I put another spoonful of Cheetos into my mouth and continue typing up my final English essay. Most graduates were done weeks ago, but my online deadlines have always been flexible. Crazy to think that High School passed me by without me actually stepping foot in a school.
Emmaline, our housekeeper, startles me with a clearing of her throat. "Miss Kasei."
I turn to her, sheepishly putting my spoon down in anticipation of what she's going to say.
"Don't you know how unhealthy that is?" She scolds me and sits a green smoothie down beside my laptop. Called it.
"It's my off day." I mumble through my full mouth. Being a ballerina means a strict schedule of what you're allowed to eat and when. I take full advantage of my cravings when I have a day off from dieting.
"I know. We have a chart in the kitchen. That's why I put a few crushed chocolate chips in your morning smoothie." Emmaline gestures to it, and picks up the bag of crushed Cheetos. "Firstly, I don't understand why you crush these things up and eat them my spoonful-"
"That way I don't get cheesy fingers, Em." I wiggle my fingers and gesture at my laptop. "I have things to do and don't want my keyboard to get dirty, I just bought this."
She narrows her eyes at me. "A solution to that would be not eating these at all." She rattles the bag.
"They're halved, I can measure how many of them I eat this way."
She gives me a blank look. "Doesn't make it any more healthy."
"Well..."
"-And...where did you get those anyways." She cuts me off, crossing her round arms in front of her. "I know I din't buy them and your mother would never allow these to be in the house."
"Dakota." I mumble.
My crazy best friend.
Emmaline sighs, the furrow in her brow deepening. "Momma mia."
"What? She left them here last time she came over."
"I'm not going to say anything." She shakes her head.
"Em..."
She waves her hand behind her and leaves the room muttering: "I give my girls the good wholesome food and they prefer the bagged chemicals instead."
"Thanks for the smoothie Em!" I call as she stomps down the stairs.
Emmaline, who I prefer to call Momma Em, or just Em, is our housekeeper/nanny/cook. Its strange that we have a housekeeper to do stuff for us, and a security gate to keep unwanted people out, but I suppose when your Mother is basically a celebrity, and you've lived with it your whole life, you get used to it.
Emmaline and her family came to America about 25 years ago, she had 3 kids at the time, and no experience doing much. She ran into my Dad at a coffee shop and, the kind soul he is, he hired her on the spot to clean around the house when they weren't home, and cook some meals when they were. Flash forward about six years. Emmaline has two more kids, my mother got pregnant with me, and suddenly, the 'strange Italian cleaning lady they never saw' became a good friend, and her 5 young kids became a part of our family. My parents got a divorce when I was two.
I sigh and close my laptop, mind now distracted.
I don't remember my father. All I know of the situation is one day Dad didn't come home, and the next day while I'm at the store with Em and her girls, Mother had a 'freedom' party. A few days later all his stuff was gone, and my mother threw herself into her ballet. As a young girl with suddenly no parents ever in sight, I told my mom I wanted to be a Ballerina. That's how I could spend time with her.
I've been in ballet ever since.
I break out of my train of thought when I take a sip from the smoothie, and almost gag. I used to love smoothies, they were a constant throughout my chaotic childhood, but now I can usually only manage a couple sips. It's been years, and I haven't told Em how I hate them with a passion.
Suddenly my phone starts buzzing. I smile at the face on my screen and pick it up, hearing the familiar 'good morning Lina.' and 'Morning Miss Dakota.' response.
I look at my abandoned laptop with a chuckle. "What's up Dakota?"
"How do you always know it's me?" She groans.
I laugh. "First of all, there's a thing called caller ID, smartie."
"Right." She giggles. "No need to be sassy."
I roll my eyes, even though she can't see it.
"Anyway." She drags out the last syllable. "Are ya busy? Or still working on that school thing?"
"Would it matter if I was? You would come up anyway."
"Not true!" She gasps. "I could help Lina in the kitchen." I hear Em on the other end arguing that Dakota is a guest and will not be helping in the kitchen, or cleaning or anything else. Some more words of argument in Italian, that I know Dakota won't understand, and that Dakota should shoo.
I laugh again. "Mhm...sounds like you have strong encouragement on the other side of that argument, you can just come on up."
She opens the door to my office, startling me so that I drop my phone when she says hello.
I bend to pick up my phone, and hang up. "How'd you get up here so quickly?"
