Against the current, p.15
Against the Current,
p.15
Morgan rolled her eyes. “We didn’t do anything wrong. We were just swinging on a swing set. What could they really arrest us for? Swinging too high?”
“Minor details of private property and after midnight don’t mean anything to you, does it?” I retorted under my breath.
Morgan shook her head causing that high ponytail to sway. “Don’t be dramatic, they’re taking us home not the police station. Plus, I didn’t exactly twist your arm to join me.”
“Whatever.” I grumbled and shaking my head.
“Exactly.” Morgan collapsed against the back of the seat and turned her head to look out of the car.
Officer Watson started to drive off. He knew our house without even asking for directions.
“Nani is going to kill us.” I groaned as I sat back in the seat.
Morgan glanced at me. I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I’m not sure if death is high on her punishment list. If we were dead Nani wouldn’t be able to make our lives miserable with chores and her death stare.”
I started up at the roof of the car as my stomach dropped. It was pitch black outside. We passed unlit neighborhoods as every normal person was asleep. I should’ve just gone to bed like I had wanted to, but nope I just had to listen to Morgan and let her talk me into going out, again.
“I feel bad waking your grandmother up.” Officer Watson spoke up as he looked at us through the rearview mirror.
“You could just let us free up there at the corner and we can go on our merry way. Nani wouldn’t be any wiser of the had happened here tonight.” Morgan leaned towards the front seat right up to the bars.
He laughed. “Now, why would I do that? I do love your grandmother’s cookies and I’d hate to miss out on having a couple.”
I smiled. “You’re her favorite.”
Officer Watson chuckled harder. “Why’s that?”
“Because you only take us home to her with a smile on your face instead of that stern ‘they’ll die in prison’ attitude.” Morgan responded as she stayed close to the bars.
“And you’re more interested in her cooking than full blow arresting us.” I added as I re-crossed my arms.
Officer Watson shook his head. “That’s fine. I’d hate to see her come at me with that wooden spoon that she always manages to have in her hand when she answers the door.”
“That’s just a threat she doesn’t actually do that.” Morgan responded. “Well, not anymore now that we’re bigger than her.”
“Don’t you get that sweet old lady in trouble.” Officer Watson snickered.
“I’m going to tell her you called her old.” Morgan smirked.
I grinned. “Oh, now you’re the one in trouble.”
“You two keep her young.” Officer Watson chuckled.
We turned and grinned at each other. That was something that our Nani said all the time. Then Nani would start a string of prayers mixed with curses in Spanish under her breath. I don’t know how effective prayers were when curse words were mixed in, but I wasn’t going to question her. Soon Officer Watson pulled into our short driveway. The lights in the living room flickered on. I groaned. We were screwed. The front door flung open as we stepped out of the car. Our grandmother marched out in a pink bathrobe and matching slippers. Her short black and grey hair caught in the porch lights. Her lips were in a tight line. We were beyond screwed.
“What did they do this time?” Nani spoke up with her arms cross firmly across her chest as her eyes were on us instead of Officer Waston. “I woke up randomly and found their beds empty.”
She knew before the cops even dropped us off that we were missing. Oh yeah, we were in for it. She had time to process the situation and punishment.
“They were just playing on a swing set on private property. Nothing troublesome. However, since they are sixteen, I had to bring them home myself instead of just trusting that they would head back here.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look my grandmother in the face. I shifted the weight from one foot to the other.
“Thank you, Officer Watson.”
He tipped his hat.
“Let me fetch you something from inside for your troubles.” Nani walked into the house and soon came back out with a paper plate.
There on the plate was a sandwich and some cookies. She must have prepared the sandwich once she noticed the beds were empty. If Nani kept cooking the way she did there was a good chance we’d never go to juvie. Officer Watson laughed and took the plate.
“Thank you, Mrs. Dominguez, have a good night.”
Officer Waston tipped his hat and headed into his car. Morgan and I headed into the house with Nani behind us. The door was slammed behind her causing the windows to shake. My eyes closed as the door echoed throughout the house.
