Speak and Ocean of Words - Book One

Chapter One

Laney

Percy and I had just gotten out of school for the summer and were on our way home where we lived with our mother Sally Jackson and out step-father Gabe. She worked pretty much every day down at the candy shop and diner a few blocks away, she worked two jobs sometimes three to provide for us even though most of it went to Gabe. Gabe was the manager at the mega mart, well only over the electronics department and often gambled away any money he had because he just sucked at it. My brother Percy and I were twins, we both had dark hair and green eyes. He was older than me by ten minutes so he liked to act like he was just the oldest because of it even though I was more mature. The two of us continued on our way home from school, so far this was the longest we'd been anywhere which was pretty good considering out luck, or at least his. The two of us stopped when we got to the apartment, I couldn't tell what he was thinking as we weren't facing each other, but I, I was thinking about how easy it would be to just take off and never come back. I'd thought of it many times before during the school breaks we were allowed to come home on, but I couldn't leave my twin and mother, it would hurt them too much. "Come on, we might as well go inside. Maybe moms there already home so we don't have to deal with Smelly Gabe until dinner." Percy said quietly beside me, I had almost forgotten about his presence. I looked over at him and nodded, "I doubt it, but alright." I knew she wouldn't be home, not for another hour or so at least. He led us into the dingy apartments and up the stairs to our home on the fourth floor. With his tendency to lose things we had agreed that I would carry the key with me. I slipped my hand into my pocket and pulled it out, unlocking the door in a matter of moments. We headed inside and I nearly gagged at the smell of booze and cigarettes. Four years ago this wouldn't have been the place we'd be coming home to, four years ago it would have been no roof over our heads sometimes and barely enough food, but now we were still barely managing to get by what with Gabe gambling everything away all the time. We crept the house and prayed to god he would just ignore us today, but god didn't seem to care for us much. Gabe looked over at us, his cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth, the cards in his hands. "Got any money on ya?" He asked in a gruff scratchy voice. "We spent it all on the taxi back." I lied, I had gotten good at it since we met him. "And the cabbie kicked us out and drove off with the change. " I stared him in the eyes, my face blank. Gabe was good at telling if someone had any money on them, except for me if I could get away with it at least. He looked at me with a small glare as he tried to see if I was lying or not. "Get outta here." He muttered a moment later, brushing us off. I heard Percy let out a small sigh of relief when we were finally in out room. "I thought for sure he was going to catch your bluff." He said as he threw his backpack onto the bed. "You've seen him play poker, you think he can catch anyone's bluff?" I asked, doing the same. The room was small, it consisted of a bed, dresser, small closet, and a desk with a window and fire escape. We shared a small laugh and then stood in silence, thinking about stuff. We would probably have to figure out how to get summer jobs to pay for our keep here, at least it's what Gabe said. We didn't have much trouble finding work, sometimes one of us would be able to walk dogs or sell things door to door, Percy went down to a farm last summer to help out while I was dog sitting with an old lady who was allergic to dogs. "What are we going to do when we're adults?" I asked, I always thought about the future. Would we still be here with Gabe when we were adults without a mother or would he kick us out? Would we be able to afford college or have to get jobs and drop out of high school? Would out mother die like her parents had to make us forced to stay here with Gabe until we reached adulthood? "Well, I'll be a marine biologist or maybe a professional surfer and you'll be a doctor or something," Percy replied, he was the carefree one out of us, he was also the one who didn't try too hard in school. We were both dyslexic, but he didn't like to ask for help unless I gave it to him and sometimes he just didn't ask me at all. "A pro surfer and a doctor? Really?" I asked him with a smile. "Yeah, and we won't have to live with Smelly Gabe and mom can go back to school like she wants." He had big dreams for our lives compared to mine and they were always happy ones.