Chapter One: Maddison

48 3 1
                                    


"Ahh, Finally summer", I said to myself as I finished the dishes with Dad.

"Hey, you're not finished yet." Dad said teasingly – but I knew he would finish them off without me. I had done so many chores this morning and I was so ready to just chill out.

My sister Rachael had to do something around here. She was always stuck in her room- ever since she turned thirteen (Six years ago... she is now nineteen and I seem to have forgotten what she looked like. Only joking, but that's how it feels anyway.) Only God knows what she's doing in there. 

She is like a night owl, working at a bar in town, then sleeping well into the day. She is trying to save up money to travel but seems to be online shopping instead. We are always seeing the postman deliver packages to our house, then laugh as she sprints downstairs and snatches it out of his hands excitedly. She thanks the postman (Matt) as they are now on a first name basis because she's become a regular, then goes back to her room.
Mum and dad just raise an eyebrow to each other and shrug.

On the other hand, I always know what my younger sister Daisy is doing because she is always following me around and wants to play.
She is ten and appears innocent with her strawberry blonde hair and freckles BUT she is as cunning as a fox and always seems to get what she wants.

We are an odd group of sisters, some may even say we look nothing alike and have nothing in common.
Rachel is tall with dark brown hair (dyed multiple times) has blue eyes and wears a lot of make up on her face to cover her freckles. Sometimes I think it's too much and tell her.
"Would you like more cake frosting on your face?" (while smiling innocently.)
She chased me around the house for that one, yelling, till mum intervened.
Mum is like a hawk, she always has her eyes and ears activated for spotting trouble. Dad... not so much.
Daisy has green eyes with light strawberry hair and a cute spray of freckles on her round cheeks and nose.
While I have long, wavy blonde hair (or golden as my dad used to call it) with green eyes and freckles. Not too many, but I don't mind them. I prefer my face naturally and don't feel myself when I have make-up on. I laugh as I think back to the few times Rachel has tried to give me a makeover. 
"It's just going to sweat off anyway! I'm going to go horse-riding with dad!" I squirm under her firm grip as she tried to put mascara on me.
"You're hopeless! You might as well be a horse!"

I laugh out loud to myself and it sounds loud in the quiet afternoon.
I sigh, contentedly. 
Everything doesn't seem too bad now that summers finally here!

Our house looks like a country resort in the summer! 
The pool has already been cleaned, making it completely transform into a sparkling blue. We pull out the old deck chairs from the shed, mow the lawns, open the french styled windows and enjoy the sunflowers growing tall in the flower beds by the side of our house.

Summer makes everything better, and I want to soak up every warm ray as much as I can.

I smile, contentedly and I leave the kitchen to go and sit in my favourite tree. It's big leaves have sprouted over night, it seems and I sit in it's warm, thick branches and think about the year so far.

We were already into June and it felt like New Years and Christmas wasn't that long ago!
I loved the snow when it fell and how everything is left so white and peaceful but it was so cold!
I can't believe after this summer is over I will be into my last year at Danville High, then will have finished high school forever! Part of me is excited but I'm also scared to leave my home town. I have all these dreams of travelling and being an adult but feel like I have missed out on being a normal teenager too.
Whatever 'normal' is.
I have never kissed a guy. Not once. 
The weird thing is... I haven't wanted to. I have grown up with all the guys at my school and don't feel anything for a single one! But still feel a twinge of sadness every-time I see a couple at school holding hands or thinking about our prom and how I will just have to go with a friend, not my boyfriend.
The only way I have survived through my years growing up is because of my two best friends; Karlie and Mimi.
Unfortunately I can't see my two best friends over this summer as both are going away – but they did promise to keep in contact.

Three Weeks With YouWhere stories live. Discover now