Attracting Trouble

Chapter 5: Sunflowers

"You don't have a clue, Will. You just don't." I leave him in the hallway like Coach did to me minutes ago and walk out of the school, not looking back.

*****

Both of my sisters' cars are sitting in the driveway when I pull in. I'm surprised that Sydney is home considering she's supposed to be at Stanford preparing for the new semester.

She is one of the five percent that was accepted, which is a great achievement, but I get tired of hearing about it.

"Jessa? Is that Jessa, Sydney? Go look." I hear Mom say from in the kitchen. She's never usually home this early at four-thirty.

"It's me, Mom," I call back, trying to hide the fact that I had been crying. I rode all the way home with the windows hoping it would clear my face up.

Mom is bustling around in the kitchen with pots and pans cooking on the stove. She's stirring some cake batter as Sydney sips a glass of tea and watches. Her manicured nails are maroon and matching the shirt she has on. Her usually straight blonde hair is curled to perfect waves.

Another thing about the Ackerman sisters: we all have naturally straight blonde hair that is annoyingly flat. Syd and Tori are much better at handling it, though.

"Jessa, can you help me please?" Mom asks and I look at her, then at Sydney who is now looking at her phone. I raise an eyebrow and decide I better not suggest asking Sydney to help. She'll only complain about breaking a nail.

"Sure. What do you want?" I ask as I grab an apron from the hook by the kitchen window.

"Come add some more flour to this and stir it. It has to be plump," Mom explains as she hands me the wooden spoon she was stirring the cake batter with.

I take it and stick it back in the bowl before grabbing the bag of flour. When I grab it, I accidentally grab the part that's full of air and the flour shoots up out of the bag and straight into my hair and on my face. Some collects on my shirt, too.

"Crap," I grumble, trying not to laugh at myself.

"Jessa, really?" Mom says, annoyed.

I shrug my shoulders and try to shake some of the flour out of my hair and off my face, a smile trying very hard to appear on my face.

"What's all this for?" I ask as I finally add the flour to the bowl.

"We're having guests over. Sydney, make sure your dad is ready, okay?" Mom asks nicely. Sydney sighs and puts her phone down on the counter before going to find Dad.

Now that she's gone, I ignore what Mom just told me and get ready to relay my bad news.

"Mom, I have to talk to you," I say like a child preparing to tell the truth after she lied about breaking something.

"Can it wait? We need to get this stuff ready and put on the table before they get here," she tells me, continuing what she's doing instead of looking at me.

I purse my lips and nod my head, turning back to stir the cake batter.

"Who is coming to dinner?" I ask after a moment of silence.