Meet Me After Practice

---ABIGAIL---

“Dad, you can’t make me go!” I said angrily, glaring up into my father’s face. I couldn’t believe my dad was forcing me to move across the country to live with my mom and my idiot brother in Boston. When my parents got divorced, they made the housing arrangement for a reason. It was agreed that I would live with my dad in San Diego, California, and my brother James would stay with my mom in Boston. Until we died. So was sending me to stay with them for a year even legal?

Dad sighed and folded his arms across his chest, giving me a you’re-going-whether- you-like-it-or-not look. “Abby- Honey, you have to understand. I’m sending you to Boston so you can get to know your mom and James better. You never talk to them anymore-”

“I don’t talk to them for a reason, Dad. When you and Mom got divorced, I thought we agreed to never see each other again. That’s why we live here, and they live in Boston.” I said, tossing a bunch of my shirts into the open suitcase laying on my bed, not caring if it was unorganized. I wasn’t really going to go, anyway. I was positive that I could convince my dad not to send me to Boston. “Dad, I don’t want to go. You can’t pull me out of school halfway through my senior year! I have a life- I have a boyfriend, for goodness sake! I don’t want to talk to Mom, James, or any of their stupid friends! I want to stay here with you, in San Diego!” I said, walking over to him and embracing him in a big hug. I smiled up at him, putting on the best puppy dog face I could muster. “Please, Dad? Don’t make me go to Boston.”

=          =          =          =          =

Six Hours Later...

Once upon a time, a very unhappy Abigail Chamberlain walked off the airplane into the Boston, Massachussets airport, gripping her bright pink duffle bag and suitcase in her hands as she scanned the huge crowd of people waiting for their family members as they exited the plane. Lucky for them, they were here for a happy occasion. I wasn’t.

I sighed and set my duffle bag down by my feet as my eyes roamed through the sea of people, searching for a familiar face. But my search was in vain. Oh, how nice of them to think of me. I thought to myself as I gathered up my bags and started to made my way toward the exit, pushing past people as I walked across the vast corridor. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed my brother’s cell number that my dad had given to me before I left, and held it up to my ear, already a million times more grumpy than I was before I left. I didn’t want to talk him him any sooner than I had to, but seeing that I was never going to find their house in this city without help, I had no other choice but to call them.

After four rings, James answered. “Hello! James Chamberlain speaking.”

I rolled my eyes at him even though I knew he couldn’t see me. Yet. “James, it’s me.” I said, stopping to sit down on a bench next to the exit, shifting my duffle bag off my arm onto the floor next to me.

“Who’s me?” He asked, laughing at something a muffled voice said in the background. “I don’t know anyone named me-”

“James! It’s Abby.” I said, not even bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice. “Could you come pick me up at the airport? I don’t know the way to your house, and I don’t have enough money to pay for a cab.”

I heard the muffled voice say something again, and James answered. “Yeah, It’s my sister. I gotta go pick her up at the airport.” There was a pause, some more muffled talking. Then James cleared his throat and said. “Okay, Abby. I’m on my way. What section are you in?”

“D.” I said, taking a rubberband from around my wrist and pulling my hair back into a sloppy ponytail. “How long will it take you to get here?”