Earning Her Own Name

Chapter 2

I woke to someone screaming in my ear. My eyes shot open and I rolled over to see Sami leaning over me, her light brown curls hanging in front of her makeup covered face.

“What?!” I whined and rolled back over. She hit me on the arm.

“Danni! You have to get up. Mom is waiting in the car.” She said and pulled my arm. I yanked my arm away from her and looked at the clock. 4:29 PM. Damn.

“alright, tell her I’ll be out in two minutes.” I sighed and stood up. Sami mumbled under her breath as she stomped out of the room I walked over to my drawer and grabbed a pair of blue shorts and changed into them. I opened the drawer underneath the first one and grabbed an old black t-shirt and put it on over my tank top. Finally I took my hair out of the bun and ran my brush through it quickly. With one last look at the clock, which now said 4:31, I grabbed a hair tie and my phone, throwing my hair up into a pony tail as I walked down stairs.

I slipped my feet into black flip flops by the door and walked outside. My mom was sitting in the driver’s seat having a conversation with Sami who was sitting next to her. I sighed as I slipped into the back of the car.

“What were you doing? I called you ten times.” My mom asked as she started to pull out of the driveway. She gave me a disgusted look through the rearview mirror when she saw the outfit I was wearing. “And why on Earth are you wearing that?” She scoffed. I rolled my eyes.

“I fell asleep and this was all I could throw on. Besides it’s not like we’re going to a five-star restaurant.” I mumbled.

“Either way we are going to be meeting two guys our age that will be in our school next year. Don’t you want to make a good first impression?” Sami chimed in.

“I don’t care what people think of me. If they don’t like me they can suck it.” I spat.

“Lose the attitude right now!” My mother had heard enough. I just sat back in my seat and checked my phone. No new messages. Not a lot of people texted me unless it was a kid in my class looking for homework or something. I didn’t mind helping people out. I didn’t have a problem with a lot of people. It’s just that people I did have problems with were my family.

It wasn’t long until we pulled into a driveway. The house in front of me wasn’t small, but not incredibly large either. Sami was out of the car in an instant and running up the porch stairs. I could tell she was eager to see if she could get these guys fall for her. It was her way of gaining her self confidence. I missed my old sister that had confidence without having to get it from drooling guys. Now whatever she did just disgusted me.

I heard the front door open as I walked up the sidewalk. My Mom started talking frantically with the women at the doorway and hugged her. I walked up quietly and stood behind them.

“Oh Samantha! Look what a beautiful woman you’ve become!” My Mom’s friend said as she wrapped her arms around my sister.” I knew my Mom told her which one of us was which because she didn’t look so sure of herself. She turned to me.

“Danielle! I haven’t seen you in so long! You and your sister get harder to differentiate between as you get older!” she gave me a warm smile and went to hug me. I stood there like a statue and looked at my arm. She gave me the ‘at least pretend like you like her or else’ look. I wrapped my arms around her gingerly, not even knowing her name.

“Danni, Sami, you remember my friend Mary.” My mom said lightly. Mary smiled at us again and walked toward the front door.

“Well come on in.” She said and waved us in. she led us straight to a combined dining room/ kitchen. Sitting at the kitchen Table were two guys. One had short dark hair and the other had longer light brown hair. I saw Sami’s eyes light up. She should not be this happy, she has a boyfriend.

“Girls these are my sons Evan and Liam.” Evan was the one with the darker hair and Liam had the lighter hair. They both smiled and stood up walking over to us. Sami offered Evan her hand.

“Hi, I’m Sami.” She said and shook his hand and then Liam’s. They smiled politely in return.  Liam, who was standing closer to me, turned and offered his hand.

“You are?” He asked nicely.

“I’m Danni.” I flashed a small smile and shook his hand and then and shook Evan’s hand.

“Okay, now that everyone knows each other why don’t you four go into the living room or something; let the old ladies catch up.” Mary said happily. Evan and Liam turned and led us into the other room. I sat down on a couch and Liam took the seat next to me and Evan and Sami who were already in a conversation sat on the other side of the room.

“So… how was your day?” He asked, flashing me a smirk. I snorted.

“The usual crap.”

He seemed slightly taken aback by my response but he shook it off. He looked around the room, clearly feeling uncomfortable. I looked at him. He was handsome, his hair covered his forehead and had the little flip to one side. His eyes were nice, a greenish hazel color. He was well built, strong, but on the skinnier side. His brother was a bit more muscular and defined I guess you can say. They really didn’t look like each other that much. They had the same eye color, but overall, Evan was just darker toned compared to Liam.

“Come on say something. You’re sister is speaking.” Liam said, desperately trying to start a conversation.

“That’s great for her.” I mumbled and started to play a game on my phone.

“Well since our parents are friends and I’m going to your school next year, maybe we should get to know each other better?” He sounded like he was starting to get irritated.

“Whatever.”

There was a moment of silence between us. I felt his gaze burning into me.

“You know, you’re a bitch.” He said bluntly. I froze and looked up at him, without moving my head. The look on his face was flat out annoyance. He was serious. That was when I broke out in laughter.