Shae

Chapter 1

Upon seeing Beau, I hurriedly clicked off the television and ran out to meet my older cousin. I raced down the ornate walkway leading to my house and engulfed her in an enthusiastic embrace. Her luggage dropped out of her arms, and she gave a small surprised yelp. She was quite a bit shorter than me, so my chin rested easily atop her head. My long auburn hair mingled with her light, creamy brown locks, cascading onto her shoulders. When I stepped away, she was still brushing my hair off of her shoulders and rubbing the top of her head.

"Shae, your chin seems to get bonier every time I see you."

"Oh, thanks, I guess that pencil sharpener I run it through every morning is working, then." I winked at her, then bounced back into the house, leaving her to collect her scattered luggage.

When she came into the entry hall, I was further down, at the kitchen bar, diving into the big chocolate cake my mom had intended for Beau's arrival. Technically, I had saved it until Beau had arrived, but I still knew what would happen when Mom came downstairs to the rubble of a cake.

Sure enough, when Mom came trotting down the stairs, her mouth dropped open in obvious disgust, but she predictably shook it off and gracefully wrapped her graceful arms around Beau. Gracefully. That was my mother, grace. If you looked up grace in the dictionary, I'd bet fifteen bucks there'd be a picture of her. Fifteen bucks is the most I'm willing to give to anyone, because if anyone takes me up on the offer, I'd actually be pretty surprised if there were a picture of my mom next to grace.. I often wondered as a smaller child why her parents had named her Suzanne of all things, and not Grace, which made far more sense. Her entire countenance wreaked of perfection, the strong, overwhelming smell that reminds a person of rotting fairies and pixie dust.

I rolled my eyes and leapt off of my perch, grabbing another fistfull of cake like a two year old. I thudded up the marble steps to my room, just to spite my mom, because she knew I was normally very quiet when I climbed the stairs. She had no idea, however, that I only did so because I liked feeling like a ninja.

Beau came into my room about five minutes later, tossing her stuff onto the carpet, and tiptoeing around the mess that was my floor. I used my floor as a closet, mostly, but it served as my bookshelf, art table, trash can, and occasionally my bed when I was mad at everything. My cousin flopped down on the sickeningly decorative couch against my far wall. She watched me fumble around in the one spot in my room I actually kept organized, my personal pantry. I turned around, tossing her a fruit snack packet, and she tore into it eagerly.

"So what's changed? You still into that boy you hang out with all the time?"

"Ew, Beau! I was never into Toad!" Toad's real name was Todd, but when I met him, he had been covered in splatters of mud that I had personally thought had looked like warts. His brothers had picked on their youngest sibling a lot those four years ago. Toad had also been wiping mud off his tongue at the time, so when I had finished laughing and asked his name, he sounded like he'd said "toad." That's what I called him, and he was cool about it, so it stuck. Even his brothers had jumped at the opportunity to call their youngest brother after a grotesque amphibian.

Beau laughed at me and chucked her fruit snack wrapper on my floor. I turned to look out my window and, ironically, Toad was walking down my sidewalk. I threw the window open and shouted, "Yo, Toad! Get your butt up here!" He grinned and sprinted up to my big, decorative front door. I heard it slam shut as he invited himself in. A few moments later, he walked into my multipurpose room carrying a fistful of chocolate cake. I chuckled at our likeness while he said hi to Beau. She had only met him a few times, but they had become pretty good friends anyway.