Just a Scratch

Chapter Three

"I'm hooommeee!" I yelled out to anyone that would listen. I heard the TV on in the living room which meant Abi was probably sitting in front of it drawing so I threw my bag on the ground and joined my sister who was, as I guessed it, drawing in her sketchbook. "What's up, Abs?"

With her head still down she studied me from the corner of her eye and gently moved her notebook to face me. It was a picture of the scene directly in front of her, from the cartoon playing on the TV to the dining room table in the corner. My smile faltered but I mustered up a real one before looking back at my little sister.

"You get better every day!"

That wasn't a lie, she really was an amazing artist. Her pictures weren't hyper realistic because she drew them in her own "Abi" style. I squeezed her hand before jumping up from the couch and going to look for Caroline, my older sister.

I wasn't even sure if she'd be home but I needed to get Abi out of the house. When she began drawing things that were in front of her, it meant she needed to get out and move around. It was her "Abi" way of saying, yo people! I'm hella bored!

I knocked on Caroline's door and heard a muffled, "come in."

She sat at her desk with piles of books and papers around her, one hand had a calculator and the other held her forehead like she was in pain.

"If I don't get this next math problem right then I'm dropping out of college."

"Nice to see you too," I plopped down on her bed that was covered in clothes and surrounded by a sea of water bottles.

"What's up?" She said without looking up from her book.

"Abi's drawing the living room so I thought we could go out to the park or something," I suggested. Usually Caroline was quick in knowing when Abi needed something but I could tell the internship she started was really taking it out of her. Between med school, her new job, and worrying about Abi, I saw that she was being spread too thin but I didn't say anything because I knew she'd deny it.

Caroline set down her pencil and swiveled her chair so she'd face me. "Yeah, I noticed," she paused and I looked at her strangely. The air felt heavy and I wondered what she had to say. "Soooo... dad and I have been talking," her tone was serious. It was Caroline serious, which meant it couldn't be good. "We talked and were planning on having Abi enroll at the high school next year."

All of a sudden I felt a weight just barrel down on my shoulders, "What?! Abi doesn't need to go to public school, her homeschooling is going just fine! I don't know why you guys always think she needs to act "normal"! She doesn't need to be normal! And when did you talk about this?! Why wasn't I included?!"

"Lilah," Caroline spoke smoothly and didn't let anything but confidence show, "we're not trying to make her normal, you know that. We just think it would be better for her to have more communication with the real world. Dad finally has a more stable hours at his job so he'll be able to be around more and I have my job-" everything she said made sense, but at the same time it didn't.

I angrily got up from the bed and crossed my arms, "okay, literally all your job does is make you more stressed and so what about dad's hours! What about her? How is she gonna feel surrounded by hundreds of people who won't care about her and what she needs?!"

"We also talked it over with the school. We decided to get her used to it this year instead of throwing it all on her next year. A couple times a week, or however many days works for you and her, she'll join you to each of your classes-"

"WHAT?!" I yelled in disbelief. My face was hot. My fists were clenched. My mind was raging.

"Lilah," Caroline stood up, "you do not need to be yelling and it's not even really your decision."

"Well it's not yours or dad's either!" I yelled and stomped out of her room, ignoring her calls at me. I slammed the door to my room and collapsed on my bed. Tears sprang to my eyes and I yelled into my pillow. How could they be doing this?! There was a small click and I looked up from my bed.

Abi stood in front of the door and quietly shuffled to her desk, the only clean part of our shared room. All of her pens were color coordinated and stacks of filled notebooks stood evenly on the shelf above.

Abigail was precious. I loved her more than anyone could imagine, so hearing that she'd have to endure high school made me furious. She didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve any of this.

"Did Caroline and dad talk to you about high school?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Do you want to go?"

She paused, but nodded again.

I sighed and got up from my bed to go see what she was drawing. It was a picture of me and her walking down a school hallway. Tears sparked back up and I tilted my head upwards to keep them from falling.

If she wanted to go to high school, I'd do everything in my power to make it a positive experience.

-

A/N

It's a heavier part but I want to explore Lilah's home life.