"Lina shooed me with a wooden spoon, before you could even tell me to." Dakota laughs.
I love her laugh. It sounds almost musical, even though I know how bad she is at singing.
"Soooo? What's cookin, good lookin?"
I laugh. "You'll have to ask Emmaline that question."
"I meant you, silly."
"I know."
"Yeah...I may have a few blonde hairs in here." She points to her dark ponytail. "Whatever. Of course I meant you. You're gorgeous."
"Ugh. Stop, you always hype me up." I shake my head. "You're the gorgeous one."
It's true. She could easily step on any runway and instantly belong. Tall and lean, she has a good 5 inches on me and a thick head of dark hair nodding to her Greek heritage. Perfectly straight, and when out of its usual messy bun, falls all the way down to her waist, behaving the way she wants it to. She has that effortless beauty, and it seems that I'm the opposite. My hair is naturally thin and bright red, falling in soft waves. It's cut the perfect length for a ballerina bun, long but not so that it's heavy. The bun is the only style I can keep it in so it'll behave. It's totally annoying, having to use a ton of hair spray for it to stay straight, but Dakota loves it.
She shrugs. "Sure, sure whatever. It's your off day, Right?"
I nod as she takes a sip of my smoothie, cringing for her.
"Mmm. Did Lina add some chocolate in here?"
"Ugh. Yeah. I don't understand how you could drink those things. They are nasty."
"Mm, and yet who hasn't told Lina she hates them?"
"It's Emmaline. Not Lina." I mutter for the hundredth time this year.
"Yeah, yeah. I've called her Lina forever. You've been calling her Momma Em for longer than that. You also are avoiding the question." She reminds me.
"Yeah, I know. One of these days." That's a lie and we both know it. "When are you going to tell your family that you aren't planning on going to Harvard in September?"
"Touché." She sighs. "That's basically the whole reason I'm here today."
"See and I thought you were just here to keep me from doing my final assignment." I laugh.
"You really oughta stop stressing so much about it. Who cares if you don't ace this one last paper? You have your whole future lined up for you." She fiddles with the end of her ponytail.
"Well I don't know about that. Alondra was in a super bitchy mood yesterday." I sigh and spin my chair around as she moves to the chair on the other side of the room.
"When is she not? That woman is crazy, but you're good. You'll get in any school you want."
"I can't be just good. I have to be perf-"
"Perfect, I know but don't start spiraling down on me again. I need you." Dakota pouts.
"I love you too, and I'm not going to."
"No, like I actually need you. My dad is pissing me off today, I really need to find a place to live."
I crinkle my nose. Her parents are just as hard on her to be the perfect daughter, and I hate to see how it hurts her. "Well you know you're welcome to come stay with me again, for as long as you want."
"No, I'm going to find a place to live in the city."
"In the city?" I feel my brows raise.
"Why not? This rural area is just full of snobs and I don't wanna have to commute all that way now for work." She blows a loud breath out.
"You got a job?"
"Not yet, but I need to."
"You just graduated like a week ago?" I cross one leg.
"I know, but when I tell my parents I'm not going to law school I can't be living with them or dependant on them at all." She taps one finger to her head.
"You know, you're actually smart sometimes." I laugh.
"I know." Dakota winks. "Don't tell anyone. So." She claps. "I don't want to go find a new roommate. You need to be my roomie."
"I'm not sure... I don't think I could stand to live with you. You are too messy. Also all that art stuff lying around..? I could just stay here."
"You seriously want to live with your 'Mother' forever?" She smirks at the name.
"She's never even home anyway. I get what you mean, but I'll also have to get a job if I live and pay rent somewhere." I add.
"Oh no...poor Kasei needs to pull up her big girl thong and get a job...how tough." Dakota teases me.
I swat her. "Shut up. You don't have one either."
"I did. Until I quit cuz my boss was an asshat." She huffs. "I've been looking though, and there's a couple places in the city where we could work."
"We?" I raise my eyebrows. "You've been looking for me too?"
"Of course."
"How'd you know I'd say yes?" I turn back to my laptop to find our résumés.
"I'm a very convincing person." She turns to the printer to grab them as they come out. "And now I feel like such an adult." Dakota sighs as she looks down at them.
"Well, you know...if we get a job at the same place, I could manage to live with you..." I reason.
She jumps up "Excellent idea, Kase! Now, let's go get more rich than all our parents combined!"
I pick up my purse, chuckling at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, right."
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