On Our Own

Chapter 13

Well after midnight I was back in front of my house. Still mad at Jess and not wanting to talk to her, and not having anywhere else to go, I decided to go to Ms. Partinoff's roof and fix her stupid satellite. I walked into the backyard and climbed over the fence and went to the side of her house. After climbing up the tree close to the wall, I jumped from the tree on to her roof and found the satellite, along with many baseballs. After throwing them back into our backyard, I got to work on the satellite.

Believe it or not, this was not the first time it had happened, and it wasn't too hard to fix, I had watched the repairman do it so many times I knew exactly what to do. When I was done, I laid down on her roof looking up at the stars.

I don't know how long I laid there, but I thought about a lot of things, I thought about Carter and how he was now screwed for life, I thought about James and how he would be leaving us soon, Jack and Matt who still weren't talking, Casey and Molly and their obsession with Liam, where Nina fit into that situation, and poor little Anna who was still holding out hope her uncle would come get her. Then finally, I thought about Jess. Was Ethan right? Did she really think of me as her daughter?

"What are you doing?" someone suddenly yelled from below.

I got up and looked around, Ms. Partinoff was yelling at me from her balcony.

"Fixing your satellite," I mumbled.

"I know the television turned on at one in the morning, get down here," she yelled.

I was confused. Did she want me in her house? I slid down and got onto her balcony.

She gave me a disgusted look and I stared right back at her. She was in a pink nightgown and had curlers in her hair.

"Come sit with me," she said finally.

I looked at her old wrinkly face that was not going to take no for an answer and then sat down on the couch next to her.

"Why were you fighting with Jessica?" she asked.

"You could hear us?" I asked.

"I'm sure Canada could've heard your screaming," she said rolling her eyes.

"Why do you care? I thought you hated us?" I blurted out.

"I do not hate any of you, but look at me, I'm old. All I want is some peace and quiet and with you and Jessica yelling at night and that boy hitting baseballs at my house I barely get a moment of peace," Ms. Partinoff grumbled.

"Casey's a girl," I said quietly.

"Could've fooled me," she muttered. "Now will you answer my first question?"

"Because she yelled at me and she treats me differently than everyone else," I said bitterly. "I want her to treat me like she treats every other kid that goes through here, but all she ever does is yell at me."

Ms. Partinoff stared at me like I was an idiot.

"I've been neighbors with those two since they bought that house and had the crazy idea to raise you all. You were their first kid, you know." she said deep in thought. "I remember you, too tiny for a one-year-old. At the time I was helping them with a lot of things, you know bills, taxes, adult stuff. Whenever I would go over there all they would do was gush on and on about you and how cute you were, but Jessica, oh she would hover over you like no other. Monica used to make fun of her for it, but she was obsessed with making you happy."

"I find that hard to believe," I muttered.

Ms. Partinoff looked at me, but then ignored me. "Can I continue?" she asked.