Hearts Afar

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On Christmas morning, I woke up early. Mom, the girls and I made a few of the side dishes for dinner yesterday but there were still a lot of things that needed to be done. I let mom and the girls sleep in a little and started on breakfast. Every year for Christmas, we would make stuffed French toast, scrambled eggs and bacon. It was a family favorite so it became our little yearly tradition.

I was taking the last of the French toast off of the griddle when mom walked in. She kissed my cheek, wished me a Merry Christmas and started the coffee. She also decided that fresh orange juice would go perfect with breakfast so after getting the coffee going, she went to work on the oranges. Just as we were getting finished, the girls walked into the kitchen. Mom and I sat the food on the table and we all dug into it.

As we sat around the table and ate, Cassie started talking about how some Greg boy in her class finally asked her out to the Snowball Dance. I was happy for one sister because this was her first boyfriend but I was concerned for my other sister because the more her twin talked about it, the more Lacey looked sad and disappointed. When everyone was finished, Cassie volunteered to help mom with the cleanup and I asked Lacey to come into the living room with me. I wanted to found out why she looked so sullen as Cass talked about Greg.

    “What’s going on with you, Lace?” I asked.

    “It’s just now that Cassie has a date to the dance, it seems like she has just completely forgotten about me.”

    “It doesn’t seem like that. It still looks like you two are as close as you’ve ever been,” I commented.

    “Sure it does, at dance practice and here with mom around but when we’re walking from class to class, it’s like I’m all of a sudden Cassie’s shadow. The other day when you had to leave during lunch, I was sitting there, eating my lunch and Cassie put a couple of dollars in front of me and told me to go get her something to drink. Didn’t bother to ask, just waved the bills under my nose and said, ‘Get me a Mountain Dew’ and expected me to do it. I grabbed my lunch, stood up and walked away, listening to them laugh at me.”

    “I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it, Lacey.”

    “Claire, I heard her over everyone,” she said and that’s when the tears started falling. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer, letting her silently cry. When she was finished, she pulled away and wiped her eyes.

    “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you start hanging around my friends when we go back. Give Cassie a little bit of her own medicine. My friends are seniors and we’re sort of popular and if those little freshmen see you hanging out with us, maybe they’ll start treating you as your own person.”

    “No they won’t. They’ll probably just say I was desperate for attention so I started clinging to my older sister.”

    “Let them talk, you worry about you. And don’t worry about a date to the dance, we’ll find you one,” I smiled at her.

    “Thanks Claire. You’re a pretty good big sister.”

    “Well, you’re a pretty great little sister. Now, let’s get ready for some presents,” I said just before mom and Cassie walked into the living room.

Mom started handing out presents first and I figured that these would be our sweaters. Our parents always got us some of the prettiest sweaters and they weren’t tacky at all. When the girls and I ripped into the paper and the box, Cassie and Lacey pulled theirs out first while mom snapped away with the camera. Cassie’s sweater was a royal blue that glittered. Mine and Lacey’s were the same exact but Lacey’s was purple and mine was a gold color. Mom looked at me and said that it would go good with my skin tone and in all honesty, it would.