Orange December

Chapter 2

The next morning, I awoke in a cradled position, my mom's arms wrapped around me. I closed my eyes again and snuggled her, hoping she wouldn't wake up and comment on how much like an absolute angel I looked. I had no such luck.

I heard a slightly restrained gasp, followed by my mother's voice in full-on my-babies-are-precious-beings mode.

"Honey, look!" she shout-whispered.

"Yes, Ellen?" my dad responded sleepily, almost as if it was a reflex to answer that way.

"Robby. He looks like such a sweetheart. Oh, I could just-"

"Okay, that's it!" I shouted, "Mom! Come on, that's so weird!" I got up and pulled my hoodie over my head. "I woke up a few minutes ago and it was actually kinda nice, but gross, Mom!" I ran to my room, hearing a comment from Mom telling Dad that I was a "growing boy" and "not to be hard on him."

I checked the clock in my room to see that I had ten minutes to get ready for school and leave. "Lex, get ready for school, we're leaving in ten minutes!" I shouted from my door. I opened my drawers and grabbed the quickest outfit I could put together, not really caring about matching. I pushed my feet into the first pair of shoes they could find and ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth, where I found Lexie frantically pulling her hair up in a bun that I could tell she was trying to pass off as cute and messy. I gave my hair a quick tousle once I was done, giving myself a quick spritz or two from the body spray that I knew no girl at school liked, but I was in a rush. We were out the door, snacks from Mom in hand, and made it just in time to run through the gate as the last bell rang at school.

"Robby, where were you this morning? I called like three times. I had to ask my grandma to drive me."

"Sorry, man," I said to Luke as I sat next to him in first period government, "we had this gross mandatory family thing. You know, where Mom baits us with spaghetti and then Dad kills us to use as bait on his next fishing trip by making us watch the-"

"Aw man, he made you watch The Incredible Mr. Limpet again? That's like the third time this month!"

I scoffed. "Yeah, I know. So yeah, sorry I couldn't pick you up today. But hey, at least your grandma got to do something other than knit herself a cave to live in, you know?"

"Yeah, it's cool. Shut up though, I wanna learn about this ice cream voting stuff. You think he'll give us, like, real ice cream?"

I laughed and shook my head as the teacher began teaching.

That day at lunch, I shouldered Luke and gestured at Anne as we walked to our usual table.

"We should invite her over," I said, trying not to make it obvious that I was only saying this so I could be closer to her.

"Nah, you just wanna be closer to her," he said, without looking up from sitting in his seat.

"Maybe so, but- hey, Anne!" I shouted across the room. She looked up at me, vaguely annoyed as she raised an eyebrow in response. "Over here," I mouthed, pointing to the seat in front of me just as Lexie sat in it. She looked at my sister, back at me, and back down at her food. I gave my sister an annoyed look, and then glanced back over at Anne, who looked like nothing had happened, then turned to Luke.

"No."

"What? Come on, you don't even know what I was gonna say!"

"No, we're not going over there just so you can stumble over yourself trying to talk to my cousin, dude."

"Why not?" Luke kept eating his food. I gave up and turned to my own food, tolerating the cafeteria quality sandwich that we chose to have today instead of the burger place down the street. I finished my sandwich and got up to throw away the rest of the stuff on the tray, then went over to Anne's table instead of back to where I was sitting before. Luke noticed and shook his head, clearly giving up on me. Lexie just giggled and scooted in front of Luke, probably to provide commentary on what was sure to be a huge embarrassment on my part.