“Why can’t you girls just go to bed like normal children? There is no need for you to be on a constant rampaged.” Her voice grew loud, over her TV.
I crossed my arms over my stomach. Morgan had her hip popped to the side.
“I took you all in when your parents died, and this is how you all treat me. Having a faint heart attack on a daily basis?” Nani’s voice was sharp.
She pointed to the two of us. Anyone who said they weren’t afraid of Nani was lying or stupid. I swore Morgan was the second.
“I’m sorry Nani,” I muttered.
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you? You keep doing the same things day in and day out. Go to bed and I will deal with you two in the morning after I get some sleep and coffee in me.”
Leaning over I kissed her cheek and climbed up the stairs. Morgan was following me. We slipped into our room. Her twin bed was on one side of the room with mine on the other. The walls of our room were a pale grey. Both sides had clothes draped over everything. Her side had a lime green and black comforter. Mine had blue and dark grey. Morgan kicked her shoes off and bounced onto her bed. She pulled her phone out and stared at the screen.
“He didn’t even show up tonight and you’re still texting him.” I grumbled.
“How do you know that I’m even texting him?” Morgan’s eyes lifted from her screen to meet with mine.
“Because of that stupid smile on your face.” I snapped.
“Maybe when you find a guy you’ll understand.”
I rolled my eyes and climbed into bed. She was lucky I was too tired to wring her neck with the tone she gave me.
“If I’m going to lose my brain cells than I don’t think I want a guy in my life.”
I turned onto my back so I could look at Morgan. An eyebrow was arched high. Who needed a mirror when they had a twin?
“You know I can take you unlike anyone else, do you really want to start?” Morgan retorted with an even tone.
“We’re evenly matched.”
Morgan shrugged and yawned. “Probably.”
Morgan unclipped her bra through her tank top and tossed it across the room so that it landed on the dresser. She flipped the sheets up and crawled under them. Her screen lit up the room again.
“Please don’t keep me up tonight.” I groaned.
“You were snoring last night so don’t even pretend that I kept you up.”
My arms bent under the pillow, and I faced Morgan.
“I don’t even know why Officer Watson picked us up over something so dumb.” Morgan mumbled.
“We got lucky it was only him.” I added. “Any other cop would’ve either brought us to the station or lectured us. Watson just puts us in the car, laughs, and brings us home telling us to have a good night.”
Morgan turned on her side to face me.
“No, we’re really lucky because if he showed up five minutes later there would have been a bonfire.”
“Of what? You didn’t have any of Travis’s stuff to burn.”
She smirked. “No, but do I need to burn something to just enjoy a fire?”
I smiled. “Nope.”
I slammed my locker door and glanced down the hallway. There was Morgan giggling as she placed one of her hands onto Travis’s shoulder. The bad side of having a twin, watching a version of yourself going all goo-goo over an idiot boy. I groaned and rolled my eyes. I spun on my heel of my sandal. Weaving through the crowd I made my way to the cafeteria. It was late May and all I wanted was to eat my lunch outside, but it has been cloudy and rainy all week. The weather was giving me a headache, and with how lovesick Morgan was I decided against to asking her if she felt as miserable as I did.
My elbow was tugged on. Stumbling back and I looked over my shoulder. Morgan was smirking at me. My face fell. This couldn’t be good.
“I’m not skipping.” The words came flying out of my mouth flatly before Morgan could open hers.
“How do you even know that’s what I was going to ask?” Morgan narrowed her eyes at me.
“Sixteen years of experience.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, so are you in? Travis says he’ll drive us.”
I raised an eyebrow. “If the weather were better, it would be a bit more tempting. Plus, I have that science test today.”
Morgan shrugged her shoulders. “Eh, I think I have one too today, but let us see, boring science test or hot guy?”
Morgan lifted her pointer finger to her lips as her brown eyes went up at the ceiling.
“Whatever, have fun and don’t get pregnant.” I responded.
“Buzz kill.”
Morgan laughed as she made her way down the hall. Shaking my head, I continued my way to lunch. Giving Nani one heart attack a week was good enough for me. Plus, I couldn’t remember if my grade could afford a missing test grade. Not if I wanted to get out of this town.
