Caught in Between

-1-

-Junior Year of High School-

It had been a week since the Korren brothers came to my school. They were literally the talk of the entire town, and everywhere I went, everyone spoke of the Korren brothers. In school, all the girls would drool over them and the boys who were once on the top, became submissive towards the Korren brothers. Frankly, they annoyed me to no end. Yes, they were extremely hot. Yes, they were smart. Yes, they were super good at sports. I still couldn't bring myself to like them, and even my friend Zach agreed with me, he didn't like them one bit.

It was winter now, the end of December, a few days before New Year's and it was already snowing outside. Debby, my best friend, arrived at my house for us to attend a festival my town holds every year. This winter festival is attended by all the citizens in my town, and everyone has a chance to compete in dozens of contests. Debby and I go because the lake gets frozen solid at this time and we loved to ice skate together. Also, we liked checking this guy out named Josh.

Josh was three years older than us, but he was super cute. He was the son of a popular restaurant owner here in town, and Josh made the best hot chocolate for the festival that no one could ever top. It was very apparent that Debby had a crush on him, and when she came to my house looking dressed up with makeup on and everything, I knew that today was the day she was actually going to do something about it.

We were in my living room waiting for my mother to finish getting ready to take us. I pulled Debby to the couch to sit down next to me. "Are you going to make a move on Josh?" I asked her in a hushed voice, and her cheeks turns red as she grabbed a strand of her straightened vibrant red hair, and focused her attention on the ends of her hair.

Before Debby could answer, my mother called out to us as she descended the stairs. "You girls ready?" She was finishing wrapping a scarf around her neck and then grabbed her keys from one of the hooks on the wall next to the front door. I also noticed my mother was well put together today, because normally she only did basic and light makeup, but today it was a bit more noticeable with bright red lipstick on her lips topped off with a shiny gloss. Now, I suddenly felt bland between my mother and Debby, since I hadn't bothered to put any makeup on and I threw my hair up in a bun.

"Yeah, we're ready," I answered my mother as Debby and I clasped our hands together as we headed toward the front door. We grabbed our ice skates that we had left by the door and we exited the house with my mother right behind us.

This would be the third year of going to the festival without my father. I missed him so much, and there wasn't a day that would go by where I didn't think of him. I especially thought of him a lot more when the festival came around. He loved going, and he would always take me ice skating, and every year we would always participate in the snowman building contest. The first year after his death, I almost didn't go to the festival, but I dragged myself there and I sat by the solid lake as I watched all the other little girls laugh and skate with their fathers. Now, it was a bit easier going to the festival without hurting too badly, and this was the first time after his death that my mother decided to come to the festival.

It was a surprise at first, because my mother almost couldn't function as a human being when my father died. The roles were reversed between my mother and I, because often times, it was I who would be the one taking care of her. When she didn't want to go to work, I would yell and scream at her, and drag her out of her bed so that way she could go make money to pay the bills we were slowly falling behind on. And she almost lost her job. Finally, after a year of his death, she began to put behind her grieving and start focusing on other things. It was like one day to the next. She went from behind a breathing zombie to a busy, full-of-life mother.