1. The Exciting News
Molly Sinclair was running as if her life depended upon it. She just had to get home from school before her big brothers got there. If she arrived last, she knew that her news would somehow seem unimportant compared to whatever wonderful things that her brothers would surely be sharing with her parents. Of course Molly was never upset about this, as she loved hearing about her brother’s stories just as much as her mom and dad. She just wanted to be the one with the exciting news for once.
She continued to run across an abandoned gravel lot, followed by Mr. Mayberry’s pumpkin patch, over the moss-covered bridge that crossed Belden Pond and through the muddy grass fields. She loved the feeling of the late fall breeze blowing directly into her face and through her hair, and she began to run even faster. She looked behind her, and in the distance she could barely make out a beat up black truck. She started to speed up trying to get as far away from the truck as possible. It was her older brothers’ who were driving that truck, and she just had to beat her sibling’s home, today of all days.
Molly ran up to the side of the dirt road that led directly to her home and ran alongside it. Suddenly, without warning, she felt a terrible stitch in her side. Gasping, she immediately stopped, pulled her long sandy hair into a ponytail with the rubber band on her wrist, and leaned over to grab the side of her waist. She inhaled a deep breath of the cool air and as she stood there for a few minutes staring into space while trying to catch her breath, she had to do a double take.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she had seen someone standing over by an old willow tree, looking directly at her. She looked again but nobody was there. She figured that her mind was playing tricks on her due to her lack of oxygen from running so hard. She was just about to start running again, but to Molly’s disappointment she heard the engine of a car slowly grow louder as it drove closer to her. A second later, the dusty and dented black Chevy truck then pulled up beside her.
“Hey Molly, what is going on?” Jamie Sinclair looked on as he pulled to a stop with their adopted brother, Joey sitting in the passenger seat grinning at her. Molly groaned quietly. It looked as if she wasn’t going to be able to beat her brother’s home after all.
“Nothing,” she said, “I just felt like running for a bit. Do you mind giving me a ride for the rest of the way home?”
“No problem, go hop in the back.”
Molly grabbed the back of the corner, tossed her backpack onto the truck and hoisted herself onto the flatbed. As they drove slowly towards home, she dangled her legs over the edge, and watched as the disturbed dust from the ground, covered her white converse shoes.
Joey opened up the back window and called out to Molly. “I’ve got great news that I can’t wait to tell you guys about!”
Molly could only smile at him, since he would not be able to hear her from the back of the truck. ‘Of course you do,’ thought Molly inwardly. ‘It’s like that every day.’
Once they arrived home and had parked the car, Molly slid off of the flatbed and joined her brothers as they entered through the front porch on the house. They were greeted with the sweet smell of a chocolate cake baking in the oven.
Molly had lived all of her life in this home, and she loved it. It was a two story house which had been built in the early 1900’s. It came complete with a wraparound porch and was surrounded by a huge yard that allowed for plenty of games of tag and Frisbee. The homes in her family’s part of the area were all older and they were spaced apart more farther than the more updated ones closer to town. Inside, her mother had decorated it in warm fall colors such as red, gold and sage and filled it with big comfortable furniture. Molly always felt a sense of comfort when returning home from somewhere else.
The boys immediately went upstairs to their bedrooms and Molly went to find her mother in the kitchen. Mrs. Sinclair was leaning over the oven with a toothpick in her hand, testing the cake to make sure it was done. She looked up at Molly, and smiled a big grin. She was a short woman with pale skin, long straight blackish brown hair with a few stray gray strands, and bright green eyes lined with smile lines.
“There’s my baby girl,” she said.
“Mom,” Molly sighed. “I’m not a baby! Today is my thirteenth birthday. I am officially a teenager.”
“I know, I know, but you will always be the baby, Molly!”
Mrs. Sinclair stood up, walked over to her daughter and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Molly just gave her mother a look, and she continued, “I guess I have to realize though, that none of you are little kids anymore. Today I am officially the mother of three teenagers.” She let out a long sigh and slouched her shoulders, but then quickly straightened back up.
“How was your day honey?”
Molly smiled at her mother’s innocent question. Here was Molly’s chance to talk to her mother before Joey could get to her.
Molly jumped up off of the chair she had been sitting on, gave a little jump and said, “Actually, Mom, I had a great day. Guess what?”
Mrs. Sinclair looked like she was going to ask, but at that moment Joey ran down the stairs that led into the kitchen.
“Mom!” he said. “You’ll never guess! I was nominated to run for class president. It’s me against two other kids at school, but I think I might have a good chance of winning.”
