25
RILEY
Age 12
Tiny jumped up from her bed to greet us as soon as we walked in the door, nudging her big wet nose into Beckett’s pocket looking for treats. We had a few hours to ourselves today since Tracy and Harold were working late, so we snatched some treats for Tiny, snacks for us, and a couple Gatorades from the fridge.
“I don’t have homework. Do you?” Beckett asked.
“Nope.”
We both bolted for the backdoor, racing at full sprint across the grass to the barn. I collapsed in the red lounge chair first, laughing.
“Ha! I win!”
He groaned. “Only ‘cause you got a headstart!”
“Did not. We left at the same time!” I nudged his leg with my foot. “I won. I get first five.”
“Yeah, yeah. Hit me,” he said, sliding into the broken blue chair across from me.
Somehow, we had fallen into a routine of asking each other five random questions each time we got to hang out, usually revealing things no one else knew or would ever know for that matter. Beckett had started playing it with me just after I came to the Henrys’ home, but we both enjoyed it so much we had been doing it ever since.
We hadn’t played in a while, though, or spent any time together outside of doing homework and chores, so it felt good to have this time with him now.
I draped my legs over the side of my chair and popped a piece of candy in my mouth. There were a few really embarrassing questions I’d been dying to ask about Sarah Thomas at school, but I couldn’t bring myself to.
Instead, I asked, “If you could live anywhere, where would you live?”
He rolled a piece of licorice between his fingers, thinking. “Somewhere by the ocean, I think.”
I tossed a wrapper at him. “Be specific! You know the rules. Any unanswered question means you do one of my chores.”
He kicked my chair. “I did answer! I don’t know where exactly, I just want to be able to see the waves every day. Maybe Florida or Texas.” He looked at me to see if that was a good enough answer and I nodded. He grinned and accepted his victory bite.
“Where do you want to go to college?” I asked.
“I don’t. I’d rather go to a trade school.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “I’d rather focus on one thing then be forced to study a bunch of subjects. Besides, Harold says there’s a need for skilled people willing to work with their hands and I’m willing.”
“Okay,” I said with another nod.
He smiled and took another bite. How we determined the treats were a reward for honesty, I still had no idea, but it was fun to torture him sometimes. I liked getting to see the hidden, tiny details within Beckett’s mind.
“What would you do then? What do you want to study?”
“I don’t know. Build things, maybe. Welding or something like that.”
“You could be a police officer. Like Detective Beach,” I said with a smirk.
He broke off a piece of licorice and tossed it at me. “I’ve told you, I’m not really detective material.”
“AndI’vetoldyou,you’re good at solving puzzles. You’d be great at it.”
***
