Beached

One: Benci Ellsworth

I walked to a friend's house early Monday morning at 9:30 A.M. It was a quotidian day, the only thing interesting was another family moving in next door to my house.

I live in a small beach town on the coast of Massachusetts. It's a beach town where everyone knows everybody and when there's a rumor, it spreads like wildfire.

The new and hot rumor was the family moving next door. Supposedly, the father is a retired lawyer who is hella rich. The son is following in his father's footsteps after he finishes school. You can tell the son and father are rich because of the son's name. Fitz.

First, who names their child that. The name Fitz is a prefix of a surname or name like Fitzgerald. Second, why would you retire to this beach?

I just kept walking until he turned a corner walking into what he and his friends call, The Rich Territory.

It was like the Greasers and Socs from The Outsiders, except everyone was really nice in The Rich Territory. Like for example, Ellison Reed. He's totally rich along with his four brothers, Audrick, Paxton, Cornelius, and Charlie. They are all really nice.

I turned another corner and that's when he made it to the Reed house. Ellison was on the front porch with the youngest Reed brother, Charlie. Charlie was only a toddler at two-years-old.

"Oh, there you are, Benci. I was wondering when you were coming by." Ellison picked up Charlie from the floor.

"Yeah, there was a new family that was moving in." I walked up the porch of the Reeds' house.

"Have you seen Mara lately?" Ellison asked.

Oh, right, Mara. Her name is not pronounced, 'Mar-uh', it's pronounced, 'Mare-uh.' Confusing and all of the substitute teachers were confused as well during roll call. It's really on because of her Russian surname, they want to pronounce it like how they would expect they say in Russian. No one knows how or when she got here. She's starting her sophomore year of high school. Ellison, her boyfriend, is starting freshman year. Mara has curly blonde hair and green eyes. She's short, which is good because Ellison is short. Then, again, they're both taller than me.

"No, I haven't seen her. Didn't she go on vacation for the summer?" I said. "She went back to Russia. She hasn't been answering anything." Ellison said.

Ellison's father walked out onto the front porch.

"Hello, Benci. It's nice to see you." Aarick said. He grabbed Charlie out of Ellison's arms and walked back inside.

"So, how's Cornelius?" I asked.

It's only been six months since their mother died. Audrick and Aarick have been really the caretakers through all of these six months. Audrick is in his senior year looking forward to going to law school. He has scholarships from all the sports he's played in. Baseball, basketball, and cross-country to name a few. How he's never sore is something I will never understand.

"He's okay, not the best of course, but he's finally coming out of his room. Only for dinner really. He refuses to see Dr. Amia Loughty. Amia talked to Paxton. He took it very well. Audrick is okay as well. He's probably going to get another scholarship, honestly how he can play that many sports are baffling." Ellison explained.

"Oh, how is Cecil By the way?" Ellison asked.

Cecil is my younger brother. He's already in the 8th grade, but he's taller than me. He has dark brown hair like me, but he has hazel eyes instead of brown like me. Cecil has freckles that dust his high cheekbones that I will always envy. We're both Cuban, our mother is at least, our father, well, no one knows really.