Molly looked at her brother and thought that he might be right. Jamie and Joey were sixteen years old and were juniors at the high school. They were both handsome looking, outgoing and constantly had friends going and coming from the Sinclair’s home.
Molly felt a sense of pride that her brother had been elected. She never begrudged Jamie and Joey for any of their successes, such as Jamie making the varsity soccer team, both of them playing on the football and baseball teams, and now Joey’s nomination. She loved hearing about the kids and teachers at school and how they went to dances and sports games. Molly wished that she could be the same age as her brothers. Maybe then, her parents would listen to her stories, without Jamie and Joey dominating every conversation.
As Joey went on about the nomination, Mrs. Sinclair sat down at the kitchen table with a tablet, and began to scribble down ideas that she suggested to Joey. Together they discussed ways he could go about getting his schoolmates to vote for him.
“Oh!” She said. “This is so exciting. You will need lots of posters with bright colors and a catchy slogan. Of course the family will help you with the posters. Family always helps family.”
With that she grinned and looked at Molly, realizing that she was still standing there next to them.
“I’m sorry Molly; you said that you too had news.”
Both her mother and brother looked at her expectantly. Molly didn’t want to steal from her brother’s spotlight.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” she said. “I can tell everybody at dinner tonight.”
Mrs. Sinclair crinkled her nose. “Are you sure Molly? Joey and I are all ears.”
“No really. It’s okay, you discuss Joey’s plans and we’ll talk later. I promise. I think I might head over to Dr. Oliveri’s for a while if that’s okay.”
“Okay Molly, but don’t stay too long, we’ve got cake and present’s for you.”
Molly smiled and turned away from the room. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She then dialed her best friend Samantha Baker. She had been friends with Sam ever since she and her Aunt had moved from Denver, Colorado to Madison Township, Maine and into the house across the street five years ago.
Sam picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey Sam, you want to go over to Dr. Oliveri’s house for a little while?”
“We can do that,” agreed Sam. “Meet me outside on my driveway.”
“Great,” said Molly.
She ran out the front door, across the front lawn and onto Sam’s driveway, just as Sam came running out of her garage to greet her. Sam was a tall girl with braces on her teeth, freckles across her nose and white blonde shoulder length hair that naturally flipped out at the ends. There was always some sort of colored streak in her hair as well, and today it happened to be purple.
Sam and Molly’s friendship had started during the first week that Sam had moved to Madison Township. Molly had been outside with her brothers playing with her dolls, when her brothers had come outside and started throwing Maddie, her most beloved doll back and forth. Molly was dancing back and forth between them, trying to catch her doll, when Sam had marched herself across the street and began telling off Jamie and Joey for picking on Molly. Molly had been grateful for Sam’s help and they had instantly become best friends after that incident.
“I can’t wait to see if we can find anything new in Dr. Oliveri’s library today,” exclaimed Sam.
Dr. Oliveri was an eccentric older man who worked as an optician at the local Lens crafters at the mall, whose wife had passed away several years ago from cancer. They never had any children and everyone in town felt sorry for him because he always seemed a little lonely. Apart from Sam’s house, Dr. Oliveri’s home was the only other occupant on the long dirt road on which they lived.
Molly’s parents liked Dr. Oliveri, and encouraged her to often go over to his house to see if she could help with chores. Sam would always accompany Molly when going over to his house, since it was always fun to go through all of the rooms and look at all of the different objects that he had accumulated over the years. Dr. Oliveri who appreciated the girl’s help was always willing to let them peek around.
As they walked along the dirt road and up the steep hill to Dr. Oliveri’s, the girls started talking about school.
“So, are you totally excited?” asked Sam. “Finally, a club that sounds interesting.” Sam was talking about the new art club that was announced during the morning school announcements.
Molly reached up and played with the beaded necklace that Sam had given her for her birthday earlier that day and said, “Yes, I can’t wait for it to start.”
Sports had never really interested Molly, and neither had the school orchestra or school plays. Art was something that she could truly identify with, and it allowed her to express herself however she wanted. An extra bonus was that it was something that Jamie and Joey had never shown an interest in, so it felt like it was completely hers.
“Did you tell your family about it yet?” asked Sam. “I told my Aunt May as soon as I got home. She was a little concerned about the cost of art supplies, but otherwise she seemed really interested.”
