Sister City

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

“Where did you see my flip flops?” I bellowed from the bedroom. It was the third time I had been in there looking, but Mom insisted she'd seen them in my bedroom, so here I was. Again. “They're not in here.”

I angrily stomped down the hallway. The childishness of it relieved some of the stress I was feeling about the competition the next morning.

“My mistake,” Mom called gaily from the kitchen. “They're right here under the table.”

“Seriously? That's all you can say?” I complained as I walked around the corner into the kitchen. “My mista-”

Mom was in the kitchen. The banners on the walls and balloons floating on the ceiling were all her doing. There was an amazing cake decorated to look like the floor mat, complete with little gymnast figurines. Every last member of my family was crammed into the kitchen. As I looked around at their faces, I knew I was ready to compete.

“Bring it on,” I cried with a loud whoop.

“That's my girl.” Jack crowed.

“You'll all still be here tomorrow, right?” I asked, suddenly uncertain.

“We have signs,” Phaedra said in a bored voice, as if it was too much to ask to spend a few hours at the most important event of my life.

“I am excited to watch your display tomorrow,” Inara added with a bit more enthusiasm.

“I am so glad you'll all be there” I said, my voice cracking with excitement and fear.

There was no chance I would sleep that night, so I turned in early to watch the Mummy and read some of my favorite passages from the Harry Potter series. There's nothing like watching Brendan Frasier battle a mummy while reading about a magical world to take your mind out of reality. Just to be safe, I took two sleeping pills long before I needed to be asleep. Normally I don't like the idea of drugging myself, but I knew there was no chance I would sleep. I sat on the floor stretching until the creeping feeling of nothingness washed over me. I quickly crawled into bed and fell asleep.

“Catherine,” an irritable voice called through the door early in the morning, “This is the last time I'm going to tell you get up. If you don't get up this instant there won't be time for you to take a shower and I'm certainly not going to save you any hot water.”

“God, Mom. I'm up,” I called back through the door.

Peeking her head in the door, Mom's jaw nearly hit the floor. “You're up? And dressed?” she asked incredulously.

“Up. Dressed. Ready to be Barbie-fied,” I responded confidently.

“I'll get Inara,” Mom offered, her eyebrows creeping dangerously close to her hairline. She looked at me, pausing as if she was going to say something, but shook her head instead and closed the door gently.

“She's worried you're going to bite it, you know,” Phaedra said bluntly.

“Thanks,” I replied shortly. Today wasn't the day to let Phaedra get to me. “I'll try not to let her down.”

“Yeah. That'd be great. I don't want to be known as the girl whose older sister fell on her face at Nationals.”

Taking deep breaths, I smiled sweetly while saying, “Of course, Phaedra, we'd all rather you fall on your face instead.”

There was a knock at the door. “May I come in?”

“I'm ready, Inara. Come on in.”

“Would you prefer that I apply your makeup in my room?” Inara offered, dangling her makeup kit, having seen the seething look on Phaedra's face.