Where to Next

Chapter 2

The next morning Samantha and I were sitting in the kitchen eating some cereal. It was so quiet that you could hear the sound of us chewing. It sounded like a bunch of rabbits eating carrots. Crunch, crunch, crunch was all you could hear. I reached for my orange juice and looked over at Sammie. I was puzzled why mom hadn't gotten up to make us breakfast. I asked her if she had seen mom this morning as I gulped down a large swig of juice. She looked at me and shrugged her shoulders. Apparently, she hadn't seen mom at all this morning either. ̈That's weird, I thought to myself as I wonder where she could be? It isn't like her to not be up making her coffee. It's actually become a morning ritual. Ever since dad left every morning she goes into the kitchen usually wearing one of dad's old t-shirts he left behind. Her long black locks are always messy now and she usually has some old black eyeliner on from the night before. Oh and lets not forget the crazy rock music she always has on while she is dancing around and making her coffee. She always say, ̈two scoops of sugar and lots of creamer is the only way to drink coffee ̈. One time she had asked me to make it for her so I agreed. I didn't know, but I had forgotten to add enough creamer so she got angry! She began yelling and then she actually threw it at me! It splashed all over my clothes and face. I could feel the heat from the coffee. It stung everywhere it touched. One thing I knew for sure was to never make that mistake again!

Just as we began to finish up Samantha asked me if I wanted to head outside? I told her we needed to clean up first. She pushed herself away from the table as she headed over to the sink. The dishes clunked against the sides. I told her, ¨you wash and I'll dry ̈. Samantha hated doing the dishes, but she knew the faster we did it the quicker we could leave. After cleaning up we went into our rooms to change out of our pjs. I helped her get her hair into a braid like the one mom usually does for us. She was lucky. Her hair was dark like mom's and she had dark eyes like dad. Her skin was so brown! Samantha never had to worry about getting a sunburn like I do. She is just the perfect mixture of both of them. I envied her because I always wanted to look like my mom.

As we started to head out, I shouted to Samantha to wait for me while I let mom know we were leaving. I ran down the hallway to get to her room. It was the last door to the left. I knocked, but she didn't answer so I twisted the knob to let myself in.

¨̈Who's that ?¨ I was kind of scared by the voice. It was one I never heard before. Just then a man picked his head up off mom's satin pillows and glared at me.

̈Oh that's just my nosy little bitch daughter!¨ she snapped.

I quickly tried to get the words out before she would start yelling. ̈Mom, I just wanted to let you know we are going to go outside and we will be back later. ̈ I said nervously. I looked around her room trying not to make eye contact. I didn't know if she was mad and I didn't know who that strange man was. As I looked around, I noticed the dresser was littered with empty beer bottles. There was also some kind of white powder that was smeared on her handheld mirror.

̈ ̈Well, go on, whatcha waiting for? ̈ she snarled.

I turned around and headed out the door. Boy was I happy to be out of there. Samantha and I were happy to just get away and go hang with April and the guys. When we got to the swimming hole everyone was still on their floats in the water.

̈ ̈Great ̈ I said to Samantha. Looks like we will be stuck here for awhile. She didn't mind it though.

̈ ̈Jade lets go skip rocks on the other side! ̈ she said excitedly.

̈Ok, lets go. ̈ I replied.

We parked our bikes then started looking for rocks. We found a few big beautiful ones. I tried to find the flatter rocks because I could make them go further. The first one I skipped went so far.