Reconcile by Nicole Dykes
Ten years old
Ugh!I don’t want to go to my French lesson. I’m dragging my feet down the hall of my fancy private school with my backpack straining my muscles because it’s so full that I’m hunched over.
But all Rosses must learn a minimum of five languages by the time they’re in high school. Because that’s an actual thing in my world.
All because of my last name.
I walk as slowly as I can toward the exit when I see Piper by her locker. I like Piper. She’s pretty cool for a girl. I mean, she’s quiet for the most part, but she’s okay. She’s stuffing books into her backpack on the ground when I walk up to her. “Hey, Piper.”
Her brown eyes meet mine, and then she goes back to putting her books in her bag. “Hi, Sawyer. I’m in a hurry.”
I look down at her white tennis shoes and smile, seeing a sliver of orange on them. Our shoes are supposed to be solid white. Navy blazer and khaki slacks for the boys. Plaid skirt with white shoes for the girls. But Piper is a rebel. If a teacher happens to see it, she’ll get a red slip sent home with her. “Yeah, um . . . Me too. Or I’m supposed to be.”
“Yeah.” She stands up, closing her locker and slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “I have piano and then ballet.”
Jeez. “You ever wish we could just go to the park or something after school?”
Her small nose scrunches as she thinks it over. “I don’t know.”
“Right. You wanna skip it together?”
She smiles at that and shakes her head, her long brown hair falling over her shoulders as she does. “I can’t. My mom will kill me.”
“You ever wish you weren’t a Ward?”
I wish I wasn’t a Ross most of the time and wonder if my friends feel the same way. When I asked him, my friend Asher Sterling just shoved me and told me not to think about dumb things. Piper seems to be thinking it over. “Yes,” she says so quietly I almost miss it. “But my mother says it’s a privilege.”
I nod. “Yeah. Sounds like my mom.”
“I really have to go.” She starts to leave, but I reach out for her arm, and she turns back toward me.
“What would we do if we weren’t a Ross and a Ward?”
She smiles at that, and it makes my heart speed up at the sight. “Everything.” She pats my shoulder when she pulls free of me. But her chin is held high, and there’s a sparkle in her eyes when she says, “We would do everything, Sawyer.”
“Piper! Come on.” We’re both snapped out of our conversation at the voice of her older sister, Paisley. “We’re late.”
Paisley is in the class above us and is nowhere near as cool as Piper. Piper turns to me, looking like she’s sorry. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I nod my head just as my older brother Cole finds me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “French. Come on.”
Dang.
I watch Piper climb into her town car, complete with the driver who picks her sister and her up from school every day before Cole and I climb into our car.
Samantha has a car of her own, and Spence is in college, so it’s only Cole and me riding to our house where our French tutor is probably already waiting.
I look out the window, wishing I could be like the kids I see playing in the park we drive past.
Wishing I wasn’t a Ross.
