A new leaf…
I gazed out at the thinness of the clouds, the sun glistening in the sky above and let out an exasperated sigh. I’ve been trying to tune out of life for the past few hours, wishing I was anybody else but myself, but it wasn’t working too well. A red head gaited down the aisle with a cart full of drinks and plastic cups. I shimmied around, trying to get more leg room when she came to me. She put on this plastic smile and shifted her bare legs before pulling at her short blue American airlines dress and whispered “would you like a drink?” I nodded my head and said “sprite” before she placed the plastic cup in front of me, as well as a soda can.
The pilot came over the intercom and said we would be landing in Orlando, FL in twenty minutes. I sighed again and opened a magazine from the pocket in front of me. Two months ago my life changed forever. The average female teen would say my boyfriend broke up with me or my best friend moved away, but I guess my situation isn’t the ‘average’ situation. It all started when my dad got a big raise in his screenwriting career. We were all ecstatic about it. Suddenly he was making so much that mom didn’t have to work anymore, which was good because mom started feeling sick every day.
It was weird because my mom never gets sick. When I was little, I used to think moms had to be immune to sickness so that they could always be there to help sick people. But I guess I realized that wasn’t true when one of my friend’s moms died of cancer. Anyway, mom went to the doctor to get it checked out and we were surprised to hear that she was two months pregnant, which was a huge shock. So then mom quit her job and suddenly, dad felt he needed to send me ‘away’. My dad loved the thought of mom pregnant and felt I would stress her out. (Well, that’s my theory) So, he found this top class boarding school in Orlando, FL and automatically felt I needed a better education.
Now here I am, sitting in an American airlines plane, wishing I was someone other than myself. When the plane landed, everyone rose and crowded the aisles. I phoned dad, remembering he told me to do so when the plane landed.
“Hello?” dad’s voice spoke in the midst of a busy background.
“Hey dad”
“Mel! Hey, Oregon misses you already”
“Yeah, I miss being there too. Anyway, the plane just landed. How’s mom?”
“Glad you got in safely, and your mom is doing… better. Morning sickness hit her. But don’t worry she’ll be fine. Aunt Becca said she’d meet you out front of the airport”
“Okay, I got to go. Tell mom I said hi, dad”
“Okay, I will bye”
As I hung up, I still remembered the day he told me I’d be going to the elite Lankford Academy in Orlando. I remembered how I’d hollered and protested, saying my old high school was just as good. Now I’d be sent into a whole new world with preppy rich kids and stuck up teachers, oh joy. I pretty much slugged through customs, baggage claim, and the monorail, feeling like there was still some chance that I could turn back the clock and be home again. I got outside into the Florida heat and automatically started sweating. I spotted a red Volvo before my Aunt Becca jumped out of it and threw her arms around me.
“Melissa! How are you dear?”
“I’m fine” I said, pulling away from her. Aunt Becca had always been different from the rest of the family. She was the total opposite of mom, her sister. She took care of her looks a lot more than a 42 year old woman should. She looks more like a college student in her 20’s. She works out a lot, always going to the gym, never eating McDonalds or burger king, which is good. She always has on wedges, or pumps, hardly any flip flops or low heeled shoes. She has straight flowing brown hair with not a single gray hair in it and she gets Botox all the time to stop wrinkles from forming on her flawless face. She’s put in breast implants recently and only wears brand name clothes. Right now, she wore a tight aeropostale polo with a rocawear jeans mini skirt and red stilettos, something I wouldn’t expect a woman almost over the hill to wear any day, but Aunt Becca could pull it off. She helped me with my bags and sent me into the back seat. I didn’t know why until I saw a young good-looking guy in the passenger seat. He had short black hair, blue eyes, a good tan and his arms bulged with muscle. He winked at me in the front mirror before Aunt Becca came in.
“Oh, Melissa, this is Ron. He’s my new client. Twenty-five years old, on the way to becoming a pro basketball player. Say hello Ron” Aunt Becca said.
“Hey, how old are you?”
“I’m sixteen” I said, wondering why he wanted to know that in the first place. Aunt Becca worked as a lawyer for sports. She got potentials like Ron to get signed into the NBA, NFL, MLB or PGA usually.
