To: anniewatkinsartstudio@gmail.com
Subject: Hello
Hello Annie,
So, this is going to be weird and really uncomfortable, but I think you know who I am if you noticed my email address. Anyway, my name is Dakota Peters. Surely, you knew that this day would eventually arrive, when I’d try to find you or something. It was a lot of work, but I finally found you, obviously, or I wouldn’t have been able to get this to you.
Anyway, I’m not really sure what to say. I mean, what do you say to your long lost mother? I have no clue. I’ve actually been slaving over my laptop for a while now trying to get something down on this email, but nothing ever sounds right. I just know that I have to send something.
Okay, well I’ll start with telling you about my life, even though I’m sure you don’t care. Obviously, if you cared, you would be the one emailing me, right? I won’t get into that though, I’ll just tell you some stuff. I’ll start by saying that I’m on the dance team at school. I’m the captain, actually, and we’re trying to go to nationals this year. I don’t have a boyfriend or anything, but there is this guy. His name is Todd and he’s supposedly asking me out in a week and a half- it’s a long story. He’s a really good guy and he’s one of Owen’s friends. Speaking of Owen, he’s the captain of the baseball team and we’re seniors now, in high school. Our dad is still coaching baseball (he did that when you were here, correct?) and Derek moved kinda far away to live with his wife. He has three kids now. Man, he’d kill me if he found out that I was sending this to you. Owen wouldn’t be too happy either, come to think of it. But they don’t understand the bond a daughter needs with her mother, you know? It’s kinda really important. Not like you care, but it is.
Now, I’ve told you about me, I think I’ll ask a few questions about you- in hopes that you do read this, you are the right Annie Watkins, and you feel like actually answering me, then maybe you can answer this stuff because it’d be really cool to know stuff about you. I’m not going to ask you the obvious one- why you left. I won’t ask you that because, if by some miracle, you do read this and respond, I’m sure you’d tell me that it’s adult stuff that I don’t understand or maybe it’s complicated. Although, I don’t see what’s so complicated about leaving two little babies to grow up without a mother, but I won’t waste your time with questions that you probably won’t answer. I want to know how your art is going? From the website, it looks like you’re actually kind of successful over there. How has your life been? What’s your favorite food? Just tell me something about yourself. I want to know everything about you.
Anyway, you are probably really busy so I’ll stop typing now because I think I’m going to have a panic attack soon or something, I’m so nervous. Right, well I hope you respond to this or at least read it or something. So yeah, goodbye, I guess.
Your daughter,
Dakota Peters
I stared at my laptop screen for a good hour, re-reading every word again and again and making sure that it didn’t sound stupid or uneducated or anything. I checked the grammar and the spelling and I ran it through spell check five times. It had to be perfect before I pressed send. If it wasn’t perfect then she probably wouldn’t even bother herself with reading it and that’d be super bad.
I read it once more and then moved the cursor to hover over the “send” button, but I just couldn’t get myself to do it. My fingers twinkled over the mouse, trying to get myself to click. Just one click and the email would send all the way to Europe. I held my breath and was about to push down to send the email, but was rudely interrupted when there was a harsh knock on my door.
“What?” I yelped, quickly minimizing the Gmail tab and then shakily moving over to the door to unlock it.
“Why do you lock your door?” Owen wondered as I opened the door and he strolled in casually.
“Because I don’t want you interrupting my New Girl marathon.” I insisted, motioning towards where Netflix was playing The New Girl beside my laptop at my desk. “What do you want?”
He gave me a weird look before rolling his eyes. “Whatever. I came in here to ask you if you what you wanted for dinner.”
I shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”
“I’ll choose if you don’t.” He sang.
“Choose all you want, I’m not eating.” I insisted.
“Kentucky Fried Chicken it is. I’ll get you that chicken bowl thing that you like.” He continued stubbornly.
“You’re a jerk, you know that?” I grumbled irritatedly.
He looked up and grinned at me. “But I’m a jerk who cares about his baby sister, and I’m okay with that.”
“I am not your baby sister.” I reminded him. “You’re ten minutes older than me, O.”
“Baby.” Owen grinned teasingly.
I rolled my eyes at his stupidity. “Whatever, where are your friends? It’s Sunday and there’s nobody here? That’s weird.”
He shrugged. “Levi’s with his girlfriend and John just isn’t here.”
“And Todd?” I wondered curiously.
Owen crinkled his nose in disgust. “Don’t ask me about Todd.”
“What?” I asked innocently. “I was just asking.”
“If you want to know about him, then text him and ask him yourself.” He stated.
“Are you two fighting or something?” I wondered.
He shook his head. “No, but I’m not going to be your messenger. I already find this whole thing incredibly disturbing and I will not have any part in it.”
“What thing?”
