Firework

“The barbecue’s at her place?” I asked Chaz, he nodded.
 
“But it’s being held at the really big house up on Maple Street!” Ryan said a little too loud. “Told you she’s got a rich family,” He added quietly.
 
“Wait, if her family has that much money why doesn’t she wear contacts or get the laser eye thingy done to her?” I asked.
 
“Maybe she likes her glasses, I honestly don’t know you would have to ask her yourself.” Chaz said.
 
“Why are you on her side?” I asked him, “You’re my friend you’re supposed to be on my side.”
 
“Put yourself in her shoes Justin! What if every person at school ignored you, never gave a damn about what you did. Teased you and made fun of you even if you did something right! Would you like it?”
 
I had to admit, he had a point there. I’d been so used to always being the centre of attention. Being ignored wouldn’t be fun, unless it was the paparazzi. Being ignored by them would always be fun.
 
“He’s right you know,” Ryan quietly said beside me.
 
“Yeah yeah I know your right,” It was the truth, he was right. “But we don’t need to talk about it. Are we the only people at school who know about the barbeque being at her house?”
 
“Come on Justin! Are you that stupid? Rumors are spread by many people, of course everyone knows, right Chaz?” Chaz was silent, and I looked over to Ryan a smirk plastered on my face.
 
“No we are the only ones that know and it’s gonna stay that way.” Chaz said I turned around once again and looked at Chaz.
 
“Why?”
 
“Because Justin, people want nothing to do with her. Do you think they are still gonna come to the barbeque if they know it‘s at her house?” Again he was right.
 
“Okay, I get it. No one can know, lips are zipped, whatever. But if the rumors aren’t around the school then how do you know?” Ryan asked.
 
“Oh, Claudia told me.” He answered, I was shocked.
 
“And she didn’t tell me?” Claudia told me everything, there were no secrets between us.
 
“Guess she realizes how stupid you are to put Red down and didn’t wanna tell you.” He offered his suggestion. I didn’t like it. Claudia wouldn’t do that. Right?
 
*-*
 
After she got in the water, we just swam a little in the silence.
 
“Tell me about yourself.” She said breaking it.
 
“Well, um, I'm not that interesting.” She widened her eyes at me.
 
“Everybody is interesting. Everybody has a story to tell, and I wanna hear yours.”
 
“Well what do you want to know?” I didn’t have the much to tell.
 
“How you got your name,”
 
“Well, I was born on Canada Day, July First, and after my mom gave birth and they handed me to her she looked out the window. And she saw a firework, that’s how I got my name.” She actually looked like she was pleased to hear it.
 
“Wow that is so cool, my mom named Claudia ‘cause she liked the name.” I smiled and let out a small chuckle. “Can I tell you something?” I nodded, “You know how Justin and I are dating?” I nodded again. “Well, he is really nice to me and a great guy but, one of things I look for in a guy he doesn’t have.”
 
I was shocked, for someone like her to confide this in someone like me, was weird. Considering she had so many other people she could tell this to, and they could give her advice. I couldn’t I knew nothing about boys, well, in that way. “I don’t know what to tell you, I guess if he doesn’t make you that happy then break it? I don’t know! I’ve never been with a guy, I’ve never even kissed one, and I bet my brother already has kissed a girl! And he is only 15!”
 
“Firework!” She shouted, “Calm down. I wasn’t asking you anything, I just needed to tell this to someone.”
 
“Why me though? You have all those people who sit with you at lunch.”
 
“They aren’t my friends. They are people who follow you around for the popularity. That’s why I like you.” I smiled at this and she smiled back.
 
“YO FE!” Nick hollered into my room.
 
“WHAT?!” I yelled back.
 
“I heard you got a friend over, and I just wanted to say congrats.” I could hear the smirk in his voice.
 
“Get out!”
 
“By the way mom wants to talk to you and your friend.” And with that he shut the door.
 
“I guess we have to get out now, sorry.” I told her.
 
“No problem, I am now one of the few people who can say they swam in a bedroom.”
 
We quickly dried off and got changed going to find my mom. She was in the kitchen getting more snacks for the kids.
 