Aunt May had taken care of Sam since she was two years old, when she had been sent to live with her. Sam didn’t really like to talk about her birth parents too much and always grew stiff looking as if it was too painful to talk about when the subject was brought up. Molly’s mother had confided in her one day, and had told her that Sam’s parents had made some bad choices in life and were no longer able to take care of her, which is why she was sent to live with Aunt May. May wasn’t even her real Aunt. May was Sam’s mother’s best friend from college, but she raised Sam like she was her own. Aunt May was a substitute grade teacher at Madison Heights Elementary, and didn’t have a lot of spare money.
“No,” answered Molly. “Joey was talking to Mom about running for class president, and I wasn’t sure she would be as into my news as she was Joey’s.”
“Why?” asked Sam.
“Mom and Dad are always supporting sports functions at my brother’s school. I am not sure they really understand how much art means to me. I mean, they smile and nod and say great job Molly, but I don’t think it goes much further than that. I don’t think they would get as excited about my news when comparing it to my brothers sporting events, or even something as big as an election. Mom was a on the lacrosse team in high school as well as class secretary and Dad was on the football team, just like the boys. Obviously they have more to talk about with my brothers, than they do with me.”
“Well, when you start bringing home the awesome pieces of art we are going to create, that will definitely get their attention,” Sam responded encouragingly.
“Maybe,” said Molly.
The girls reached the top of the hill where Dr. Oliveri’s house was located. It had the appearance of neglect, as tiles were missing from the roof, and the paint was peeling from the sides. Dr. Oliveri was a very busy man, between his day job and fiddling around with scientific experiments in the evenings, and often did not have the time to spend working on house repairs. They climbed the front porch and Molly rang the doorbell. A few minutes went by and nothing happened. Molly rang the bell again, but still no answer.
“That’s strange,” said Sam. “His car is in the driveway.”
The girls looked at each other.
“Maybe he is in the back working in his office or as he calls it, his laboratory,” replied Molly.
They walked around the house towards the back entrance where Dr. Oliveri worked on all of his experiments. They walked up to the back door and Sam peered through the glass.
“He’s in there!” She exclaimed. “He keeps pacing back and forth and seems to be talking to himself.”
Molly knocked on the door. “Dr. Oliveri, it’s us, Molly and Sam! Can we come in?”
Sam backed away from the door. “He’s coming,” she said.
A second later the door slowly creaked open. “Girls,” Dr. Oliveri exclaimed, “How lovely to see you.”
His eyes sparkled at them as he reached into his frizzy flyaway gray hair and pulled out his spectacles and adjusted them onto his pointed nose. “Please come in.”
He opened the door a little more widely and gestured for the girls to enter the room he called his laboratory. Inside there were stacks of old newspapers several feet tall standing everywhere, and random knick knacks lying around in various corners of the room. The desk where Dr. Oliveri’s computer sat, was covered with numerous yellow tablets all covered with chicken scratch from his many ideas. Balancing haphazardly on top of the tablets was an old microscope. The place was also slightly dusty as if he hadn’t cleaned it in several weeks, and all of the curtains were drawn blocking out the afternoon sunlight. Mitzie, his gray and white cat, was sitting in a corner, looking slightly put out from all of the clutter.
Dr. Oliveri went back to pacing back and forth across the room.
“What’s going on Dr. Oliveri?” asked Sam.
He seemed to be even more scattered than usual. He continued muttering to himself as if he had forgotten both girls where in the room with him. “I can’t believe I’ve done it,” he muttered softly, so that Molly and Sam could barely hear him. “I was finally able to confirm my theory.”
“What theory Dr. Oliveri?” asked Molly.
She carefully crossed the room stepping over papers and bent to pick up Mitzie who immediately began to purr as she settled in Molly’s arms.
He looked up, having been snapped out of his trance. “Oh, girls, I didn’t see you standing there. I thought you had left the room.”
Molly and Sam both looked at each other. “Are you okay Dr. Oliveri?” asked Molly. “Is there anything we can help you with?”
He stopped pacing and turned to look at them thoughtfully. Immediately forgetting what he had been muttering, he said, “Yes please, I could really use the help. My nephew is coming to stay with me for a while and I need to clean this place up. I don’t want him to think that he is coming to live in a garbage dump.”
“I didn’t know you had a nephew,” said Sam.
“Yes, actually his name is Tristan and he is about your age. He is going to be staying with me while his father is posted in Germany for the next few months. He’s my brother’s son, and he can’t take him along on his tour.”
“That will be fun then, being around some of your family,” said Molly.
“Yes, yes, I hope so,” said Dr. Oliveri, frowning. “I hope that I can make this work.”
“Why would you think that it wouldn’t work?” asked Sam.
“There are some things about Tristan that are very unique he said, staring into space.” Suddenly he snapped out of it. “Well girls, do you mind helping me straighten up?” Both girls nodded at him.
