Ignorance

A couple days later, I was sitting on the floor, tapping my fingers impatiently on the carpet as I stared up at my bare white walls. I turned to look at Ricky and Arik from over my shoulder, while they were sitting on a few plastic chairs that were placed in my room. I had yet to get an actual bed because I had always slept on a couch in my previous homes. I was allowed to get my own bed as soon as I decided how I wanted to have my room set up. I stared up around the room before looking back at the twins, who were sharing one of my AP magazines.

"Do you know any stores in the area that sell paint and brushes?" I asked them.

"Why? Do you want to paint your room or something?" Arik asked distractedly.

I gave him a dull look before sarcastically saying, "No, I literally wanted to paint the town red."

"Hey, we should do that!" Ricky exclaimed.

"No," Arik and I said simultaneously. I had learned quite quickly that Ricky often acted on impulse and rarely thought about future consequences.

"Well, anyway, there's a Home Depot a couple miles into town," he said, brushing off our statement.

"Great, I'll tell my dad. I want a bed already," I said as I stood up from the floor and walked out of the room. I walked downstairs to find him sitting with my mother on the living room floor as they unpacked fragile items from their safe cardboard boxes.

"Dad, I wanted to paint my room. Ricky said there's a Home Depot a few miles away."

"David, that means you can go buy primer for the kitchen cabinets," my mom smiled up at him as he stared over at me.

"I guess this house can use a little paint," he said as he looked up at the white walls. "What do you think, babe?"

"Ooh, we can have alternating colors," she said excitedly as she scrambled up to her feet. "This wall could be a warm yellow color and then this wall could be a rich shade of red."

"So we have a plan. Princess, get the boys, I'll need somebody to guide me there," my dad said as he stood up.

I nodded once before going to the stairs and yelling, "Twins! We're leaving, get down here."

"Noelani Lennon, don't call them like they're your brothers or something," my mom scolded me.

"They are my brothers. They're Dad's illegitimate love children," I smiled innocently as I pressed my fingertips together. She sighed and shook her head at me before grabbing her purse and following the twins outside to my dad's truck.

"Stop worrying your mother," my dad smiled before he led me outside to the truck.

I climbed into the backseat of the truck with twins as he locked the front door. My mom spoke with my dad in between the directions the twins were giving him. I picked at my nails as the wind the floated into the truck from the open window blew my hair wildly around my face. I pushed my dark sunglasses up my nose as my dad finally pulled into the parking lot. I grinned up at Ricky, who put his arm around my shoulder and his other around his brother's, as he walked with us into the store. We all immediately headed towards the paint department, my parents speaking with an employee who offered assistance. I looked up and down the long aisle of paint before looking up at Ricky.

"What do you think?" I asked.

"Well, how do you want your bedroom walls to look like? Single colors, alternating colors, design, a mural?" he returned.

"Oh, God, not a mural. I'm a horrible artist. If this place has stencils, I'm good," I laughed as I rubbed the palms of my hands on my pants.

"You know what you should do? Have a checkered room. Like get two colors and paint the rooms in a checkered pattern, like a chess board. Ooh and then have another wall be all stripes, and then another wall in circles," he explained with a large smile.

"I like that idea. Hey, where did Arik go?" I asked as I looked around before spotting him talking to a tall boy with spiky black hair.

"Oh, that's Ethan. He's Arik's friend," Ricky said as he turned to pick at the edge of a can of paint.

"Not yours?" I asked.

"I don't really have any friends," he said uncomfortably.

"What do you mean?"

"At school, I'm not exactly comfortable with people so they think I'm a freak. Arik has always been the social one."

"Why doesn't he just introduce his friends to you?"

"I don't know," he shrugged.

"Ugh! Rude," I scoffed.

"It's no big deal."

"Yeah, it is. He's your brother."

"Exactly. He's my brother. Arik is my twin and he'll always be my best friend and I know I'll always be his. It's just...we're still brothers."

"Richard Henry Barlett that is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard. Trust me, I'll get you more friends when I get to school," I grinned before wrapping my arms around his waist. I felt him tense underneath my arms before he wrapped his arms around me.

"Now let's find paint," I smiled as I looked up at him.

"Well, you strike me as a blue kind of girl. So I say a light blue like this," he said as he pointed a sky blue color. He walked further down the aisle before pointing to another can. "And this blue."

"Then it's done. And you can help," I grinned.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, darling."

"How many buckets should I get?"

"I'd say two of each color, just to be safe."

"Great, I'll carry two, you carry two," I said as I picked up the buckets of the dark blue paint. "And we should get brushes, tape, and stencils. Because Lord knows that circles are hard to make perfectly."

"Good idea," he nodded.