He teasingly glared at me. “You know what thing. The whole making out on Tuesday and agreeing to date but not right now kind of thing that you two have. It’s the weirdest thing ever and I’m pretty sure we had an agreement not to date each other’s friends, so you’re breaking that deal.”
“We never made that deal.” I laughed at his ridiculousness. “And if we did, then you’ve broken it too.”
Owen sighed heavily in defeat. “It’s still weird.”
“It’s not weird.” I defended. “It’s cute.”
“Weird.” He rebutted stubbornly. “You’re supposed to love him like a brother because he’s my best friend.”
“He’s not my brother,” I reminded him. “You’re my brother.”
“I know, but just a week ago, you had a crush on Caleb but in 24 hours, that crush was dead and you just randomly decide to like Todd?”
I rolled my eyes at my idiotic brother. “Okay, well first of all- I never liked Caleb. I was pathetically obsessive over his celebrity-ness, but that was it.”
“He isn’t a celebrity.” Owen deadpanned.
“Owen,” I sighed exasperatedly. “I know that, but he was to me. And when he started talking to me, he wasn’t really a celebrity anymore and he’s like 1/6th jerk. And I kind of started liking Todd a while ago, when he got all mad about me talking to Caleb and I realized that he liked me.”
“I still don’t like it.” He huffed.
“I know.” I nodded. “But deal with it. I mean, if it was really killing you, then you know that I would back off, but you’ll get over it in a few days.”
He shrugged childishly. “Fine, but if you ever kiss in front of me- I won’t allow that.”
“Nobody is kissing anybody.” I assured him. “He hasn’t even asked me out yet, dummy.”
“Right,” Owen sighed. “Because he has to wait a few weeks because you like to complicate things and make them confusing.”
“That’s not why we’re waiting.” I snapped. “You’re so whiney.”
“I’m not whiney.” He muttered, walking towards the door. “I’ll bring you your KFC soon.”
“I’m still not hungry.” I called after him as he left my room.
“And I’m still bringing you food.” He sang, closing the door behind him and then I was alone again.
I grumbled a weird, annoyed noise and then went back to my laptop. I didn’t mess with the unsent email, though, I just started IMing some of my friends. A lot of people on the dance team were excited, since we’d gotten second place at the competition yesterday and then they started talking about how excited they were about going to nationals at the end of March. It was still a while away though, since it was only mid-January, but it was still pretty exciting just to be going to nationals.
I sat at my computer lazily for a while before Owen stopped by and dropped off some KFC that I had already told him I wouldn’t eat because I wasn’t hungry, but he ignored all of my protests and left some on my bed before leaving again. He’s just so protective over me sometimes, it’s overbearing. I mean, I love him to death and most of the time, I like that he’s protective over me. We’re twins, we’ve just always looked after each other.
But ever since sophomore year, he’d been a lot more protective and observant over my eating habits. He has always blamed himself for me ending up in the hospital because he “didn’t see the signs” and he didn’t notice it when I wouldn’t eat or skip a meal. But really, who notices that kinda stuff? Anyway, he was really beating himself up over it when I had started throwing up one morning because I was so underfed. I went into rehab for anorexia and I was there for like, three hell-ish weeks before they released me. Ever since I got out though, two years ago, Owen has been so insistent on me eating because he still feels incredibly terrible about my “disorder” getting so bad.
I’m not like, anorexic anymore or anything, and Owen knows that, but whenever I reminded him of that, he’d just use this one word, “relapse” and then I’d shut up because I knew that he was just worried about me. He used to ask questions about it, like “Why did you stop eating?” or “You looked fine and happy, how could you fool everyone so easily?” but he gave up on those questions when he realized that I wouldn’t answer any of them.
I was caught up in my memories of sophomore year when the ring of my phone burst through my room. I quickly jumped and grabbed it off of my desk, answering the call to end the shrill ring, which I should probably change because I really hate my ringtone, but I’m just too lazy most of the time. That, or I just always forget.
“Hello?” I muttered into the phone with a small cough.
“Hey,” Todd chirped.
Immediately, I smiled widely and then rolled my eyes at myself for acting so girly and stupid over Todd. He’s just Todd. “Hey, what’s up?”
“Nothing, I’m just calling.”
“You’re just calling?” I echoed with a small laugh, swiveling around in my office chair.
“Yep, am I not allowed to do that?”
“No, I don’t mind.” I admitted softly. “It’s just kinda weird, you know, you calling to talk to me and not Owen.”
“A good weird, though, right?” He wondered apprehensively.
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, it’s a good weird.”
“Okay, good,” He breathed. “So how’d you do in the competition yesterday?”
“Second place,” I chirped. “We did okay.”
“Second place is more than okay, don’t you think?” Todd laughed.
“Well, I guess so, but the competition wasn’t that good either.” I reasoned.
“You’re just too competitive to admit that second place isn’t too bad.” He teased me over the phone.
“That’s also true.” I admitted meekly.
