My New Sister

Chapter Eight

A week went by, and Rachel wasn't home much, but when she was, it sucked. She was constantly getting jabs in at me, like insulting what I was wearing in a passive way so that our parents wouldn't really pay much mind to it if they were in the room. When we were alone, she wasn't nasty so to say, but I would always remove myself from the situation before too long. I hated being around her.

                The worst part was, she began to win Audrey over from day one. By Tuesday, they were watching movies together. On Wednesday, Rachel brought her to cheerleading practice. And on Thursday night, I walked into my sisters room to find Rachel and her in the bed, laughing and talking. I was disgusted for Audrey's sake. She'd been sucked into the Rachel vortex, never to return.

                On Friday evening, Rachel flounced in the house totting a dozen shopping bags. She poked her head into the TV room, a cozy teen room at the back of the house, and saw Audrey and I there.

                "Hello, sisters." She sung.

                "Rachel!" Audrey quipped, looking up from the television. "How was shopping?"

                Rachel held up her bags and said, "As you can see, fabulous."

                "What are you doing tonight?" Audrey asked hopefully. She probably already knew that the all-popular Rachel had plans.

                 "Cheerleading teams monthly sleepover." Rachel announced proudly. "It's at this fancy hotel downtown that costs two-hundred dollars a night per room. We booked three rooms, of course, since there's fifteen of us. We've had this reservation for a month now. I'm the head organizer of it all."

                I gazed out the window. It had been snowing pretty hard all day, and an hour ago the ice pellets had began. It wasn't the kind of weather my mother would ever drive in. It wasn't the kind of weather that anybody with half a brain would go out in.

                Jake suddenly appeared in the doorway and said, "Rachel, you'll have to stay in tonight. Roads are closed. They're declaring this an ice storm."

                "What?" Rachel exclaimed, appalled. "I was just out there at the mall! Violet drove us, it was not big deal."

                "Rachel, you could have easily gotten in a crash. There's a six car pile-up a mile away." Jake told her. "We're all staying in tonight."

                As he left, Rachel pulled out her iPhone and started making phone calls. She fought with the manager of the hotel for at least ten minutes over rebooking and using the same money they'd already paid with. It was completely rude of her. I mean, hello? I was trying to watch TV here.

                But all of a sudden, the TV went black. And the light next to me went out, leaving us in pitch black darkness. Rachel started saying, "Hello? Are you there?" And pacing around the room.

                We heard a rush of footsteps and a flashlight shone into the room. "Blackout!" Jake announced. "Power outage!"

                "That's just great, isn't it?" Rachel shouted. "There must be no phone service either, huh?"

                "A phone line is knocked down right outside." Jake told her. "No phone service or data."

                "No data either?" Rachel asked. I could practically see the tears welling in her eyes. I wish it weren't so dark in here. This meltdown was something I wanted to witness!