I looked down the aisle to see Arik laughing with the boy Ricky called Ethan. I sighed impatiently as I waited for him to finish. I groaned when I realized I doubted he would ever finish so I yelled out, "Arik! Shut up and help out for once!"

They both looked over at me, Ethan raising one eyebrow before saying something I couldn't hear to Arik. Arik shook his head before replying. They both bid each other goodbye before Arik made his way to us. He smiled at the paint buckets in our hands. "Great, so we can go now."

"Uh, yeah, no," I shook my head. I pushed the paint buckets into his arms. "You get to hold these while we go find tape, brushes, and stencils."

He sighed noisily but remained quiet for the rest of the walk as I grabbed the supplies I needed. I held all the things in my arms before I gestured to the boys to follow me as we attempted to find my parents. We finally found them in the front of the store, both of them with buckets of paint in their arms, my dad holding more than my mother. We walked up to them and placed the paint on the conveyor belt along with my parents’ items.

"So what did you think of, princess?" my dad asked.

"Ricky thought of it. One wall will be stripes, the other checkered, and the other circles."

"What about the other wall?" my mom asked.

"Paint splattered," Arik grinned. Ricky and I looked at him incredulously.

"What?" I asked.

"Wouldn't that be cool? Just get paintbrushes, dip them in the paint, and swing at the wall?"

I thought about it for a few moments before grinning. "I know exactly how I'll do my room. But you can't know until it's done," I said as we walked outside with our things.

The twins stayed with me all afternoon as we covered my floor with newspaper. I covered a rectangular area on each wall so that it would remain blank while we painted. Ricky started on the circular wall; I did the checkered wall, while Arik did the striped wall. It took a few hours to finish and when we finally did, we all simultaneously turned to look at the one remaining white wall.

"Are you ready to do this," I asked.

"Are you?"

"I only ask that you do all that you can to not get paint splatters on my other walls," I told them before picking up a paint brush.

"Got it," they said simultaneously.

We spent the next hours splattering the white wall with the two different shades of blue. We all ended up with paint specks on our clothes, and somehow, Ricky ended up with a large dark blue paint smear on his forehead. I shook my head as I laughed at the sight of him. I tried to rub the paint away from his head with a small towel but that only seemed to make it worse. He shrugged at me nonchalantly before grinning. When we all had finished, we headed down to meet my parents in the kitchen. Everywhere in the house reeked of paint. My dad was sitting at the kitchen table as he read a paint splattered newspaper. He folded it and smiled at the sight of us.

"How goes the room, kid?"

"It's almost done, I just need to fill in the empty blanks," I said before I popped a grape into my mouth.

"What are you going to do with those anyway?" Arik asked.

"You'll see it tomorrow."

"We have school, dummy."

"I know we do, idiot. I meant after school," I retorted.

"Noelani," my mom warned.

"I know, Mama."

"I can't come over after school, I'm going to my friend's house," Arik said.

"Sucks for you then. My good buddy Ricky will be here," I grinned as I wrapped an arm around Ricky's shoulder.

"That means I'm the better twin," Ricky stuck out his tongue.

"At least I have friends," Arik came back before Ricky went quiet.

"He'd have friends if you introduce him to yours, jackass," I muttered.

"Lolo!" my mom said.

"What?" I said innocently.

"It's alright, Mrs. Lennon, he deserves it," Ricky grinned as Arik glared at the both of us.

"We better get going," Arik said.

"Are you sure you boys don't want to stay for dinner?" my mom asked as she stood up from the oven.

"We're having her famous shish kebabs," my dad spoke up.

"Seriously, guys, they're so good. She puts like steak and chicken and pineapple and bell peppers. It's drool worthy," I smiled as I sat down in one of the chairs.

"And for dessert, she has chocolate covered strawberries and banana shish kebabs," my dad carried on.

The twins looked at each other and seemed to have a conversation with each other through their minds. My dad and I exchanged glances before looking back up at them. Arik exhaled heavily through his nose while Ricky shrugged lightly.

"Dude, its food. You know Mom," he said finally.

"True," Arik said as he rubbed the back of his head. "We'll stay, Caroline."

"We're in, Mrs. Lennon," Ricky smiled.

"Ricky, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Caroline?"

"At least once more. As always, Mrs. Lennon," Ricky said as my mom grinned.

After the boys had eaten and left to go back home, I washed my hands before heading back up to my room. I pulled out the small can of black paint that my parents had bought before grabbing a small paintbrush and tucking it behind my ear. I pulled back each newspaper clipping that had protected my walls from the paint Ricky, Arik, and I had left. I stared at each blank space before grinning. I took the brush from my ear, dipped it into the can of paint, and started working.