Owen pointed at her with both of his index fingers. He wagged them back and forth but nothing was coming out of his mouth.

Sienna folded her arms over her chest and stared him down. She knew he didn’t have anything to say to her. He might not have approved of what she did, but even he knew she had good reasons for doing it.

“Are you going to get out of my way?” Sienna asked.

Owen brought his arms down by his side and sighed. “I guess so, but you shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know I shouldn’t have done it, but they shouldn’t be doing it either. I had to do what I had to do.” Sienna defended herself coolly.

Owen stepped to the side and motioned with his arm for her to go. Sienna didn’t move though. She frowned.

“Are you mad at me?”

“I’m not mad, just disappointed.” Owen replied. He held up his hands in defense when Sienna opened her mouth to protest. “I know, I know, I’m not trying to sound like mom and dad. Trust me, that’s the last thing I want to do. I understand why you did it but… I don’t know, I thought you were stronger than that.”

“I am,” Sienna said a bit exasperated. “I knew what I was doing when I did it. I had to do it just once so they would see how terrible it is and how dumb they look.”

Owen tilted his head to the side. “So… you’re not going to do it again?”

Sienna shook her head. “Honestly? I don’t think they’re going to do it again either.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh. Well, okay then. Good job, I guess.” Owen said. He stretched out his arms and wrapped his older sister into a hug. Sienna hugged him back resting her chin on the top of his head.

“Sienna?”

“Hm?”

“You need to take a shower right away when you get home. You reek of smoke.” Owen said. He pulled away and made a disgusted face.

Sienna smelled one of her sleeves. She groaned. “Yeah… I almost couldn’t put out the fire I started. It was kind of scary.”

“I saw.” Owen said grimly.

“Like I said, after seeing me struggle and almost burn the place down, I don’t think they’ll be running around starting fires anymore.” Sienna explained.

“I hope so… but seriously, mom and dad are going to come home within the hour. Go shower and toss your clothes out. I’ll throw them in the wash for you.” Owen offered.

Sienna smiled and gave him another hug squeezing tight. “You’re the best brother in the world and you have no idea how glad I am that you have a good head on your shoulders.”

“I learned from the best.”

Words: 466

“Thank you,” Colton said as he dropped some change into the tip jar and took two hot coffees from the barista. She paid him no more attention as there was a long ling behind Colton in the café. He held the coffee close to him, weaving in and out of the people waiting for their own, and finally made his way back to his table.

He sat down handing one of the coffees to the woman sitting across from him. She took it, nodded her thanks, and took a sip looking at the crowd gathered in the coffee shop.

“You come here all the time?” Ingrid asked.

“Every day.” Colton replied with a proud smile. “I like the workers here and I don’t know why, but being in a coffee shop always helps me think.”

She turned to him and smirked. “A buzzing, obnoxiously loud coffee shop helps you think?”

“My apartment is too quiet, I guess.” he shrugged.

Ingrid gave him a small shrug of approval. She took another sip and hummed to herself. “Well, I can certainly see why people come here for the coffee.”

“Told you,” Colton replied taking a sip of his own.

The sat in silence for a few minutes. Ingrid watched the people roam around the cramped café while Colton watched her. She was new to town, new to the state. She moved halfway across the country to go to school, get her license, and get a job here. Why this particular spot, Colton had no idea; Ingrid was quiet and wasn’t too keen on opening up about her life. He understood that; neither was he. However, Colton wanted to get to know her as much as possible now that they were partners.

Colton wasn’t brand new to the force. He had been working on cases for almost a year now. However, there were some officers in the department who still considered him a rookie. His older partner moved up in the ranks and a lot of people were shocked to find out that the chief had assigned Colton a newbie as a partner. Some people called it, “the blind leading the blind,” but Colton knew that wasn’t the case.

He knew that wasn’t the case. He had a year’s worth experience and learning a lot from his previous partner. Sure, he was surprised to be assigned a new partner who was fresh out of the Academy and finishing up a college course, but he knew Ingrid wouldn’t have gotten the job if she wasn’t good. Colton knew there was a lot he could teach her and believed there was a lot she could teach him. He wasn’t worried about it at all.

“So, yeah,” Colton broke the silence capturing Ingrid’s attention, “since we’re partners, we’re probably going to be coming to this café a lot. I’m glad you like it.”

Ingrid cracked a small smile. “No, this is a nice place. I only hope I can get used to the noise like you are. I prefer quiet when I needed to think.”

“That’s good to know.” Colton replied. “What else?”

“What do you mean what else?”

“Tell me about yourself. How come you moved all the way out here to be an officer? What made you want to be an officer in the first place?” Colton rattled off a couple questions just to get her started.

Ingrid blinked at him and took a sip of her coffee. He could tell she was stalling on her answer. It was clear she didn’t have a good enough answer or she just didn’t want to tell him. He bit the inside of his cheek realizing his questions sounded like he was interviewing her for the job all over again.

“Are you allergic to anything?”

Ingrid narrowed her eyes at him in confusion.

