Driving Across America

Chapter One

My eyes travelled around the room. If you're bored during the middle of the summer, you usually don't do much. I was bored and alone, my friends having gone to some exotic place for their senior trip. And I? Well, I was stuck in our town with barely seven thousond people. Just one of those little highway towns you see everywhere.

          And I was alone, as I'd like to point out again, with my two brothers and parents.

        To somehow find a way to entertain myself meant getting out of my bed, which was extremely comfortable. So instead of getting out of bed and doing something, I nestled into the sheets, and curled up. But that moment was ruined when my younger brother, Andy, ran in. The boy, who's six, jumped on my bed. And more specifically: me.

          I groaned as I shot into a sitting position, giving Andy a glare. He just laughed at me and ran out of the room, the red cape flying out behind him. I then remembered he was going through a "Superman" phase, where he dressed up like the hero and ran around, trying to act like a hero. Which meant, he jumped on everything, convinced he could fly, and glared at everything, thinking he had lazor-vision. So he just looked like a little weirdo, in my opinion.

         I knew that at that point, there was no sense in trying to fall back asleep, so I reluctantly got up. The minute my bare feet touched the hardwood flooring, I instantly regretted that decision. The floor was freezing cold, courtesy to our air conditioner, and was absolutely frightening to my feet. Everyone hates waking up then stepping on freezing-cold floors. It was just natural for everyone. Well, unless you lived in the Tropics, where it's always warm.

          I stumbled over to my dresser and grabbed soccer shorts and a tank top, knowing that the hot air outside would instantly drench anything else. Walking down the stairs to the kitchen, I was greeted by the sight of my other brother, William, who was sitting on the couch watching Pokemon. The college dropout did this every day in the morning, depriving me of my TV time in the morning and at night. He grunted, which I took as a "hey." I rolled my eyes at his barbaric behavior and continued towards the kitchen.

          There, my mother was at the stove, flipping pancakes while Andy and my dad were sitting at the table. Andy was rambling on about something he saw in his Superman comic whilst my dad attempted to act like he was listening. Andy didn't notice, even though my dad was obviously immersed in his paper and just mumbled out a few words every now and then. My mom brightened when she saw me.

          "Dahling," she breathed, trying to fake a British accent she lost years ago. "Came down for breakfast?" Still attempting at the accent and trying to appear sophisticated, she turned back to the pancakes. Which were burning.

          I laughed at the sight of her. She was trying to pry the burnt batter off the pan while blowing hair out of her face. No one would ever had thought she once lived in London, or that she was ever a sophisticated person.

          "Trying to look sophisticated, still?" I teased as I took a seat at the table. In turn, she stuck her tongue out at me. Yes, a truly sophisticated woman. My dad noticed her struggle with the pan and got up to help. That caused Andy to turn to me and start rambling about Superman.

          I tried to listen, hoping and wanting to appear too busy so my mom won't start telling me to do chores, but it didn't work. As soon as she looked back at me, "Honey, after you eat, do your chores," were the words that escaped her mouth. I groaned and leaned back in my chair; I always had a long list of chores, longer than the drop-out lying on the couch. Who I had no idea if he was awake or was taking a nap in the morning like I've seen him do.

          Finally, she set pancakes and eggs down in front of us, and called William in. We all sat there, and the rectangular table the jutted out awkwardly from the wall it was pushed against. Andy and I were sitting together while my parents sat across from us. William sat at the lone end, like the father should in fifties' pictures.