CHAPTER ONE
Karlie
Home base had never looked so far away.
But we weren’t playing softball. We were part of the school district’s new physical fitness mandate and were being forced to run laps.
Not one lap.
Not two laps, or even five.
TEN FRIGGIN’ LAPS. Three miles of putting one foot in front of another, again and again, the rhythm monotonous.
I thought I was going to die.
“Come on Karlie, you can do it!” huffed my friend Jenny next to me.
Jenny’s no better off because we’re both round girls with a few extra pounds. But Jenny’s better at this, she has strong legs at least. Me? I’m all big boobs, wide hips, and a jouncing ass. And these so-called assets definitely weren’t helping as we labored on the dirt path, dust picking up from the scuff of sneakers.
“Wheeeee!” shrieked the whistle of Coach Jane. “Speed it up ladies, we want to finish before the end of the year.”
Talk about insulting. Wasn’t staff supposed to go through sensitivity training or something like that? But I couldn’t focus on the comment because I was in so much pain. Sharp shooting sensations were making me double over, it hurt so bad. Plus, my lungs were positively screaming from lack of oxygen.
To make things worse, the men’s football team came out for warm-ups and I noticed with a sinking heart that my stepbrothers were among them, their deep, confident laughter audible even across the field.
Of course they were here. Colton and Cain were MVP football players at Xavier Middlebury, big men on campus, stars on the field and off. Just the other day, I’d been reminded how different we were, Colton and Cain as kings of the cool kids whereas I was a nerd, the invisible girl no one paid any attention to.
My brothers had been holding court at lunch as usual, a group of good-looking kids surrounding them, the guys in letter jackets, the girls in fancy designer clothes.
“Hey Colt,” cooed Cindy, a Barbie lookalike with platinum hair. “What’s your plan for tonight?”
Colt had shrugged.
“Maybe we’ll grab something to eat after practice,” he said. “Didn’t a new burger place open next the mall? Could be worth checking out.”
My heart sank as I heard that. I’d been scheduled to tutor my brothers after dinner that day, to help them with their essays for English. But I guess they weren’t interested in hanging out with me when they could be meeting up with friends and socializing.
So I was surprised that night when the door banged loudly, announcing the arrival of my steps.
“Hey, I thought you guys were going out,” I called from the kitchen, confusion tingeing my voice. I’d made some spaghetti and was just finishing up the sauce. We have a cook but I like to do it myself sometimes, it feels more authentic like I’m in touch with the food.
“Naw,” said Cain, clunking a huge bag of sports equipment onto the floor. “We thought we’d come home. We missed you, little sis,” he tossed off.
“You did?” I said, hardly believing my ears. Usually they barely paid attention to me, I was surprised that they were even in the kitchen making conversation.
But the real reason came soon. Colt grabbed a plate and began heaping it with noodles, the steam rising to the ceiling.
“Yeah, nothing like a home-cooked meal,” he grunted. “Damn, I’m hungry.”
My heart sank. Of course. Colt and Cain had huge appetites from all the sports they did and I was nothing more than a fly on the wall, cooking, cleaning, even tutoring, come to think of it.
I slunk up to my room, a plate of pasta in my hand. Colton and Cain had basically ignored me once their bellies were filled with food, settling on the couch with ESPN on. I could hear them from upstairs, “Go Cowboys, get em!” “Goddammit ref, you suck!”
I wasn’t surprised when the doorbell rang some fifteen minutes later and the downstairs was filled with voices. We lived in our own wing of the mansion, so of course Colton and Cain were having friends over on a weeknight. They never stopped to follow rules, rules were for sissies.
Especially when it came to girls. They weren’t supposed to invite girls over, but I could definitely hear female voices. There was the unmistakable clinking of glasses, then tinkling high-pitched laughter mixed in with my brothers’ deep growls. What the?
But determinedly, I got to work. I wasn’t exactly pretty, so I was going to have to depend on my brains and personality to get ahead. Putting earplugs in, I turned on my desk lamp and flipped open a copy of Moby Dick. Hot sailors who took on the wild seas, that’s what would keep my mind off what was going on downstairs … I hoped.