Kara's Cross

“Thanks for dropping us off, Dad.” I wave as I shut the back door of the car.

“Thanks a lot for driving my brother and me home, Mr. Eldridge.” Maddie follows Mason out of the door on the opposite side of the car.

“Yeah, thank you, sir,” Mason adds.

“Kara?” my dad calls me over as he rolls down the driver’s side window.

“Yes, Dad?” there is a slight annoyance to my voice as I await some sort of safety lecture.

“I’ll be back to pick you up at 5:30. Make sure you’re ready to go. Also, make sure you all get your homework done before anything else.”

“Got it Dad,” I begin walking away, hoping he’s done.

“Kara?”

“What?” I blurt, making the impatience in my voice obvious.

“Love you,” he looks at me with a sad smile, “have fun.”

“Love you, bye.” I follow Maddie and Mason to their front door as he drives away.

“Are you mad at him?” Maddie asks.

“No, why?”

“You always seem so irritated. Your dad seems like a nice guy.”

This is the second time she’s let me know how good I have it. I’d like to see how she would act after living with him for a few years.

“He just treats me like I can’t do anything for myself, that’s all.”

Maddie looks at me for a couple of seconds and turns to enter her home.

“Here we are,” she sweeps her arm around the room, as if presenting it to me. “This is the living room. The kitchen and dining room are over here,” she points to her right. The living room, kitchen and dining room are all in one small, combined area. “And down the hallway is my parents’ room, my room and the bathroom.”

“What about Mason’s room?”

“You’re lookin’ at it,” he plops down on the couch, “this folds out for my bed.”

“Yeah, he’s lucky,” Maddie chimes in, “he gets to watch TV in bed.”

Maddie and Mason head over toward the dining room table with their backpacks.

“C’mon, Kara,” Maddie pulls out a chair, “we’d better get our homework done.”

“You don’t have to work on it right away because of what my dad said,” I start to put my bag down; “we can do something else if you want.”

“We always do our homework right away,” she states matter-of-factly, “if not, we’ll forget to do it. Plus, we have to make dinner and clean up the house later.”

“Sounds like you have a lot of chores.”

“We just do them to help out. Mom and dad are so tired when they get home. One less thing for them to worry about.” Maddie looks at Mason nodding in agreement. “Now, let’s get done so we can talk about the next phase after the death of Operation Bookworm.”

Mason starts laughing.

“Operation Bookworm?” He gets the words out between laughs. “You should have known it was going to be a failure from the name Bookworm.” He shakes his head, mumbling “silly girls” and repeating “bookworm” several more times and laughing before he settles into his homework.

********

“Okay then, Mason, get over here.”

Maddie calls him back to the table as I get out the notebook. He had finished his homework before us and was watching TV while we worked. We decided to ask his opinion since he is somewhat more popular than the two of us.

“What do you want?” He gets up and heads toward the table, grabbing a glass from the cupboard on the way. “Does anybody want lemonade?”

“Sure,” Maddie agrees, and looks at me.

I nod. “We’ll both take one, thanks.”

She opens the notebook to show the list.

“We want your help, Mason,” pushing the notebook toward his spot at the table. “We have a plan to become popular and need to know if it’s going to work.”

He hands us each a glass of lemonade before sitting down. Leaning over to read our list, he chuckles to himself. Maddie clears her throat and glares at him, quickly causing him to regain seriousness. A flush of jealousy rushes through me as I observe how close they are. I have no idea what it would be like to have a sibling, but it has to be a good thing.

“Well,” Maddie pries, a little impatiently. “What’d you think?”

“Your code names are hilarious,” he chuckles again, “I especially like Operation Spirit Fingers.”

“Stop it, Mason,” Maddie takes the book. “If you’re not going to help us, leave us alone. We have enough people who make fun of us.”

Maddie looks really upset. Maybe I’m better off without a sibling. Part of me wants to call Mason a jerk, but another part of me is reminding me I am in their home and am just an awkward addition to the situation between the two of them. Before I can do anything, Mason’s demeanor changes completely. He stops laughing, gets a serious look on his face and gently pulls the notebook back toward his side of the table.

“I’m sorry, Maddie,” he begins, softly; “I was just kidding. Your ideas are actually good. If you had asked me yesterday, the only one I’d have said wouldn’t work, would’ve been the first one. All the rest are about getting out there and doing stuff. That’s what works, being involved. I’m not sure about the clothes idea. It definitely helps to be trendy, but it can’t be all you do, plus, we can’t afford trendy anyway, unless it’s at Salvation Army.”

Maddie reacts instantly, excitement evident on her face.

“You really think these things can work?”

“No guarantees, Sis,” he quickly adds, “but if you can do those things, your chances would definitely be good. Of course, saying you’re going to join a sport and making the team are two completely different things.”

“I’ll bet we can do it,” she looks at me, expectantly, “right, Kara?”

“Sure.”

I don’t know about her, but I’ve never played any sports, other than ping-pong with my dad in our basement. Is that even a sport? I’ve watched sports on TV. I like football and baseball, maybe that Olympic sport where you slide a round rock across the ice. Oh yeah, our game system has sports on it. That should count for something.

“Girls volleyball is having tryouts this Thursday after school,” Mason informs us, “my friends and I were going to go and watch. Why don’t you try out?”

Maddie looks at me. I get a queasy feeling at the idea, but I have played volleyball on my video game quite a bit. I’m actually good and it seems like a fun sport. It might be perfect for us.

“Let’s do it, Maddie!” I exclaim. “Operation Team Player is up and running.”

“Yeah, ladies,” Mason puts his hand up for a high five. I offer my hand and he quickly slaps it. I want the moment to continue and I don’t know why. Maybe I do. He is so nice. Cute, too. I wonder what he thinks of me. I’ll ask Maddie later if he ever talks about me.

“Kara?”

Maddie’s voice brings me back to reality.

“Hmm, what’s up?”

“Your dad is waiting in the driveway and he keeps looking at his watch. You’d better get going or he’s never going to let you come back again.”

I gather my stuff as quickly as I can and stuff it in my backpack. Slipping on my shoes, I start opening the door.

“Bye, Maddie, see you tomorrow.” I smile and wave.

“See ya, Kara, thanks for coming over.”

“Bye, Mason, thanks for everything, it means a lot to me.”

I stop and wait for his reply, flashing my biggest smile in an attempt at flirting. I’ve never tried this before. Please let me be good at it, if nothing else.

“No problem, bye.”

His reply muffles from having his body hidden behind the open refrigerator door. He doesn’t even look up at me.

I rush over to the car and hop in, hug my dad and apologize for making him wait. He looked like he was going to lecture me, but he smiles instead.

I decide to play my volleyball game after supper tonight and get some practice. I can’t wait until Thursday.