“I mean, I brought you to a place with food.” Colton tried to explain himself for the random question. For some reason, he felt odd explaining that he just wanted them to get to know each other.

“I’m not allergic to anything.” Ingrid replied.

Colton nodded an approval. “Okay, good.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Allergic to anything? Ingrid asked.

“Oh, no. I’m not.”

“Good.”

“Good,” Colton said. He cleared his throat and took another sip of his coffee. Well, it was more like a big gulp. Why did he feel so awkward around her?

“We’re going to be working for a long time, I hope.” Ingrid stated.

“You hope?” Colton asked raising an eyebrow.

“I like you. You seem like a great guy, someone who knows what he’s doing. I think I’ll learn a lot from you being your partner.” Ingrid said nicely.

Colton held up his coffee as a cheers. “I know I’ll learn a lot from you as well.”

Ingrid smiled genuinely. Finally, he had said something right.

They went quiet again as did the buzz in the coffee shop. Colton checked his watch and realized they needed to get back to the station soon. He stood from his chair at the same time Ingrid did, clearly having the same thought. She chuckled at each other and Colton waved her on allowing her to lead the way.

As Ingrid passed him, she said, “My favorite color is blue.”

Colton nodded with a smile. It was a start.

Words: 884

Rachel opened the top of her turtle tank. She reached in, cupped her hand around her turtle’s shell and pulled her out. Cora held onto the small reptile with both hands as though she were about to take a bite out of her like a hamburger.

“Good morning, Raph.” She grinned, eye-level with the turtle, who poked her head out of her shell slowly stretching her long neck.

Rachel put the turtle down on the ground and watched as she slowly ambled away from her feet. Rachel stepped over her pet and walked toward her desk. She picked up the banana on the side of her desk and unpeeled it. She took a bite and then looked back down at the turtle who was now trying to crawl over her foot.

“Do you like bananas?” Rachel asked. She broke off a small piece of the banana and placed it down on the floor.

Raph wandered over to the piece, stretched out her neck to get a good look and sniff it. Rachel watched waiting for her to take a bite, but the turtle turned away and walked in the opposite direction.

Rachel shrugged and turned back to her work. Either Raph wasn’t hungry or didn’t want to bother trying the banana. Turtles were picky eaters and they were shy. They didn’t like to be watched while eating. Rachel decided to leave the banana there for now in case Raph wanted to give it a try later.

Rachel stood up from her desk. She left the room to grab her notebook from the next room. When she came back, she noticed her dog was in the room.

“Oh, hi, Chip.” She said. Then she noticed Chip was eating the piece of banana on the floor. “Chip!” she raised her voice. Not that a banana was bad for the dog, but that was supposed to be for Raph.

Raph noticed Chip eating the banana and, while she didn’t want it in the first place, felt compelled to chase the dog.

Rachel moved out of the doorway as Raph sprung into action. She began to move so fast that it was the fastest Rachel had ever seen a turtle move. Chip whimpered and ran out of the room as fast as her small legs would carry her.

Raph was a lot slower than Chip, but she was fast enough for a turtle.

Rachel laughed. She looked at Chip, who was hiding behind her.

“Well, you shouldn’t have eaten her banana.”

Words: 417

Ivy flipped through the file for the hundredth time. She pressed her palms into her forehead staring down at the paperwork, her eyes being stretched open. There was no rhyme or reason to any of this. She was beginning to feel discouraged about the whole thing. The worst part of all this was she knew she was completely wrong to do this. She had brought it on herself and now she was more confused than ever before.

She had a huge math final coming up in the morning and she had no idea what she was doing.

Ivy wasn’t good at math. It was just something she always had a hard time understanding no matter how hard she tried at it. She paid attention in class and she did all her homework. She did well enough on the tests, but she was still only barely passing the class. The final was all the previous tests combined and if she knew anything at all, it was that there was no way she would remember all that she had supposedly learned throughout the school year.

Her neighbor was a year older than her and was a grade ahead. He was good at math but he also had the same math teacher Ivy had. This math teacher combined all the tests from the year together and were the same problems and numbers as the tests. If Ivy had known that she wouldn’t have thrown out any of her previous math tests when she got them back. She had most of the problems wrong anyway.

Her neighbor though, he still had the final math test along with all his other tests from the previous school year. He had given them to Ivy so she could study. He got As on all his tests with only one or two problems wrong here and there. It was hard for Ivy to study because all the answers were right in front of her. She tried to study the work that her neighbor had shown on his paper but she didn’t understand any of it. She had no idea what was going through his mind when he wrote these problems out.

So, now she was just trying to memorize the answers. She was good at memorizing things like that. How Ivy was going to show her work to her teacher when she got all the answers right, she had no idea. It was part of the reason Ivy was getting such a headache looking at these tests. She knew she was going to fail and even if she got the right answers, her teacher would surely know she was up to something with her lack of work… or she’d do the work out and get the wrong answer but someone write the correct answer anyway.

