I looked up from my fluffy pink pillow that I got for Christmas last year. Yuck! I looked at my picture board, and saw about thirty pictures of me, my family, and my friends. Right under that, my antique dresser sat. It was overflowing with shirts. I’ll have to pick that up…
How could Richard do this? My brother, Chris, is moving out, because of him. He is 26, and lives with us (Richard-my stepfather, my mom, and me) while taking college classes, so he doesn’t have to pay any rent. Richard is constantly getting mad at us. You want examples? OK. He hates our 4 month old Golden Retriever, Mattie, and whenever she barks, he threatens to sell her, or even put her to sleep, if we don’t train her. Once, when Chris, mom and I went to dinner, and we were a half-hour late, because it took a little longer to eat then we first thought, and we got stuck in traffic on the way home, and he blew up! He does not know the meaning of “calm down”. I even got grounded for a week for “sassing off”, when I was trying to explain what happened. Then I told him he’s not my dad, so you’re not in charge of me, and another 2 weeks were added on. At least I had no place to go. Now, Chris and I were a little to busy with homework to help him run to the grocery store where he said he had to buy, “a hundred things”. Then he actually had the nerve to tell us that he was tired of our attitudes, and said that with one phone call, he could send me off to boot camp, and convince Rachel, my mom, to kick Chris out. I was sent up to my room to do my homework, and Chris took a walk, leaving his homework on the kitchen table.
To take my mind off things, I tried to read my history book. It didn’t work. If only I were 18 instead of 16, I could move out of this dump. OK, I shouldn’t call it a dump, it’s the nicest place I’ve ever lived in, witch isn’t saying much, considering the other places we’ve lived. But it’s like, 200 times better than before. We always used to live in a two bedroom apartment, a half-house, or a town-house. We were pretty poor, but managing. Well, if you call living on Raumen Noodles paid by my mom’s half-time job at Burger King and Child Support managing. 3 years ago, Mom secretly started dating Richard, saying she was going on job interviews or going out with her friends. The next year, she introduced Chris and me to him, and told us that they were engaged. When he went home, we asked her why she didn’t tell us about him earlier. She said that she didn’t want us to get attached to him in case it ended badly. But when we asked why she still didn’t tell us when things got pretty serious, she just said to drop it. She obviously still hadn’t been sure if things would workout, or there was something about him that made her not want us to be around him. When they got married, we all moved into his 3 story house with a bathroom for each of us, separate rooms for everyone (except Richard and Mom, of course), and a bedroom to spare. Did I mention that Richard owns his own mall, and rents out spaces for stores? So, he’s practically a millionaire. OK, he is a millionaire.
Yeah, the house is small for somebody that rich, but we have a beach house the same size in Florida, and one that is a little bigger than our home out in California. We live in rural New York
“Kendra! Phone!” my mother shouted over the T.V. blasting downstairs, Richard watching some stupid cop show.
“Who is it?” I questioned.
“Mallory.” At that I ran downstairs, eager to talk to someone who understands me, besides Chris. Mal is one of my best friends.
“Hey Mal! What’s up?”
“Hi Kendy. Oh, nothin’ much, I just finished my homework, and I was bored, so I called you. How ‘bout you?” Mal said in her stuffy voice, the result of many allergies.
“Other than Richard blowing up at Chris and me for no good reason, like usual, not much.” I said loud enough for Richard to hear.
“Wow. What happened?”
“Chris and I both have tons of homework and he wanted us to go to the grocery store and help him out. We told him we were busy, and he threatened to send me to boot camp and kick Chris out! I’m surprised that he hasn’t figured out that Chris has been looking for a place to rent ever since he got here.” I filled Mal in on all the details about Richard’s fit, while she wowed and mmhhmmed at all the right times.
Mallory Bedford is a tall, skinny blue eyed girl with blond hair that falls down in long locks. She doesn’t fit the stereotype at all. She has had a 4.0 grade average since the third grade, is a walking dictionary, and can recite the whole Declaration of Independence
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