Fifteen

Chapter 5: After the Hurricane

The drive to Austin was exhausting, hilarious and refreshing. Damon and Daisy loaded up the family van and drove the twenty-seven-hour distance to Texas. Damon was home for a few weeks that summer and offered to help Daisy move in.

She was a little skeptical at first, but it beat driving for that long and stopping overnight with their parents instead. She was having a lot more fun with Damon than she expected. They were twins, but other than being born on the same day the two had very few things in common.

Damon was a prodigy in every aspect of life. He got accepted into the Tulane University on their sixteenth birthday and started his freshman year while Daisy was still a senior in high school. He was determined to become the next Warren Buffet and everyone knew it. 

His professional savvy coupled with academic smarts made him the most likely candidate to emulate the business magnate, investor and philanthropist. As they drove past a park in Coleman, Texas Daisy couldn't help but smile at her brother. He was smart, kind and ridiculously selfless. All of the things she was not. He's exactly like him. The thought brought familiar stings to her eyes as she blinked away the impending tears.

They were truly twins that stayed at the opposite ends of the gamut. They were proof that no two people are the same, regardless of genetics and upbringing. The two grew up in the same house with their mother, Keisha and stepfather Louis in their quaint Reno, Nevada home.

They both attended Desert Springs Baptist Church since they were seven years old and had a strong disdain for all things new school Hip-Hop related. The most defining thing about the two was that they both watched at the age of seven as their biological father was gunned down after being robbed at a local gas station. From that moment, Daisy and Damon responded to everything very differently.

Damon became heavily involved with school. He was very active, playing football and running track, but he also excelled academically. They moved from Carson City to Reno after their father's death. Their mother was adamant that they start afresh in every avenue.

Life had proven that it was too short and unpredictable, so her faith became stronger overnight. Desert Springs Baptist Church was recommended to Keisha by an old coworker before they moved. That first Sunday after they relocated, they all sat in the second pew as Pastor Louis Thompson preached.

It seemed like forever ago even though it had only been ten years. Her mom and stepfather got married after a year of dating. Keisha, Damon and Daisy moved into their new home right after the wedding and it seemed a new family unit was created. That's what Keisha hoped for at least.

Damon clearly missed having a male figure around and Louis really was great with them. Daisy, however, couldn't shake the nightmares and sadness that seemed to cradle her daily. They grieved in their own ways. Damon threw himself into his academic and extracurricular activities, while Daisy drowned in drugs, bad crowds and promiscuity.

"You're just being stubborn and lazy." That was Keisha's mantra when grades came in and her C- average failed to measure up to Damon's A+ average. Daisy couldn't deny that her mother was right. School was actually pretty easy, but she could care less to apply herself. Instead, Daisy spent the remainder of her elementary school career acting out.

Middle school flew by quicker than she expected. Those three years were some of her favorite. She met Chad Cegelski, Jack Castille and Rhonda Otter in 6th grade and they had become inseparable. Chad's dad was the late-night DJ for KKOH, so he was always asleep during the day and gone at night.

This made Chad's house their go-to spot for experimenting. They were each other's first for a lot of things. They all decided to smoke weed together the day before 7th grade. The first time was awful, but as time went on Daisy got the hang of it and was hooked.