Lighting a Match in the Rain

Chapter Two

"Ella, sweetie! Oh, look at you!" Mrs. Lane moved to pinch my cheeks before stopping herself, probably remembering how much I dislike it. "You look so much older."

"You just saw me two months ago," I reminded her, swinging my backpack onto my shoulder, and giving her a smile.

"Then it apparently only takes two months for you to come back looking like a grown woman." I just chuckled, not being able to see the changes that she was seeing. But I guess it is hard to see yourself growing up when you look at yourself in a mirror every single day. Changes are so subtle in that small timeframe that you don't truly catch onto them happening. "Do you have time to sit down and chat?" she asked, sounding hopeful. "Like old times?"

Thinning my lips and shaking my head, I told her no. "I'm sure Macey is already waiting for me...But we can have lunch tomorrow?"

My response made her give me a very tight hug for such a frail woman. "Of course. I'll see you then." Before I walked out the door, she called out again. "I can already tell Macey isn't going to be as easy-going as you are!" I just laughed at her words before disappearing into the shadows of students. I could only imagine all the trouble Macey would cause compared to me in class. I was a pretty quiet student, whereas I knew Macey liked to speak her mind on everything she overheard being discussed.

Making my way back around to a specific hallway, I wrote my name down on the top of the poster for student council signups. Take that, Brewer, I still signed up. Celebrating this small victory, I left to find my sister.

I found Macey waiting on the hood of my SUV, which I, of course, yelled at her for. There was no way she was risking scratching the paint with her gemmed backpack and cat-like fingernails. "You're late," she told me, jumping off the hood and pulling on the passenger door as soon as I unlocked the car. "You'd think going to the same school would mean you'd take me home on time."

I rolled my eyes. Teenagers. So freaking dramatic. Though I technically still was one...I definitely wasn't nearly as bad as her though. "Just get in."

Her voice didn't stop nagging as I turned on the car, turned up some music, and sped out of the parking lot. "I can't wait for the day that I have my own car," she told me, turning down the music I had blasted. "Then I'll be the one making you wait."

"One: by the time you get your own car, I'll likely be in college," I informed her, keeping my eyes on the road. "Two: even if you do get a car by then, which is very unlikely considering you can hardly drive, I wouldn't rely on you for rides because I, as a licensed driver, have my own car."

An annoyed grown escaped her lips and for a solid ten seconds, she was actually quiet. Then she screeched like a crazed animal. I guess she would fit in school well. "Oh my gosh, El, guess what?"

"Um, you tripped in the lunchroom in front of everyone?" I guessed.

She deadpanned. "No."

"Your best friend's boyfriend finally dumped her?"

Macey rolled her eyes. "I wish."

"Then what?"

A squeal escaped her lips so loud that I almost jerked the steering wheel. "TJ asked me for a pencil today!"

Wincing at my almost torn eardrum, I just glanced at her quickly, convinced she was secretly adopted because it was impossible we were blood-related. "I thought he had already given you his number? Why is asking you for a pencil significant compared to that?"