“Hey honey! How was your night?” my mom asks eagerly.
“Fine,” my sister replies. We ride home in silence. My mom parks the car in the garage and my sister and l walk in the house. l go to the snack cupboard and grab cheez-its and a plastic baggie. l hear my sister slam her bedroom door. l start counting out cheez-its. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Mom walks in and sets her purse and bible on the table.
“LESLIE! How many times must l tell you, take your shoes off by the rug when you come inside,” my mom yells to my sister, Leslie. 18,19,20,21,22,23. Leslie walks out throws her boots off and stomps back into her room. l hear my mom let out a large sigh. 27,28,29,30. l zip the bag up and open the fridge. l pull a splash cooler capri sun out and the bagel bag,  pop my bagel in the toaster and start it. l finish making my lunch for tomorrow, then llay in bed finishing homework and reading. l look at the time, 11:07.
“Night mom, love you,” l shout across the hall.
“Night, honey, love you too,” she yells back.
“l tell tails tall as cliffs, you’ve got a lisp, kid these things are hard to miss, and when you’re drunk you just make love, honey please, like you’ve got somewhere to be, but l can’t bare to hear the things about last year,” Leslie’s music blares. l turn over pulling the blankets with me.
“And l can’t talk to you, the way l wanted to, l’ve been telling lies, but l’ll tell you the truth,” the man sings. l hear the soft voice of my sister singing along. The music is so loud. I would never tell her to turn it down though. My sister loudly walks out of her room and into the kitchen.
“EMILIA!” Leslie shouts. ----, l finished the bagels. She storms in my room holding the empty bagel bag l threw in the trash.
“WHAT IS THIS?” she asks, furious.
“A empty bagel bag,” l say, knowing l’ve gone too far.
“God you're annoying,” she screams.
“We do not use God’s name in vain,” my mom says quietly from her room. l smirk.
“Sorry, aren’t there more in the freezer?” l ask already knowing the answer.
“Nope,” she says and storms off. l pick my book up again and read another four chapters. l brush out my hair and spray detangler in it, the only solution. As l’m practically ripping my hair out of my head, l hear Leslie go back in her room, her steps heavy. About an hour later l finally fall asleep. l wake up around six. l slam my head into my pillow and urge my body to fall back to sleep. l don’t and l look at my mom as she peeks through the slit in my doorway.
“Good morning sweetheart,” she says. l flip over in my bed and stare at the collage my oldest sister Selena made me. My throat burns as l attempt to push saliva down it. l wonder why l don’t hear Leslie’s hair straightener, when l realize that she has first hour release and she doesn’t have to go into school until second hour. l put a t-shirt on and unbraid my hair. l throw a flannel with my brothers band name emblazoned on the back. l pull my favorite pair of jeans up and stick a bobby pin in my hair. l lastly poke earrings in my ears and walk out of my room hauling my backpack behind me.
“Be careful, we don’t want to scratch the floor,” my mom calls from the kitchen. l continue to drag it til l’m in the kitchen, and l lean it against the fridge. l open the snack cupboard, grab the cereal and milk from the fridge. l see a bowl, spoon, measuring cups, and a normal cup are already out for me. l pour the off-brand frosted flakes into the full cup measuring cup and then into the glass bowl. l grab an extra handful of the cereal and shove it in my mouth. l pour milk in my bowl and orange juice into my cup, after l’ve measured them at half a cup. We leave at seven twenty, two minutes later than my mom likes. l trip over some trash as l walk out to the heated car. l go into the front seat and throw my backpack at my feet.
“And l think l could make it right, but l drank way too much tonight, and l found some sort of a loophole that’s letting in some light, and for a second l could read my text, and my shoes were tied way to tight, and you know l tend to fight, and you know l tend to blur my sight, and you know l try to hang from balconies know matter what the height,” the radio sings. l shut it off hearing those last words. The car ride is quiet again. l walk in my school my mom trailing behind me. We walk into her classroom and l park myself on her rolling chair. l leave her room at 7:42 and look for Emily. “Baby do you remember when? Fireworks lake michigan?” l sing in my head. Emily’s standing at her locker.
