A Fresh Start

Chapter 5-September 2012

TK-

"TK! Sweetie. Are you home?" Shouts Mandy from the open garage door.

I poke my head out from my room and see her holding groceries in both arms.

"Do you need me to get more or just these?" I ask, walking over to my foster mom.

"I'll get these. There are more in the car. Conner! Eric! Get the rest, please," she says and races up the stairs.

I raise my eyebrow at Eric as he walks over carrying a couple of bags.

"She had to pee. We were making waterfall sounds in the back seat," he says with a grin.

"Wow. You're evil," I say as I rub his head. Conner is walking behind him carrying a bunch of bananas. "Is that really all you're going to carry. He at least grabbed two," I moan and point to the backside of Eric's head.

Conner shrugs, " you're the big brother. You should carry them all."

I hate making two trips, so I overload my arms and carry everything upstairs. By the time I come up, Mandy is back from the bathroom and scolds her boys as I dump 9 bags on the island. She looks at me and then at them.

"You two start putting stuff away. Don't argue. If you had helped more, you'd be off the hook," she says and smiles as I stick my tongue out at them both. " before you get on your high horse. did you finish your homework?"

"Um, mostly. What?!? I wasn't playing a video game?" I say in response to her face.

"I bet you were texting and chatting with your friends. Phone. Now," she says, and she looks at me sternly. "You know the rules. You two get your backpacks and get started. It's Friday night, and we are going to watch a movie. I'm thinking...Star...."

The last word is wars, but Conner is yelling with excitement. We have been slowly working through the Star Wars movies because I haven't seen them before. According to Conner, the rest aren't as good, but they are better, according to Dan. I don't know who to believe.

I pull out my Algebra book and get started. It's only been about a month since school started, but I pulled a 98 out of my first test. Dan was so excited when I came home with it, only to be shown, another for English the next day and another for French the day after that. He joked that it's less exciting each time, but no less impressive. Conner's next to me at the dining room table doing his English homework, and Eric's reading "The Giver" and answering questions in a workbook as he goes. He learned early on that I went to the same middle school as him with the same teachers, so I had already read the books. I didn't realize he was asking me questions based on the homework and not actually reading until Mandy overheard us talking. He was annoyed at me for a day or so because of that one.

"How was practice today?" Asks Mandy as she looks at her phone.

"It was good. Coach thinks he might move me to Varsity next week. Depending on the game tomorrow," I say with a smile. She is excited for me.

"What time is your game tomorrow? Oh, 2. We can do that," she says, looking at her sons. "Won't it be fun to support your big brother?"

Connor nods and turns back to his homework, and Eric nods, trying to focus on his book.

I run through my math homework pretty quickly. It's not that difficult, thankfully, and I feel Connor taping my arm with his pencil. I look over and he's pointing at the page for me to check it. I look it over, and he is learning sentence structures, basic stuff, but not for a kid.

I look to see where Mandy is right now, but she is texting on her phone. Probably talking to Dan, who's wrapping up a late day at work.

I'm quick and quiet when I whisper, " look at 9 and 10 again." He grins, and I see Eric is looking at me, and I raise my eyebrows.