The moon was hidden as clouds stretched the whole length of the sky. My head had a dull ache, but my stomach twisted. Sitting up in the lawn chair my nerves were on end. Taking a deep breath, I placed the back of my hands against my knees. My fingers tingled. Soon little flames danced on the tips of my fingertips. Looking up at the sky again something felt off in the air. There was a sense of stillness yet restlessness all at the same time, which didn’t make any sense. The door behind me swung open and I drew my fingers into my palms, the flames sizzled out. With an eyeroll I placed my hands back on my knees.
“What’s up with you?” Morgan asked.
Morgan plopped down in a lawn chair near me. I glanced over at her. Morgan leaned back in the chair and bent her knees up. Her dark hair was sprawled about on the back of the chair.
“Do you feel it?” I asked softly.
Her head flopped over to stare at me.
“Feel what?” Morgan questioned with an eyebrow raised.
I sighed and shook my head.
“The energy. There is extra of it or something in the air.” My face scrunched. “Close your eyes and send out your feelers.”
“Ugh, I hate when you get all ‘in touch with oneself’ with me.”
“It helped us from randomly setting things on fire years ago.”
Morgan shook head, but as she tilted her head back her dark lashes touched the tops of her cheeks. Her features scrunched.
“Something is different.” Morgan’s face wrinkled furthermore, and the words were soft.
“Okay, so I’m not crazy.”
“Not about that at least.”
“You’re so helpful. What do you think is going on? I’ve never felt something like this. This is a powerful surge.”
She shrugged. “Don’t know, and honestly don’t care.”
Morgan shoved herself out of the chair.
“Well, I’m going in. You can have fun being eaten by bugs.”
I heard the slam of the screen door. Taking a deep breath, I flipped my hands over again. Each fingertip had its own little flame. My eyes went up to the dark sky. There was something powerful going on tonight somewhere. Something was going on, and I was going to figure it out.
Acknowledgements
Can we give a round of applause for my mom, who goes through my rough drafts and helps me with the edits? She has a full-time job and squeezes the edits into her schedule. Also, thank you, Shawn Maravel, for allowing me to merge her watermelon room story with mine. When I was little, I had a green rug in my room, and my hallway was a pink one which reminded me of watermelons. Shawn had a pink room where she posted pieces of paper to look like seeds.
This book is dedicated to my DMS family. I worked for two years in this middle school as an English special education teacher. Those two years were rough two years. The first year was constantly changing as people came and left so the rest of us bonded quickly to help the situation. Room eleven became a joke between us. Then March 13, 2020, happened. We were out of school and thought we’d be back two weeks later. However, we know that was not the case, it is a date that would forever stick with us.
Our eighth-grade team was a strong unit especially us English teachers. In the 2020-2021 school year we really had to go into almost a survival mode of a new world with constant changes. On top of the educational changes, I had a lot of things going on in my personal life. These women were the rock that I needed it was a very difficult decision for me to leave and move back to New Jersey. My students made my days better and they have no idea that they did. My administration team was amazing and helped in a crazy year. I won’t be able to list everyone by name, but the DMS family thank you so much.
A special thanks goes to my team, Catina, Jesse, Dawn, and Courtney. Our meetings may not have always been as direct or on topic as they should’ve been, but we had things like Cluck Norris, cookies, and Judy Garland. It was probably a good thing we didn’t subject the public to us. I can’t help you all enough.
Other Works
Young Adult
End of the Lines Series
End of the Line
Going Rogue
Off the Beaten Path
Family Ties Series
Family Ties
Invisible Bonds
Project US
A Storm on the Horizon
Beaker to Life
Adult
Beneath the Scars Series
Beneath the Scars
Call for Help
Define a Hero
Novellas
Best Friends
Treble with Music
Mistakes Series
Shadows from the Past
Whispers in the Woods
Footsteps in the Alley
Howel for a Resistance
Moonlit Eyes
Collections
Christmas Lites
Ottilie Weber, Against the Current
