Sweet Sixteen, Chapter 6 ~ The First Rule

On Saturday Hollie got on her bike and pedaled slowly towards her uncle’s house.  She knew she probably shouldn’t go over there the very day after Jake and Kiki got home, but she also knew that Kiki and Adrian could already be gone.

It was only a fifteen minute ride to Jake’s house, but she wasn’t allowed to make the journey without her parents, unless one of her older siblings was with her.  She was alone now.

Going alone without her parents knowing was not hard, because they weren’t home.  They’d taken Eric somewhere, something to do with his sports, and left Elly home in charge of Hollie.  (Marc was out with his friends, doing whatever fifteen year old boys did.)  Elly always let her go out alone as long as she promised to get back before their parents did.

She appreciated Elly letting her do this, but envied her also, because not only was she older and freer and got to be in charge, she could turn invisible whenever she wanted.

Elly didn’t know that Hollie knew this, but she did.  She knew that sometimes her sister was in the room even when she couldn’t see her, and when she was younger she could remember seeing Elly one moment and nothing the next.  Elly was more careful now that she was no longer a baby, but Hollie’s memory went back further than her sister thought.

Hollie had tried it herself often enough — it would be absolutely wonderful to disappear, go around listening to people and watching them without them knowing she was there.  But it had never worked for her, no matter what she did.

She’d tried meditating on disappearing, imagining her way into invisibility, but that hadn’t worked.  She’d tried whispering magic catch phrases to herself, like, “One, two, three, disappear!” but that hadn’t worked either.  Adrian said that he always visualized something before building it, or drawing it, and so Hollie thought that maybe not visualizing anything would do the trick.  She tried hard to think of nothing, to make her mind a blank in hopes that her whole body would follow after, but she always either fell asleep or found herself thinking things anyway, even if it was only “Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think.”

She’d never asked Elly just how she did it, because she’d never told Elly that she even knew she could do it.  It wasn’t something Hollie had ever considered talking about, to anyone, because somehow opening your mouth and speaking the words made it seem unreal.  And anyway, Elly obviously didn’t want anyone to know.  So it was best to keep quiet.

She arrived at Ade’s house, carefully rested her bike on its kickstand, and hopped up the steps to the front porch.  There was a little blue sportscar she didn’t recognize parked in the driveway.  Maybe Jake had bought a new car or maybe they had company.  It didn’t matter to Hollie if there were guests over at Jake’s, his house was big like her home so she and Adrian could be somewhere far away from the adults and no one would mind her being there.

She knocked on the door and stood waiting, wiping sweat off her forehead.  The September sun was bright, today, and it got hot when you were biking.  She hadn’t worn a helmet because she hated the way it mashed down her curls and made her hair flat on top, plus it was hot and made her itch.

The maid, Eponine, answered the door.  She hadn’t been working for Adrian’s family long, but knew Hollie well, and welcomed her in cheerfully.  “Everyone’s eating lunch,” she said, ushering Hollie toward the dining room.

Jake, Kiki, and Adrian were all there, with an old man.  As soon as she and Eponine rounded the corner, Hollie felt awkwardness descend on the room.  Everyone looked at them in surprise, then exchanged furtive glances, and said nothing.

It seemed to dawn on Eponine that she had done something wrong.  “Hollie’s here . . . ” she said, smiling uncertainly.  “I thought I could just show her in.  Because . . . it’s Hollie.”

“Okay,” said Jake, as if just making a sound to buy time.  He looked at Kiki, as if she would help him think of something to say, but she just pretended not to notice and focused on her pasta salad.

“Adrian, sweetie,” she said, waving the fork at her plate, “could you pass me the seasoning.  Thank you, honey.  This salad is a bit bland, hm?”

The old man — Hollie didn’t know how to tell just how old, but he had thinning salt ’n’ pepper hair and a wrinkled face, so he was very old — smiled at Hollie, briefly, before glancing at Jake as if he might get reprimanded.

“Hi,” said Hollie, trying to break the awkward silence.  “I’m Hollie.  Who are you?”

His look towards Jake was fully questioning now, as if he needed permission to answer.  Jake just shrugged, and looked like he’d rather be somewhere else.

“I’m Jake’s dad,” the old man said, taking the silence as a go-ahead.  “Adrian’s grandpa.”

“I know who you are,” Hollie said suddenly, he mind making a quick connection.  “You’re my grandpa, the one Daddy won’t let anyone talk about.”

“Yes, that’s me.”  He smiled, a twinkle in his blue eyes.  He looked like a very nice old person, Hollie thought.  Like the grandparents you saw on TV.

“I’m sorry,” Eponine said, touching Hollie’s shoulder as if to herd her back out, “I didn’t realize — I hope I haven’t—”

“It’s alright, Eponine,” Kiki said.  “I forgot to tell you.  It’s entirely my fault.”  She darted a glance at Jake, who turned to Hollie:

“Hols,” he said, finally finding words, “maybe you can come back some other time, your dad says you can’t be here, okay?”

Hollie bit her lip.  That was the last thing she wanted.  It wasn’t fair — it wasn’t fair that Adrian should get to have lunch with their grandfather but she had to go home and be all alone.  “Can I stay?” she asked.  “I promise I won’t say anything.”

