by Erin Danzer
Chapter Two
Seventeen candles adorned the top of the pink and white frosted chocolate cake. Ronnie glared at her brother and mother through the wall of tiny flames. News from Brian’s first week back at Dartmouth overshadowed the entire dinner. How were the dorms? Had he made any friends yet? Ronnie fought the urge to scream at her parents that no one—especially her—cared about any of that! This day was supposed to be about her.
Everyone sang Happy Birthday and she made her wish. I wish I was a different person, she thought as she blew out all of the candles. Her tattoo tingled between her shoulder blades. She reached up to touch the white gauze covering it. A small smile stole over her face as she remembered she had done something earlier only one person at the table would approve of. Some of her anger dissipated as she lowered her hand and grinned at Andi as her mom handed her a large piece of cake. Andi returned her grin.
Ronnie and Andi headed out of the restaurant before her parents and brother. They stopped near the van and Ronnie looked up into the darkening sky. Her eyes roamed over the planets she could see. She recognized Neptune in the northern sky, looking like a small, bright star, brighter than the stars around it. Four other vivid stars, one glowing red, caught her eye. She frowned as she counted them a second time.
Andi tilted her head as she scrutinized Ronnie. “What’s up?”
Ronnie shook her head as she counted the planets again. “How many planets do you see up there?” she whispered.
“Um, five; why?” Andi replied uncertainly.
“My dad said there’s only supposed to be Neptune. Where did the other planets come from?”
“What are you girls looking at?” her dad asked as he wandered away from her brother and mom. Ronnie looked down, but not before her dad looked up. “Would you look at that? Very interesting. Did you see all the extra planets up there tonight?”
“Yeah, it’s weird.” Ronnie shrugged. “Can we go home now?”
“Yeah, your mom is just saying goodbye to Brian.” Her dad frowned as he pulled his gaze from the sky. His brow wrinkled as he looked at Ronnie. “It was okay that your mom invited him, wasn’t it, Pumpkin? You know how your mother is.”
“Yeah, Dad, it’s fine. I like seeing Brian. It’s totally cool,” she lied with a forced smile. She didn’t want to start a fight or hurt her dad’s feelings. He just said Brian being here was her mother’s fault. She shouldn’t take her anger out on him.
“All right; if you’re sure.” He looked uneasy as he kissed her cheek and moved away as her mom finally joined them. Tears filled the woman’s eyes and she clutched her husband’s arm. Ronnie glanced around and frowned when she realized Brian was already gone. He hadn’t even said goodbye. No wonder her mom was a mess. Ronnie stifled a sigh and turned towards the car. It was time to forget about the extra planets in the sky and go home.
“I’m going to grace you all with my presence for the rest of the night,” Andi announced when they arrived home. Ronnie grinned at her best friend.
“Thank you,” Ronnie said as she hugged Andi, grateful for how well Andi understood dinner sucked for her. The girls raced up to Ronnie’s room and changed into pajama pants and t-shirts. Ronnie sat at her vanity table while Andi sat at the end of her bed watching her. They grinned at each other in the mirror.
“Oh, I didn’t tell you, Shawn texted me today,” Ronnie nonchalantly commented as she wiped makeup from her face with a moist towelette. She laughed as she watched Andi wiggle her eyebrows in the mirror.
“How could you conveniently forget to tell me about that?” Andi teased, making Ronnie blush. She put down the towelette and tossed Andi her cell phone. Butterflies ran rampant in Ronnie’s stomach as she watched her best friend scroll through her conversation with Shawn. Although they never hid anything from each other, a part of Ronnie wanted to keep her conversation with Shawn private. Ronnie threw away the towelette, picked up her brush and began running it through her waist-length, straight, black hair while she waited for Andi to finish. Andi beamed as she set the phone on the vanity table.
“So, he got you something,” Andi commented. “And you weren’t there to pick it out for him. I wonder what it could be.” Andi’s eyes got comically large as she jumped up and stared Ronnie in the face, their noses inches apart. Ronnie recoiled and flung her arm backwards, hitting the mirror with her brush.
