The autumn wind was starting to annoy Carter. She was always cold unless it was summer. Fall was pretty much her least favorite season, back to homeschool with Zac's mom and dad. She knocked on the Hanson's door and crossed her arms over her bulky, deep red sweater. Diana answered the door.
"Hi, Zac's mom." Carter smiled.
"Hi.. Carter. Your lessons don't start till tomorrow. I was just finishing up giving Taylor an assignment."
Carter shrugged. "I know. Zac invited me over for dinner. He said to come over at six. So I came at 5. I hope that's ok."
Diana sighed. "That's fine. Come on in."
Taylor looked up from the dining room table and stared at Carter. "Wow. I haven't seen you in clothes that actually cover you in a long time."
"Shut up. I'm cold. Finish your homework like a good boy." Carter sat down at the table and stared at him.
Diana shooed Carter away. "I think it'd be best if you went upstairs with Zac. He's already done for the day. Taylor woke up late. Besides, we don't need you two killing eachother before dinner. Which... by the way I haven't made yet. Taylor honey can you finish up on your own? Page 2 through 4? Zac's upstairs. Oh yeah. Dinner in fridge, gotta make. I hate fall."
Taylor snickered at his mother's nervousness around Carter. It was like she was afraid Carter would break something or blow up the house if she took her eyes off of her.
Carter waited for Diana to disappear into the kitchen and then sat back down in front of Taylor. "So what's the scoop on school? What are we getting into?"
"You'll probably be doing this tomorrow." He pointed down to his work. "I hate math."
"It's ok."
Taylor put his pencil down. "Didn't you wanna see Zac or something?"
"I'd rather sit here and bug you."
"Carter."
"Yeah yeah. I'm going." Carter rolled her eyes and went upstairs. Zac wasn't in his room so she went upstairs to the attic on a whim. "Hey." She smiled. He was sitting in the middle of the dusty attic, looking through a box.
"Hey. Come here, look what I found."
Carter sat down next to him and stared down at the box that was filled with disorganized, random pictures. "These are really old..."
"Yeah. Here's one of me, you, and Lacey throwing those little army men at Taylor."
Carter smiled. "I think I was 5 there. Look how long my hair was."
"Yeah. Look how short mine was."
Carter laughed. "Ooh. Look at this one." She pulled out a picture of Zac, Melissa, Isaac, Taylor, and herself sitting on the diving board of the pool. The end of the board was practically touching the water. Taylor had his arm around Melissa, trying to prevent her from falling into the water. Zac was hanging off the end. And Carter was leaning up against Isaac towards the ladder. "Amazing. Were we actually all friends once?"
"I don't think so. I think your mom made us sit there so she could get a good picture for her photography class."
"That's right. I forgot she'd taken that class. She was horrible at it." Carter laughed and pulled out another. "You never told me you had these." She whispered, staring down at the picture of her and her mother.
"Didn't know I did. Mom must have been saving them. They're all copies of other pictures that your mom took. I remember your Lacey always got doubles. I don't see why she didn't tell you she had them. You don't have any pictures of your mother."
"Dad threw everything away right after... Doesn't she look pretty here?" Her hair was pulled into a french braid and little pieces were whirling around her face in the wind.
Zac nodded. "You can have these. I don't even think Mom knows they're up here."
"Thanks." Carter smiled and grabbed another handful of pictures. There were pictures of Isaac and Taylor rolling down the hill into a giant mud puddle when they were very young. There were even pictures of Isaac before Carter was even born. But the picture that Carter put into her pocket was the one of her, Melissa, and her mother sitting on the hill in the backyard. Her hair in a long french braid just like her mom. Melissa was sitting in her mother's lap while Carter was standing behind them, making a funny face. Everybody was all smiles. It was taken a week before Lacey was hit by the car.
Zac stood up when he heard Diana call them down for dinner. Her gave Carter a quick hug. "You can come back up and get these later. Let's go get some chow."
"Hell yeah." Carter laughed and followed them downstairs.