Jake’s only response was a grimace and an indistinct, drawn out noise, like he thought that was a really bad idea, but hated to be the mean grown-up and say so.

“Come on, Dad,” said Adrian, “don’t make her go home.”  Then he turned to Hollie.  “Grandpa is loads of fun.”

His grandpa — her grandpa — smiled and shook his head.  “I don’t want to come between you and Russ, Jake.  You should probably send her home.”

“Pleeeeease?”  Hollie looked back and forth between them, with as earnest and pleading a wibble as she could.  “I’ve always wanted to meet Grandpa.  And it’s so lonely at home without Ade there.  Please, Uncle Jake.”

Jake looked at Kiki.  She shrugged, and only offered,  “He’s your brother,” by way of response.

“Grandpa’s taking me to the San Diego zoo tomorrow,” Adrian announced.

“I want to go to the zoo!” Hollie enthused.

“It’ll be so cool!  C’mon Dad, don’t be a spoil-sport like Uncle Russ.”

“Now, Ade,” said Grandpa.  “Your uncle . . . has his reasons . . . .”  He glanced down at his plate, looking sad.

That seemed to do it.  Jake cast his eyes toward the ceiling, like a martyr, and huffed, “Fine.  Okay.  You can stay.”

“Can I go to the zoo?”  Hollie bounced up and down a little.

“That your parents have to say okay to.”

“Will you tell them it’s you and Kiki taking us, not Grandpa?” Hollie begged eagerly.

“N-ooo.”

Hollie folded her hands and squeezed her fingers together till her knuckles turned white.  “What if I just tell them that?  I’ll bet they won’t even ask you then, they’ll believe me.  You won’t have to lie at all.”

Jake sighed heavily, but she knew he wanted to relent.  He was just clinging to the idea that he had to be a boring old adult (when he didn’t want to) and if she kept looking hopeful and innocent he’d finally give in.  Adrian being on her side certainly didn’t hurt.

“Kiks, what do you think?” he asked.

“Like I said, he’s your brother,” she demurred.

“What if he was your brother?”

Kiki looked from Hollie, to Adrian, to Grandpa, and wavered halfway between a frown and smile.  She wanted Jake to make the decision, that was obvious, but she relented and said, “Well I don’t see the harm.  It’s sad those kids don’t get to know their grandfather.”  She smiled at Grandpa and he nodded.

Jake relented quickly, having this encouragement.  “Okay,” he said.  “You can go to the zoo with Adrian and Grandpa.  This once.”

“Yay!”  Hollie jumped up and clapped her hands.  Then she raced over to the table and climbed up to sit on the chair next to Grandpa.  Her Grandpa.  Soon Eponine came with a plate, and he dished out some pasta salad for Hollie.  She gave him a beaming smile.

“Jake,” he said, “don’t worry about Russ.  If he has a problem, just tell him to take it up with me.”

“Like that’ll happen,” Jake muttered.

“There’s no reason you have to be caught in the middle like this.”

“Damn straight,” Jake agreed, but still shook his head.  “That won’t stop him from kicking the crap out of me for this, though.”

Kiki laughed, but admonished, “Don’t talk like that.  Your brother wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Jake said nothing, just shrugged once more and went back to eating.

Adrian broke the silence.  “We’re going to have tons of fun at the zoo tomorrow.”  He grinned at Hollie, who grinned back.

“You bet,” Grandpa said, with a wink.

---

“Guess who I met today.”

“Who?” Elly asked absently.  She was in the back yard, reading a book but not really reading it, when Hollie came bounding up, black curls tousled from riding her bike and green eyes shining with excitement.

“Grandpa.”

“That’s nice.”  Elly looked back down at the pages of her book, her thoughts trailing elsewhere.

Monday was so far away . . . why hadn’t she made some arrangements to see Sien before going back to school?  Tonight was Saturday night, they could have gone out. . . .  Or tomorrow, tomorrow was another whole entire day that could have been spent with Sien instead of being a whole day standing between now and seeing him again on Monday.  She should have given him her phone number.  But he hadn’t asked.  Why hadn’t he?  He did want to get together outside of school, didn’t he?  Just chatting in the halls or at lunch wasn’t enough, could that be all he wanted to do?  Of course they’d go out on dates, and he had to meet her parents sooner or later, and she wanted to meet his father, too.

“Elly!”

Hollie had been talking to her, rattling on about something or other.  “I’m sorry, what?” Elly focused on her, with difficulty.

Hollie fell silent, gave her an annoyed look, then turned around and stalked away.

“Wait, Hollie,” Elly put her book aside and stood guiltily.  “Is everything alright over at Uncle Jake’s?  Kiki and Ade are still around?”

“Yes, everything’s fine,” Hollie replied without turning around.  She went in the house and Elly shrugged.  She didn’t mean to be so absent minded, but really, it was nothing to get upset over.

She settled back down on the lawn chair and stretched her legs out, inspecting the nail polish on her toes.  She had painted them dark blue to match a new outfit, and she wondered if Sien would like the outfit.  She’d wear it on Monday.  Monday was so far away . . . .