Living with the Swaylers

Chapter 4: What's going on here?

When I woke up around 9, I put my hair in a messy bun and headed downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast. Most of the guys were there eating toasted bagels. 

"Good morning!" Josh said as I slowly walked into the kitchen. 

"Good morning," I replied. I looked to see there was a bag of bagels and a toaster on the kitchen island along with butter, cream cheese, and a half gallon of milk. 

"Help yourself, plates are in that cabinet and cups are in the one to the left of it," Blake said pointing to one of the cabinets. I helped myself to a toasted bagel as well and took a seat at the bar styled side of the kitchen island where Blake and Ash were also sitting. Jordan was standing leaning against the counter, and so was Josh. Max and Tyler were sitting down at the small dinning table not far from where we were.

"What's happening today?" I asked taking a bite of my bagel. 

Jordan walked over to the calendar on the wall that I didn't realize was there before. It was a huge whiteboard calendar that had the whole month, but every square for the days was big enough to fit plans for every person living here. "Let's see.... Ash is selling a car, Max has a meeting at one, Blake is going to the skate park, Tyler has to do dishes tonight and he's also going to play soccer with some friends, I'm making dinner tonight, Josh made breakfast, some other things.... why? What do you have planned today?" 

"Not much, although I was hoping to go on a run after breakfast. And... I was wondering, could someone teach me how to drive?" I asked. 

The guys looked at each other exchanging looks like "who's going to teach her? Not it". After a few seconds of that, they finally all looked at Josh. Josh sighed then shrugged his shoulders. "I could teach you. I have some work to do first, but we'll be able to start this afternoon."

"Really? Thanks!" I said. I didn't realize it was that easy. 

"What car is she going to drive?" Ash asked Josh. 

"I guess the old Jeta, it's pretty easy to drive," Josh replied. "Is that okay with you?" he asked me. 

I nodded. I want to drive any car that they have that isn't really expensive, I do not want to crash one of those costing them thousands if not millions of dollars. 

"Great, I'll let you know when I'm ready to teach you," he said. I gave a small smile and nodded again. Yay! 

"Also, what's the best route to run?" I asked. 

"We have a treadmill in the workout room downstairs you know," Ash said. 

"I did not know that, but I'd also much rather run outside in the fresh air," I said. 

"Well there's a route Jordan used to run that's about 4 miles that he could show you," Blake said volunteering Jordan who looked at him. They shared a look.

"Jordan, would you be willing to?" I asked him hopeful and I imagine with big eyes. 

Jordan set down his bagel. "Sure, why not," he said unenthusiastically. I smiled. 

___

"So how do you know this route?" I asked Jordan as we started running down the street and onto a pathway between the houses onto a sort of green belt thing. 

"Freshman and sophomore year I ran Track, and I trained for it before the season began by running around here," he said. 

Knowing he's going into his senior year, I asked, "Why did you stop?" 

"Well, I don't know, I guess I just felt like people were always expecting something from me. Now don't get me wrong, I was one of the faster guys, but it's like as soon as I had a bad race, I let the team down. And then the last race of sophomore year, I sprained my ankle along with bad shin splints," he explained.