Pinky Promise

SEVEN

ANA

It turned out that the girl standing in front next to our math teacher was named Veronica. She was 18 years old and moved from Miami to New York in the summer.
Just like everyone else, she was wearing the uniform of our school. However, she had her white shirt buttoned up to the top and was wearing a tie. That probably made her the only one who did it. She had omitted the knee-high stockings, which were actually meant to go with the skirt, and replaced them with black, sheer pantyhose. Based on the description, one might think that she looked too prudish, but on her, the buttoned-up shirt together with the tie looked casual and anything but too strict. With Docs and her open waves, she completed the look. Additionally, her face and also her name seemed incredibly familiar to me, but I still couldn't quite place her. I just would not remember how I knew her.
"Miss Trafimova, you are welcome to take a seat behind Miss Shepherd," said Mr. T, and pointed at me. She nodded and crossed the rows of tables with a modest smile on her lips.
"Hey, I'm Veronica," she quietly introduced herself after she sat down behind me.
"I'm Ana. This is Claire," she smiled at Veronica, but Claire's smile reminded me of the way she had smiled at me before. Forced and put on. You'd think she might have seen some kind of competition in Veronica, which I could understand somewhere, after all, you couldn't deny that Veronica was beautiful, but on the other hand, I couldn't understand why Claire immediately felt threatened. "And this is my twin brother, Nate." He nodded calmly and smiled a wry grin. She responded with a friendly smile.
"What's Miami like?" Nate asked her.
"Definitely warmer," she replied and drew a laugh from all of us.
"What brought you to New York?" came from Claire.
"My boyfriend mainly works in New York."
"You moved here with your boyfriend?"
"What about your parents?"
"My father stayed in Miami." She didn't tell us what happened to her mother and we had enough decency not to ask about it, after all, it was none of our business.
"Must be cool living without parents!"
"It has its pros and cons," Veronica replied to Claire's claim. "But yeah, overall it's pretty cool."

In the afternoon after school, a great meal awaited us, cooked by our mother. Steak, mashed potatoes, fried vegetables, salad, and for dessert a cherry pie.
"Wow!", it came from Nate.
"Is there a special occasion?"
We sat down and looked at our mother, she just smiled and shook her head.
"It was my first day off in a while and I missed cooking."
Luke had been standing in the kitchen the last few weeks cooking for us because Mom was constantly in the hospital without a day off; there was a staff shortage and she, as deputy chief surgeon, had to take on more shifts because of it. She loved and lived her job, but still working for weeks on end was bad for her.
"How was the first day at school," she asked us after we all started eating.
"The teachers are definitely very happy to have me back," Nate said and laughed.
"I'm in charge of the student newspaper committee now," I told them.
"Really? That's great!" exclaimed our mother.
"You didn't tell me that."
"Yes, Alec Smith graduated last year and today we voted in the committee and it was me."
"That's really great, honey!"
"When does the season start", I didn't like it when the attention was on me for so long, so I tried to focus the conversation on Nate.
"In two weeks," he scratched his chin and sat back. "I've already spoken to Coach."
"Will you be able to join the team right away? Or do you have to audition again?"
Mom got up and reached for our plates. She put the plates first in the sink and then in the dishwasher.
"Do you need help?"
"No, no. Keep sitting"
"I can of course rejoin the team, but unfortunately I won't be captain again immediately, but I will definitely take back my title."

