BH

Burning Hearts: Five

As I went in the door I saw stacks of cards and envelopes which my Mum bought in bulk every year from various charities, and heard the tune of the ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ (my mother thought Christmas music would make us write the cards with more ‘spirit’ so she played it as we worked). There was also a list of names at four places of the table, one for each of us. I was in charge of cards to send to Dad’s family, Raie was stuck with Mum’s friends, Libby had Dad’s friends and Tash had Mum’s family. Sounds fun right? Wrong.

Raie and I refused to help until we were done with ‘homework’ so we went upstairs with some gingerbread cookies and milk and sat in my room to process the day.

“8 and a half. One slightly tappable, one shoveable,” I said as we sat on my bed.

“4 before Lunch, 7 afterwards. One shoveable, one nudgeable, but he was a total jerk,” Raie said and I had to laugh at that.

The Tappable to Shovable scale was our guy rating system. Each new year, or new school, in that case, we would say if we saw any shovable guys- very hot, or just tappable- slightly good looking and nudgeable was in the middle. We would also rate our weeks out of ten, since we only saw each other once a week, but since it was everyday then, we had decided we would rate each day.

So according to Raie, she had an iffy day before lunch, but after it wasn't so bad, and she had seen one mega-hot guy, and one who was good-looking, but a total jerk. My day, however, had been great, and I had also seen one mega-hot guy and one that was really nice, but not very handsome.

We invented our hot-scale when we were eleven. Raie and I were walking through the shops, and since we had just begun to be obsessed with boys, we would nudge each other if we saw a hot guy, but they usually noticed and would give us a look that made us go bright red, so we invented code words for it, and a shove meant he was a full-on ‘god of hotness’, so shoveable meant the same.

Raie gave me a small smile then we lay down for a while before Mum yelled up to us that we needed to help, fully aware we wouldn't have homework on our first day. So regretfully, we dragged our feet downstairs and began to help.

After half an hour of sore hands, I finally got sick with the Christmas music three months early, and plugged my iPod in, playing Raie and I’s ‘Anti-X-Mas’ playlist. We grooved while be worked, and Tash, who had come home while we were upstairs, and Libby joined in. My Mother even jiggled her hips a little as she cooked dinner, and Raie and I belted along to Billy Joel's Uptown Girl, our favourite song since we were little.

Just as we were finishing the cards, Raie’s eyes went blank, like she was in deep thought.

Raie

I sighed and gave Sapphire a look at the sound of our names. "Ready to write some cards?" I said a little too enthusiastically. She grinned and rolled her eyes, heading out of the room. I followed quickly after her.

When we reached the dining room, Libby and Tash already sat at the table, both of them death-staring the last few cards they had on their piles and violently shaking out their cramped hands. Sapphire moved around to her pile, across from Libby, and I moved to mine, which was next to Sapphire and across from Tash.

"Alright, if you can finish your pile of cards before me, that grey jacket you like of mine is yours," I challenged.

"And if I lose?" Sapphire grinned.

"Your Maui Jim's are mine."

"Ooh... tough one. You're on."

We shook hands and got Tash and Libby to say 'go' for us. Quickly enough, we were scrawling down letters as quickly as our hands would allow us to. On only my tenth card, halfway through the pile, my hand, wrist and fingers were already starting to ache. I looked to my side where Sapphire was a few cards behind me, and figured I could afford to slow down a bit. 

Another four cards later, Sapphire and I were tying, so I picked up my pace again. She was writing much neater than I was, but mine was still neat enough. I got another card ahead of her, and gave a sigh of relief when I finished my last one. My eyes went to the list to see who to address it to, and I suddenly stopped breathing.

The Whyte family.

"Tyson..." I breathed.

"Yes, I am going to beat you," Sapphire chuckled, now on her last card.

But my mind wasn't on winning the card competition, it was elsewhere.

Beside me, Sapphire cheered as she finished her final card and said some other stuff about her winning and me losing. "Hey," she said suddenly. "What are you thinking about?" I tried not to let tears fall from my eyes, but I'm pretty sure it's obvious they wanted to pour.

"The past," I mumbled, my thoughts far away now.

"There's one sour worm left," I said, smiling. "How do we decide who gets the last one?"

Beside me, only nine years of age, was Tyson, culy dark hair, green eyes and built figure. "Duh," he said in a teasing voice. "It's mine, of course." We were both sitting on the curb, counting the number of the blue cars as they drove past.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow, "How do you figure that?"

"Easy, I'm the oldest. That's how it works."

I gasped, "Only by, like, eight months! Doesn't count!"

"Well, actually..." I cocked my head to the side, the gullable eight year old I was. "That's how they decide who the prime minister is. Whoever is older."

"No way!" I exclaimed, horrified. "That other man is younger than the one he went up against and he's prime minister!"

"There is sometimes an exception," he stated, sticking by his word. 

"Don't lie! I'm too smart for you!" I grinned, reaching my hand into the bag of sour worms, my fingers coated in the sweet sugar.  I held it up, exammining it. "I think I deserve it."

"Wait," Tyson said, his face serious. "I know how we can decide fair and square." I looked at him, creasing my eyebrows. Suddenly, he launched himself at me and started poking at my ribs and tickling me.

"No!" I said between laughs. "Stop! Please!" But I soon released my grip on the worm as I doubled over in laughter, my whole body violently shaking. At that moment of weakness, Ty grabbed the worm and shoved it in his mouth, releasing me from his grip.

"That's not fair," I said, grinning widely.

"You aren't allowed to do that."

"Oh yeah?" he challenged. "I just did."

I laughed and shook my head at him. "Raie," my mother's voice came from behind me. I turned around to see her stick her head around the door. "Dinner's ready. Say goodbye to Tyson now." Slowly and reluctantly, I climbed to my feet with a sigh. Tyson did the same.

"Same place, same time, tomorrow?" he asked.

"You bet," I smiled warmly at him and stepped forward as his arms wrapped around me in a hug. 

"Alright," Sapphire's mum's voice rang out, interupting my train of thoughts. "Here is your reward as promised." From behind her back, Susan pulled out a giant bag of sour worms.