Baseball Jerseys

Deanna

Deanna

At 7:30 pm, Julia drops me off at Ava's house for a sleepover.

"Hi Ava," I squeal as soon as the door opens. "Excited for the sleepover?"
"Yes!" Ava says excitedly. She jumped and twirled around happily, making her blond pigtails bounce up and down. "We can do each other's hair, and make ice cream sundaes, and eat popcorn..."
We both squealed and bounced around with pure excitement.

"Want to watch the new Party Aliens movie?" Ava asks. "We got it on tape!"
"Yessss," I say with a huge grin. "I've been dying to watch that movie!"

We watched the movie and did each other's hair, then it was time to make ice cream sundaes.

In the middle of making ice cream sundaes at around one in the morning, the doorbell rang.

I was surprised that I was being picked up so early, but realized something was wrong when I saw dad's tear-stained cheeks.

So without complaining, I gathered up my stuff and headed outside to meet dad.

"So your older sisters Meg and Mel were just in a horrible car accident," he whispered sadly. "And Mel died. I'm so sorry, Dee."

I stopped walking and started sobbing. Mel died? That was...terrible. I wrapped my arms around dad, and we stood there crying.

Then I remembered how much Julia loved Mel, and asked dad if I could see how she was doing.

We walked into the house, and I noticed Meghan on the sofa, staring up at the roof.

I ran over to her and gave her a big hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay," I say as I cry into the ripped and bloody sleeve of the green long-sleeve shirt underneath one of T.J's old baseball jerseys. "I don't know what I would have done if...if YOU died TOO!"

"Yeah..." she says, her lip quivering. "But it was MY fault Mel died."

"It was nobody's fault," Mom protested "It was an accident."

"But Mel and I were in a super big argument in the car," Meg cried. "And I whacked the stupid gearshift with my stupid fist! All because I got mad! And now my sister is dead because of it!"

I realized I hadn't seen how Julia was reacting to Mel's death.

"Julia?" I ask, knocking at Julia's bedroom door. "It's Dee. How are you doing?"

No response.

"Julia," I ask again. "Are you feeling alright? We're going to plan Mel's funeral."

Still no response.

"Hey dad," I call from outside Julia's door. "When did Julia return home?
"I...she never told me," he says, confused. "I haven't actually seen her since we left for our trip."

"That's odd," mom says.

"Here, I'll call the neighbours to ask if they saw her," suggests Chloe.

I sat next to Meghan on the couch while Chloe made some phone calls. After one of them, she hung up and turned to face the rest of our family.

"Mrs. Abrosiki said she recently heard her screaming, and when she looked out the window just now, she saw Julia's body on the sidewalk," Chloe shrieked. "She said Julia was murdered, but she called the police!"

About a half hour later, our entire family, Mrs. Abrosiki, Jonas Wills, and Jonas' mother were all sitting in the police investigation room.
"Let's start with you," Detective Clarkson said, pointing to Mrs. Wills. "You said that Julia was your son's girlfriend, and she came over for supper?"
"That's correct," Mrs. Wills said. "But she had to leave early because of a family emergency."
"And that emergency was the car accident involving Meghan and Melissa?"

"I believe so," Jonas confirms.

"And what did you see?" Detective Clasrkson asks Mrs. Abrosiki.

"Well, I heard a loud scream. It was definitely Julia's scream. It was coming from outside," she starts. "I was in the middle of doing my taxes, so I checked outside a few minutes later."

"Yes," The detective says, scribbling in his notepad. "Yes, continue."
"I looked out my window, down at the sidewalk," Mrs. Abrosiki tells everyone. "And saw Julia's lifeless body laying on the ground, torn apart, blood everywhere, a knife through her chest."

He asks our family some questions about who she didn't get along with, and then asks Chloe about when Julia left the house.

"Okay," the detective says. "That's all we need. Thanks for coming."
Our family spilled into the minivan and fastened our seatbelts.

"Well," dad says. "This has been one horror week for us, huh?"

"Yeah, I snort. "Things have really changed for the McArty family."