Under the Aspens (The Aspen Series) (11 page)

“Yeah.  I’m starting on my homework now.  Are we still going to look at lights tonight?” I ask
ed her. 

“As long as you and your sister get your homework done in time,”
she hollered back from down the hall. 

My sister’
s name was Sarah.  Don’t let the angelic sounding name fool you.  She was pretty…she definitely got Mom’s looks.  She had the same long, wavy, blonde hair that shimmered, and eyes that changed between blue and green depending upon which type of a mood she was in.  Her skin was very pale, almost porcelain-like.  But, my sister could be mean….to me, at least.  I guess that was to be expected from an older sister.  She just turned sixteen, and thought she was too cool to hang around her dorky, younger brother.  Even as kids, she seemed to find ways to torment me while we played together.  When I was barely eight, she would only play with me if I would pet and talk to her feet.  She would pretend they were turtles, and if I didn’t pet them, and snuggle with them, their feelings would get hurt.  On
several
occasions, she made me eat the dead skin from her feet…telling me it tasted like bacon, and that the turtles made it for me.  And, of course, she always got her way.  Anytime we had to pick a game to play or decide on what to watch on TV, it was always what she wanted.  I always figured my mom loved her more, but it could’ve just been that she was mom’s first-born, or because they were both girls.  Maybe it was just because my sister threw the biggest fit if she didn’t get her way.  One time, we were having an argument at
Wendy’s
about something and she took her packet of black pepper and blew the pepper right into my eyes.  Boy, did it burn!  Of course, she claimed it was an accident, but, I knew better.  I told myself that I hoped she wasn’t planning on coming home late and messing up our trip to go see the Christmas lights. 

BANG, BANG, BANG!

I sprung up from my history homework, as my sister barged into my room and collapsed onto my bed, scattering my homework all over the place. 

“What’s wrong with you?” I ask
ed a bit too rudely when I heard my sister’s sobbing. 

“I don’t want to talk about it!
” she replied.  I moved my homework out of the way, because I thought her nose was running and I definitely didn’t need snot all over my report when I turned it in.  “You wouldn’t even understand,” she continued in between sobs. 

“How do you know what I’d understand?” I asked, defensively.

“Men!” she exclaimed.  Before I could figure out what she meant, she rambled on like I wasn’t even there.  “They will tell you they love you, and that you mean the world to them…but, don’t you believe them.  Oh no!  Don’t you believe them!” 

I don’t really expect to ever be in that position with a man, but okay…..

“They’re all the same and only after one thing.  Why can’t Andrew understand that I want to take it slower than that?  He tried to get me to hook-up last night, you know?” she asked rhetorically to no one in particular, as if I weren’t really even there.  “And, then, when I said I just wanted to kiss…he said he was fine with it.  But, today he gives me the silent treatment all day, and at lunch I see him flirting with Angela ‘the slut’ Morgan!”

“Should I be hearing this?” I ask
ed, but she continued as if not even hearing me.

“If he wants Angela ‘the slut’ Morgan, well, he can have her!  I’ve got lots of guys wanting t
o date me.  That’s what I’ll do! I’ll go out with another guy tonight.  See how he likes it!”  Before she could ramble more, I stopped her and reminded her that we were all going to look at Christmas lights.  “Grow up, Jimmy!  How can you think of Christmas lights at a time like this???”  And, with that, she stormed out of my room, likely to go repeat the entire thing to Mom. 

Even if she decided she didn’t want to go look at the lights with me and Mom, I was still excited.  I
spent the next two hours doing my report until I smelled dinner.  As I was packing my books back into my book bag, Mom yelled out, “Dinner time!”

I race
d to the dining room, and saw we were having a “taco night.”  Not very Christmassy, but I loved Mexican food.  Laid out on the table were hard, corn tortillas as well as soft, flour tortillas.  There was ground, seasoned beef, refried beans, two kinds of shredded cheese, black olive slices, lettuce, onions, diced tomatoes, salsa and sour cream.  My sister was already seated at the table and seemed to be in better spirits.  As always, I started loading up my plate first. 

