Proving Webster Wrong

Chapter Nine -- Chloe

"It you don't like you don't have to eat it." I took a bite of my own burrito to hid my smile. I knew Melanie liked me better than she liked to admit, but I was playing her game. She never wanted to admit that I could be just as great of a sister as Paige. And she had never forgiven Paige for moving to another state the second she could.

"You need to do something about your phone." Melanie gulped down some of her milk – she hated orange juice – to wash down a giant bite of burrito.

The phone! I had completely forgotten about the insistent person calling. I sat down my food, wiped my hands off on a napkin, then took off down the hall to check the phone. Three more missed calls had been added. They were all from the same number, one I didn't have programmed in my phone.

The final time they called the person had decided to leave a voice mail. I was about to press to call and retrieve the message when a call started coming through. The same number.

"Hello?" I asked with as much confidence as I could. If it was some stranger stalker type it probably wasn't a good idea to sound like a freaked out little girl.

"Good morning, Chloe. It's about time you answered your phone." Andrew. It seemed happier to be awake so early than I would have expected from him, he always struck me as the type to sleep as late as his mom would let him and then mope around from being woken up.

"Why do you keep calling?" The words came out harsh, and I didn't care. He was crazy calling like that. No one calls that many times, leaves a voice mail, and then continues to call without it being an emergency. I'm sure there's some sort of phone etiquette rule book and that was in there. It had to be.

"Because we have a challenge set for the day." He paused and by the slurping noise followed back an "ahhh" it sounded like he took a drink of something, maybe coffee.. "Did you forget?"

"I have a lot to do. I do have two younger sisters to babysit, remember?" I made back up the hall to finish eating before the eggs got cold, cold eggs were never pleasant to try and eat. I remember how when Paige moved out I would always whine about having to take on babysitting duties but now that was proving to be a good thing. It was getting me out of spending all day playing twenty questions.

"We made a deal." Well, lookie there, Andrew was being so forceful. I didn't like morning Andrew very much.

"These are my sisters and there's not one else to stay with them. Mom is at work and Dad had thing to do today." Dad taught middle school math so he had summers off. Most of the time he always having things to take care which meant mornings were babysitting time. I didn't blame, sometimes a person needs time to themself. Mom, on the other hand, worked at some office and never had anytime off.

As I walked through the living room Alex was enjoying her food and singing along with her show. Melanie watched me from her seat at the table ready to question what was going on. She knew my routine well enough to know that no one ever call at that point in the day, not even Terri-Beth unless there was something big going on.

Andrew sighs but I know he understands, or at least I hope he does. "When will your dad be back?"

"Sometime around two, I guess. But, the thing is, when he get's back I have...I have somewhere that I have to go." Dr. Evens. I can't tell him that. That's exactly why he picked this challenge, too. I finish off my breakfast and put the plate in the the sink.

"You're not getting out of this."

I leaned back against the counter and rub a hand across my forehead. "Look, Andrew, I understand why you're trying to do. But I just can't today, there are things going on." I hung up the phone without waiting for his answer. I couldn't take this, Andrew and Mom and Dad all trying to get me to change. Right now I think I'd rather stick with the definitions for a little longer. I've may it all these years with them I think I can survive.

I didn't even understand what he had in mind for this game, hopefully not another trip to the park. That wasn't happening two days in a row. But it wasn't like there was a whole to do around here, and defiantly not a whole lot of places to go where people wouldn't hear you telling all your secrets.

"Who was that?" Melanie asked as she put her own plate in the sink.

"No one, no one at all." My fingers started up with the twisting. "Do you think you can handle the dishwasher?" I asked Melanie.

She screwed up her face in disgust ready to say no but then something stopped her. "I guess I can, just this one time."

I smiled. "Thank you." Then it was back down stairs to continue with laundry. Start my load drying, hike upstairs and get a load of someone else's clothes, then back downstairs to get them started. That's the way it was and would always be.

And then I remember look on Melanie's face when she sees me in the middle of one of my moments. I remember always telling myself that I would never let things get so bad that they would rule my life and take away my choice. I don't want to be my mom, so deep in denial that I can't see in myself what I see in my daughter.

I pick my phone back up and call Dad. "Is everything okay?" he asked picking up on the first ring. That's Dad, always knowing when I do something that's not in the routine and how hard it can be for me.

"Dad, there's something that I need to do today. Do you think you can be home a little earlier?" I look at Melanie working on the dishes and Alex smiling at the TV. They'll be okay, and they're better off with some here that can give the something different to do.

"I'll be home as soon as I can. Are you going to tell me what's so important?" I can hear how proud he is, proud that his daughter isn't going to be spending all day doing the same things as always.

"I don't want to spoil it just yet." Why tell him and get his hopes up right now? There is still that large part of me that wants to back out, to ignore every time Andrew tries to make me follow by what we agreed on.

"Don't forget about the appointment."

I bite my lip. I could blow it off but the result would be another argument and maybe more. No, I have to go. I told Andrew that I was talking to another doctor. I could tell him that I had to go today. I could do, I kept telling myself that.

"I won't, Dad." With that I hung up the phone and went to my room to get ready. And to make the call that would officially change my summer. No more hiding from things. Chloe Mackenzie Lewis was going to take a stand for the first time. The first step was hard, but there were still so many more to take. Those steps afterwards, the ones that led so far away, were the ones that scared me even more. I didn't know if I would be able to do it, but I had to try.

For me. For my parents. For my sisters because they didn't deserve a sister like me to look up to.