Aunt Becca turned on the car and we rode off into the streets. I watched Ron, who kept catching glances from my aunt. She obviously found Ron quite attractive and when I saw Ron reach over and stroke her bare smooth legs, I knew he felt the same. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window.
“Melissa” Aunt Becca started. “You’ll be staying with me for the week before school starts. Later in the week we can go down to the school and pick up everything you need.”
“Like what auntie?”
“Melissa, just call me Becca. It makes me feel so old hearing you say Auntie all the time.”
“Ok, Becca.” I said, remembering all the other times she asked me to do so, but I always came back to Aunt Becca the rare times I saw her.
“Anyway, for school, you need your uniform, locker number, dorm key, your schedule and we’ll see what else we can scrimmage for when we get there. Have you gone school shopping yet?”
“Nope, mom and dad said you’d take me”
“Cool. We’ll do it on Wednesday”
I looked at my phone. Today was Sunday, August 15th.
“Okay, Becca. That would be cool”
The car ride was about half an hour. Auntie had a red Victorian house in a classy neighborhood. She lived with my cousin, Liana and anybody could see that the house was too big for just two people. Auntie turned off the engine and we got out the car. Ron came up behind her and put his hand on her lower back, as if guiding her into her own house… how gross. As long as I could remember, Auntie always had younger men hanging around her. She never really revealed her real age to them and they couldn’t care less enough to ask. Auntie was married to a man named Danny Norwood around ten years ago. She was still the same and it just all made Danny love her more for her beauty. Danny was only a few years younger, went to the same high school as Aunt Becca and they met again in college, which is when they got serious and married when Auntie only needed one more year of school to complete her degree for her career. They were married for eight years before Aunt Becca had an affair and Danny was gone before they could even file a divorce, but he did come back to complete that about a year later.
Aunt Becca’s house inside was one of the most gaudy houses you could ever see. Her walls were decorated with mirrors, pictures with diamond frames and awards given to her in honor of the work she does in her career. In the corner of her dining room sat a huge glass cabinet with aisles and aisles of china tea sets and fine wine glasses that glimmer beneath her shiny chandelier. The rest of the home had random wood or glass tables supporting expensive, weird shaped vases, glass flowers and glass people. She had a pool table in the living room across from her plasma television and her outside pool (shaded by a cover) was 12 ft long and 8 ft deep, surrounded by fountains spurting out of the most random spots and lights of different colors lit it up at night.
“Where’s Liana?” I asked. Auntie didn’t answer at first and without looking; I knew that she was flirting with Ron. It was almost as if she’d forgotten that she was old enough to be his mom! A few minutes later, she babbled “at her father’s house. She won’t be back for another few days”
“Which room am I taking?”
Once again, she took a while to answer. “The first room upstairs on the right”
I walked up her spiral glass stairs with my two heavy suitcases and entered a room two times bigger than mine at home. The walls were decorated with a beach mural, there was a king sized bed, a walk-in closet, my own bathroom and a balcony overlooking most of the neighborhood. I collapsed on the bed and wondered what I’d do here for the next few days with Liana away at her dad’s and Becca drooling over Ron every second. I threw on my bathing suit and dived in the pool to think about it. In the meantime, Ron was playing pool and Auntie was bringing him anything he wanted, which seemed to never end. She came out to me after I’d been in for half an hour.
“You want anything Melissa?” she asked.
“No thanks Becca”
She shrugged her shoulders and went back in. By now, Ron looked like he was getting ready to go. He came out to me when I’d lifted myself out to dive in the deep end.
“Well…” he said, eyeing me head to toe. I automatically wished I’d put on my one piece instead of my new bikini. I gave him a dirty glare and jumped in, splashing him with a little water. He had on this flirty smile when I came back up, as if I’d been feeding into him this whole time the same way Auntie was.
“See you later Melissa” he said winking. I responded by going under water until I heard the sliding door open and shut. I had to admit, even though I was trying to be brave, Ron freaked me out.














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Later on, Auntie and I had dinner on her patio. Dinner was a large serving of salad, with sliced chicken and rice. Aunt Becca had never been the best cook, but I had to admit that I’d never felt healthier.