“Maybe he got you jewelry or a gift certificate to your favorite store. Or maybe he bought you a journal and wrote a really sweet message on the first page, confessing his undying love for you and begging you to end his misery by being his girlfriend.” Andi dramatically grasped her chest, her blue eyes dreamy. Ronnie burst out laughing, setting her brush down, and moved to sit next to Andi, still shaking with laughter.
“You’re crazy,” Ronnie declared. “You’re absolutely certifiable if you think Shawn is ever going to be that romantic, let alone be secretly in love with me.”
“What? It could happen.”
“And pigs could fly some day.” Ronnie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You’re crazy,” she repeated, giving Andi a gentle shove. Andi lost her balance and slid off the end of the bed, landing with a thump on the floor at Ronnie’s feet. Both girls giggled as Ronnie dropped down to the floor to sit next to her best friend. She bit her lower lip as she crossed her arms, her gaiety replaced by uncertainty. Her brows furrowed as she lifted her head to look at Andi.
“So, I got this new tattoo and my brother won’t be at school with me this year. Do you really think I can be my own person? Do you think I can make people see me as someone other than Brian’s little sister?”
“If by people, you mean a certain hunky, though oblivious best friend of ours, yes,” Andi replied and Ronnie smiled. A rumble of thunder through the open window had both girls on their feet and Ronnie crossed the room to check it out. Dark storm clouds quickly rolled across the night sky. Ronnie grimaced as she closed her window.
“Great, just what I need,” she grumbled. “You know, I did think when I saw Brian at dinner that getting struck by lightning was all I needed to complete this day.”
“It wasn’t that bad; you did get a tattoo today and you got to have dinner with me,” Andi pointed out. Ronnie nodded.
“True, but it’s rained almost every night this week. I was hoping it would stop.” She let out a huff, her shoulders slumped. “So what should we do now?”
Andi glanced at the window as another rumble of thunder sounded. “I guess we could go downstairs and watch a movie.”
“Sounds great.”
Ronnie and Andi grabbed extra blankets from Ronnie’s closet and pillows from her bed and brought them down to the den. They laid everything out on the floor before deciding on a movie to watch. Because it was her birthday, Andi let Ronnie pick. Ronnie finally decided on a romantic comedy she hadn’t seen in a while. They lay on the floor between their blankets and watched. Ronnie tried to ignore the window-rattling thunder and sizzling lightning, but soon it got to be too much and she couldn’t concentrate on the movie. She stood up and crossed to the only window in the room, situated over her dad’s desk. Rain lashed at the window and lightning blinded her momentarily. A bolt of lightning suddenly struck the ground at the lake’s edge outside her house and she screamed.
“Oh my god!” Ronnie jumped back from the window. She tripped over the chair behind her dad’s desk and ended up sprawled on the floor just below the window sill.
“Get away from the window,” her mom shrieked as she ran into the room. Another lightning bolt slammed to the ground in their backyard. Ronnie scrambled to her feet, thinking Mother Nature targeted their house as her mom grabbed her and Andi, pulling both girls out of the room.
“We have to get into the cellar before the house gets struck,” her mom instructed and Ronnie numbly nodded. Her body acted on autopilot as they followed the woman through the house. Her mom had always been a little crazy about storms, even though her dad said the steel supports in the frame of the house
wouldn’t attract lightning. Now she worried her dad had been wrong.
Another bolt of lightning crashed into the ground, shaking the frame of the house. Ronnie and Andi screamed. Her mom told them to keep moving. The front door swung wildly on its hinges in the fierce gusts of wind. Ronnie barely made out the figure of her dad by the open cellar door through the rain and swinging door.
“Go! Get out of here!” Ronnie yelled as she pushed Andi to run faster and was relieved when Andi stumbled out into the rain soaked night towards her dad. Ronnie had a moment to look out at her parents and best friend before the sky lit up with the next bolt of lightning.
“Veronica!” Her mom screamed as Ronnie’s foot pushed off from the metal door stop but it was too late. An electrical current shot through her as she stumbled out of the house, falling to the ground and twitching as she passed out.