Insolence

Prologue

Fluttering birds settled in my stomach as I perched myself behind the silent tree line—the game was afoot. My sister was undoubtedly crouched behind some yonder stump, staring and waiting patiently for me to slip up first and spoil the fun before it had even begun. I was not going to fall for her childish tricks and ruses. I was made of better, sounder stuff than that. Our version of hide and seek was quite the contrary to anything anyone had ever heard of. We both assumed the status of "predator" and would use the natural surroundings to hide and seek each other out at the same time, making as little noise as possible.

Many times we had frightened my mother or father by stumbling out of a bush or hidden pathway in our little country fields and woods and earned ourselves some awful punishments. I hated my parents with a vile passion. Always with their noses up my butt and telling me what I could and couldn't do. It served them right to get the fire scared out of them every once and a while.

"Boo," I whispered.

Lola shrieked and came shooting up out from the crevice beneath the rock that she was hiding underneath.

"No fair!"

"Life isn't fair," I mimicked my mother with short annoyance. My sister, despite her clear alliance with me, wore my patience thin quite often. She was facetious, whiny and often desperate for attention to the point where nothing mattered but her own precious hide. I was always second banana.

My sister got what she wanted because I "always did". I had a habit of being able to finagle various trinkets, music lessons, pets, and other assorted things from loved ones outside of my immediate family. Uncles, aunts, grandparents... all of them doted on me because I was "smart beyond my years". But that left my sister, Lola, out. She was always cast aside by the others and my parents worked double time to make her feel just as loved. Except, they left me squished in the dust in their efforts. Unless I messed up or was due for some higher moral lesson. Then, all of the sudden, I would matter again.

"Why do you have to ruin the fun?"

I glared at my sister. Lola was awful in that she would repeat everything my father said. Everything that came from his mouth was some dismissal of my character, my breeding, my "poor genetics" as he called them. Never you mind that they were his genetics as well as my mothers. I had just "inherited the worst traits in the family" and was "prone to ruining fun or being too aggressive". His words—not mine.

"Why do you have to be such a whiny, spoiled brat?"

That bottom lip of hers came curling out from her chin and spattered her face with raspberry, passive aggressive tension. I would not heed her fickle attempts to sway me. She was the one at fault here, not me. We had been playing hide and seek, not "let Lola win". I couldn't help it if I was better at the game than she was.

"Hybris, you know Mom and Dad are disappointed in you, right? They say that all the time," Lola sneered.

What a little—. At thirteen-years-old, I knew she was right, though. I let those insults sink in and wrapped my soul in them. Of course. I was a disappointment. What else could I be to them? How could I ever merit anything more than insults, reproachful commands and lectures? Lola was their forgotten jewel and I was their fools gold in that I had everyone fooled. Clearly Lola was the better person here. But I couldn't hold that against her. It was my fault for being so stupid and awful, not hers. I wished I could be like her: quiet, shy, reserved... I was loud, ambitious and "too smart for my own good".

Why else would I have been named for the greek goddess of insolence? I had been loud, smelly and obnoxious since birth. But how could I be to blame, here? How was this my fault? They had brought me into existence. It was my parents who should be ashamed with themselves, not me.

"You know what, you're right. I am a disappointment."

A smug smirk bled its way across her face and I let her revel in her victory. Lola would always be the most important part of my parents' life. I was doomed to be "that kid" for the rest of my life. I sighed and looked out toward the trees, yearning to go get lost in the underbrush, reduce myself to a tiny frog or insect and go live and die in a much faster time frame than I could have ever wished for. But I knew that would never happen. I was stuck here forever.

"You want to go see that house in the woods?"

I shook my head.

"No, Lola, you know that thing is haunted," I chuckled, the sour aftertaste of truth still tingling between my teeth and beneath my tongue. Maybe being killed by a ghost sounded okay after all. But that was ridiculous. Ghosts weren't real, monsters weren't real and nor were vampires. And I was okay with that. No sense in getting caught up in those morbid fairytales anyway.

"Let's go home, Lola. The precious gem is missing and I'm sure Mom and Dad will be missing you."

"Not you, though."

Wow, for a ten-year-old, she sure had it all figured out. And she was right. I would go in unnoticed, unloved and, worst of all, the oldest. The house in the woods lingered in the back of my mind. Its ghosts would haunt me long before I ever managed to step foot within them for the first and last time.