City to Sticks

Chapter One

1—Holly P.O.V.

I couldn't believe my dad would do this to me. I mean, I had it all in Chicago. I'd just begun my last semester of high school. I had just turned eighteen, had won the spot of cheer captain for the basketball season, and was in the running for homecoming queen. I was dating the captain of the basketball team, had a million friends, and was on top of the world. All of it came crashing down two days ago, when mom and I tried to surprise dad at the office. He'd been working late so often, that mom wanted to bring him supper. We had been the ones to get the surprise, however. We had walked in to find dad with his secretary bent over his desk, with her skirt hiked up and his pants pooled at his feet while he pumped his paisley white ass. The nasty sight was forever etched into my brain. I definitely needed therapy.

That was the beginning of the end. Mom had been frozen at the sight. Not making a sound, but I couldn't hold in my disgust. I had coughed, dad froze, while his whore tried to push him off of her. Dad did the whole "it's not what it looks like" bit, which was seriously laughable. Mom had then calmly walked over to him and dumped the whole container of home-cooked spaghetti over his head. If the situation wasn't so fucked up, I would have laughed. Mom had then grabbed me and we'd gone home to pack our bags. I'd been too afraid to ask where we were going at the time. Mom was scary quiet.

Now two days later, I was severely regretting my decision to keep quiet while my mom processed everything. What I hadn't realized was that, while mom bought us a hotel room for those two days, she'd also been spending her time closing our life in Chicago. She quit her job, cleaned out half of my parent's joint bank account, and made arrangements for us to move in with her parents. For starters, I didn't understand why she hadn't cleaned out the whole bank account. My bastard father deserved it! Secondly, I barely knew my maternal grandparents. They didn't get to Chicago much and they lived in Western Kansas, so literally the middle of nowhere, in Hicksville, Kansas. Ok, so the town was actually called Hugoton, but it may as well be called Hicksville. I mean, they didn't even have a mall!

I knew that I could technically demand to stay in Chicago. I was eighteen after all, but where would I live? I couldn't live with dad, after what he'd done. So I felt stuck. Not only that, I really felt bad for mom. She'd just lost her husband. I didn't want her to lose a daughter too. So, for now, I would go along with this stupid plan of hers.

Grams and Gramps owned a forty acre farm. Their house was a two story, five bedroom that Gramps would bore you to tears telling you how his father built it with his bare hands. I'd heard the story every time we got together with them, which was usually only about once a year. I mean, I get it, Gramps was proud of the house, but did nothing else spectacular ever happen in Hugoton? Couldn't he talk about anything else? Don't even get me started on Grams. She might look like Mrs. Clause, but the woman was a drill sergeant. We'd just arrived and she was already giving me a list of chores that would be my responsibility, every day, while we were staying with them.

"You expect me to milk a cow? You're kidding me right?" I sneered.

"No dear, I expect you to milk a dozen cows. We have three dozen cows and Jake will be milking the other two dozen. I figured with you being new at it, you'll be a bit slower, so I only made one dozen your responsibility. See how considerate I am?" Grams beamed like she'd just given me a present.

I glared and asked, "Who is Jake?"

"Jacob Larson has worked for us for the last three years. He's your age and comes over before school every morning and after school too most days. He wants to own his own farm someday, so he's soaking up as much knowledge as he can. He's the sweetest boy." Grams gushed.

I rolled my eyes. The guy sounded like a total loser to me. Who would actually want to own a farm? It sounded like he was basically giving up all of his free time to work, so I doubted he had friends. A total nerd I'm sure. Apparently a golden child though, in the eyes of my Grandparents. I huffed, "Whatever. I'm going to make a phone call."

I'd only made it halfway across the room when Grams said, "Hold it! That is not the way we behave around here, young lady. Bonnie you should be ashamed at how your daughter has turned out."

I waited for mom to defend me or herself, but she looked so beat down, I knew I was on my own. Dreading the answer, I asked Grams, "And how exactly am I supposed to behave?"

"You ask for permission before leaving the dinner table, for starters. Secondly, you will not be placing any phone call until you've done the dishes." Grams instructed.

I gritted my teeth and muttered, "Fine." I stomped into the kitchen, purposely without asking for permission to be excused. I'd do the damn dishes and then I'd call Kyle. I still couldn't believe that I'd been forced to leave Chicago. Kyle and I had only been dating a couple weeks, but those weeks had been amazing. I hurried through the dishes and then snuck upstairs to my new bedroom, for fear that if my grandmother spotted me, she'd make me do something else. I unplugged my cell phone, where it had been charging and called Kyle. It went to voicemail, so I left a sappy message, before calling my best friend.

"Hello?" Shawna asked, with a giggle. Shawna Ericsson and I had been best friends since third grade and I knew she only giggled like that when a boy was involved. I grinned and was about to ask who she was flirting with, when I heard her say, "Stop it, Kyle. No, I don't know who it is. I didn't check caller I.D. Before answering, now let me talk and then we can..."

I quickly ended the call not wanting to hear the rest. I didn't need to hear it to know that I had not only been betrayed by my boyfriend, but by my best friend. I'd only left Chicago this morning and they were already sneaking around behind my back? Was this a new development or had they been sneaking around the whole time I was dating him?

My phone suddenly rang, in my hand, making me jump. I saw that it was Shawna calling, probably having figured out it was me who had called her. What would she say? What could she say? I almost answered out of morbid curiosity, but decided to let it go to voicemail. A moment later, when my phone beeped indicating I had a message, I listened and was so disgusted, I almost threw my phone across the room.

Shawna said, "Hey, Holly, it's Shawna. Did you just try calling me? Sorry, I wasn't in a good cell area and I think my phone dropped the call. Ugh, I'm so bored right now. My parents forced me to stay home this weekend because of my crappy grades, so I'm just pigging out watching chick flicks by myself. Wish you were here to watch with me. Ok, well, I'll wait to hear from you, bye!"

You'll be waiting a long time, Bitch, I thought and turned my phone off. It was probably the first time it had been off since I got it. It felt weird not to be electronically connected to the world, but I couldn't handle any more lies and I didn't want to risk Kyle calling me back. I cringed thinking of the sickeningly sweet voicemail I'd left for him. I collapsed onto the bed and buried my face in my pillow, stifling a scream. First my dad cheats on my mom and then my boyfriend cheats on me, with my best friend no less. Men were such pigs!

The thing of it was though, I was angrier at Shawna than Kyle. He and I were fairly recent, but Shawna had been in my life for years. How could she do that to me? It made me question everything I thought I knew about her. I really couldn't take much more of this. I closed my eyes and willed sleep to come. Many tears and many hours later, sleep finally claimed me.