Things I Hate About You

Chapter 1- Sister's Friends

"Do you always have to have your head stuck in a book?" my sister yapped in that annoying, high-pitched voice she gets whenever she is mad.

"Are you always this ignorant, or are you trying extra hard today?" I grumbled under my breath.   The book was suddenly yanked out of my hands, a bark of protest escaping my mouth. My sister threw the book onto the couch opposite of me, too far for me to reach over and grab.  "What do you want, Bree?"

"I already told you!" She stomped her heeled foot on the wooden floor of the living room. "I want you to drive me to drive me to Allie's party tonight."

"Do you have dad's permission to go?" I kept a flat tone to my voice, hoping that she would leave me alone sooner.

"You're impossible!" She screamed. Then turning on the toe of her heel, the fabric in the skirt of her baby-pink dress swishing to the side, she left the room.

I'll take that as a no to my question.

My sister has this crazy fantasy in her head that I was her chauffeur and would go out of my place to please her. News flash, I don't care about what she wants. Bree was the stereotypical high school girl, only caring about what others thought of her and what kind of shoes she was going to wear the next day.

But since she is only 15, I , the 17 year old, have the responsibility of driving her around until she manages to get her license. I don't mind driving. If anything, it gives me the sense of freedom that I know my sister wishes she had. I just hate the places where she wants me to take her to.

Usually, it's her friend's house, but recently it had become her job to beg and beg me to drive her to some party being held by one of the jocks at school. But driving her to a party meant me lying to our over protective father about where we were going, and due to my strong belief that parties reduced a person's total amount of brain cells, I would have to wait patiently outside until my sister finished partying.

It was simply not going to happen.

With a loud sigh, I heaved myself off the couch and walked the distance to where my book was thrown. I knew my sister was going to have to get over her anger and she was going to have to do it fast.

It was currently 7:15 am, and school started at 8:00 am. If she wanted a ride, she had about 15 minutes to get over herself, or she could walk to school. But I'm sure that would ruin her new shoes and made it safe to assume that I would hear the clink of her heels against the floor in a few minutes.

I ungracefully plonked onto my original place of sitting and continued to read my copy of Greek Myths. It was my favorite of all the books that I had in my collection and I had read it a dozen times from front to back ever since my mother gave it to me before her death. Her giving it to me was one of the last memories I had from when she was alive. I had promised her to cherish it for as long as I had it, and I was definitely living up to my word.

I read about half of one of the stories of a goddess before the sound of heels on the floor and a loud sigh let me know that my sister had arrived. Her lack of words let me know that she was going to give me the silent treatment instead of risking her opening her mouth and getting me angry enough to leave her to walk.

"We need to leave, Kathy! I have to meet my friends before class!"

I guess she wasn't giving me the silent treatment after all. She walked out of the room and a loud slam signaled that she would wait for me by the car. I stuffed the book into my backpack, grabbed my keys and head out for the car.

"Goodbye, dad!" I hollered up, knowing my father wouldn't rise from slumber to respond. He never woke up in the mornings since he worked nights at the local hospital helping deliver babies to those lucky enough to go into labor at night.