Indian Summer

After making her rounds through the town, down to the small coffee shop and movie rental store, Jackie drove the car over the familiar crest of the hill in front of her house and pulled into the drive of her mothers two-story house.

The neighborhood 'terror', Jackie's cat, Banshee, leaped up on her idling car. She didn't jump, she was used to her cats antics. He had earned his name because of the way he ran through the neighborhood and screeched at everything, birds, other cats, people, and even lizards.

"Hey Ban!" She crooned as he jumped out of the car with her hot coffee and rented movie. She had picked out the movie "Transformers". It was her favorite. Every time she went to her dad's house she watched it with him and a couple of her friends that she knew from South Carolina.

Jackie lurched up the steps to the giant house after locking her car and patting her cat on the head. Opening the door, her cat raced through her legs to get to his food bowl before he was exiled to the garage for the night. She flipped on the light to the family room and tossed the DVD onto the couch.

Walking into the kitchen, she bummed into the trash can and splashed her cappuccino all over the new blouse her mother had bought for her under the supervision of the lawyer for the court sessions in Nashville.

"Shit!' She exclaimed and pulled off the top racing into the laundry room and scaring her cat, sending him scampering away to hide under the kitchen table away from her stomping feet. Quickly, Jackie shoved her shirt into the washer along with a pile of other dirty clothes and spun the dial causing cold water to erupt from the machine. She poured in the detergent and shut the washer, sighing with relief and hoping the blouse wasn't ruined.

Jackie picked up the empty coffee cup and threw it in the trashcan she'd bumped into. She wet a rag and mopped up the rest of the now cold drink as her cat slinked out and started to lap at the puddle. She smiled and him and wiped up the little bit left over he was working on. He meowed in protest.

"Coffee isn't good for kitties! I wouldn't want my only friend getting sick!" She said with sincerity. The cat really was her only companion. She didn't have any people at school she considered friends. She was attractive enough with her long auburn hair and green-gray eyes, but she went through every school day with only a few, "Hello"s and glances here and there.

Jackie wandered into the family room after throwing the rag in with the rest of the clothes washing in the garage. She popped in the movie as Banshee jumped onto her favorite Lazy-Boy chair. Scooting him aside, she pressed play on the remote and started the movie awaiting the return of her mom.

This was her life for the time being. Hanging around with her cat, exploring the woods behind her house, attending court sessions, occasionally hoping onto the computer to e-mail her dad. It was the summer and she had nothing better to do without school. It was going to be even more crazy once the divorce was official and she turned 18. What was she going to do? Where was she going to go? Many unanswered questions swam through her head as she watched Shia Labeouf battle robots from space. What an odd movie.. she thought.