Chapter2

#Chapter2

Mom has my hand again. Amy has both her daughters’ hands. Cleo and Liz are walking hand-in-hand in front of her dad who is on the phone, with a player from the team from the sound of it.

/"Jarome, put the phone away,/" Liz scolds him as we get to the ticket counter and start checking our luggage.

/"There you all are,/" I hear Daisy, my dad’s cousin and mom’s closest friend, sniffle.]

/"I told you,/" Mom laughs. I look at Calvin who is on his phone typing away. Probably some new idea popped into his head, and he wanted to get it down before we boarded. Or he was trying to ignore his mom’s alligator tears that were currently pouring down her face. /"Daisy, stop it,/" mom wraps an arm around her shoulders, /"you’re going to embarrass the kids./"

/"I’m sorry, girls,/" Daisy says looking at each of us before bursting again.

/"Honey,/" her husband, Tucker, pulls her to him, /"geez, calm down. He will only be a short flight away./" This comment somehow has the opposite effect on her than he planned, and she cries harder. People stop to stare, and Calvin finally looks up from his phone.

/"Mom, really? This again?/" I laugh. Daisy is always so dramatic but suddenly she is more so. /"That poor child is seriously in for it,/" he tells his dad.

/"What?/" Mom asks, looking at Daisy.

/"Yep,/" she answers and starts crying more.

/"Well, at least I understand,/" mom sighs.

/"What’s going on?/" Cleo and I ask at the same time.

/"Mom and dad decided that they needed to replace me now that I’m leaving home,/" Calvin says.

/"You’re going to have a little brother or sister?/" Destiny smiles. Calvin nods before looking at his phone again. I sigh and slap him in the back of the head.

/"What the hell, Maddy?/" He glares at me.

/"You’re so dense,/" I say, turning to look at his parents, /"congratulations,/" I smile and hug then both before turning to walk off, /"Are we getting on this plane or what? Tuck needs to get this woman home before someone calls the authorities and has her committed./" I hear everyone laugh and start to follow behind me.

/"Now seriously, kids,/" I hear Amy saying as we reach the last check point the parents can follow us to, /"if you need anything at all, you call Jett./" She looks at each of us waiting for us to nod our heads. Calvin is still on his phone, so she just sighs when he eyes land on him.

We hug all the parent’s goodbye again. Mom of course hangs on too long and Dad had to pry her off me. It earns him a glare, but he does not want to have to buy me another plane ticket because I missed this one because she can’t let go.

We hand the lady at the door, our tickets and board the plane. Kierra sits with me, and Cleo and Calvin and Destiny are across the aisle from us. Destiny is already chatting away at him, and he isn’t paying her any attention. I roll my eyes before sitting down beside Cleo.

/"Finally, Cleo,/" sighs, leaning her head back.

/"You, okay?/" I ask her.

/"Of course. I am just happy to be out of that house. I don’t know what they hell is going on with my dad, but I was over it two weeks ago./"

I nod. Cleo is not a big talk about your feeling’s person so, I know not to keep making her talk about it. /"This year is going to be a big one,/" I tell her instead. She nods. /"Are you ready to build our empire?/"

/"Of course. I already have a ton of ideas and will be making phone calls first thing in the morning to get meetings set up./" Cleo won’t waste a single second getting started. That is a big reason why I wanted to start this business venture together. She is determined and works hard. Sometimes too hard.

Kierra looks at both of us with a huge smile, /"I am so glad to be living with you two this year./"

/"We are glad you will be there too,/" I tell her.

/"I hated living on campus./"

/"Really? Why? Cleo and I loved it, right?/" I look at Cleo and I know we both are remembering the time we decided to fully embrace the college life and that landed us in the Deans office. Our parents and even Cleo’s nanny, Ramona came to scold us. We said we were sorry, and Cleo’s dad tried to leave Ramona behind to watch us, but Dad was able to talk him out of it. After that we stayed out of trouble or at least we were extra careful to not get caught.

/"I didn’t have many friends,/" Kierra’s answer to my question pulled us out of our memories. /"I was always so bored. It was just me studying or Zara and me at the library. We went to like two parties and left before anything happened because we were so scared of it getting busted like in high school./"

Cleo and I laughed, /"well, we will be busy with the fashion line and Maddy in school,/" Cleo told her, /"But we will make sure you girls have some off campus fun too, okay?/"

Kierra nodded and clapped her hands. Her smile getting bigger. /"Take it down a few notches,/" I laughed. /"We can’t get too crazy, but it will be fun./"

/"You guys are the best./"

/"Duh,/" Cleo and I said at the same time.

/"You are creepy when you do that though,/" Kierra shuddered, and we laughed. Everyone hated when we did that. Considering we obviously weren’t twins, it freaked people out. But we thought a lot alike. Knowing each other since the age of four and spending so much time together because your parents worked together, lived next door to each other and took vacations together ALWAYS, we might as well have been twins. The only time we were separate was school because Cleo started a year before me. Mom hadn’t wanted to let go of me even back then. The plane started ascending into the air and I looked across the aisle at the two freshmen. Destiny was still talking and Calvin, who hated flying, was breathing in through his nose and out his mouth. I laughed and turned back to the girls and the plane leveled out.

/"So, which one of us is going to have the most missed calls?/" I ask. It was a game we played since my freshman year. As soon as we took off, we would ask the question. Kierra had got to play with us last year and it was the first time we bet, and we had to send her money every morning for her coffee for the first two months of school.

/"What are we betting this year?/" Cleo asked.

/"Bet for what?/" Calvin said through clinched teeth. I reached my hand out for his and squeezed when he took it. My poor cousin.

/"You, okay?/" He nodded and looked at Cleo, nodding. She launched into the details, and they all started shouting ideas for the prize while I focused on rubbing my thumb in circles on Calvin’s hand because it was the only thing that kept him calm enough to not vomit.

/"Dinners once a week, paid in full. No matter where it’s from,/" Cleo agreed from beside me. I nodded that sounded fair.

/"You all do know I have already won this, right?/" Calvin said finally sounding like he was over his anxiety. We all laughed. No way was he not the winner.

/"Beginner’s luck,/" Kierra said, /"I won last year./"

/"I still don’t know why we consider the person with the craziest parent, the winner,/" Cleo laughed and shook her head.

I shrugged, /"because we all know our parents are all nuts and at least one of us should feel better about that for a little while./" Everyone laughed. Destiny went back to chatting at Calvin who ignored her, Kierra and Cleo started talking about the year and possible fun we could have. I blocked it all out and laid my head back, closing my eyes. This was it. My life was starting. My career would be ready and waiting for me to take the world by storm with my best friend by my side in just nine months.