Together Molly and Sam helped Dr. Oliveri dust off his furniture and move the piles of newspapers into the side closet, just barely managing to close the door. Afterwards, they moved into the library, where the girls began to sort through his things and place them back on the bookshelves where they belonged. Sam was ecstatic, as she found an old set of oil pastels that had belonged to his wife, which Dr. Oliveri said she could keep.
“This will help bring the cost down on my art supplies for the new club,” she said happily. Both Dr. Oliveri and Molly smiled at her.
Soon, it was beginning to grow dark and the girls had to head home for dinner. “See you Dr. Oliveri,” they said as they walked out the door and back down the hill. “We can’t wait to meet Tristan!” Dr. Oliveri waved back to them and closed the door.
The girls said goodbye to each other once they had reached their part of the road, and Molly turned to enter her house. Mr. Sinclair was already home from work and helping the boy’s set the table as Mrs. Sinclair was finishing preparing dinner.
“Hi Molly, Happy Birthday,” exclaimed Mr. Sinclair.
Both Jamie and Molly resembled him the most with his sandy colored hair, brown eyes, rosy cheeks and lanky build. The only difference was that Molly took after her mother, having inherited a tint of green in her eyes. Joey, on the other hand, who had been adopted at birth, looked uncannily like their mother, despite the fact that he was adopted and not genetically related.
“Thanks, Dad! How was work?” she asked, joining her family and placing glasses by all of the settings on the table.
“Work is just that - work,” he said. Mr. Sinclair was an engineer at Dextron, a manufacturing plant for car parts. “You go in during the morning, work on a few projects, and eat a little lunch and then go back home in the afternoon. In other words, nothing really exciting happened today. On the other hand,” he said, “I hear that two of my kids have very exciting news of their own to share.”
“I know I do,” countered Joey.
Together the family sat down to a delicious dinner which consisted of all of Molly’s favorite foods in honor of her birthday. In-between mouthfuls of fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy, Joey proceeded to tell the family the exact details of his nomination and the plans for running that he and their mom had gone over that afternoon.
Afterwards, Mr. Sinclair continued the conversation by asking Jamie how his soccer practice had gone that day. Molly waited patiently, stirring her fork on her plate, making swirly designs in the leftover gravy. She watched her parents eyes light up at the latest achievements of their two older children. At last it came time for her to tell everybody about her news, which was the new art club at school.
“So today during the morning announcements in homeroom, Mrs. Starr confirmed that an art club would be starting up!” Molly exclaimed. “I really want to join, and it meet’s on Monday’s and Thursday’s after school. Can I join the club? Please?”
Molly looked at her parents hopefully. Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair looked at each other.
“I don’t see why not, but wouldn’t you rather join a sports team,” asked her father. “You know, like soccer or lacrosse?”
“No,” said Molly. “Sports are Jamie and Joey’s thing. I want to do something on my own. I like art!”
“Well, as long as you’re having fun,” her mother said slowly. “I think that is all that matters.”
Molly sighed. She knew her parents loved her with all their hearts, and that they would allow her to join the club, she just wished that they would show as much enthusiasm for her as they did for Jamie and Joey. She hated being the baby of the family.
After finishing dinner, Mrs. Sinclair pulled out the cake she had been baking earlier. This time it was covered in butter cream frosting and sugar flower decorations. There were thirteen pink candles lit up as she carefully walked with it into the dining room. Everyone began to sing to her. Jamie had snuck into the kitchen sometime during dinner, and had made sure to use trick candles on the cake. After she had blown out the candles three times in a row, and had finally gotten them extinguished, everybody brought out the presents.
She opened the gifts from her parents, which were new clothes, mostly sweaters and scarves, in preparation for the oncoming winter season. No surprise there, as all the kids always got new clothes on their birthdays. Joey gave her the new DVD she had been wanting, but Jamie gave her the best present of all. As she opened his gift she began to smile. Inside the box were a new tablet of special watercolor paper and a new set of watercolor paints. Molly caught his eye, and they exchanged a look of understanding. Of everybody in the family, Molly felt especially close to Jamie, who actually understood her love of art. He had several drawings of hers, pinned to his bulletin board in his room.
“Thanks Jamie, this is the best present ever.” She got up and hugged everybody at the table, but she hugged Jamie the hardest.
“Hey, kid, now you have something to use at your new club,” he said smiling.
Molly decided that the evening had not been a complete let down after all and smiled back at him appreciatively. At least somebody in the family was on her side. She especially could not wait for the days to go by until the first club meeting.
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