I dreaded the moment when my father would come to wake me. This was the last day of the weekend, which was supposed to be my lazy day. But, like always, my dad insists on taking me and and my little brother Connor, to the auto garage where he fixes cars because he thinks that we will go into the family buisness. Well daddy, I've got news for you, im not going to work in a stinky, greasy, dirty mess hole. I've got better plans than thathanging out with some drunks all day.

  The clock ticks to 8:00am. Right on the dot, my dad knocks on the door. "What!" I said alittle too harshly than I"d ment to. "You know what Anna. We have to go to the garage today. Come on, hurry up. Breakfast is on the table." I let out a groan loud enough for him to hear. He laughed in response.

  I didnt move until I could hear his footsteps thumping down the stairs. I got myself lazily out of bed and went straight to the bathroom. The door wsas closed which ment that someone was in there. Probably Connor. Hes probably in there geling up his hair for that girl Shianne from school. I stood there and waited, and waited some more until I lost my patcience and went back to my room to decide what I was going to wear. Nothing nice since I was going to be at the garage in half an hour. So I just picked out a pair of jeans that had ripped and been sewn back together way too many times, and a lions t-shirt that I had "stolen" from my dad awhile ago.

  I went back to the bathroom to wait until Connor dashed out, almost tripping me in the process. "What were you doing in there, shaving your legs!" I called after him. "Ha ha, you wish!" he called back.

  I rolled my eyes and closed the bathroom door behind me. For minutes, I just stared at myself in the mirror. The girl that straed back didnt even seem to be me. Dad knocked on the door telling me that I need to hurry up or else I was going to miss my chance to eat. So I quickly slid on my jeans, adding yet another hole to my gallery, pulled on my t-shirt, brushed my teeth and hair and hurried down the stairs, where I met my family at the table.

  When I sat down in my original spot wher I kept recieving looks from my mom which told me that I didnt brush my hair to her expectations. I didnt care. It was my life and my hair.

  I looked over at my brother who had a moutain of pancakes piled on top of his plate. I watched him drown them in syrup before cutting off a huge chunk and shovel them into his mouth.

  Being the jackass that my brother is, opened his mouth to show me how ell he chewed his food. I looked away, hoping that I didnt vomit all over. He started to laugh as soon as turned away.

"Congratulations, you have offically made me loose my appetite." I said pushing my plate forward. I grabed my cup of orange juice and plopped down on the couch. I sipped it little by little while scrolling through the message on my phone. Finally, after of a few minutes, I decided to give up on trying to look like I was doing something interesting and just lay back and take a nap.

  Ten minutes later, I woke up to Connor shaking me, telling me that we wre getting ready to leave. "Uhhh!" I said as i pulled myself up off the sofa. I walked over to the shelves that held everyones shoes. I grabbed my work boots. The only rwason why we have these are because mom wanted us to be more organized as a family.

When I was getting ready to go meet dad and Connor in the car, I bumped into our neighbor Kyle Jones, who I have had a crush on since probably 3rd grade. We are both in 11th grade and I think there's only a year difference between us. We never talk much in school because we both are always so busy with our own things, but we always find time during the week after school to hang out.

"Hey Abs, where ya going?" he asked in god damn sexy voice of his. It was hard not to get lost while your talking to him. "Oh, um I have to go to my dads auto garage, but we will be back later. I'm sure it wont take long." His whole body deflated. "Oh, um. Guess I will see you later?" "Ya." I said. He nodded his hea and turned and walked away. I felt bad, but it had to be done.

  I turned the corner and joined dad and Connor in the truck. Apperently I was blushing because Connor thought it was wise enough to do that. So I punched him square ion the arm. "Ow, hey whats that for. I didnt do anything!" he said in a whine. "Thats for being the little creep that you are!" I said. Dad just smiled and put the key in the ignition.

                              -

  We arrived at dads auto garage twenty five minutes after we left. He parked near the back enterence because thats where all the employees parked. (He probably didnt want to walk that far.) We got out and walked to the large blue slider door that has well been faded due to all of those days in the hot summer sun.

  When I was a little girl, I always thought of this door like a safethat held all of my keepsakes. Those fairytales have long sinced passed by now, but I always wonder what mystery that door holds everytime I come back here.

  Dad pulls out his key ring that holds 20,000 keys on it. I'm pretty sure that he doesnt even know what half of them even go to. He fumbles around with the for a few minutes, trying to figure which one goes to the padlock that keeps the door shut. I know exactly which one that is because i have the same one sitting on my dresser at home. It's the one that has the star on it. I know this because dad use to make me run back inside to grab his wallet. (Which he forgets almost all the time.)

  He finally finds the keys and unlocks the padlock. Connor runs up from behind me and pulls open the door revealing old and new car parts. The bodies are stored in a seperate building because we had problems with cars getting damaged.

  A rim of an old Corvet catches a glimpse of the sunlight that splashes through the open door. I shield my eyes with my hand until I was well out of the line of fire.

