Rum and Coke

Ellie inspected the list carefully. Every time she would come across a name that she knew on a personal level, she would laugh quietly to herself and shake her head. Sure, she could have easily called her surrogate father, Adam Pascal, any of her Broadway coaches, and any of her Uncle Jared’s clients (most of which were celebrities in their own way) and gotten a lot of information without having to lift a finger, but she didn’t see the fun in that. Ellie had always loved to challenge herself and to push herself to her limits. She also loved to get down to her elbows in research.

Ellie ended up canceling band practice that night because of all the work Mrs. Shirley gave her. At least, that’s what Ellie told her friends. In actuality, Ellie dove whole-heartedly into the project after she saw the name of one of her favorite fashion designers/ex- rock stars- Brian Haner, A.K.A. Synyster Gates, founder of SynGates Clothing and ex-guitarist for the band, Avenged Sevenfold. He was her inspiration for just about everything.

Ellie growled in annoyance as her favorite online tracker failed her for the umpteenth time. It seemed that everyone before Mr. Haner’s grandparents were non-existent unless if they were super famous. And by super famous, implies that they are people like George Washington and Meryl Streep famous.

After throwing a plastic bottle through her hologram monitor, Ellie sat back in her chair and sighed. She looked back down at her paper and realized that she hadn’t filled in Mr. Haner’s current family. Cursing under her breath, she filled in the blanks and added his only son before returning to the screen. She pulled up a social community tab in the hopes that either A) she’ll finally get inspiration, or B) that the project would magically complete itself.

Neither happened. Huffing, she looked back at the paper and smiled as a silly thought came to her mind. Without thinking, she grabbed a pen and put a dash next to Brian’s name before adding her mother’s and drawing a line between the two before placing her own name down. Her smile widened. We would be the perfect family. It looks so good on paper, why can’t it be true in real life? She thought dismally to herself.

“Ellie!” Danielle yelled from downstairs, quickly bringing Ellie out of her head. “I brought dinner! Come get it before it’s too cold!” She quickly erased the fictional additions that she had made and darted downstairs to meet her mother. “Ellie?!” Danielle called to her daughter again.

“Coming, Mom!”

Ellie sighed to herself as she continued her way downstairs and into the kitchen. If only it were true, she thought grimly to herself before plastering on a big smile for her mother.

“Mrs. Davis called me today with some very interesting news.” Danielle said as she twirled her lo mein around her fork. “They’re having the funeral Saturday afternoon. They’re going to have a twenty-one gun salute and everything. I told her that we would be there.”

“For who?” Ellie asked, feigning ignorance.

“Ellie Marie, are you seriously going to play this card every time there is a death?”

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, besides, I can’t. In case if you haven’t forgotten, I have two performances on Saturday.”

“Ellie, I really think you should go.”

“And I don’t.”

“Why not?”

Ellie slammed her fist down on the table as she abruptly stood up. “Because I don’t support anything to do with this pointless occupation of Iraq!” Ellie shouted, a fire blazing behind her blue-grey eyes. “It’s been twenty-five years, Mom. Enough is enough, don’t you think? I mean, you were there…you watched as the towers fell- we deployed ships and aircrafts not even five minutes after the second tower was hit!” Tears Ellie didn’t know she had were leaking out of her eyes.

“Ellie…” she said with concern.

“No, I’m fine.”

“There’s someth-”

“I said I’m fine, okay? Look, it’s been a long day and I think I’ll go to bed now.”

“Ok, rest up,” Danielle said, defeated. She knew that when her daughter got worked up like this, it was for something bigger than what she exploded on. Danielle also knew from past experience to let her daughter calm down on her own. “Oh, and I need you to come to the dance studio tomorrow. I need to go to a meeting and there’s no one else to take over my classes.”

“Sure, I’ll be there. Night.” Ellie said emotionlessly as she pecked her mother’s cheek before throwing away the take out container and heading up to her room.

“Night, Honey.”