A day in the life of a grocer. A day in the life of a videography student.
Why was I having such a hard time thinking of anything worth documenting? Nothing I had come up with was novel or unique, really. And I hated that.
My phone went off with a video request from my mom. I pulled off my mask, since I was near the end of my treatment anyway, and swiped right. “Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, agave nectar!” She lifted the phone to show the twins waving to me from the back seat, then swiveled it so I could see Dad driving.
“Hi, honey,” Dad said.
“Ready for day one?” I asked the twins.
Mom turned the phone back to them so I could see their identical faces looking back at me.
“Yeah,” Tarra said.
“A little nervous,” Cara added.
“Don’t be,” I said, smiling at them. “You’re going to do great. The best eight-year-old twins there are.”
“Thanks,” they said in unison.
“See?” I teased.
Mom’s face appeared on the screen again. “How did you sleep?”
“Like a rock,” I answered.
“Cori up?”
I shook my head and stood up, grabbing my notebook. “I’ll go wake her.”
“Thank you,” Mom said. “So, you’re sure you’re okay? I can always ask Janet to check in and stay the night until we get back.”
“We’re doing great,” I said. “We were in bed by ten o’clock last night, and we have all of our homework done.” Well, that might have been a stretch, but it would be true by the end of the weekend.
She blinked quickly and looked away.
I stopped in the threshold to the living room. “Mom, are you crying?”
After wiping her eyes, she said, “I’ve never been away from you or Cori without having Rosie there.”
“We’re fine,” I replied gently. “We’ve got things covered, and we’re just a call away.”
Nodding, she swallowed and said, “Can I talk to Cori now?”
“Sure.” I set my phone on an end table and went to shove her awake.
She groaned and pushed me away.
“Mom wants to talk to you,” I whispered. “Pretend you slept in your room.”
With another groan, she pushed back her flyaway hairs and rolled from the couch. She grabbed the phone from the end table and mumbled a greeting to Mom.
As they talked, I went to my closet, grabbed a fresh outfit, and went to the bathroom to get ready. After getting dressed and brushing my teeth, I fixed some of my curls with a curling iron and hurried through a makeup routine. Part of me wished Mom would allow me to get foundation strong enough to cover the smattering of freckles across the bridge of my nose, but this was all I had to work with.
When I finished applying my lip gloss, I sprayed on a sprits of organic ginger cranberry perfume and stepped out of the bathroom.
Cori and I passed through the house like ships in the night. I was a morning person, and she was...not.
Around a quarter ‘til eight, I finished with breakfast, putting my cereal bowl in the sink.
What now?
Zara’s idea niggled in the back of my mind, and I decided it was now or never.
Seventeen
After looking up Ray’s mom’s name in the school directory, I did a search through the county assessor for their house. My creeper skills were rising to the next level, which both pleased and bothered me, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
I packed my bag with video gear and my inhaler. I made a mental note to go by the pharmacy on the way back to get a refill to help save Mom some time.
My heart was beating quickly with fear and anticipation, but I took a deep breath to steady myself. I’d get out there, do the filming with him so he could say he participated, and be home before Mom and Dad called.
I’d chat with them before bed, Cori wouldn’t tell about my trip to the country, and it would be business as usual. People did crazier things all the time, like the Dulce Periculum death-wish club jumping off literal buildings. I could do this.
I didn’t bother texting him before I left. Honestly, I’d had enough of doing things his way. That was what stalled us from making headway on the project all week. No, we were doing this my way.
Which seemed a little disturbing with a murder mystery podcast playing in the background, but oh well.
My ETA was nearly an hour and a half, and I wondered how long it must take Ray to get to and from school every day. An hour at