Chapter 1
I stared into the screen of my laptop, mouse hovering over the “submit” button. “It’s time to eat!” my mom yelled from the kitchen. I quickly hit the button, closed my laptop and went downstairs to eat.
I saw my mom setting up the table with my brother Cody “Hey mom, guess what,” I asked.
“You finally dumped Blake?” my mom guessed. Blake was my boyfriend for six months now. My mom didn’t like him, but my dad thought it was fun to have another boy in the house. He gets along with Cody and Jack, two of my brothers, he knows them from school. The rest of my siblings he doesn’t know about. My family and I would all be freaks if someone found out how big my family was. It’s not that I don’t love them or anything, I would do anything for them. It’s just that in a town as small as Winslow, Arizona, even the slightest thing different will make you an outcast.
“Mom!” I finally sent my Julliard application was what I wanted to say. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I have no idea why. It was just one sentence Instead I said “I’ll tell you later.” I really wanted to go to Julliard to study dance. I’m captain of the cheerleading squad this year.
“Oh, great!” She seemed to be more focused on tossing the salad, so I just shut up. She had a lot of mouths to feed. Eleven mouths to be exact. My older brother Noah, my twin brother Jack, my little brother Cody, my other little brother Max, my little sister Maggie, my youngest brother Gavin, my youngest sister Katie, my mom and my dad, of course, and my two dogs Tanner and Griffin.
We all sat down at the table. “Phones in the basket, please,” my mom announced, “I think Lola and Jack have some exciting news to tell us about a special school.” We had rule about phones at the table.
“It isn’t all that exciting,” I said
Jack chimed in, “Wait, what’re we talking about”
“Oh come on Lola Cola. You never tell us anything inside that head of yours anymore” Dad replied. Lola Cola aka the worst nickname in the world. He called me that ever since I was a baby. The older kids had nicknames Noah was Noey doughy, Jack was the J man, I was Lola Cola, Cody was the Codestir and after Cody there were just too many kids the keep up with.
I told Jack, “Julliard. Then this was toward mom this time, “How’d you find out?”
My mom answered, “I saw some brochures in the mail.”
“Oooohhh I want to go to Julliard too,” Maggie said. It was true. Whenever I was looking at papers for Julliard, she was always watching and taking anything a didn’t need to hang up in her and Katie’s room.
“Dad I’ve grown up! I’m not your little Lola Cola anymore! Please stop prying.” I yelled. I sounded angrier than I meant to sound. I saw Max open his mouth to ask another question, “All of you.”
After one long and awkward dinner later. “Hey, you okay?” my dad asked, genuinely concerned.
“Um, yeah. I-I just- I was just kinda scared,” I answered. I was putting dishes in the dishwasher and my dad came to help me.
“Of what?”
“The thought of growing up so soon. I’m sorry dad.” I gave him a huge hug while I said that, “I thought that if you stopped the goofy childish stuff, I would miss home a little less if I go to New York.”
“You’re going to miss home no matter what. I’ll make sure of it,” I smiled when he said that, “Oh and Lola?”
“Yeah?”
“I think you mean when you go to New York.”
I gave my dad one last hug and went to my room to read. I was actually a major bookworm, but no one at school could know. I hid all my books in the ceiling of my locker. I found out that mine was broken two years, but didn’t tell anyone, when I have a free period, I could go to the bathroom stall and read.
I read for a good three hours and drifted off to sleep.