Mom knew what it was like to be a single parent. She herself had raised us completely alone for the first 2 years of our lives; occasionally she had received help from her then neighbor, an old widowed senior citizen. When Mom worked at night or had to study for her medical exams, she looked after us. Unfortunately, she passed away two years ago, but until her death, Mom had visited her regularly and at Christmas, she had always sent us presents.
Since she had such a good relationship with her neighbor, Mom made it a priority to maintain the relationship with our current neighbors. She was especially fond of Jess. When she didn't have time herself, she made us bring Jess food that she had cooked because she doesn't have time to cook with a baby. From time to time she also took care of the little one, because Jess needs a few minutes for herself sometimes.
Maybe it was because Mom was young and a single parent or because a neighbor had helped her trying to help her, maybe it was a mixture of both.
Once again today she asked me to bring her food since Mom had cooked for three soccer teams as usual. It was late afternoon when I went downstairs and stopped in front of Jess's apartment. I put the container I was holding in my right hand on top of the other two boxes in my left hand so I could knock on the door.
"Can someone open the door?" Jess shouted.
"I'm in the bathroom!", that was George.
"I'm sleeping!", it came from Shawn.
"I'm with Rayne!" I've known Jess for a while, the same as the boys. And every time, the exact same thing happened. It took a while for one of them to finally open the door. One more time I knocked on the door, balancing the three boxes in my hand to avoid a disaster.
"Can I help you?" it came from an Australian voice on my right. The sudden appearance of Johnny made me flinch. Hesitantly, I turned to the side and looked into his smirking face.
"I'm bringing food over." Barely had I uttered the words, I could see the scene from Dirty Dancing before my eyes. I was wearing a watermelon. Apparently, I couldn't have thought of anything better. So that he could unlock the door, I stepped aside.
"Did you cook?" he asked and held the door open for me. "Ladies first."
"Thank you", I could feel the heat rising up my face. "My mom was cooking."
"Ana!" Jess came out of her bedroom with Rayne on her arm. The little one wasn't sleeping, she was wide awake watching everyone with her huge beady eyes.
"Hi", I was about to ask how the little one was when Johnny interrupted me with "Ana's mom cooked". It was kind of weird that he was the one who said that. He made it seem like he had known my mom and me forever.
"Really? I was about to cook!" Jess said.
"Yeah. Today was her first day off in a long time, so she cooked," I said, "she insisted that I bring something over."
"There's food?", Shawn came out of his room and rubbed his stomach.
"Ana's mom cooked?", George had finally left the bathroom, too.
"You're too lazy to open the door, but as soon as there's food you come running," Jess scolded the boys like a mother scolds her sons.
"She made it in somehow, didn't she?"
"Yes, because Johnny just happened to come home."
Amused, I watched the scenario and walked up to Jess to take Rayne off her hands.
"Hello, my angel!", I greeted her and was able to elicit a small smile from her.
"Thanks", Jess said to me and continued to scold them, only she was unloading the food from the boxes. With Rayne in my arms, I sat down on the couch and tried to grab the stuffed whale that was lying on the coffee table. But since my arm was too short and the stuffed animal was too far away, I couldn't reach it.
"Here", he held the whale out to me and sat down next to me on the couch.
I couldn't figure out how Johnny had reappeared so suddenly, or maybe I had just been distracted.
"Thanks," I replied.
As I tried to entertain Rayne with the whale, I could feel Johnny's gaze lying on me. As best I could, I tried not to let it show, but then a metallic taste spread in my mouth that put me off my game plan.
"Could you maybe take her? I really have to go." Confused, Johnny looked at me, but he still took Rayne from me.
"Are you okay?" he asked, almost sounding worried.
"Yes, I'm fine," I assured him and got up in a hurry.
"Ana," I heard Jess's voice say. Quickly I turned to her and saw her look at me with concern and grab her nose. I reflexively did the same thing, because I realized that it was a hint to me.
"I have to go," I said, trying to sound as calm as possible. My hand, which I held in front of my nose, slowly got wet. Without turning around again, I left the apartment, got into the elevator, and went up to our floor. With one hand, I took the key out of my pocket, put it in the lock, and pushed the door open with my foot. Before I even entered our apartment, I saw Nate coming out of his room. His facial expression was worried and somehow calmed down, as if he had known that I was coming.
"Oh, shit", he broke the silence and I dropped the door in the lock.

A new chapter for the first time in a long while. Hope you like it x