Carter took her usual place at the table. It was Walker's seat since he was at work. She loved sitting at the end. When nobody was paying any attention, Taylor chucked a pea at her from the other side of the table. "HEY!" She shrieked and grabbed the handful of peas off of her plate and threw them all in his direction. Most of them landed in Diana's hair. She sighed and calmly picked them out.
"Guys do you have to do that every single time?" Isaac rolled his eyes. "It's getting to the point where it's so predictable that Taylor's going to throw a pea at you, that you can probably time it and catch it before it hits you in the eye."
Carter stuck out her tongue.
"I don't even know why I make peas anymore. Nobody eats them. They all end up in my hair."
Zac ignored his mom and turned to Carter. "OH! Did I tell you about my 11th sense?"
"The one where you can see marshmallows walk?"
"No that's the 10th. This is the one where I can sense an argument from a mile away."
"I thought that was the 8th?"
"No, that's the limerburger cheese one."
"Oh yeah."
Isaac mumbled from across the table. "Don't you guys ever shut up?"
"Isaac..." Diana tried to silence her son.
"Mom, I'm serious. It's like they're still 8 years old. Goofiness is ok then, but now their 16 and 14. When are they gonna chill out and be normal?"
Carter gave Isaac a dirty look and put a bite of bread in her mouth. "When you stop lookin like chewbacca and get a decent haircut."
Zac laughed. "Chewie had better hair."
"See what I mean?! Tay, don't they annoy the hell out of you?"
"Uhm. No. Not at all." Taylor smiled at Carter who gave him a pretty good warning look. "Maybe you're the one being immature, Ike. You should start letting people be themselves. Then maybe you'll get some friends besides Trey and Tristan. Didn't they make you watch them bang again last week?"
Diana choked on her chicken and Isaac slammed his fork onto his plate. He got up and left the table without a word.
"Did you have to be that much of a dick Tay? Geez." Carter rolled her eyes and followed Isaac upstairs.
"Good dinner mom." Zac grinned.
Carter knocked on Isaac's door and walked right in. He was laying on his bed on his back, staring at the ceiling. "Hey."
"Knock much?"
"Knocking is too impersonal."
"Why'd you call Tay a dick when you're the one that started it?"
Carter sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't think so, chewie. You started it. But I won't say so because that would make me immature wouldn't it?"
"Damn, you have that bitch way of making people feel bad for breathing. When are you gonna grow out of that."
"I believe I already answered that question."
"Why'd you come up here anyway?"
Carter sighed and laid back so that her head was on his stomach. "Guess I just felt sorry for you. Besides, what Tay said in front of your mom was out of line."
"No shit." Isaac looked up and then put his head back down. "Why are you laying on me?"
"Cause you're there. And you're using the pillow."
Isaac almost laughed. "Are you ever serious?"
"I'm always serious. You just don't catch onto my humor. That's the problem with you and me. We're on two different wavelengths."
"Like you and Tay?"
"No, we just hate eachother. It's different with you and me."
"But you went out with Tay."
"It was an experiment."
"And you wouldn't be willing to do that to me?"
Carter laughed. "Are you kidding? My bruises just finally went away from our last little episode on the dining room floor. Which... by the way would sound really bad if innocent bistanders didn't know what we were talking about."
"Uhm, Carter? Speaking of dining room floors..." Isaac pushed Carter's head off of his stomach and sat up. "You know Todd?"
"What does he have to do with dining room floors?"
"Nothing. I just needed to bring it up."
"What about him?"
"Well. I don't like him."
"Surprise surprise. He has his bad points, and his really good points."
"He's all bad Carter. I saw him yesterday, talking to some guy at the mall. They were talking about you. I think he's up to no good. And I think you should stay away from him."
"What? Were you spying on him or something? Or do you just need to find an excuse for me to not have a boyfriend?"
"Did you even hear what I said? I think Todd's the reason you got attacked the other night."
"Todd wasn't even there."
"No, but he sure didn't seem to surprised when he found out. And has he ever revealed anything about himself to you? All he wants is a date. And I think he's willing to go to anything to get one."
"Ok Mr. Soap Opera. I'm just gonna go back downstairs now. Since you seem to be scaring me a bit much. Talk to you later k?" Carter patted Isaac on the head and gave him a frightened look before going back to finish dinner.