“Hey Mom,” I said walking in and sitting on the counter. “This is Claudia, Claudia this is my mom.” My mom pulls her in for a hug.
 
“Nice to meet you Claudia, call me Laura.” Claudia nodded smiling. “No seriously, don’t be like all the teachers I’ve met, I'm Laura not Mrs. Denmark, makes me sound like I’m old.” She laughed and I rolled my eyes.
 
“No problem.” Claudia says.
 
“Would you like to stay for dinner we’re having pizza, there is a cheese for Firework because she doesn’t like meat, or a pepperoni.” My mom offered, poking me in the stomach and I swatted her hand away.
 
“Sure I’d love to stay, I’ll have the cheese. I'm a vegetarian too.”
 
“Well at least you seem to look healthier than Fe over here. You need to gain some weight.” She said poking me again.
 
“My weight is fine Mom shut up.” I told her. “Do you want something to drink?” I asked Claudia getting off the counter to get some cups.
 
“I’ll have some water thanks,”
 
“And Firework you weight is not fine, our neighbor’s nine year old daughter weighs more than you and she is a good weight for her height.” I looked down and felt the blush coming to my cheeks, I wasn’t that skinny. I got the water out of the fridge and poured two glasses giving one to Claudia.
 
“Kevin and Tommy were in my room again,” I whined to my mom.
 
“You said you wouldn’t tell her you liar!” Tommy yelled coming out from the living room with Kevin not far behind him.
 
“Tommy we don’t use that language in this house!” Mom scolded him.
 
“But Ethan and Ni-” Kevin started but was cut off with Ethan clamping a hand over his mouth while sheepishly smiling at Mom.
 
“Mom did I ever tell you how much I love you? You look really pretty today, I can’t believe how old you really are you don’t look a day over twenty-five.” He said while trying to keep Kevin in a hold. Tommy knew better than to say something, I could see Nick smirking leaning against the counter.
 
“Thank you Ethan,” She said giving him a kiss on the cheek.
 
“Yeah Mom, if you only heard the things Ethan and Nick said.” I started laughing. “And you think calling someone a liar is bad.” Ethan glared at me and Nick came from behind and picked me up throwing me over his shoulder.
 
“You know Fe, I thought you would’ve learned by now that you’re seventeen that you should keep your mouth shut unless asked to open it. But I guess not. You should get in trouble for that.” He started thinking and came up with an idea. “Mom did you get Josh a piñata?” My eyes widened.
 
“No I didn’t why?” She looked at him before she started walking away. “Nicholas Martin Denmark you can not use your sister as a piñata for six year olds!” He sighed.
 
“Haha she used your middle name.” And I stuck my tongue out at him.
 
“Mom is right,” I looked at Nick. “You need to gain a lot of weight, someone as tall as you should not weigh less than nine year old girl.” He laughed and then put me down.
 
“Claudia you want to see something?” I looked over to her and saw she had a smile on her face. She nodded and I took her out to the barns to show her Tink.
 
“This is my horse Tinker Bell, I call her Tink.” Her eyes danced as she looked at the horse, she patted Tink and felt her shiny black coat.
 
“I love horseback riding!” I smiled and walked further into the barn and got out Apple. I didn’t name him, one of my brothers did because he ate a lot of apples.
 
“You wanna ride, you can ride Apple here.” She nodded and we got all the equipment ready and started riding.
 
We didn’t talk and soon it was dinner, which passed by rather quickly, due to my brothers eating all the pizza. We decided to go to the park, because Sam was begging us to go.
 
“Let me just get changed first it got really hot.” I said walking upstairs.
 
“Sure no problem.”
 
“Do you want to spend the night? I already talked to my mom she said its fine.” I offered.
 
“Sure so on our way to the park we will stop at my house and get my stuff and were good.” I got changed and got Sam in her car and we left to her house. Once we got to her house she went up to change and pack her bag for the night.
 
“Bye Mom! Love you!” She called through the house as she came down and we set off to the park. “You know you have really long legs, you should wear shorts more.” She smiled at me.
 
*-*
 
“Bieber Bieber!” My little sister called running towards me and the guys while we were watching TV.
 
“Yes Jazzy,” I said picking her up and setting her on my lap.
 