“Right, well there is a reason for my call behind just wanting to talk to you.” He piped and I pushed my hand against my lips to stifle a giggle because he was being all sweet and it was just kind of adorable hearing Todd be all sweet because he’s always been Owen’s friend to me, not sweet and adorable and really, incredibly kissable.
“Okay, well then what is the reason for your call?” I wondered, continuing to carelessly swivel around in my chair.
“Well, okay so I was wondering what we should do when we get to school on Monday.” He stated, a little bit nervously.
“What do you mean?” I wondered in confusion.
“I mean like, could I hold your hand or something?” Todd asked.
I was actually kinda surprised that he was asking me that because like, we’d done all of that kissing and feely stuff on Tuesday and we had been going to school, acting pretty normally, all week and he hadn’t said anything about it. “Why do you ask?” I mumbled, still trying to think of something else smarter to say.
“Well, I feel like if I’ve touched your boob then I should be able to hold your hand.” He joked.
I laughed at that and then blushed at the memory of Tuesday. “You’re so perverted, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I’m aware. I am a teenage guy, you know.” He reminded me. “It’s okay if you don’t wanna do anything, though. I’m just saying, I’m a really good hand-holder.”
I giggled out loud that time and leaned against my desk. “We can hold hands when you ask me out, Todd.”
He groaned dramatically and I knew that he was just teasing me. “But you won’t let me ask you out for another week.”
“Well, we can wait another week, I promise.” I assured him. “I told you, I’m not going to start hopping from one guy to another because people will start thinking of me as like, the next Suzie Russo and I really don’t want that.”
Todd laughed at my mention of Suzie Russo who was a senior last year and she was kind of a slut around school, known for her habit of sleeping with baseball players. I don’t know if she actually slept with any of the baseball players that I associate with, but that’s just because I make it a point to not know about their sex lives- mainly Owen’s. “That’s ridiculous, but I’ll respect your ridiculous-ness because it’s only one more week.”
“Exactly.” I chirped. “And then we can hold hands and make out and do whatever.”
“That sounds really cool.” He sighed.
I held in another giggle before responding. “I agree, it does. But even when we are holding hands, you gotta be discreet.”
“Why?” Todd wondered.
“Because Owen’s kinda touchy about this.” I informed him. “And I don’t want him to not want us to be together. I mean, I know that it doesn’t matter all that much but it’s his life too, you know, if his best friend and his sister start like, dating and stuff, it could be weird.”
“I’ll make it un-weird. Well, I’ll do my best.” Todd assured me. “Like, no sex in the house and stuff.”
I laughed at that because I knew that he was only joking. “Right, more like no sex at all, but I’m sure you get the point.”
“You’re so difficult.” He teased with a small laugh. “But yeah, I got it. No PDA in front of your brother.”
“Good, so I’ll see you tomorrow then?” I chirped.
“Right, I’ll see you tomorrow. But just so you know, you’re giving me blue balls.”
My face flushed red and I just paused for a moment, not really knowing what to say to that. “You’ll figure it out, Ziff.”
“You’re killing me here.” He whined.
I laughed again. “You’re such a pervert. One more week, that’s it. It’s only seven days, if you do the math.”
“I know how many days are in a week, Kota,” He rolled his eyes- no, I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him roll his eyes. “It just seems so far away from today.”
“You’re right,” I sighed. “But like I said, you’ll figure it out. Watch porn, take a cold shower, I dunno.”
He laughed and then I smiled because his laugh was actually really pretty. “That’s not very good advice, you know.”
“One more week.” I chirped.
“Okay, one more week, Kota.”
“Oh my gosh,” I groaned. “You’re making this so hard for me, you know.”
“How am I making it hard for you?” He wondered, feigning innocence.
“By being stupid and ugly.” I told him jokingly. “Anyway, I’ll make you a deal, okay?”
“What kind of deal is it?” He asked me apprehensively.
I stood up from my desk and moved over to my bed and looked through the KFC to see that it was just a chicken bowl with mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, gravy, and cheese. Those things were really good, so I decided to actually eat it so I pulled out the fork from the bag and sat down on my bed with the phone still on my ear. “It’s a good kinda deal.” I assured him.
“Alright, I’m listening then.”
“If you win your game on Tuesday then we’ll… celebrate.” I informed him, knowing that waiting another week would be suck-ish for me too because it hasn’t even been a full week yet and I already miss kissing him so much.
“And what do you mean by ‘celebrate’ exactly?” Todd wondered.
I laughed softly. “Use your imagination, Ziff.”
“Okay, but that’s kind of a stupid deal, considering we always win.”
I giggled again and right before hanging up, I chirped a soft, “I know.”
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Okay, we're back in business! This update's a little early because I won't be home tomorrow or at all over the weekend, and I didn't want to make you wait yet another week for an update, so here it is (: Do you like it?! Comment and let me know!
Thanks a whole bunch for reading, my lovelies :3