me Monday, and I'll totally go to the office for you."

My father smiled. "Sounds like a good deal, Kori. You should take it."

I just laughed. "No offense, Liv, but mom would lose half her clientele in one hour, the other half would lose their minds and go torch the town."

"Sophia," my mother lightly scolded.

My mother was a psychiatrist, with her very own office in Roget Hills. Honestly, I didn't blame my sister. I would trade places with my mom, too. Listen to people whine about their problems all day or deal with tenth grade?

The question pretty much answered itself, right?

I stared out the window as my father navigated the SUV through the picturesque, snow-covered streets of Roget Hills until the organized city-scape turned into a tree-lined highway, heading back out of city limits north toward Makadewa Lake.

Finally, my dad turned into our long, winding driveway. Our house, a larger-than-necessary-for-four-people log-cabin-style home designed by my dad himself, sat at the top of a small hill, on a tree-spotted lot, and was a whole ten-yard walk from the Makadewa Lake. It was a world away from Antigua, but it was home.

"And here we are," my father announced happily, easing into the garage next to their white Mercedes.

"Hey," Olivia said, easing her seatbelt off. "Now that we're home, can I go to the mall with Maddie?"