The Lunch Table

Chapter 1: Saturday, October 11

"Um... what the heck are you wearing?" Abril tossed her glossy, thick chestnut hair over her shoulder as she glared at her untidy and disgusting ten year old sister.

"A jacket?" Kylie grimaced, making her freckles crinkle. Flustered, she ran back inside their tiny apartment to change. Unfortunately for her, this was normal. Her bossy, teenage sibling always had some rude comment to make about her outfit choices and her abnormally pale skin.

Abril cackled at her amazing power of control over Kylie. She herded up her two other siblings, Kyle and Ken. She looked directly at each of her siblings with her striking blue eyes and shrugged her tan shoulders. "I don't even know why stupid Mom makes me take you to the park. She knows I have better things to do. Plus it's across the street so why can't you go yourselves?"

Ken and Kyle both glanced at each other and rolled their brown eyes. Being eleven made both of them feel on top of the world. They were the oldest in their elementary school, after all. That definitely meant that they didn't have to listen to anyone, especially not their annoying teenage sister. Kyle grabbed a yellow, beat up tennis ball from his short pockets and started to toss it to his twin. They began racing around the whole park, chucking the tennis ball right at each other's heads.

Soon, Abril took off for the snowy park after the troublemaking twins and zipped up her brand new, white parka coat. Obviously, it was fashionable and protected against the bitter cold wind in the park. Some days, Abril was glad she lived close to a nice park. On sunny days, the park's green grass shined and sparkled. The swaying oak trees made the view look prettier than a summer sunset. Sadly, today was not one of those days. Not only was there an awful gust, the wet rain from last week had frozen over and she frequently slipped on irritating and muddy puddles as she followed her brothers footsteps. The trees had lost most of their leaves and some of their branches as well.

Kylie hurried down their broken down apartment steps and hustled across the street. "I'm coming!" Kylie sprinted to catch up with the rest of her huge family and nearly tripped over a fallen tree branch.

"Kylie!! That's my jacket!" Abril whined, pouting furiously. Abril stomped her way through the icy outside and pulled Kylie from the hood. "Why'd you take MY jacket? Don't you have your own unfashionable stuff?!"

"Sorry," Kylie took off the jacket and immediately started shivering. She quickly walked toward the park bench and sat down. Swallowing her tears, Kylie clenched her fists. She slipped away from the awful park, blending in with the freezing winds. Slowly, she drifted from her perfect family and headed south, to where her grandparents lived in Alabama. She knew she wouldn't make it that far but at least she could walk across the street into their nice warm house. This wretched park didn't ease her fears of Abril or her careless mother.

Abril couldn't care less that her sister had no coat. All she could think about was her messed up social life. Her awful mix up with Beth about her hair. "Why'd I even have to tell her I dyed my hair?" Abril collapsed on the same park bench her sister had sat down on, just minutes ago. "I knew Beth would ruin it. She even told Lia. Who even does that?" BONK! "What the????" Abril shouted in anger. "Who did that?" Abril turned around and came face to face with Ken, who was stealthily moving away from the bench. "You come back here now!"

"I told you she'd be mad!" whispered Ken angrily to Kyle, who emerged from a tall oak tree, close to the park bench. "She's so gonna tell Mom."

"Whatever. Mom isn't that bad." Kyle rolled his eyes again.

Abril grabbed Kyle by his tan ear and dragged him back to the bench, she'd just been sitting on. "Not cool. You are so gonna get it when I tell Mom."

Kyle swatted his sister's hand off his eye and smirked. "Mom won't care. She never does." Kyle deviously remarked. 

Clenching her fists, she spoke to Kyle and Ken with a cool tone, "Go home. And don't mention this to Mom or else."

Kyle and Ken hurriedly began to walk home and Kyle called back to his already frustrated sister. "Or else what? You'll take away my dessert?" Kyle laughed and held his hand up for a high five and received one from Ken. The tension between the two was gone, almost as quickly as it started.

Abril departed from the park and was just arriving on her street when she realized she hadn't seen Kylie ever since the slight argument. After having a small panic attack, Abril managed to calm down and even had the guts to go speak to her mother about the important matter.

She hopped up the broken down steps and opened the white splintered door. "Hi?" Abril called out nervously. "I'm crossing my fingers they all went out." Abril thought as her palms began to sweat.

"Hi Abril," Kylie spoke shyly as she popped out of the shadows.

"Where'd you go?" Abril demanded, relieved that Kylie wasn't lost.

"I came here after you took my coat." Kylie whispered, pointing to the kitchen. "Mom's in a bad mood so don't go in there. She's been cooking."

Abril nodded her head and tiptoed to her bedroom. She quietly closed the door and took a deep sigh. "It's been a long night," she thought, "But at least I don't have school tomorrow."

Out of the blue, her small cell phone rang with music of Ariana Grande. Quickly, Abril picked it up and answered it. "Hi, this is Abril," she said, smoothly.

  "This is Lia," the girl spoke with a high pitched tone. It was clear that she was slightly nervous.

    "Ok. Why'd you call me? Because this line isn't usually open to people I'm not friends with," Abril added, harshly.

    "But I am an acquaintance of yours! We sit at the same lunch eating place." Lia replied, eagerly. She bit her fingernails, hoping Abril would be forgiving enough to still be friends after this embarrassing phone call.

    "Oh yeah. Sorry Lia. I kinda forgot." Abril said dismissively, even though she knew exactly who Lia was. A nerdy, short girl with a twin brother who sat at her interesting lunch table and idolized her. It was really hard to forget who she was.

    "You are forgiven. I have a question. Can you come over and watch Star Trek with me on Sunday night?" Lia hurriedly spoke. Her insides were literally shaking, she was so nervous about calling Abril.

    "Star Trek? When did that show even come out? In the 1st Century?" Abril asked, disgusted at the thought of watching some creepy TV show. Then, she thought better of letting down her only fan and decided to answer in a way that wouldn't make Lia too mad when she didn't show up. "I might be able to come, Lia," Abril spoke very slowly, to insure that Lia didn't miss a single word she said, "But since tomorrow is the Lord's Day, I'm not 100% sure I can go. I'll try though." Abril hung up as soon as she'd finished talking so no more awkward words would be said.

    "Who even says 'acquaintances'?" Abril rolled her eyes at Lia's old-fashioned language. "She really is awkward."

    Abril yawned loudly and stood up. She stretched out her tall, limber body and reached for her light switch to shut it off. "Good night, Mr. Moon," she said, smiling as she drifted away, dreams stirring in her mind.