“Can we go to the park?”
 
“It’s getting late, look its almost dark outside.” I told her.
 
“Please Justy!” She was the only one who could call me that.
 
“Yeah Justy,” Ryan snickered, “We should go to the park.”
 
“Fine but Chaz gets shotgun.”
 
“YES!” Chaz yelled. He never got shotgun, Ryan always beat him to it.
 
Once we got to the park it was quiet, a little boy played in the sand, close to where to girls were sitting on a bench talking. One with extremely long legs that looked snow white it the moon light, the other with them crossed beneath her.
 
“Justy who is that?” Jazzy asked pointing to the boy playing in the sand.
 
“I don’t know Jazzy, go find out.” She looked up at me.
 
“But Justy you’re the big brother you are gonna to talk to him for me. Pretty please?” She had the same puppy dog eyes I had been told many times that I had.
 
“Come on Justin do it for your sister. You know you want to.” Chaz said pushing me towards the kid who got up and went over to the girls.
 
“Look you scared the kid away, idiot.” Ryan mumbled. I laughed and looked back over to the girls who were been dragged to where the boy had been playing before to play with him. They started making sand castles, every so often one wasn’t strong enough and fell making the boy smack the girl with the long legs. After I while I turned to look at Jazzy but she wasn’t there, she had walked up to the boy and then sat down with him playing. The two girls got up and left.
 
“Race you to the swings?” I asked, they nodded, “On five, one, two FIVE!” and I ran earning shouts from the idiots running behind me. I got on one of the swings and Chaz beat Ryan to the other one.
 
“Fine then,” he sat in the sand and watched us swing. I kept an eye on Jazzy with the boy, but kept looking at the girls. They had gotten on the teeter-totter and were laughing really loud. One laugh was one I knew, and was very familiar with I just couldn’t put my finger on it. When the girl who had been sitting crossed legged hit the ground on teeter-totter she rolled off laughing causing the girl on the other end to quickly shoot down and roll of into the sand as well. This caused them to laugh even harder.
 
“Looks like they’re having fun,” I commented jerking my head over to the girls who were struggling to get up.
 
“Are they drunk or something?” I laughed it was a possibility. “Or high?”
 
“Who knows,” I looked at them again and they had successfully got themselves off the ground and were heading over to the tire swing which was just next to us.
 
“Oh wow.” Ryan commented under his breath.
 
“What?” I asked him.
 
“Um that’s Red and Claudia.” It couldn’t be. The girl was in short shorts and actually looked attractive. But if you really looked even in the dark you could see the bright reddish orange colour she sported.
 
“It is, must be her little brother.” Chaz said.
 
“Hi Justin!” Claudia called, “How was practice?”
 
“Would’ve been more fun with you there.” I told her smiling.
 
“Well we were to busy swimming,” and she burst out into a fit of giggles. “In her room.” She finished.
 
“In her room?” Ryan questioned just like he had in the car.
 
“Yeah see,” Claudia said coming toward us with her phone already in hand while Firework stood awkwardly a few feet away. She showed us the picture of her room and my jaw literally dropped. A pool in her room, an actual pool.
 
“Wow,” Was all Chaz could say.
 
“I know right how awesome is that. And her mom is so nice and pretty it’s hard to think how old she is. How old is she Fe?”
 
“Forty-five,” She said quietly.
 
“Seriously? She looks like twenty-five!”
 
“Can’t be,” She said sitting on the edge of the tire swing. “My oldest brother is twenty-seven.”
 
“How many siblings do you have?” Claudia asked her.
 
“A lot,” Firework mumbled under her breath. Claudia shoved her. “Fine fine, I'm the only girl of sixteen,” My eyes bugged out. “Before you ask all naturally born by my mother, don’t ask how I have no clue.”
 
“You mother gave birth to sixteen kids?” Chaz asked.
 
“Yeah, its kind of weird thinking your mom has been making children for that long.”
 
I got what she meant. How awkward it would be with the oldest at 27 her mom has probably been sexually active for at least 15 years.
 
“That’s why the house is so big, you need to fit so many kids. But it’s easier now only eleven still live at home.”
 
“How old are the youngest?” Ryan asked.
 