Ivy leaned back in her chair tilting her head. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment and the closed her eyes. There was no way she was going to get through this. She wasn’t going to pass the test no matter how well she studied. She wasn’t going to pass no matter how well she memorized her neighbor’s answers. She didn’t know how to do any of the work. She didn’t remember anything they had learned during that school year. There was some math on her neighbor’s paper that she actually didn’t recognize. She went back through her own notes and couldn’t find anything on it. Unless she was absent that day, but she always made up her missed work, Ivy was convinced her math teacher was throwing them for a loop.

“Excuse me?”

Ivy opened one eye to see the librarian standing over her.

“Hi, Honey,” she greeted warmly. “I wanted to let you know that we close in ten minutes so you need to wrap it up over here.”

“But I’m studying.” Ivy groaned. She lifted her head back up and wiped her eye with her index finger. She was tired, but she didn’t realize how exhausted she was. If the librarian hadn’t come over, Ivy probably would have fallen asleep.

“I can see that,” the library said with a light chuckle.

“I know… I’m doomed…” Ivy replied agreeing with the librarian. She wasn’t studying. Even if she were looking at the papers, she wasn’t studying at all.

The librarian patted the back of Ivy’s hand sympathetically. “Good luck on your test tomorrow, Sweetie. I hope to see you tomorrow.” She said as she walked away.

Ivy gave her a half-hearted wave as she closed the file folder and packed up her things. She was just going to have to accept her fate. She wasn’t able to get any more studying in or else her head would explode.

Actually, that didn’t sound like a bad idea. If her head exploded, she wouldn’t have to take the test. She wouldn’t have to take a test ever again.

No, no. That didn’t make any sense. That was possible. Ivy was stuck taking this test no matter what. It didn’t matter how well she was prepared; the test was coming ready or not.

The following morning, Ivy sat in the math class first period. She rested her head on the surface of her desk staring at her number two pencil, the pointed end staring her back in the face. She felt like the pencil was mocking her and she wanted to blame the pencil for any mistakes she knew she would make today… but she was thinking irrationally again.

“Take out your notes.” Her teacher said and all the students did just that.

Ivy looked around the room confused as she took out her own notes. Did they not have the final today? There was one week left of school, how was there no final today? Did she study for nothing? She wasted her entire night last night.

“I’m letting you use your notes on this test since it’s a big one. Be careful not to waste too much time looking up something though. If you don’t finish by the bell, then that’s that.” Her teacher explained. She began to pass out the final and Ivy swallowed a lump in her throat.

She took out her notebook with all her notes in it but they weren’t very good notes. She knew that was going to help her at all. She also took out the folder with her neighbor’s tests inside tucking it underneath the notebook.

What her teacher didn’t know wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Words: 1,081

Nora woke, sitting up in her bed extending her arms way up in the air and arching her back into a deep stretch. She stifled a yawn trying to convince herself not to lie back down and go to sleep. She had the day off from work and had planned the entire day to do errands. Normally, she enjoyed staying home all day when she didn’t have to go to work, but she figured she’d run her errands first thing and then have the whole day.

            She needed to run to the bank and pick up a few things at the grocery store. Neither of those things were something she wanted to put off.

Nora hopped out of bed and got dressed right away. There was a nip in the air and her brain went into panic mode trying to convince her to get back under the warm blankets. She always hated getting dressed first thing in the morning in the middle of winter. It sounded weird, but she was toasty from her bed only to get hit with a blast of cold air (despite the heat being on) and her clothes sitting on her dresser were always cold. She shivered as she stripped down and put on her clothes for the day – at least she had picked out sweatpants and a warm sweater.

Once she was dressed, she went over to the window and pulled the blinds opened. She gasped when she saw the amount of snow draped over the ground. There were quite a few inches of the white stuff. Nora couldn’t see her driveway, her car was blanketed, and she didn’t know where her mailbox had gone to. She didn’t remember the weather ever mentioning snow.

She walked over to her nightstand and grabbed the remote turning on the TV. The news immediately came on and, lucky for her, they were just starting to discuss the weather.

Surprise snow is what they were calling it. Last night the weather man said the skies would be cloudy and cold today but then everyone woke up to this. Nora grunted. The weather man was usually wrong, but not like this.

Nora turned her head to look back out the window. She wasn’t a fan of the snow. She didn’t like the cold and she always hated shoveling and brushing off her car. Yet, she smiled. The good things about the snow was that it was relaxing to watch and it was beautiful when all was said and done (until cars drive by and make the snow turn a yucky brown color).

“Well, then,” Nora said to herself as she turned off the TV. “I guess this means no errands for me today.”

The news mentioned everyone staying indoors today. Nora had already taken the day off from work so she didn’t need to worry about that. She didn’t need much at the grocery store and could always go tomorrow after work.

If she was going to stay home all day, a snowy day was the perfect day to do so.

Nora went downstairs to the kitchen and began making herself a cup of coffee. She was going to sit on the couch and begin her next read to start the day. It was going to be a good one.

Words: 550