The Secret Life of Zoë Colt

Chapter 1: Reunited

The first thing I thought when I woke up this morning was: Do I smell bacon? We never have bacon. Then the second thing I thought was: Special occasion? Right. Sigh. The first day of school. I got out of bed and got dressed in jeans, my red tank top, my short-sleeved leather jacket with the zipper pockets, and high boots with a silver buckle and zipper instead of my high boots with laces. I added my silver bracelet with the "Z" charm that Josh had given me. Why do I have to give you a play-by-play description of my outfit? So you get that I'm sort of a bad ass. Now don't get me wrong, I'm good in school, but I am a rule breaker. I also have a red extension in my long dirty blond hair. Today I put my hair in a side braid. Always to the left. Never to the right. I walk out of my bedroom into the living room. Josh is already helping himself to bacon. "Hey! Save some for me!" I drop into the chair beside him. "Wow, Zo. You really dressed up for the first day of school," he said in a sarcastic tone. I rolled my eyes. I wear this just about everyday. I dug into the bacon. After I was finished, I got up and went to brush my teeth. "Hey sis!" I here Josh call from the kitchen. "Where's my phone?" I finish brushing my teeth and take his phone out of my pocket to check the time. 7:45. Nope. Not giving it to him yet. He stole my phone for 24 hours, I steal his. "I don't know!" I called back. "Have fun looking for it! I'm going to school! Bye bro!"
"Bye sis!"
My brother and I have an easy relationship. It's been just me and him for as long as I can remember. We have a small apartment. Nothing is private. No secrets. We both have jobs, even though I'm only thirteen. I babysit A LOT. I have a job every afternoon that pays $40. On weekends, I usually earn about $150 total. Josh is 20, and he works two jobs. He works at target and Starbucks. He is an amazing person. He started taking care of me when our parents left. He was eight and I was about 9 months. We had some money from our parents, and Josh was smart enough to only use it for stuff we needed. He moved us into this apartment when he was nine, and the people who sold it to us thought he was 21 from the way he sounded on the phone. He used the money from our parents until it ran out, and that was when he was 11 and I was 2 and a half. We survived on almost nothing for a really long time, and Josh took me everywhere he went. He didn't really have a choice. He went to the public school that didn't cost anything, and later that year he started tutoring and babysitting kids for cash. Somehow, we got by. When I was about 6 Josh bought me a Christmas presents of nail polish. I taught myself how to do nails. I got pretty good, so I sat out front of our school and charged $5 to paint nails. I only had red, black and blue, so we spent a little more money buying orange, yellow, green, and purple. We earned enough to get buy. I don't know when we started saving up, but now we have a savings account with a ton of money in it. We take from it sometimes, but hardly ever. I only remember two times. One to buy Josh a car, and one to buy me a bike.

I remember those early years as I walk. I wonder what my friends suspect happened in my past. I laugh out loud. I make a mental note to ask them sometime. As I arrive at school, I see a group of kids around the bike rack. "Reunited" is the first word I think of as I look around. Reunited.