There is a park bench in my backyard, and it sickens me.
My stepfather's company headquarters were built where a sprawling public park filled with emerald greenery and children's laughter and college ultimate frisbee players once sat. After kicking all of these carefree, untroubled youth out of their play space and relegating them to a smaller, less beautiful park, he took a bench from the safe haven and placed it in the back garden of his obnoxious mansion to represent how he took joy away from the greater San Francisco area.
And I'm even more appalled that I fell asleep on it last night. I mean, sure, sleeping outside in the cold San Francisco night was better than enduring Madison's ice storm. But now, all because of Madison, there was a crick in my neck that wouldn't go away.
The last thing I remembered was walking out of dinner, wanting to avoid any extreme blowups from my stepsister. I sat on the bench for a while, but must have fallen asleep as I counted the stars.
So I stiffened upright and staggered toward the sliding glass doors, rubbing my contact-lens-free eyes until a somewhat-focused picture of my family comes into view. Hurriedly, my mom, stepdad, and stepbro (who, admittedly, was not as bad as the other two, but maybe that was because he was away at college all the time) were packing away, getting ready for the Italy trip.
I was beyond grateful that Mom had decided to let me bring my old friend Naomi, from back when I lived in southern California. Especially since it would just be the family - plus Madison's deadbeat boyfriend Ethan.
Ew.
I stumbled inside, still half-asleep. "Oh, Siena, honey. We were going to wake you up last night, but..." Mom began to explain.
"It's fine. I didn't mind, except... I think... I might have some, like, bug bites? Or something?"
"Are you tired, honey?" Mom sighed, peering over me like I'd suddenly turned green. You can go back to bed, if you want. It's only five, and our flight leaves at nine. We'll wake you up at seven or so, if you want."
"Thank you," I mumbled, stomping up the cast-iron spiral staircase up to my room. My mom married a billionaire six months ago, and I still couldn't believe the size of his house. There were four people living here: myself, Madison, Mom, and Pete. Isaac didn't even live here anymore. Why did we need such a big house?
My thoughts were interrupted when I walked into my room and promptly fell back asleep.
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"Sienaaa!" Madison's shrieks were loud enough to shake the house - the entire crazy, sprawling, unrealistically-high-square-foot thing.
Figuring it was just one of her mindless freak-outs about misplaced hair dye or something like that, I pulled my pillow over my head and pretended not to hear anything. Mom would come into my room and wake me up when it was time, and Pete, my stepdad, would deal with his daughter.
That was the unspoken rule in this house: take care of your own kids, no truces, no alliances. Mom and Pete tried to get us to be some kind of nuclear family, but we weren't.
"Siena! Come down here! It's an emergency!" she shouted again, a slightly fewer number of ceramic items shaking on my shelves.
"What is it?" I groan-shouted. I don't know if it was obvious enough, but I really didn't want to go down there. I called Madison "Mad" for a reason. I didn't want to have to go downstairs for some stupid reason like a misplaced cell phone that was actually just in her purse, or perhaps an "emergency" date situation in which her douche boyfriend, Ethan, cancelled.
Ethan. Ew.
"It's nothing like anything I've done before. Just friggin' c'mere!" she yelled.
I groaned and walked out of my room to the steep staircase, where I had to hold the railing to keep from falling down. My vision was always blurry right after I had woken up (although you already knew that.)
"All right, moron, what is it?"
As soon as I showed my face around the corner, Madison was all up in my face. A pink slip of paper in her hand, the pale expression on her face looked like she'd just seen a ghost. "Read this, Siena. Read this shit that's all your fault."
I rubbed my eyes. "You know I don't have my contacts in," I began.
"Ugh. You're useless. I'll just read it out loud," she muttered, snatching the slip right back out of my hands.
"Dear Madison and Siena--
"After last night's episode, and all the episodes before it, we know you two need a bonding session. You girls have never gotten along, and that's why this is perfect for you. We, along with Isaac, left for Capri this morning.
"No, we're not neglectful parents (we hope). You girls simply need to show that you can get along. And what better way to bond than to travel across the country together, like kids used to do? We want you to drive all the way across the country; only then will you fly to Italy. A plane is waiting for you in New York City at LaGuardia. It goes without saying, but Madison (or Ethan, if you decide to bring your friends) drive the whole way because she's the only one with her license.
"And for your journey, we've bought you a brand new (used) car! It's old, but it's in pretty good shape. It's sitting in the driveway right now. We were thinking about freezing your credit cards and leaving you with a certain amount of money, but there are too many ways that could go wrong. However, we will be tracking your spending, and if anything is too crazy (such as buying a plane ticket, which is cheating) we'll send you back on the first plane to San Francisco when you get here.
"You can pick up Ethan and Naomi, or you can call them and tell them the trip's off. Your choice is fine with us. When you get about two hours away from New York City, call the number at the bottom of this note and talk to Moe, our backup pilot. The crew will prepare the jet for you.
