Junior "Eh"

Chapter 1

Your life motto is: Life's a bitch and then you die.

Really? I couldn't stop the snort that came from my mouth as I read the result of the stupid online quiz. I knew all about life being a bitch, but I hadn't let it stop me. If anything, I lived my life under the saying "every cloud has a silver lining." And I had lots of clouds.

When I was six and my older brother ten, our mother walked out on us. I didn't remember any fighting between her and my dad. In fact, I thought and that we were a happy family. I was my mommy's little princess and daddy's little girl. But on that day, I gave up on being a princess and became daddy's little girl full time.

We had a wonderful relationship—just the three of us. My brother and father were my knights in shining armor. We went everywhere and did everything together. And since my brother loved to play hockey—he was good at it—I spent a lot of time in arenas next to my dad. Hockey became our bonding time. It was the one time where I had him all to myself.

My father worked hard with long hours. And when he worked, my brother and I were left together. He was my protector and best friend. I would sit for hours logging all his timings, his repetitions, his stats, anything he needed me to while he trained off-ice. All because I loved him with every fibre of my small body.

The closeness between my father, brother, and me was the silver lining from the cloud of my mother leaving.

At age ten, my father bundled us up into the car and we headed off for a summer vacation. The first we'd taken since my mother walked away. After hours in the car, we stopped in front of a vaguely familiar house. "Where are we?"

My father turned off the engine before turning to face me. "We're at your Aunt Susan's house. She's your mother's sister."

I felt a small stirring at the back of my mind. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it until Aunt Susan stepped out her front door onto the porch. With a squeal, I jumped from the car.

She stepped off the porch and wrapped her arms around me. "My dear, Kayla. Boy, have you ever grown." I snuggled in, breathing the scent of baking and earth that I remembered fondly.

My father stayed for a week. But he let my brother and me stay for the summer. I missed him dearly, but I loved spending the time with Aunt Susan. My brother loved it there as well, but I think it had more to do with my Aunt Susan's neighbors, the Scotts. They had three boys and all of them were heavily involved with hockey. When they went off to various hockey camps, they took my brother with them, leaving me all alone.

Aunt Susan and Mrs. Scott became my silver linings. For the first time since my mother left, I spent time around other females. Between them, they kept me busy learning how to garden and cook among other girly type activities. It was different from spending time in hockey arenas with nothing but males, and I enjoyed it. But I would have been lying if I said I didn't miss hockey.

I didn't know what happened that summer—Aunt Susan maintained she only offered to be a female resource for me as I prepared to enter womanhood—but dad changed. He still spent time with me at the arena and we never missed a single hockey game or practice my brother participated in, but he also spent one or two evenings a week away from the house.

That Christmas Eve, after I changed in my PJs and climbed onto his lap for our traditional Christmas Eve story, my father informed us that a woman would be spending Christmas Day with us. He wanted us to be on our best behavior. My brother's face frowned, but I readily agreed. The fact my daddy wanted to ensure the unnamed woman without a family could celebrate a family Christmas made me love him even more. No one was more compassionate and loving than him.