Frankie's Focus

A Day in the Life

You wouldn't have known it to look at her, but Frankie was mad. She had learned long ago to keep her feelings bottled up, not to speak up. She had learned that it didn't matter what she said, her words would fall like bricks to the ground before they'd ever reach her mother's ear. It was best to be quiet, save her breath.
"Logan will need a bath before bed," her mother continued without even a glance at her only daughter.
"I've got dinner ready in the fridge. Just put it in the oven on 350 for 30 minutes then let it cool for 5. The instructions are on the foil, " she finished and reached for her purse, pulling out tinted lip balm and dabbing her thin lips with the stuff. Shiny pink.
"Any questions?" Mom asked, her blue eyes finally making contact with Frankie's green ones.
"Nope," Frankie replied with a shrug and a sigh. She shoved her hands into her pockets and clamped her mouth shut tight.
"Okay, great. The board meeting should be over by 9, but you never can be sure. I'll be home as soon as I can."
"Okay," Frankie acknowledged, following her mother to the door.
"Love you, Frankie," Mom said with a kiss.
"You too, Mom." And Frankie closed and locked the door behind her.
Before she was two feet away from the door Frankie heard someone from the outside struggling with the lock.
Julian.
"Hang on!" Frankie yelled heading back to the door to unlock it for her older brother.
"God, Frankie," he growled as he ran past her, throwing down his backpack and running to the mud room.
"Why do you have to lock the stupid door?"
"Don't say 'stupid'," Logan chimed in from the kitchen table where he sat contentedly playing with his Legos. "Dad says not to say 'stupid'."
Julian ignored his baby brother and Frankie could hear him rummaging and throwing things aside in search of his equipment for that night's football game.
"Where did Mom put my stuff?" His muffled yell came from behind a closed door.
Frankie rolled her eyes and shoved her hands into her pockets again. It was best not to say anything.
After a few more minutes and a lot more noise and grunting, Julian emerged victorious with his duffle bag slung over a solid shoulder.
"Got it," he said with a sparkling smile, as though he'd never been upset in the first place.
"Great," was all Frankie could think to say as she raised her eyebrows and again clamped her mouth shut tight.
A hard rock guitar lick began to play and Julian grabbed his phone from his pocket to see his Father calling.
"Dad's here, I gotta go. See ya," and after grabbing a granola bar and a bottle of water, he was gone.
Frankie stood frozen in place. Here she was again. Another Friday night at home. Alone. Well, with Logan. No one had even asked her if she had plans, or wanted to make plans. Plans had been made for her, as usual. She was the built-in babysitter and she resented it. It wasn't Logan's fault, it was their Mother's fault. It was ridiculous. Frankie had been sixteen for over 5 months now and still she hadn't been given a car. Julian got a car for his 16th birthday. Mom and Dad tried to down-play it by saying he had gotten the car so he could drive everyone to school. But nine time out of ten Julian drove himself and his friends to school. Frankie was forced to either find a ride for herself or take the bus. Logan could just walk the block and a half to his elementary school if he was left behind. It was cruel and unfair. But what could Frankie say that would change the situation? Nothing.
A softer, milder guitar strum rang out disrupting the flow of her thoughts and Frankie looked around for her phone. She found it in the stack of mail she had set on the counter when she walked in the house over an hour ago and grabbed it up.
A handsome dark-haired, brown eyed guy in a track uniform stood in the sunshine throwing up bunny ears behind Frankie in the picture on the screen. She smiled.
"Hey, CJ."
"What's up?" He asked casually.
Frankie went on to tell him about her exciting evening of cooking lasagna and giving Logan a bath.
"I'm seven, I want to take a shower," Logan yelled from the dining room when he heard this.
"Stop listening to my conversation!" Frankie yelled back and moved further down the hallway, following the runner until her feet hit hard wood again.
"I don't know what to do," Frankie continued, "School's almost out and they will expect me to watch the kid all summer. I need to get out of here, I need something to do, a job or something."