“About one and half they’re twins.”
 
“Fefe!” I turned my head and saw the little boy running towards her.
 
“Yes Sammy?”
 
“I have sand in my eye.” He whined, she laughed and bent down on her knees, still taller than him.
 
“Open you eye.” He shook his head, “Sam open your eye or I cant get the sand out.” He finally gave up ad opened his eye. She blew into it making him close it, which resulted in them fighting to open it again.
 
“Fefe! That’s gonna make me cry!” Firework laughed.
 
“It’s supposed to, when you cry the water washes away all the sand.” She finished blowing and tears were streaming down one side of his face. “Better?”
 
“Yes thank you Fefe!” He wiped the tears away and ran back to Jazzy to play. Firework then stood up taking her phone out of the back pocket in her jeans, before sitting back down texting. I looked back at my friends, Chaz had a really stupid look on his face.
 
“Chaz? What is wrong with you?” I laughed at my question, so many things were wrong with Chaz.
 
“How did you convince your parents to get a room like that?” He stared at Firework. She looked up and at everyone as if asking if they were talking to her.
 
“I topped Honor Role again and got a letter from a university.” She looked back down. “I'm getting a scholarship, as long as I keep my grades up.”
 
“What university asks an eleventh grader if they want a scholarship?” I asked, you got these letters in grade 12.
 
Still staring down she answered, “Harvard.” Wow her marks had to be amazing. Getting into Harvard you needed at least and 85% average. But a scholarship, you had to be like a genius.
 
“What’s your average?” Claudia asked her.
 
“Ninety-nine point nine.” A small smile appeared on my lips the poor girl couldn’t get to 100.
 
“Not a one hundred?” I asked smirking.
 
“No, I'm an A in gym. But if you’re only counting academic marks I'm a hundred.” She smiled, she had a nice smile. Something I didn’t see on her a lot. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her with a smile on her face. Then an old song I only hear when my friends parents are listening to music came on, I could only guess it came from Firework. Ryan and Chaz started to snicker.
 
“Hello?” She asked into her phone. “Mark?! Oh my God you’re home? No I'm just at the park, yeah with Sam. Yes she’s very pretty,” she smiled and glanced back at Claudia who blushed a deep crimson. I got up from the swing and wrapped my hands around Claudia’s waist.
 
“She’s a little wrong you know.” I whispered in her ear making her shiver, “You’re beautiful, not very pretty.” She smiled her beautiful smile. 

"Bye, I'm busy. No I don't want to hear about that!" she practically screeched into the phone. What was Mark, whoever that was, telling her? "We can discuss that tomorrow, yes I will go along with whatever you guys suggest. I don't care, good bye," She pushed the phone inside her back pocket and sunk to the ground, stretching her legs out. I looked back and saw Chaz's eyes going up her long legs, I laughed giving him a look.

"Brothers are stupid," She quietly mumbled under her breath. That's when it hit me, her last name being Denmark and her happy that 'Mark' is home finally. Her brother was Mark Denmark, the one student to break almost every school record, sport and academic. 

"Your brother is Mark Denmark, like the Mark that broke basically every school record?" She nodded, like it wasn't a big deal. It was a huge deal, he was amazing. No one has ever broken any of his records, except for Firework but that was only the academic ones. The sport records remain untouched. 

"What's he up to now?" Ryan asked, suddenly interested in what she had to say. 

"He's in BC, decided to be a cop." A cop? Why would he be a cop when he was that good at sports. I never met him, but I would love to play a small game of basketball with him. It would be fun. "He's rarely ever home so it's nice when he is."

"What was he telling you that was so bad?" Chaz asked, his eyes looking up at her for a second then going back to her legs. Another chuckle escaped my lips. 

"He's very . . . descriptive about his relationships with me. It's scary, like I need to know had sex with his girlfriend." He was the average brother, teasing his younger sister. Making her uncomfortable, when Jazzy became the age I would bug her too, but for now she was too young. 

"And your going to talk to him about it later?" Claudia asked shocked. 

"No,thats something else. We all have this thing in my family. We get to choose each others first jobs, and we have to stay with it for at least a couple months. It's my turn and being the only girl I can't imagine what they picked for me." I would be pretty scared to, my older siblings picking a job, with her luck it would be a horrible job. 

