Reflected

Chapter 1.1

I could see Mel from the corner of my eye as I turned to the toddler who managed to open the front door once again and managing his own against the concrete stairs. I shook my head with a sigh following behind me.

"I'm home" I call out as I pick up Brantley and took him into the house as I walk through the house into my grandmother's room "looks like we have a little escape artist" I joke with Mammy who was sitting on the bed with her phone in her head and the noise of the ending of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse music filling the air.

"Brantley," Mammy said with her thic Filipino accent.

"No escaping today," Zoe laughed as I placed Brantley on the bed that stood pushed against the wall that the window was in. I pick the remote and play the next recorded episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as the sound blares loud in the small room. I slip out of the room "Can you get me some water?" Mammy asks and I nod as I slip into the kitchen grabbing a water bottle before handing it to her.

"How was school?" Mammy asked

"It was okay" I say despite not much happening in school "we learned, I think we are staring to learn Algebra"

"Oh wow" Mammy shook her head and twisted her her wrist, I look down at the not on her wrist due to her arthritis "Isn't that college courses?"

"No, I don't think so, I believe it's just an introductory to it. They probably wont go fully into it since school is about to be let out for summer" I causally open the water bottle and hand it back to Mammy.

"JJ and Ryan's party is the day after tomorrow do you mind telling Trinity?" Mammy says mentioning my older sister and Brantley's mom.

"Is she here?" I turn to Zoe who shrugs her shoulders "I'll go check" I say and slip out of the room towards the kitchen/ by the back porch and slowly and quietly open her door. I peak in the dark room and noting down in my head that she's not there meaning I would have to call her using Mammy's phone. I slip back into Mammy's room. "Trinity's not here. Can I use your phone to call her?" I ask Mammy as she hands it to me and I slip out and into my room that was by the front door. Trying to be a quiet as possible as my grandfather, Daddy-daddy whom had cancer and was being taken care of by grandmother was resting.

The phone rings before it picks up, "Hello?" Her voice picks up through the phone.

"Has Mammy told you about the party at the cousins?" I asked.

"Which one?"

"JJ and Ryan's house"

"Yea, I'll be there tomorrow to take y'all" Trinity answers as I hear the sound of her arguing with Brantley's dad, Steven, in the background

"Are there any copes there? Can you look by the buses though the window?" Steven asks, I look outside seeing a cop sitting outside "There is" I answer "Okay, yea we'll be by tomorrow if they ask tell them that you don't know where I am" he says

"Ok, bye" I say and hangup the phone. I sigh looking at the phone shaking my head at my sister's choices of men. I don't even know why she likes him if they are literally always arguing about everything under the sun, I think to myself as I walk by to Mammy's room and hand her the phone before going outside into the grass. I sit on the hill next to the fence and the trees that looked like cherry blossoms to me as I could see images of Keith, his friends and his sister coming up the hill. My eyes catch sigh of him with a sigh "I wish I didn't like him" I muttered under my breath to myself. I've known Keith since we moved with my Mammy when I was four. Since then, off and on, I've had a clear and unfortunately known crush on him.

Since early this year when my friend who moved away mentioned my crush around his friend and him at the same table it's been awkward. I shoot my head as I laid down in the grass looking up at the sky listening to the sounds around me.