Chapter 2: SIAN

Wow, the new house looked like one of those Mc-Mansion things they were always talking about on the news.

It was ginormous, and the grounds looked like my grandma's place in England.

Us three kids ran hell-bent for leather towards the front door, already fighting over which rooms we wanted. I wasn't too worried though I know their taste.

Jared will want something in the attic so he can pretend that he's living alone in a bachelor pad, so he can have whatever brainless friends he makes come over and talk about stupid football.

Maggie will want the room closest to mom and dad because, at eight, she was still very much the baby of the family. And that left every other room inside this beauty up for grabs.

I ended up with a room overlooking the gardens with a magnificent view of the mountains off in the distance. I felt my first real burst of excitement and spun around, hugging myself.

Of course, the first thing I did was break out the phone to take snapshots and send them off to my girls back home.

There was a tinge of sadness when I was finished doing that, but I squashed it before it could bring me down again. Dad had promised that we could go back to visit sometimes, so I would hold onto that.

For the next couple of days, there was a flurry of unpacking and finding things, losing things, panicking because we thought we'd left something that we just couldn't live without behind.

We dropped into bed at the end of each night exhausted. Dad was pretty excited about his new office and the new people he would be working with, and mom was playing social hostess to all the housewives who kept dropping by with welcome baskets.

I had yet to see anyone my age and my brother was already tearing at his chains; he can't go too long without playing with pigskin.

Mom had set up salon visits for us for the Saturday before school started. I flirted with the idea of cutting my hair, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Mom had never got my hair cut, not once. She was an old hippie throwback, I guess, so I wore my honey blonde hair straight down my back to the top of my ass.

I got lots of compliments on it wherever we went, and the truth is, I really loved it and was proud of the fact that it had never been touched.

It was full and lustrous, so in the end, I just had it washed and set. The curls wouldn't last too long because my hair was thick and heavy, but for the day or two, it will last; I could enjoy flipping my bouncy curls over my shoulder like a twit.

***

"Okay, you kids remember to look out for each other today. It's a new school, so there's bound to be some adjusting to be done.

Jared, I want you to keep an eye on your little sister." Dad arched his brow over my head like I didn't know that those words were code for 'keep any interested males at arm's length until I've vetted them.'

"Dad, quit it; I can date now, remember?"

"Yes, I know pumpkin, but just because we gave you the green light there that does not mean you get to choose."

"Dad, there're so many things wrong with that statement; my court-appointed lawyer could drive a semi-truck through it."

"Oh-ho, you haven't pulled the emancipation card since you were about ten." He ruffled my beautiful curls, and I slapped his hand away while mom grinned and ushered us out of the house.

She and Dad were taking Maggie to her new school together. I remember those days and sometimes missed them, days when mommy and daddy stood between me and the world. And all those pesky little things that scared you.

Suck it up, Sian; you're a big girl now. "You ready, squirt? I was thinking since it's our first day and everything that maybe we could ride in together." My brother, the dweeb, hugged my shoulders and led me out of the house.

I guess I hadn't done a good enough job of hiding my angst. It's one thing to stand in front of my mirror and pontificate about what I would say and do if anyone got on my bad side, but quite another to actually be walking into the unknown.

"Fine, you can drive us in today, but no football talk; my ears are about to bleed." The boy eats, sleeps, and lives the gridiron.

He came by it naturally, since dad played in high school, college, and the league for a few years before he went the business route. Dad was smart. He'd played long enough to make a few million before moving on to what he really loved.

Mergers and acquisitions were his thing, and apparently, he was very good at what he did because we've never gone without. And now he was doing even better. With a new partnership and a lovely raise, he was pretty much set.

Jared, on the other hand, was all about the pigskin; he had no plans on doing anything else. Though mom and dad made it very clear that he had to pay as much attention to his studies or he'd be benched.

Dad said that since he was in a better place than his own dad had been when he was that age, it's easier on Jared to make the choices he wanted to make, and he'd back him; but he had to do his part and prove that he can be responsible.

Me, all I had to do was be a girl. Dad is as old-fashioned as they come. Mom, Maggie, and I are treated like the princesses that we are, and I don't think any of us would have it any other way.