“Hungry much?” my sister ask
ed in a sarcastic tone. 

“You bet…” I repl
ied with my mouth full as I continued shoving the first bite in my mouth.  The taco broke and all its fillings dropped out onto my plate.  Mom and Sarah laughed contagiously.

After dinner, Sarah and I clean
ed the table and dishes.  She made me wash because she said her hands were too delicate for dish-water. 
Oh, brother!
  I didn’t mind though because I never liked drying dishes anyways.  I always thought I was going to drop and break them because they were so slippery.  Once the left-overs were put up and the kitchen was sparkling clean again, Mom told us to get our coats and shoes on so we could get on the road for some good ole Christmas light lookin’.

“You don’t have to tell me twice….” I holler
ed as I raced to find my shoes. 

“Jimmy!  I’ve told you not to get snow all over the place when you come in from school,” Mom complain
ed when she saw the mess the snow from my shoes made. “Go get a towel and mop up the puddles, please.”  I hurried and cleaned up the mess, and we all hopped in the car. 

Brrrr, rrrr, rrrr, rrrrrr….cachuk!

Mom’s car was an older, powder-blue, Chrysler station-wagon that never seemed to want to start when it was cold outside.  Mom tried again, and it finally cranked.  “Oh my God…it’s sooooo c-c-coooollllddddd in here,” Sarah complained.  She always seemed to be complaining about something.  Mom turned on the Christmas carols to take our minds off of the frigid car while it slowly warmed up.  Then, she stepped outside to scrape the ice from the windshield.  Meanwhile, I bundled up in the blanket I kept on the back seat for long trips.  I got car sick very easily, so if we were going to be in the car long, I always had to nap to prevent myself from getting too nauseous.  There was always a blanket and pillow waiting for me, just in case. 

“Jingle Bells!  Jingle Bells!
Jingle all the waaaayyyy…” I sang as we backed out of the driveway.  The car began to heat up and we started out to the first neighborhood.  The first few houses didn’t have any lights on, even though their yards were decorated.  We did manage to find enough houses that had their lights on to make it worth it, though.  We sang along to the carols on the radio, in between our trio of “ooohhhhs” and “aaahhhs” as we saw bigger and bigger displays of lights.  One house even had wooden cut outs of cartoon characters, and had re-enacted a scene from my favorite Christmas special, involving a lonely Christmas tree. 

Once we left
a few of the smaller neighborhoods, we made our way to the King of Neighborhoods, as I nick-named the sub-division due to the enormous sizes of the houses.  I don’t know if you’d call the houses in
Ashton Woods Estate
mansions, but they are certainly the biggest houses I had ever seen.  Each house was covered in stone, and even had a smaller attached home for their housekeepers or cooks.  We weren’t what I would call poor, but we rented our home…and had an older car.  Mom provided for my sister and I alright and we haven’t been on welfare.  Even so, money was tight.  I could never imagine living in a house as large and luxurious as the ones I was looking at.  There must have been at least seven or eight bedrooms in each main house…and probably just as many bathrooms. 
Imagine that….not having to share a bathroom with Sarah anymore.
  It brought a smile to my face.   

The
lights and decorations on the mansions looked so elegant.  It was my absolute favorite stop every year.  My mom always worried that we would get arrested, because of the looks of our car.  “Surely, they’ll think we’re casing the joint,” she always joked.  One of the houses had a huge tree in the middle of the spacious, front yard, and they always decorated it to look like a Christmas tree, complete with the tree skirt and larger than life presents underneath.  It was so big, it reminded me of the tree at the end of the
How the Grinch Stole
Christmas cartoon special.  If I would ever become rich, I’d want to give my Mom a Christmas tree like that…with just as many presents. 

We continued looking at more houses and more pretty lights,
but I must have fallen asleep because I awoke to my Mom tucking me in to bed. 

“Sweet dreams, Jimmy
,” she said as she kissed my forehead. 

