Chapter 14: New Season, New Friends
“Who’s that?” It was Austin. I turned to face him and saw Aunt Jane glaring at me. This should be interesting.
“That is my niece, Rikki.”
“Nice to meet you, Rikki.” Austin stood and extended his hand for me to shake.
“Nice to meet you as well, sir.” I wasn’t supposed to know his name so I couldn’t exactly call him Austin.
“You don’t have to call me sir. I’m Mr. Burton, but you can call me Austin.”
“Well, hello Austin.” Aunt Jane looked like she was about to scream. I looked up at Austin but he was looking at my aunt. Hopefully he’ll just go along with this. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing here?”
“I’m a new music teacher here. Are you a student?”
Before I could answer, Aunt Jane did. “No, in fact Rikki goes to a different school and will be leaving in a day or two. Right?”
“Yeah. I don’t spend much time around here.” I wonder where she was going with this.
“I believe you are actually the first faculty member to even meet her. But I’m sure she has some packing to do and should be going.” And that is my cue to leave.
“I don’t want to interfere with your time with your niece. She should stay”
“It’s up to Rikki.” The phone started ringing. “Please excuse me.”
The second she was out of the room we were laughing. “Thanks for doing that Austin. It was fun. But I should probably go before she decides to make my life even harder.”
“Just one more thing. Don’t let my little brother screw stuff up for you. If you need someone for anything, you know where to find me.”
“Thanks Austin.”
-Skip to June-
Austin and I have gotten pretty close over the last few months. He’s even been helping me with John’s car. It needed some work after being neglected for a year. But everything must come to an end.
The school year has ended and the school is totally deserted. Even Aunt Jane has left already for Florida, again. She goes there a lot. But I’m not complaining. Whenever she leaves, I have a little less to worry. And now I have even less to worry about since everyone is gone. Elle is still around and so are Jake and Austin.
Speaking of Austin, where is he? He is supposed to be coming over to take John’s car out. We finally got it running again and today was the day we were going to get it registered. But I need him to drive.
Finally I can hear a car coming down the road. Austin pulled up and stopped in front of the house. He climbed out and I tossed him John’s keys.
“Ready?” I have been waiting for him to show up for a while and I just want to go.
“Impatient?”
“Yes, now can we go? Please?”
“Why are you so anxious to get the car registered? It’s not like you can drive it yet.”
“I know but I don’t think John would want me to let his car just sit in the garage. I was thinking you could take it out every so often and drive it. I mean if that’s okay with you.”
“You want me to drive your brother’s car? Are you kidding me? Of course I will. It’s a camaro! I have been obsessed with them for the longest time.”
“Good. So can we go? I want to go before Elle wakes up.”
“She’s still asleep? It already 11.”
“I know but she sleeps forever. Now let’s go.”
I ran over to him and dragged him to the garage. I opened it up and he backed the car out. In a few minutes we were on our way.
-Elle/Izzy POV-
Something woke me up at the crack of dawn. It’s only 11. Why would someone be making so much noise? Slowly I made my way to the window and saw a car driving away.
Whatever. I’m up now and there is no way I’m going to be able to go back to sleep. My stomach rumbled and I went down stairs to find Rikki and see if she’s hungry. Walking into the kitchen, I saw a post-it on the countertop.
“Gone out. Don’t know when I’ll be back. –Rikki”
Well that’s only slightly cryptic. I guess I’m on my own for food. So cereal it is. I don’t want to risk burning down the house. I poured some Fruit Loops into a bowl with milk and was just about to enjoy the sugary breakfast/lunch when the doorbell rang.
“Uhg. Who is disturbing my morning?” I reached the door and saw Jake standing outside. “Hi, Jake.”
“Hi, Izzy. Is Rikki here?”
“No. She left.”
“Oh. You don’t by any chance know when she’ll be back do you?”
“Nope, sorry.”
“Alright. Uh, bye.”
“Wait Jake, do you know whose car that is?” I thought it had been his ride here but he was climbing onto a bicycle.
“Yeah, it’s my brother’s. But I don’t know why it’s here but he isnt.” Suddenly it made sense. The car I saw driving away was John’s. His brother must be driving it and Rikki was probably with him.
“I think I do. He and Rikki took out our brother’s car.” Well, if she got to have some fun so do I. “Hey Jake, do you want to wait for her?”
“I thought you didn’t know when she would be back?”
“I don’t but I don’t know much about you and I thought we could get to know each other.”
He looked at me in disbelief. Was I not allowed to get to know a friend of my sister? “Alright.”
“You wanna come in or are you going to stay on your bike?” I wasn’t trying to sound mean but I think it came out like that so I threw a smile at the end to let him know I was joking.
He smiled back. “Sure.”
Once we were both inside I asked him if he wanted anything to eat or drink. He said no so I’ll have to enjoy my fruit loops later.
“You wanna play 20 questions?” What better get to know you game is there?
“Sure. You can start.”
“Okay, what’s your favorite color?”
“Blue. What do you go to your aunt’s school for?”
“Acting. Umm… Favorite type of music?”
“Oldies, definitely. But I do like new stuff and my band’s music. What about you? What’s your favorite music?”
“Pop, but I also like country because of Rikki. She’s made me listen to it so many times that I’m actually starting to like it.”
We kept playing and some of the things he said shocked me. Like he has massive stage fright. I had used up 19 questions and I knew exactly what I wanted to ask him next. “Do you like my sister? And I mean like more than a friend.”
He looked at me but didn’t answer. “You cant lie, remember?”
“I know. Yeah, I really like her but she doesn’t like me. I mean, I kissed her at the Halloween dance and she never brought it up after that.”
“Trust me she likes you. You are all she talks about. Its ‘Jake this’ and ‘Jake that.’ She probably never mentioned it because she’s scared to. But you need to make a move on her.”
“I will. Thanks Izzy.”
“But Jake,” I looked him straight it the eye to show him I am deadly serious, “if you hurt her, I will kill you. She’s been through enough bullshit. She doesn’t need you adding to that. Got it?”
“Yeah. Bye Izzy.”
I watched him leave and figured I had done John’s job pretty well. I’d like to think John would be proud of me for filling in for him but I’ll never know.
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Okay so I have a few things to say.
1. I have had this chapter written for two days but I lost the freaking flash drive it was on. Obviously I found it but I had to tear my room apart to do that. So now my room looks like a tornado hit it.
2. This might be the last upload for two weeks. I leave on Sunday for camp and I won’t have any access to a computer or the internet. I will try to write a few chapters while I’m away so I just have to type them up when I get home but I have no clue how much free time I will have.
3. Sorry for typos/errors. Like I’ve said a few times before. I don’t proof read.
4. Did you like the chapter? Let me know. I would love some feed back. Whether it is positive or negative.
5. If you like the story, I would love it if you could tell other people about it. It would mean a lot to me. : )
6. Thanks for taking the time to read!
-Siobhan