The August Project

Sugar. Holy crap. I had never tasted something so amazing before in my life. Those things, those smores, were like Heaven on Earth. I hadn’t a clue why my parents wouldn’t let me eat them. They was nothing wrong with them at all. In fact, I was fairly certain that the deliciousness gave me more energy than usual.

“Delilah, where on Earth have you been?!” Mother practically screeched into my eardrums when I finally wandered into the house. I jumped slightly, frightened by her sudden appearance and loud words.

“I was in the backyard, Mother, didn’t you see me?” I asked innocently. It was a bit of a white lie. I didn’t feel comfortable lying to them, but it was better than getting yelled at by them. Besides, technically I had been in the backyard, just not my backyard. They were right beside each other anyways.

“No,” she replied, giving me a skeptical look. “You need to stay in sight.”

“I was in the barn,” I said, lying again. Okay, now that one was more of a lie that I couldn’t find a loophole out of. Oh well. It was a darn good thing Mother could not get into my brain. It would be a very creepy thing if she could see inside there, though. Plus, it would be all gooey and gross, not a very pleasant place to vacation.

“Oh, well then,” Mother said, attempting to not let defeat show on her face. It showed. “Maybe I’ll see about inserting some windows in the barn,” she said, upturning her nose slightly.

“There are already windows in there, Mother,” I replied sweetly.

“Bigger windows,” she said. Was that annoyance I could detect in her voice? Well than, that wasn’t very nice now was it? Hmpf. I decided to do what Mother told me to do when people were being mean to me: walk away.

“Mother I’m tired, may I be excused to bed?” I asked politely.

“Alright,” she said and muttered several inaudible things as I left to go upstairs.

I hummed happily to myself as I ascending the flight of stairs that lead to my room. The sugar flowed through my veins like twenty thousand fish swimming along happily in the rivers. Though I highly doubted that that many could be crammed together in one space, unless it was a very large river. Maybe an ocean or a sea would do better for the fish. Someone should tell them.

It took me a good hour before I feel asleep that night. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was because I had friends. Real friends. That was somewhat refreshing, actually. I never really had that many friends before. There were some in the circus, but so many people came and went that it was hard to really talk to anyone.

Or maybe it was just the sugar. I don’t know.

***

That morning I awoke refreshed and content. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and the birds were chirping. Darn birds; they were the ones that woke me up in the first place. Did it ever occur to them that some people were still trying to sleep? I could understand that they wanted to get up early to catch the worm or whatnot, but perhaps they could talk a bit more quietly to their friends? Someone should ask them about that. Not me, personally, because I was rather frightened by birds, but someone definitely.

I finally rolled out of bed only to find that my wooden floor was frozen in the morning. Technically my poor feet had to find that out for me, telling me this information by sending shock waves of ice up to my brain. Goosebumps rose on my arms and I tried rubbing them away, only to find it was no use at all. Oh well.

Sighing, I changed into a plain purple t-shirt and some jeans. I looked in the mirror in my small bathroom to find my hair to be curly as usual. That was a good thing, I think. It would be rather odd to wake up one morning to find yourself looking like a completely different person. I brushed out the tangles, then brushed my teeth and was pretty much good to go.

When I wandered downstairs to the kitchen, something caught my eye outside in the backyard. Well, not my backyard, but Jed’s. From over the top of the white picket fence, I could see a hammock swaying lightly in the breeze with two bodies on it. I squinted my eyes slightly and thought that the other figure must have been Anthony. He had an Anthony-ish shape.

Outside wasn’t very crisp anymore, but it wasn’t stinking hot either, considering it was the beginning of August. I let the kitchen door shut softly behind me, more considerate of the neighbours than the birds were. Silly things were still chirping away in my willow tree.

I approached the fence only to find that I could barely see over it. It was probably a four foot high fence, meaning I only really had a good 14 inches to look over it. If you thought about it, that was what? Head and neck? I popped up behind the fence and smiled at Jed and Anthony.

“Good morning,” I said to them cheerfully.

Suddenly the two boys that were lying on the hammock went flying down to the ground. The landed with sounds of pain in a tangled mess on the dewy morning grass.

“Oh dearie, are you guys okay?” I asked and bit my thumb nail nervously. Did I do that? Or darn it. I seemed to have a habit of showing up at the wrong time occasionally. I really needed to work on that. But maybe they should pay more attention to their surroundings, that way they wouldn’t have been so frightened.

“Oh, it’s always a good landing when Anthony’s around,” Jed said, pretty much unfazed.

“Yes, apparently I’m a very good pillow,” Anthony added, though he didn’t sound as pleased about falling as Jed did. Boys were strange, strange creatures; this I had learned from years of observation. Plus it’s just common sense, I think.

“Sorry for disturbing you hammock nap,” I said awkwardly, looking down at my feet and biting my lip slightly.

“No worries, sweets,” Jed said, picking himself up from the ground. He extended his hand to Anthony whom then took it and rose from the ground himself. Anthony brushed his jeans off while Jed approached me by the fence. “So, what are you doing today?”

“Nothing,” I replied, shrugging. “Unpacking, I guess.”

“How about--”

“Jed, don’t you dare,” Anthony whispered to Jed fiercely.

“What? How do you even know what I was going to say? You’ve been a lot of places in me, but you have not been in my mind,” he whispered back. Did they not know I was right there? It seemed not.

“Oh yeah, what were you going to say?” Anthony shot back with a raised eyebrow.

“I was merely going to suggest a little wardrobe…tweaking,” he said with a mischievous grin. “I splash of colour here, a little cleavage there and we’d have her looking like one hot little momma in no time.”

“Jed, restrain yourself,” Anthony whispered. Or demanded. Both?

“That’s the first time you’ve said that to me,” Jed said and rolled his eyes. “Boo. You ruin all my fun, you know that?”

“Oh trust me, we have plenty of fun,” he said. Was I even there anymore? I was surprised they were whispering still because it was like they had completely forgotten me. Frowning slightly I cleared my throat, making both boys look over at me.

“Erm,” I mumbled. “Whatcha talking about?”

“Oh, nothing, hunny,” Jed shrugged it off. “Just Anthony wanting to ruin all my fun. You like fun, don’t you doll face? How about a little makeover? Hmm? I can have you looking so fierce that all the boys will be dropping at your feet.”

“Why would they be dropping? Would I frighten them?” I inquired.

“She’s like a little martian, isn’t she?” Anthony said to Jed.

“Oh hush,” he said, but still laughed. “They will just be worshipping the ground you walk on, sweets, that’s all.”

“That’s odd,” I said, furrowing my brows. “They should pray to God, not the ground.”

“This is going to be one long summer,” I heard Anthony mutter.

“You, yes you, I’ve had just about enough of your sass. Just you wait until I get you alone,” Jed scolded, yet Anthony looked rather pleased with himself. “And as for you, sweets, my darling little Lila. Can I call you that? I’m going to take you shopping!”

“Uhm, okay?” I said, cringing slightly. Shopping. Ew. I had never been a fan of shopping. Mother always said there was bad people at the stores anyways and that they only wanted your money. Maybe that was the one thing boys were after?

“Oh, joyous day!” Jed said happily while Anthony rolled his eyes.

Sure, let’s look at it that way.