Define Normal

Chapter Two

This one is dedicated to all the tall girls out there! I was going to make Jade shorter but then I decided not to. So far, all of my leading ladies have been tall and that's not going to stop any time soon :P

Enjoy!

Chapter Two

I sat stiffly in my chair pushing my green peas around my plate and eyeing my cauliflower dubiously. Would it be rude if I didn’t eat it? I wondered as I darted a quick glance at Holly who was smiling at me. She nodded her head, glancing down at my plate.

I gave her what I hoped was a smile as I scooped up the last of my green peas, leaving the cauliflower for last.

“So Jade, where are you from?” Holly asked, still smiling.

I cleared my throat and put down my fork. If she would just glance a little bit to the left, I could drop my cauliflower onto my napkin….

“My mother and I traveled around a lot so I’m kind of from all over,” I said vaguely.

Holly nodded. “You must have transferred schools often.”

“I was homeschooled,” I replied, watching her eyes. When she blinked, I moved quickly and before she had a chance to notice, the cauliflower was sitting on the napkin in my lap.

“Really?” Her forehead wrinkled a bit but she was still smiling. “It will be a big adjustment for you here, then.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling a sense of dread.

“You’ll have to go to regular high school here, Jade,” Richard said making my gaze swing over to him. He was staring down at the three pieces of cauliflower still on his plate, a look of disgust on his face. I wanted to smile when I realized that we had something other than our eyes in common but I kept my face impassive.

“I could just get my GED. I’m sure I would pass,” I said, hoping to avoid being thrust into a strange environment that I had no experience with.

“Nonsense,” Holly said, waving her fork dismissively. “You’ll be a senior and I’m sure you’ll make tons of friends. Actually, the timing is perfect, school just started last week so you won’t have missed much.”

I swallowed my argument and just nodded. My mother wanted me to be normal right? Well, high school was normal. Besides, what else was I going to do? I wasn’t going on any missions any time soon and there were only so many magazines to be organized in this house. Already I was going a little stir crazy and I’d only been there for about an hour.

“You’ll get eaten alive,” a voice muttered from beside me. I turned my head to glance at the speaker.

“Shaun!” Holly said, her voice disapproving. “Don’t try to scare you r sister.”

“She’s not my sister,” he mumbled before turning to me with a big grin on his face. “Don’t expect me to take you under my wing or anything like that, okay? I’m a senior too and I have a reputation to uphold. Don’t think you can get in with my crowd just because we’re kind of related.”

I shrugged, eyeing the sensitive tendon on his neck that was bulging nicely because of the way his head was turned. One swift hit to that tendon and he would be snoring. Then I wouldn’t have to listen to his condescending voice anymore.

I sighed inwardly, knowing that knocking Holly’s son out with one quick movement was probably not the way to keep a low profile and act normal. I turned back to Holly and saw her sending him a disapproving look. I once again noted the similarities in their features and now I knew why Shaun shared none of my father’s traits.