“Hey!” she says, really excited.
“Hey,” l answer back not as cheery. Then l notice Grace standing on the other side of Emily. Emily puts her coat in her locker and closes it. We walk toward the staircase, Grace and Emily chatting, me standing couple feet away. They start to turn down the stairs, l’’m going to first hour.
“Hey! Wait!” Emily calls to me with no resolve. She stops shouting and l walk down the long hallway and down another hallway and then lastly down a flight of stairs. l get to the bottom and turn right. l sigh when l see the door is locked and a few people are waiting outside it. l stand there with the rest of them. No one even trying to make conversation. l check my pump and it says its 7:56. l check every ten seconds and right around 7:58 Mrs.Jesser walks up and unlocks her door talking to her teacher friend. We all walk in her room and set our back packs down. l check the time until it says 8:01 and the bell rings. It’s always a minute off. The bell rings again.
“Shattuck students and staff please stand for the pledge,” the boy over the loudspeaker says. l stand up and place my hand on my heart.
“l pledge allegiance to the flag, of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all,” my whole class recites. l sit back down and my teachers starts reading aloud.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I wonder what would have happened it I'd called out a warning. Or kept my mouth shut later. Would J.T. and Digger still be my best friends? Would the DiAngelos still be living next door? One thing's for sure: If none of this had happened, I'd be out there crabbing every day, baiting my pots in the morning and pulling them in after school. Fall's a great time for catching crabs before the females head south and the males burrow into the mud. I could fix the engine on the boat easy if I wanted.,” my teacher reads. l’ve read this book so l tune my teacher out. l go through my day, my favorite classes being gym, art, and science. After science l walk back to my mom’s room and wave to Emily as she walks past me. l wonder if she knew that she was pretty much my only friend, if she would hang out more. l walk into my mom’s room and sit on the rolling chair again and pull out my school distributed laptop and check my e-mail. Only one.
“Mindmeister! Success story:Learn from the best! Anthony Valentin. Mr. V uses mindmeister in the classroom.” it reads. Boring. We drive home and mom pulls up to the mailbox. I nearly fall out of the window trying to grab it. l see the red car sitting in the gravel driveway.
“Ugh,” l sigh. We drive past it as we pull in and l make a face at Lorenzo and Leslie. l usually hate them both. l go inside and see there are large foot prints leading to Leslie’s room. l quickly grab paper towel and wipe them up. l sit at the computer for twenty minutes. lt’s 4:03.
“Mom, Leslie’s late,” l shout. That’s what Leslie gets for making me cover for her.
“Oh, right, will you go say something?” she asks me .
“I’d love to,” l answer. l throw my winter boots on and walk out to the red car.
“Leslie, you’ve got to come in, and next time, Lorenzo, you should probably take your shoes off when you come in, l won’t clean them up again,” l say smirking.
“Oh my God, thanks so much,” Leslie praises.
“Yeah but like l said, l won’t clean them up again,” l say.
“Well we’ll come in now,” she tells me.
“Alrighty, l don’t care what you do, mom just told me to tell you to come in,” l say walking away. My boots are off right away by the door and l check in her room, its a mess, it was so much cleaner this morning. Ten minutes later she walks in.
“Six,” l shout to her.
“Six what?” she asks.
“Six minutes late,” l reply.
“Shut up,” she says to me and walks into her room.
“Oh my God, thanks so much!” l answer, mimicking her, in a high pitched voice.  “SHUT UP,” she yells from her room.
“Your not my mom!” l shout back.
“Leave it tomorrow! l don’t need your help,” she screams.
“Okay,” l reply.
“Girls! l am sick of your bickering!” mom shouts from the kitchen.
“Were not arguing!” l yell.
“Yeah, we're debating,” Leslie calls to mom.
“Well, l don’t like it either way,” she softly yells back. l shut my door. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe Leslie won’t have so many secrets.