"Call us with any questions, starting in 24 hours. You can call us now, of course, but we're on the plane, so we can't guarantee we'll pick up.
"Good luck! Love, Mom and Dad."
I looked at her in shock. "This better be a fucking prank, Madison. If this is a prank, it sure isn't a very creative-"
"It's not a prank," she told me, the color draining from her face. I grabbed my glasses form my bedside table and snatched the letter out of her hands, to check it over one more time. "At least, not a prank by me. Maybe by Mom and Dad." She didn't even acknowledge my swearing, which I never did. That's how I knew she was serious.
I sat up in bed, leaning against my headboard with a scowl. "Did they actually buy us a car?"
"I don't know if I'd call it a car- more like a death trap," Madison scoffed, nervously chewing a section of her bubblegum-colored hair. "But yeah, they did. It's in the driveway."
"They wouldn't go through all that trouble for a prank. That's not their style. Plus, they're pissed at us." My head was spinning out of control. I'd just woken up, and now my mom and stepdad have basically abandoned me with my earthly nemesis? That's not something that happens every day, even in this household.
"Wait," Madison said, pulling her rayPhone out of her back pocket at lightning speed. "You know how Dad's been beta-testing that app that tells you where your family members' phones are?"
"No," I said, my eyes rolling into the back of my head, "but apparently you do, because you're the one who needs to get tracked by-"
"I don't have time for your pathetic attempts at sass, Siena," she snapped. This was the one time in my life that I'd ever listened to Madison, and it was only because I was scared out of my mind. "I was saying that we can use it to figure out if they're really at the airport, or if they're, like, hiding in the guesthouse or something."
Add that to the list of "pretentious things this house has and never uses": a guesthouse.
Madison furiously tapped at her phone, and, with nothing else to do, I get out of bed and change into shorts and a T-shirt. This was supposed to be my comfy plane outfit.
"Okay.... it's true. They're at the airport. Looks like they're not kidding."
We sat in silence for a moment, trying to process all the information flying into our brains at light speed. After what seemed like hours but was probably only 3.2 seconds, I said, "So, are we doing this? Or should we just stay in San Francisco all summer?"
Madison looked at the floor, trying to come up with a response. Finally, she came up with, "We have to do this if we want to go to Italy. I mean, I have to admit, I'm mad about the whole party thing, but I really did want to get to Italy at heart. And Krystal and Dad wouldn't send us on this trip if it wasn't safe. I think we should get going."
"You do have a good point," I whispered, but she could hear me loud and clear. I wanted to get my journal, to mark today as the first day Madison and I had EVER agreed on something.
She smiled slyly. "Well? At least we're all packed. At least we don't have to pay for baggage."
My eyes almost rolled into the back of my head. We had a private jet. And a billionaire's family doesn't ever worry about $25 baggage fees. But somehow, Madison had a point. If we were going to do this, we might as well get going now.
"Siena? Hello?"
There was no telling Madison no on this one. Even though I was still a little shaky on the subject, I did want to get to Italy and get this over with.
Even if it would be way more fun for me and for her to stay here: the ultimate act of rebellion.
"Yeah, but we need to pick up Naomi," I replied. Naomi lived in SoCal, where I lived with my mom before she married Pete. "If you're cool with that."
"Ugh, fine. Luckily, Ethan lives just a few miles away," she simpered. "Grab your phone and everything you need."
"Are you sure--"
"Isn't this, like, the third time I've asked you to go get your cute little pink suitcase? Goooo!"
"Fine." I stomped across the upstairs, where my giant suitcase was waiting. Madison went to the kitchen, putting waters, cans of soda, and packs of Doritos into a shopping bag. I supposed we would get thirsty out there on the road.
"Got your phone? Got your swimsuits? Got your charger? Got everything? Okay, let's head."
Madison seemed incredibly impatient, but maybe it was just nerves from what we were about to embark on. I couldn't deny that reading that letter gave me jitters, too. Was our feud really so bad that our parents left us home to fend for ourselves?
We then stepped outside to see the beautiful Ford that sat in the driveway, our majestic steed ready to carry us off into the sunset. It couldn't be less than twenty-five years old, I was almost certain, and the sides were rusted so much that I figured is get tetanus just standing here. Pete had never bought Madison a car, for some reason or another (I suspected he didn't trust her much after she dyed her hair, but that's just my guess) and I guess they had to transport us somehow.
"Oh. My. God." On the topic of my parents, I suddenly flashed back to a few hours before, a sickly pit in my stomach starting to form.
"What is it?" Madison asked. I doubted she cared.
"I fell asleep on the bench in the backyard last night," I carefully began. "I woke up at, like, five this morning and came inside, and Mom, your dad, and Isaac were still here. They told me to go back to bed. I think-"
"We totally got screwed over?" Madison offered.
"Yeah. We totally did," I sighed. And because of my carelessness, I had to drive cross-country with Madison.