Tennis Court Promises

Tennis Court Promises

Chapter Six

Emily

My brother is an idiot. He takes his stupid lame friends into our garage and lets them smoke in there! Then when dad comes home and almost catches them they throw the death sticks into the ground, but one kid is an idiot (like my brother) and threw it on a stack of old papers we had in there.

So to sum it all up for you… my brother burned almost half of our garage. The fire department got there quick enough to put it out before it caught onto the house though, thank God. At least they aren’t idiots.

Like my brother.

Now you’re probably all happy for me right? Well I am too. We were lucky, but not lucky enough.

Smoke is a gas. Gasses move. Therefore the smoke moved into our house. This means that if we were to continue living in our house we could get sick from inhaling too much smoke. So until our insurance company cleans off all our stuff we have to live in a hotel, which according to our lawyer should only be about a month.

Only?

What ever.

At least mom as good friends. One of her friends, Mrs. Lark, from her yoga class has volunteered to let my mom and I stay with her (my brother and dad are living in the hotel to teach my idiot brother a lesson). I’m actually really excited to stay with her though because she lives only a couple blocks away from the YMCA. Which means as much court time as I want.

I’ve been meaning to practice playing tennis over the summer so I can make varsity next year and this is the perfect opportunity. Not to mention that mom says Mrs. Lark has a child the same age as me who also plays tennis. I think this is weird because I don’t know any ‘Larks’ on our tennis team. Well, what do I know maybe she just doesn’t want to play on the team.

I’m to stressed to keep thinking about this. I’m gonna call Grace she is great at this stuff.

I quickly punch in Grace’s number.

Ring.

Ring.

“Hello?” a soft voice answers on the other line.

“Hey, Grace. It’s Emily. Did you’re mom tell you what happened yet?” I say taking a seat on my bed.

“About you’re brother?”

“Yeah.” I bet everyone in the county knows by now.

“Yes. It was on the news. Of course no one was named, but my mom told me right after we saw that. Do you want to have a girl’s night tonight? I’m sure Addie is almost done with her date, that will be great news to talk about.”

“Grace, I do love you.” She’s a genius. There’s a reason why she’s the advice columnist.

“Haha, thanks. I love you too. So everyone at my house, 9:30, bring pajamas, sound good?” Grace ticks off details to me.

“Sounds great. I’ll call Jenna and you catch Addie.” I say suddenly excited to have a night where we can be girls.

“See you later.” The line goes dead. I quickly call Jenna relaying details. She agrees that’s an excellent idea. When I get off the phone I check the time.

9 o’clock

I have a half an hour. No big deal. I grab my favorite pair of sweatpants, a tank, clothes for the next day, my make up, and toiletries out of my suit case sitting in the middle of the hotel room floor (we aren’t moving in with the Larks until tomorrow). Finding my rainbow colored tote bag I shove all my girl’s night necessities inside slipping on my flat Airwalk shoes. I walk into the adjoining kitchenette and see my mom.

“Hey do you mind giving me a ride to Grace’s?” I ask, but I know she’ll let me.

“Sure hun.” She picks up her keys and we head out the door, my shoes squeaking slightly on the cheap, linoleum floor.