"What was his first job? Mark's," Claudia asked again.

"We got him a job and the fair that comes here very summer. We made sure he had to clean the bathrooms." she smiled thinking of the memory.

"That's just low, you deserve something bad after that. No one wants to clean washrooms." she put her hands up in defense. 

"It was his fault, he let us pick his job. He started the whole thing, completely Mark's idea." She got up and sat on the swing, pumping her legs to have her move back and forth but her converse clad feet kept hitting the ground. She sighed, being tall did have you miss the little things in life.

I focused on Claudia in front of me, I started to play with her hair with one hand, while she traced invisible patterns on my other. 

"Don't take this the wrong way babe, but you smell like a horse." Everyone was basically laughing except for Firework. 

"Yeah Fe has horses, they're so sweet. I swear if it wouldn't kill me I would snuggle up with one to sleep, but they weigh to much." I looked over at Firework

"I'm not spoiled. I earn what I get." She quickly defended herself, with her marks she probably did. 

"HOLY SHH!" She carried out the h remembering the kids in the sand. I looked over to her and saw her heavily breathing a hand to her chest, which was rather big, while two arms were around her waist. "I fucking hate you Mark." She slapped his arm. So that was Mark, he was muscular and tall, but not as tall as Firework.

"No you love me because I'm the best big brother in the world." He smiled spinning her around, he frowned and put her back down. "You lost weight," Firework looked at the sand. She mumbled something but was too far away for me to hear. 

He came over to us and stretched out his hand. "I'm Mark," I stood up pulling Claudia with me. 

"Justin, this is Claudia, Ryan and Chaz." I said while pointing to each one. 

"I'm always last," Chaz said under his breath. 

"Chazberry!" I snickered as Jazzy came running to Chaz. He rolled his eyes at me before bending down to her level. She whispered in his ear. "Tell, Ry Ry too," She giggled and ran away back to her sand fortress. 

"Tell Ry Ry what?" I asked looking at Chaz.

"Nothing, Justy," Ryan smiled at me walking up to pinch my cheeks. "Nothing a little boy like you needs to know." I smacked his hand.

"Has anyone broken my records?" Mark asked, a huge smile in his face. 

"She did," Chaz pointed at Firework who stuck her tongue out.

"How 'bout the athletic ones do they remain untouched!" 

"Yeah, but I'm close to your football one." I smirked, I just needed to get a few more touch downs and it was mine. 

"Nice man, so you beat all my academic ones?" He turned around to Firework. She nodded and smiled. 

"Don't worry the school still knows who you are, you lead every team as captain to the championships, you might not have won, but you made it that far. No one is gonna forget you." She patted his back and sunk down to the sand once again.

"Well for your new job I was thinking McDonalds, you cooking the meat for the burgers." He smirked at her, she clearly didn't like that but the look on her face. But what was so bad? Cooking patties at McDonalds? 

"That's just mean, you know I'm a vegetarian! Do you know what it would do? My acne would come back." She whined. 

"Fine, I have a backup plan. You'll be the Ronald McDonald, just curl you hair, your pale and tall enough to pull it off." Firework slapped her brother's arm pretty hard I'm guessing 'cause he brought his hand up to rub it. "Fine, Ronnie McDonald Ronald's wife!" She groaned and placed her head in her hands. 

"Chill it won't be that bad," Claudia tried to help but realized it wouldn't help. 

"Don't worry Foxy," She glared at the name, "I'm only joking I haven't talked it over with everyone else yet." 

"So who's the lame person housing your barbecue?" Mark asked, he asked a lot of questions. But considering he hasn't been to the school in almost 10 years, I don't blame him.

"Your mom," I said quietly. He looked up shocked slapping his hand to his forehead. 

"What's wrong with her? I told her to never get involved with school like that." 

I shrugged, thinking about it now. Firework seems to be a nice girl, besides the fact that she makes people look stupid in class, there is nothing wrong with her. But I wasn't willing to give up my popularity for her. I'll just tone it down I not throw harsh comments her way, ill throw harmless ones and wing stand up for her. That's better right?