Rayne
The day before Winter Break at our school is always insanity. Teachers try, halfheartedly, to control the chaos and assign homework. Most classes end up watching movies all day.
Leave it to me to test into the classes that don't.
Still, walking out of school, even if I did have a mountain of homework on my back, was amazing. I was free for two whole weeks. Completely free.
Okay, well, not completely.
My mom's Aunt Bertha was in the hospital. It was bad. Mom was going to spend two whole weeks in sunny Florida, playing nurse-maid.
This meant a couple of things:
One; I would spend Christmas and New Year's without family. Not a tragedy. Mom gave me three hundred bucks beforehand, with instructions to buy myself a killer present.
Two; I couldn't go on the ski-trip Sean had invited me on. That was more disappointing; Skiing with Sean was always a high-point of my year.
Three; I had to babysit.
Of course, this wasn't the term my mom used. But that's still what it was. For two weeks, it would be Azi and I.
Completely alone.
I was still experiencing some heeby-jeebies from my dream, which had taken place almost a week ago now. Being around Azi did something to me, something I couldn't really explain. It made me jumpy and calm at the same time. And it certainly wreaked havoc on my system.
Mom wasn't thrilled with the arrangement either, but necessity called her. Her Aunt Bertha had raised her.
Azi seemed to be the only one that was indifferent to the arrangement.
"It does not matter, does it?" He pointed out when I brought up some of my worries. "You can avoid me just as well without your mother here."
Okay, so, yeah. He'd noticed. But it didn't bother me.
And he had a point. It wasn't like we were going to get all "Breaking Dawn" while my mom was away.
So, the day after break started, my mom gave me a tearful goodbye and Azi a stern "Keep your hands to yourself."
And then she drove off.
I turned to Azi.
"So . . ." My breath made a mushroom cloud in the air. "We're free. What do you wanna do?"
He smiled, the first time he'd done so in a while.
Funny, I hadn't noticed that before . . .
"I want to go inside and eat the most unhealthy dinner you can think of while watching mind-numbing television."
I smiled back. "Alright. Ice-cream and "I Love Lucy" it is!"
