Yena came up to me at bloody 6 in the morning saying we needed to talk. Talk about what? Last time I checked we had a deal. She stayed out of my way, and I stayed out of hers.

“What do you want?” I asked as I got out of bed.

“Well,” she began rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Well what?” I wasn’t in the best of moods as it was 6 AM in the morning.

“Could you get a job somewhere and help out with the bills?”

“Me a job.” I repeated.

“Yeah a small part-time job, because if you haven’t noticed our “living room” is still on the lawn. We’re kind of strapped for cash.”

I scoffed at the idea. “Nice joke sis. Me? A job? That would seriously cut into my social life. I’m not like you who can live without a social life.”

Her shoulders slumped at this comment as she walked away.

“Why did I even bother,” I heard her mutter as she walked to the bathroom, and I did feel a little guilty afterwards.

I decided a morning romance would be in order to get rid of my conciousness for a bit. Luckily the paper girl didn’t seem to mind me holding her hands.

And not to mention the lovely surprise which came home with me today which made me completly forget about my sister’s problems. Caitlin O’Koren, one of the hottest girls in school took me up on my offer to come over.

I was worried because our house was such a dump but when she got off the bus with me, she assured me that she didn’t care, as her house was in the same state as mine. Talk about assurance I got a kiss out of the deal. Sweet!

It was all good until Yena returned from her after school soccer practices when I started to feel guilty again. She just walked past me and got ready for work.

This continued for a couple of days and I didn’t really care about it at all until one day when I came home with a failing report card.

I felt pretty bad about it, I mean I didn’t even have the responsibility of a job and Yena juggles schoolwork and a job.

Grandma tore into me pretty hard too.  The usual, “you might be the succeeder of this house”, “you don’t even have a job”, and “would it kill you to have some responsibility?”

Before grandma left she made sure I was doing my homework. I must admit, not doing homework for a week finally bit me in the ass. I couldn’t get ANY of it. So I did the only thing I could.

I invited Caitlin O’Koren out for some fun.

I should’ve been happy that one of the hottest chicks in the school agreed to go out with me, but my grades were bugging me in the back of my mind.

I pushed it out of my mind as I convinced myself that convincing Caitlin to go out on a date with me was as good as doing my homework.

“So, you wanna go in and have some fun?”

“Come on, come on, yes!”

“How do you play that thing?” Caitlin asked glancing curiously at the machine.

“You’ve never played before?”

“Nope.”

“Here have a go at it.”

Caitlin hesitantly grabbed the controls.

“Here, lemme help you get started.”

After a while she started to get the hang of it, but she still got frustrated with it.

“Damn it Jackson! I can’t get this right!” she cursed angrily as she tried to keep the ball from falling.

“Here let me see if anything’s wrong with your hands,”

She giggled as she let me examine her hands.

“There is something very peculiar about your hands.”

“And what would that be?” she asked jokingly.

“Here, I’ll tell you,”

“What is it?”

“I just wanted to hold your hands for a bit that’s all.”

She swatted me playfully and I grinned.

I lit a fire to set the mood. Too bad I didn’t notice it was 40 degrees out and Caitlin then complained it was too hot and she was hungry too.

“Hey there ,” I said as I approached the redhead at the counter.

“Can I help you?” she asked flashing me a huge smile.

“You have any…you know,” I trailed off.

“Any what?” she asked her curiousity piqued.

“Food?”

Her face fell at my answer. “There’s a couple of grills outside so you can grill some hotdogs.”

“Oh but you see I’m not very good at grilling things. Perhaps you could whip something delicious up?”

“Umm, well, I could,” she stuttered and I knew I had her. She just needed some encouragement.

“You’re quite a pretty thing yourself, how about we get together sometime?”

“O-okay!”

“So, what do you think of meeting new people?”

“I have nothing against that.” she replied as she munched on her hotdog.

“How would you feel if I met other new people?” I asked testing the waters, I needed to know what kind of girl she was.

“Depends on who you’re meeting.” she replied. “If it was other girls I’ll tell you up straight I don’t like that.”

Ah. She was one or none type of girl.

“Why would you bring that up?” she asked testily.

“Nothin’, just wanted to assure myself you’re in love with me.” I replied smoothly.

“Do you even have to ask?” she laughed. “Everyone’s in love with you.”

Chalk up one for Jackson.

It turned pretty dark pretty quick and the guilt of forking off my homework came back. Yena and granny would be home soon.

“What’s wrong?” Caitlin asked.

“Nothin’ just thinking about some things.”

“Something you can’t toss out of your head?” she asked.

“Umm, something like that.” I replied kinda sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it.” she laughed and smiled.

“Hey I’ll make it up to you some time okay?”

“Well, I don’t know about that…”

“Come on Cait,”

“Very well, but I’m a busy girl you know?” she said putting her hand on her hip.

“I know,” I replied as I gave her a kiss on the cheek and left.

So I left, my heart a bit lighter at scoring with Caitlin. But I still felt the weight of the uphending homework pile of doom, and not to mention thinking of Yena reminded me of our financial situation.

It was even worse when Yena came home.

She passed out on as soon as she got back home from work. Grandma had come home earlier than I had expected and taken a chunk out of me when she realized I went out instead of doing homework.

“Yena! Yena!”

“Are you okay?”

“Shut up Jackson, you’re louder than a bloody foghorn.”

Yup. The girl was fine, despite her haggard appearance.

“Are you sure?” I asked as I opened the door for her.

“I’m fine.” she said as she stormed into the house.

“Shit,” Yena cursed. “I still have to pay the bills.”

“Don’t worry about it. I paid them earlier.”

I felt pretty bad. Her paycheck goes to paying our bills, and not to mention my spending habits.

I felt like shit when I went to bed that night.

The next morning grandma and Yena acted like nothing happened. Until I caught her checking herself out in the mirror.

She didn’t notice me passing by but I could tell something was up. Yena usually didn’t do stuff like that.

I didn’t really hear about it until I invited Sophie over for a little fun.

“You going to the party tonight?”

Party. Right. I’d forgotten about the party Ricky Cornier was holding tonight. Too bad I was grounded.

“Can’t make it babe, granny got mad at me because of my grades so,”

“But even your sister’s going.”

That was new.

She left at night, in a limo with a whole bunch of other people. I thought it was about time Yena got out and did teenage stuff! She acts like my mother more then granny does!

I was stuck at home anyways, so I decided to do her homework for her. Call it a sentiment if you will.

I heard her crash and fall when she came in at 4 AM. Thank God granny’s a heavy sleeper.

Eventually she got up and troddled into bed. She evidently wasn’t used to going out and partying.

I guess it was about time I started helping out and looked for a job.