CJ agreed and reported that he would be working for the summer. If Frankie's home life was bad, CJ's was a nightmare. His parent's refused to divorce but seemed to hate each other. Mark, CJ's half brother from his Mom's first marriage, had graduated high school the year before and had left for college with no plans to return home. CJ was left to care for his Mother, who had taken up drinking and smoking pot to cope with the stress of financial difficulties and an abusive relationship. Of course he would choose to work the whole summer. Who wouldn't in that situation?
"Want me to come over and we can search for jobs online?" CJ offered.
"Don't you need to be home for your Mom?" Frankie asked cautiously.
"She's asleep. I'll head over."
Thankfully CJ only lived a street away. If you cut through a few back yards then technically he only lived 5 doors down. That was how they met: playing in the field (aka, the neighbor's back yards) as young children. There used to be quite the crew of kids in their neighborhood but over the course of 7 or 8 years many of the families with kids had moved away. Eventually it was just Frankie and CJ. If Frankie was honest, truly honest, she liked it that way.
It wasn't long before CJ was letting himself in through the sliding glass doors off of the kitchen.
"Hi, Logan," CJ said to the boy still sitting at the table involved in creating with his legos.
"Hi," Logan said looking up just long enough for a fist bump from CJ then returned to his work.
Frankie was putting the lasagna in the oven.
"I've got the MacBook out in the living room," she said. "Just give me a sec."
CJ was already searching for jobs when Frankie joined him on the couch.
"Find anything?" She asked.
"Nope. But I already have an idea of where I'd like to work. Maybe I'll check their site."
"Where do you want to work?" Frankie asked, noticing that she was sitting so close to CJ that their legs were touching.
It felt warm and she wondered why she noticed these kinds of things now. She never used to.
"I was thinking Lomans might be kind of cool."
Lomans was the local plant nursery. It was open year-round because of the greenhouse but employed extra help in the summers due to the fact that landscaping in Ridgeview was a big deal. Not as big of a deal as football, but, it had to be a close second. There were garden parties, garden walks and garden receptions all spring, summer and even in to the fall.
"Oh yeah. I bet you could get a job there easy," Frankie said. "I'm sure they'll need help."
"I like the idea of getting to be outside," CJ said.
"Yeah. I was thinking of something closer to home since I can't count on anyone around here to give me a ride anywhere. Maybe the DQ or something."
"Right," CJ agreed clicking onto Lomans website and finding that they were indeed hiring. "Sweet."
As CJ filled out the online app Frankie returned to the kitchen to check on the lasagna and got dishes on the table where should could fit them. She instructed Logan to clear off the table and go wash his hands before dinner. He began picking up without too much of an argument and CJ came into the kitchen.
"Done," he said. "Smells good!"
"Yeah. I hope you like lasagna."
"Of course I do."
The sound of a retro telephone ring sounded and CJ dug into his pocket.
"Hey Dalia, what's up," he said.
"Tell her to come over for lasagna," Frankie said.
"Did you hear that?"
Apparently Dalia did hear because CJ didn't have to repeat it.
Dalia was another friend from the younger years. She had lived in their neighborhood at one point but when her parents divorced she had had to move with her mom into a smaller house. Dalia had an older brother and he played football too. He had moved with his dad so he would have the opportunity to play for Central. Dalia didn't mind being alone with her mom.
"She's coming," CJ reported after shoving his phone back in his pocket.
Dalia's dad dropped her off. "He's on his way to the football game to scout, so he doesn't care what I do," she said. "It's his weekend with me, but, whatever..."she rolled her eyes.
The lasagna was good and the four of them ate more than half. Afterward, Frankie sort of supervised Logan's bath-shower (the stopper was plugged but the water was coming from the shower head. Best of both worlds as far as Logan was concerned) while CJ and Dalia took care of the dishes.
Frankie set Logan up with her iPad in his bedroom playing "educational" games so that she could go talk with her friends. This didn't upset him in the least.