  Dad went to his office and shut the door so that there was just a little crack, leaving Connor and me wandering around. I have walked through this building for ten years now. Dad thought that if he brought me here at an early age, that maybe I'd be just like him. But i guess his plan failed because no matter how many times he brings me here, I will never stay.

  When I snap out of my train of thought, I find myself standing infront of a 2005 Corvet that me and dad have been working on for the past six months. It just gave me something to keep my hands busy so I didnt bored myself to death. We had the wheels on and the interior part of the way done. We decided that we were going to start working on the engine before we spent money on anything else.

  Dad came around the corner with a folder in his hand. It must be this months bills. He always takes them home to look at. "Hey Annabel, what are you doing here?" he asked. "Oh just looking at our progress and what needs to be worked on." I answered. "Oh, well your mom called. She said that lunch is about ready." I nodded and turned to walk with him back to the truck. We both dodged car parts that littered the floor. I banged my foot on a part of an engine that was peeking out from under a table.

  When we got back to the truck, Connor was waiting for us. He had bacame impatcient and honked the horn several times. He probably wants to get home so he can play football with dad. We get in and dad starts giving Connor a lecture about how he needed to be more patcient with us. Connor kept mumbling under his breath, which made dad get even more frusterated with him. I just stared out at an oak tree, watching a red robin hop from branch to branch.

  The drive home was quiet. The only sounds that broke the silence was dads occasional sighs or groans whenever traffic got too slow or a green light went straight to red. Eventually we made it home. The clock was just striking 11:30 when we walked through the door.

  I stopped when I saw him. It was like my feet had been glued to our oak wood floor. My mouth went dirt dry. I didnt expect to see Kyle standing over my sink, rinsing fruit. I mean, it wasnt a big deal, its just that he never spends time with my parents. Only with me and Connor. Did mom call him over for lunch? I looked around but mom wasnt in sight. Where is she anyway? I thought.

  She came out of the wash room carrying a clean basket of clean folded laundry. She kissed me on the cheek and went to help Kyle prepare. She must be going insane!

  I try my best to avoid him, but he always seems to find a way to get close to me again. I could be on the other side of the world and he would be there. There was this one moment when I grabbed the dishes so I could set the table. When I turned around I almost dropped the plates because he was so close. It was like he could see straight through me. So I figured that it was just best for me to stay out of the house so I didnt make a fool out of myself. So after I set the plates down, I went out to my mothers garden to check up on her plants. When I got there, all of the plants were dry. It surprised me. She's usually always out here, weeding and messing around with the dirt. I grabbed the old metal that stood on the old stump next the the garden and filled it with water. To me, it seemed to weigh like a hundred pounds. God I was such a weakling when it came to gardening. If it were anything else, I would like "Hell yeah, lets get this done!" But not gardening. I walked down the rows pouring a little bit of water on each plant.

  Mom called me to the table just as I was starting to finish up with weeding. All the plates, cups, and silverware had been placed neatly infront of each chair. When I sat down and placed my hands on the table getting ready to do our prayer, moms eyes shot straight to my hands, that hand dirt under the fingernails and in the creases. She nodded towards the door. So I let out a sigh and started heading towards the door.

  I could hear Kyle laugh a little but quickly try to cover it up with a cough. I turned around shot him anglance and walked through the door.

  THe air conditioned air wraps my body in a nice cool blanket. The wood floor creaked beneath my feet as I made my way through the house. I took a left out of our livingroom and into a small bathroom. The sweet scent of vanilla drifted swiftly through the air.

  I squirted the pink lavender soap into my hand and turned on the warm water. I rinsed off the once white soap from my hands. Muddy brown water stained the sink.

  The cherry wooden towel rack hang to the left of the sink. Just enough so that you wouldnt smack your head on it everytime you leaned into the mirror. I dried my hands on the red towel and made my way back to the glass door.

  Mom greeted me. I heldup my hands so she could see what a wonderful job I did. "Oh, those look much better!" She said with sarcasm in her voice. She grabbed a handful of napkins, and than we walked out together.

  Mom passes out napkins while I took my regular seat across from him. I'm so nervous right now that I cant even think of his real name. "Ok." my father said, breaking the silence that has filled the table. Even Connor isnt jabbering about football. "Now that everyone is here, we can say grace," Father continued even though I'd wished he hadnt. "Annabel, can you say grace?" he asked, looking at me. The color in my facw had been flushed away. My loss of breath had iven me a terrible headache. This is just perfect, I thought. Now I'm going to make myself look like a complete idiot infront of my dream guy!

"Um, sure I guess." I said repositioning myself so that my hands were folded infront of me. "Dear father, we pray to thank for this food and to thank you for bringing us together today. We are truley blessed. Please bless both of our families and the people we love. Please guide us all with your helping hand through tough times. In Jesus's name, Amen." "Amen." everyone repeated.

  I opened my eyes to find his sweet ocean blues staring right back at me.