No Such Thing

The First Day

Natasia woke up early that morning. At least an hour earlier than usual. She spent more time than normal in the bathroom and was way too fussy with what she wanted to wear to school that day.

Nathaniel sat at the kitchen table, sipping his tea, reading his paper, and watching his daughter slowly lose her mind. “Marie?” He asked his wife who was sitting calmly and seemingly not noticing their daughter’s state of mind. “Yes, dear?” She answered, looking up from her paper at him. “Um, are you aware your daughter is losing her marbles?” He said, in a very serious tone.

Natasia stopped when she heard that and glared at him and stomped off to her room. Slamming the door behind her. “Yes, but I wasn’t going to say anything. Now you see why.” She said with one eyebrow raised and went back to reading her paper. “Ah, yes.” He responded and returned to his reading.

“Dad!” Bradley yelled from the end of the hall. “MOM!” quickly followed near the same end of the hallway but in their daughter’s voice. “Your turn.” Marie calmly said to Nate before he could do the same. Sighing he folded his paper and pushed his chair out. He stood, wiped the wrinkles from his slacks and started back towards the hallway. “Be kind, I think there is a boy involved.” Marie said without looking up. He nodded.

“Yes, Brad?” He asked as he passed him in the hallway. “Nat just threw an entire hamper full of dirty clothes in my bed. And they all aren’t mine!” He screams.

“Brad, calm.” Nate soothed him and turned to Natasia. “Nat? Did you..” And before he could get it out she screamed back at her brother. “HE threw my flat iron away, AGAIN! It was in the trash bin!” She was fuming. ‘That didn’t take long.’ He thought.

“Brad?” He looked at his son shaking his head. “We’ve had this conversation. You remember, the one about you respecting other people’s property.”

“It was in the way. She always leaves her things out like she thinks she’s the only one that uses that bathroom. Brody and I both use it too!”

“Leave Brody out of this. HE didn’t touch my stuff! It was only there for a few minutes. I had to let it cool down. Now it has toothpaste on it and hair.. Dad? HAIR!” She was beyond calming. Nate ran his hand over his face and looked at both of his children through his fingers. “Nat, go to your room. I’ll take care of this.” He patted her shoulder. “Please.”

“Yes sir. Please kick him for me.” She replied and turned back down the hall towards her bedroom.

“Brad, must you make things so difficult? I KNOW you knew that thing was too hot to put away. Why must you torment her?” He shook his head, looking sternly at his son.

“Because it is funny and she is a jerk to me sometimes.” He answered.

“Brad, stop. Please.” It wouldn’t be easy to explain to a 10 year old male about a 16 year olds body. So he just asked him to respect his sister’s space. AGAIN. And sent him to finish getting ready for school.

Nate walked back towards the kitchen and sipped his tea. With a disgusted face he spit the cold tea into the sink. “Ew, so much for a nice quiet morning to enjoy hot tea.” He turned and noticed he was talking to himself. Marie had already left the kitchen. “Nice.” He mumbled. He set his cup in the sink and cleared breakfast from the table. He picked his newspaper up and headed back to the master bedroom.

Marie knew why Nat was so upset but she couldn’t let Nat know. Marie was one of 7 girls in her family. The oldest. She could always tell when one of her sisters had boy problems. She knocked on her door. “Nat?” She said, “Nat my dear, it’s your mum. Please, let me in.” Marie heard the door unlock. As she slowly opened it and walked through the frame she could see Natasia sitting on her bed, holding her legs tightly pulled to her chest. “Love, what has your frazzled this mornin’?” Her mother asked softly as she sat next to her putting her head on her daughter's shoulder and held her close. Natasia put her head against her mom’s and sighed. They’ve always been close. The only girls in the house they had to hold strong to one another. “I met someone yesterday.” She said plainly. “Ok, was it that bad?” Her mother responded. “No, actually it was nice. Almost, familiar? I’m not sure how to explain it. I was walking at my regular pace not really paying attention and suddenly, I’m walking beside him. He didn’t see me or if he did he did a great job of ignoring me. But I walked quietly beside him for a bit and he still didn’t say anything to me. I really think he didn’t notice me. He looked upset.” She looked down at her hands. “But, I said hi to him. He looked startled, scared, then calmed a bit and stuttered out a hi back.” Natasia was trying to explain it all to her mom as best she could. “I don’t understand Natty my girl, what has ye frizzled?” Marie tended to have a thicker accent when she was speaking calm and low. It made Nat giggle. “Nothing really. I just get aggravated with the boys. They aren’t very thoughtful when I need it. It is really just selfish thinking mom. Nothing they did.” Natasia finally sighed and pulled away from her mom. “Really, they’ve done nothing. I wanted to look nice. Cayden, that’s his name, is or may walk with me again this morning.” She stood up and turned to her mom. “I wanted to look, you know. Nice-ish.” She half grinned. “Darlin, you look amazing.” Her mom answered and stood up. Swept her skirt straight and headed towards the door. “Pay no mind to the dirty boys that live in this house. They’re nasty critters.” She giggled and walked out. It wasn’t much of a visit but just talking to her mom always makes her feel better.

Natasia finished her hair, grabbed her back pack, and closed her door behind her. She checked her watch and noticed it was 6:50. She had just enough time to grab something from the kitchen and head out. Her mom had pastries set on the counter, she grabbed one. “Better?” Her father asked. “Yes.” She answered him meekly. “Sorry, Pops. Didn’t mean to start trouble so early. See ya this afternoon.” She kissed his cheek, turned and headed out the door. Just in time, she could see Cayden at the top of the hill.