ASTRID

Chapter 1 Aunt Astrid

"Mom! She is getting on my nerves again!"

"Be kind to your sister, Billy! Just this once, can't we spend a nice family trip in a pleasant atmosphere?"

"A family trip? Are you joking, Mom? Where did you find a nice "family trip"? You and Dad want to get rid of us during this summer! Why can't I stay at home with Dad, and you send Sarah into the wilderness without me. She is fond of this village simplicity. What if they have no Wi-Fi. We have been planning a bunch of good stuff with Alyssa, and Mike wanted..."

"You are not going to be in the company of this young man! Just fancy, Andrew, the boy is almost two years her senior!" my Mom is turning her face to Dad. He is frowning in solidarity with her, but did not replying at the moment, for we are already in the countryside, and the winding road is not the most perfect.

My elder sister is pouting her lower lip and putting on her huge leather headphones my Dad bought her as a birthday present. She is demonstratively lulling in the car seat as if she's cool and comfortable. I can hear the beat of her favorite music band: that means she's not going to talk to anyone in the nearest future or, probably, never.

We used to be best friends: Billy and me, me and Billy. We were playing pretending to be fairies, imagining majestic names for our fairyselves. Billy was Boudicca (she's so fond of history and rad queens), and I was Fay. Billy said it was too simple for a fairy name, but I liked that one and didn't want anything else. Frankly speaking, I could not memorize all long and sophisticated words she tried to give me as a variant. Just Fay. Fairy Fay. Now I understand how stupid it sounds. Almost like buttery butter...

We were fond of walking together and could find a perfect place to play almost everywhere: under Mom's office desk was a dangerous cave of solitude; the backyard of our house was a mysterious moorland where evil garden gnomes were ruthless warriors. But Billy would bring Dad's old dustcoat, telling me it was an invisiblity cloak which could help us to pass the sneaky soldier-gnomes. I remember how scared I was going along the tiniest backyard between flowerbeds and pots next to the red capped creatures with smiling faces. But Billy was holding my hand tight and never let it go.

But now she doesn't want to hold it. She doesn't even want to talk to me more than a minute during late dinner time. If she had a chance, she would go upstairs and talk to her silly friends nonstop or share some pictures of celebrities. Even now all her attention is focused on her glowing smartphone where a weird looking girl is singing in a comb as if it is a real microphone. How can she get the grip of anything doing all sorts of things at the same time? Her band is singing even louder.

All my life turned when several months ago she turned thirteen and imagined herself to be a real adult. She thinks I'm too young to understand her problems, and she doesn't even want me to stay in a company of her friends. The day before yesterday she was having a little "farewell my life is over because I am going to aunt for summer" party with her upgraded girl squad. Guess what? I was not even invited to her room!

I came to her room with a sign "You shall not pass" on the door, and opened it, but she was so furious and shouted at me, while her friends were giggling.

"Baby Free Territory," somebody said, and the whole company of mean girls started laughing as if it was the funniest joke in the whole world!

That's so unfair! "We are best friends forever!" she would say it. We were best friends forever. Now her bestie is Alyssa: a sassy girl with sleek hair and a nose piercing. Her mom is a tattoo artist, and she let her daughter do almost everything! Billy is worshiping them both.

I'm almost eleven and look quite old for my age. We even have the same height with Billy, and she could have said to her friends that I'm twelve! She never did it... I was so mad she didn't let me in her room. Everything was so great there: they decorated it with rainbow lanterns and funny mottoes. Girls were wearing beautiful pajamas and eating tons of sweets, sandwiches, and pizza. I heard them talking about boys and the sound of cameras indicated the number of selfies they made during the sleepover.