Welcome to Ohio

Three

A couple weeks after the night I met Alex at the music store, I had visited the music store a couple more times, not for her though, well, not specifically, I'd go in to get other equipment I needed to start my channel off right, and she'd be there. Albeit, the other times I went in were just two separate occasions, but still. It was odd, how I'd go in during her shift. Yeah, she stopped flirting with me, only after I very awkwardly told her that I wasn't even old enough to have a license, even though I did. That's also another thing. My job at the Smile More Store. Still have it. Still getting paid the same as everybody else, which I'm kinda happy about. It's not like I expect to be paid more just because the owners of the company are my parents. That's ridiculous. So since my days weren't full enough, between Smile More, my own personal soccer practices, and my fledgling channel, Noah and I came up with a competition. Who could do the most work and the loser for the week that Noah was with dad, had to buy the winner dinner from Dominos. I usually bought Noah food too when he ordered for me, because it didn't feel right. He works hard for that money to spend some of it on me? Come on, that's just wrong.

"Aright Noah. No more Dominos. I'm starting to feel like a marshmallow." I say to Noah as he comes into my room after dad had gone to get him, I would've gone, but I was doing inventory in the Smile More Store.

"So if it's not food, what is it?"

"The loser has to clean the other's room." I say and Noah thinks for a second. "We'll learn the ways we keep our things that way we can't complain. It'll be like we cleaned them ourselves."

"And if we tie?"

"Then we tie."

"Alright, deal." Noah says and I smile, taking his outstretched hand and shaking it.

-

About a half hour later, I'm sitting out on the porch with my guitar and the dogs sitting, watching me when I see movement in my peripherals and look up to see Dale and his kids walking up the steps. They smile at me and greet me and I smile as I follow them into the house to put up my guitar before heading downstairs to see what mom needs me to do because I saw her fixing dinner.

-

After dinner Dale and dad came up with a 'gad' idea. A term coined by dad to mean a good, a bad and a dad idea. Which makes no sense. Unless in his mind, the b of bad makes the sound an a should make. Then it'd be 'gbd' idea, which again. What?

"So recap again for the people who were on their phones and not paying attention." I say, since I'm holding the camera. I convinced dad that this was camera work. So I'm getting paid for this.

"So we tie this rope around Dale's leg, shoot the grappling hook and see if it will actually yank his foot from under him." Dad says and I look at the rope.

"Are you going to tie it around his ankle more than once?"

"We don't need to." Dad says and I shrug.

"Alright then." I say, eyeing the thin rope as it's being tied around my uncle's ankle. 

"Should we wrap it more than once?" Dale asks, looking at the door and I nod.

"Yes." I say and they look at me. "I know a few things about rope support." I say and smirk a little when I hear mom talking.

"Why does that worry me?"

"Because I tried to hang myself a couple years ago. It didn't work. Which I'm glad it didn't. I regretted attempting that." I say and everyone looks at me.

So they didn't tie it, they shot it with one loop on Dale's ankle. And now I'm in the woods with them, in the dark, looking for the grappling hook.

"I told you guys. But no, never listen to the teenager." I say and dad looks at me.

"We'll listen next time. Just shine the light on the ground." The rope didn't even break, the knot was too weak, so when the hook was shot, the knot unraveled and hello woods.

"Found it!" Dale yells and we all meet by the destroyed limo still sitting in the back yard. Dad looks at the hook in Dale's hand and we head back inside. Once I give dad his camera back, mom pulls me into hers and dad's room.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, they just lost the hook."

"Not that, Jules."

"Oh, that. That happened when I was thirteen. I'm fine now. I just can't wear chokers. They give me anxiety."

"So you don't think of that anymore?"

"No, mom. Why do you think I'm so heavily involved in music and soccer? They kept me sane before the attempt, while I was recovering from the attempt, and it still are my safe havens. I'm alright now. As soon as I kicked that chair from under my feet, I wished I hadn't. I saw what I meant to people when my foster siblings ran into my room when they heard the chair fall. I saw the fear in their eyes. I saw how quickly they tried to get me down before the rope broke, when I woke up in the hospital, I hit my head in the fall, when I woke up, I saw the relief in their eyes. And I felt relieved as well. It took a year before they let me go back to business as usual. Now I'm here." I say and hug mom when she hugs me tight.

"If you're ever feeling down, I'm here. Alright?" She asks and I nod.