“Goodnight, Mom
,” I lazily muttered back. 

BBBBBZZZZZ.  BBBBBZZZZZ.  BBBBBZZZZZ.  BBBBBZZZZZ.

I hated my alarm clock.  Connor had an iPod dock that would wake him to his favorite music.  I didn’t have an iPod or cell phone…hell; we didn’t even have enough money for a generic mp3 player.  I tossed my simple but effective alarm clock across the room and slowly got out of bed. 

I had to bang on the bathroom door, repeatedly.  “Hurry up!”  As usual, Sarah was in there doing her makeup.  “You can do that in your room,” I suggest
ed for about the millionth time. 

“I have to look extra,
extra
hot today, you know…so I can make Andrew jealous,” she explained as she exited our only bathroom, “…so, chill out, dweeb.”

“Whatever…” I mumble
d as I closed the door and started the shower.  I wasn’t really a vain guy.  I didn’t get haircuts every two weeks like Connor, or workout religiously like Mikey.  Most days I barely ran a comb through my hair.  But, I thought I was an attractive enough guy, in an average sort of way. 

After getting ready and grabbing my
book bag, I made my way next door to Connor’s so we could head to the bus stop.  We always rode the bus on cold mornings, because it was just too cold and early to make a hike to school in the snow and ice.  Most of our friends got rides to school from their parents, but Connor’s parents and my Mom were already at work by the time school started. 

As we pull
ed up to the school, Mikey was there waiting.  “What took ya’ll so long?” he asked with a fake, southern drawl. 

“We’re here at the same time as always, Mikey,” I repl
ied.  He just punched my shoulder and started telling us about the cool, new tablet computer he got last night for Hanukkah.  Mikey lived on the wealthier side of town.  His parents were both doctors, so he tended to always have the best of everything.  I liked living vicariously through him, especially when he would tell us about all the new gadgets he got as presents.  But, after 10 minutes of him rambling on about this new $700 tablet computer, even I was jealous and ready to change the subject.  “So….how did you guys think you did on yesterday’s English Lit test?” I offered to steer the subject in a different direction. 

“I aced that biotch!” exclaimed Mikey, even though he rarely got anything above a “C
.”

“I think I did pretty well, too
,” I stated. 

Of course, Mikey had to start in on me, again.  “I’m surprised you could concentrate on the test, what, with you drooling over April all day.”

“I think that was you, Mike!” Connor interjected, coming to my rescue yet again.  “We’d better get to homeroom, though, before the bell rings.”  We took our seats just as the second bell rang. 

The rest of the day went by without incident.  In Biology, April even gave me a note that of course smelled of roses.  I waited until last period
, though, to read it:

Jimmy,

I think you’re really cute.  I hope you think I’m pretty, also. 

I was hoping you’d ask me to the Winter Dance, if you don’t already have a date.

Let me know…okay?

-
       
April

It was a short note, but one that made me very happy.  It got me equally as nervous, though.  I had never even held a girl’s hand…so how was I going to take one to the dance?  I had nothing to wear, and I’d have to get a corsage.  At the end of the night, she’d probably expect me to kiss her.  It’s not that I didn’t want to, but what if I was bad at it and she told everyone at school?  I definitely didn’t want Mikey to know about this note, but I’d probably tell Connor about it on the way home from school. 

“Hey, Connor,” I started as we made our way home, “April gave me a note today in Biology.”

“No way, dude!  That’s great….what’d it say?”

“She wants to go to the Winter Dance with me.” I explained.  Connor thought that was great.  “But, I’m scared.  I have never been that close to a girl.  How will I know if I should kiss her?”

“You’ll just know,” he offered with confidence.  Connor had kissed a few girls over the last year, even though he never really dated any of them. 

“How will I know how to kiss,” I asked, “…so I don’t gross her out?”  

My best friend just started cracking up laughing.  “You know I’m your best friend and would do anything for you, dude….but, I’m not kissing you!” he teased. 
Hearing that made me laugh and lightened my mood.