The sound of my sister's music wakes me up in the morning. "Dawn!" I yell. "Must you play that crap so loud?"
"Of course!" I hear her yell back.
I look at my clock and see that it's 7AM. I doubt that I'll be able to go back to sleep and get out of bed. My trip to the bathroom is quick and I head back down the hallway. Dawn sticks her hand out in front of me and blocks my way.
"Can you move?" I ask, trying not to growl at her.
She completely ignores me and says, "You know, I saw you leave school with that new kid. What's his name? James or something?"
"Yeah, you were there and his name is John." I cross my arms over my chest. "If you're trying to threaten me, dad already knows."
She takes her arm off the wall and flips her long black hair behind her shoulder. Then, with a wicked grin, she says, "Now why would I threaten you?" I start to walk past her when she grabs my arm and whispers in my ear, "I heard this noise last night, sounded a lot like howling. You might want to be careful with that little friend of yours, Anna."
I turn toward her and look her dead in the eye. "I'd really appreciate it if you took your hand off of me," I say, yanking my arm from her grip and making my way down the hall and into my room.
I open my closet doors and find a shirt to wear then slip it on after removing my pyjama top. I put a pair of jeans on next and grab a sweater. I make my way down stairs and see my dad standing in the kitchen, drinking a coffee.
"Is there enough for me?" I ask.
I must've scared him because he jumps and almost spills his coffee. "Oh, Anna, goodmorning. And yes, there is. Help yourself," he says and steps out of my way. I pour some into a cup and stand next to him, sipping.
"Are you going to be late getting home today?"
"I'll be here when you get home from school. Why?"
"I need to talk to you about something," I say and put my cup in the sink after taking my last sip. "It's important."
"Okay but if it's so important why don't you just say it now?"
"Because I don't want to be late to school and it's going to take a lot longer than five minutes." I walk over to the bottom of the stairs and yell up to Dawn, "Hurry up, we're going to be late!"
"Yeah, yeah," she says as she takes her time descending the staircase.
I don't want to waste any more time looking at her so I walk out of the front door yelling, "Bye dad!" I manage to grab the car keys before shutting the door behind me and use them to open the car door and I sit in the drivers seat. I start the car and wait another five minutes before Dawn comes outside. She gets in the passanger side and closes the door.
I put my seatbelt on and shift the gear into Reverse. I back out of the driveway slowly, turning the wheel so that I am positioned correctly on the road. Then I shift the gear into Drive and push down on the gas pedal. Ten minutes. Ten more minutes until I can get out of this car and away from Dawn.
"What's wrong, Anna?" She asks. "You look a little nervous. Don't like being around me anymore?"
"Wow, you're only figuring this out now?" I laugh. "I thought all the hateful looks and arguing would've trigured something in that tiny brain of yours a while ago."
"You need to stop pushing your family away," she says. "It's not my fault your mom's dead."
"You need to stop being so rude," I yell. "Just because she wasn't your mom too doesn't mean you have to be so insensitive about it."
