Different Colors

Green

Haley

"Mom, dad, I'm home." I said, as I sat down my backpack on the side of the couch where Leslie was sitting, playing on her tablet.

"Hey Les" I say, as I lightly punch my nine year old sister on the arm, and take a piece of popcorn out of her popcorn bowl she was eating while watching her daily after-school "YouTube Kids".

"Hey, sweetie." My mom says, bringing me an apple as my after school snack. She gives me a kiss on the forehead, and sits down on the couch next to Les. I grab a seat next to the two of them and look at my phone at the text I received from Marcus.

"Get me out of this house, girl!! lmao O_O"

I responded: "Been working on anything?"

"Was"

"What happened?"

"Mom tore it up. Said it was stupid."

"Sorry man."

"When will dad be home?" I asked my mom, as I put my iPhone back in my pocket, eating more popcorn out of Leslie's popcorn bowl." Dad usually works until around 6 or 7. He's a trauma surgeon at Carbondale Veteran Medical.

"He's going to be home late today. I have to run to get groceries. So you and Jake get to watch Leslie while I'm gone." Mom said, as she rummaged through her handbag to find her keys. She gave me the look of "You better not kill her while I'm gone."

"I heard my name?" Jake says, walking into the living room in his athletic shorts and "California Republic" tank top from American Apparel.

"You two watch Leslie while I run to the co-op."

"Fine." we said almost at the same time. Jake can be such a loser sometimes, but I love him to death. I never get to see him much until I get home, because I'm in this class called "Life Skills" and he's in the regular classes. You see, I have a learning disability. I'm not crazy or have any life-threatening disability, but because of my slow learning, I was put in Life Skills. I'm not proud of it. In fact, I'm super embarrassed by it, considering all of the kids think of me as a "sped" kid.

Mom walked out the door to our Tesla. We live on a Lake. Lake of Egypt, to be exact. It's a lake hidden in the trees south of Carbondale. Our house is fairly large (thanks Dad), and it overlooks the entirety of the lake. Outside my window, you can see a large tree and several ducks making their home on the shore next to my house. Outside of Jake's room, you can see the canoes and our pontoon boat, which we sometimes on weekends will take out.

"How'd school go, Les?" I say, as I take Leslie's tablet out of her hand, to which she flips out.

"Give it back!" I pull it away from her, joking around, since I can do that when Mom is gone. I give it back to her after I notice she is beginning to get really pissed.

"School sucked."

"High-five to that, kiddo." I say, high-fiving my sister as she goes back to her YouTube Kids video.

School really does suck. Marcus, whom I call "Hot Wheels", is probably my only friend at school. He can't talk normal. It's like how a seventeen year old would talk, but it's very broken and his speech is muffled. But, we can talk just like how you and I would talk. Hot Wheels moved here at the beginning of the year, as we did also. We moved here from Chicago. He moved here from north Texas.