CASSANDRA

It was just supposed to be a vacation. We were supposed to be there for a couple of weeks and then go back home, the home that we have lived in our whole lives. Only our parents lied to us. My last year of high school and I have to move to a new school. Sure I met a couple of people over the summer but it was only two weeks, like six weeks ago. Most probably forgot about me. Plus it was like hey hi, how are you? Nothing that screamed, let's hang out. Because I wasn't sticking around.

So, here is how it was broken to me. I came back from hanging out with my friends at the skate park and my parents both had grave looks on their faces. "We are having a family meeting." My father in his stern voice told me. He is one of those gruff people, growling a lot. If it wasn't for mom I would think he had no positive emotions at all.

I guess I was the last to arrive because my two brothers and my sister were already in the living room. I sat next to my sister, because that is how it usually goes, boys on one side and girls on the other. We all looked up at our parents like we knew the atom bomb just went off and we were all doomed. This is the end for us all.

Mom rubbed her arms while hugging herself. That's not a good sign. "Well, it's best just to dive in. You guys know the restaurant hasn't been doing so well lately." We all nodded. Business had slowed down. Which is why we were all surprised that they took off two weeks in the middle of the summer to take us to the middle of nowhere to visit an uncle we didn't even know we had. On a ranch that we have never been to before. "Well, it's going under. We can't afford to keep it running. We have decided that we are going to move and try again." She looks on the verge of tears. What the hell could have been so bad? Didn't they see it coming, make changes?

I am not sure but I think I just had a stroke. We are moving. My brothers and my sister didn't look much better. They were younger than me but not by much. Still we have lived here our whole lives. "Wait, where are we moving too?" I held up my hand to stop all progress of this conversation.

My dad took over. "We are moving in with your uncle."

We all started, dumbstruck. "You have got to be kidding me." We all said at once. We were city people and now he wants us to move away. Basically the ranch is in the middle of nowhere. On the outskirts of a small no name town. Ok, it has a name but to the rest of the world it isn't.

"I am not kidding." My father continued. "That ranch is there for the family. My brother has just been running it. He is getting married soon and wants to start his own home. He'll be around for a while to help us get settled in. So it is the perfect place to move. The mortgage is already paid off so we wouldn't have that expense. We found a partner for the restaurant and we can run the ranch for more revenue."

My brother Calab grunted. "Yeah, because we totally know how to do that. Do you not know who we are?" He is the second oldest a year after me.

My mom weeped a little. "We know this is going to be hard, but we have talked about it and this is what is best for the family. There are things you don't understand, we are doing what we know is right."

Dad pulled his arm around mom. "We didn't want to do this. If there was another way we would have found it, unfortunately there isn't. The restaurant has already been closed down. All that is left is to pack everything up."

The twins, the younger two of us, looked at each other. They do this, silent conversations. Finally my brother talked. "Dad, no offense, but you guys could have told us sooner. This sucks. We might have even tried to make friends or something out there. But you didn't tell us what's up. Now we have to start a new school in the country being the uppity city kids. I don't know if you know how high school works but it isn't all cupcakes and rainbows."

My sister finished for him. "Really it blows, kids are mean and cruel. Here they understand Bret and me, they aren't going to understand us there." She looked about ready to break down. It was always an issue for them. They have some anxiety. So they hold hands a lot. People thought it was some incest thing. Finally after I threatened to kick some asses people backed off.

I put my arm around Brittney. "It's alright. I'll be there. No one is going to say shit about you."

My dad glared at me. "Watch your mouth young lady."

I glared right back. "Really, after your bomb you want me to watch my language? You must be out of your mind. We all have a lot to deal with right now. It isn't just about you. This affects the whole family and you should have told us. Do you know what this does to them, or have you been so busy that you don't even care?"

I could see my dad's temper rising, his face was turning redder as I spoke. "How dare you speak to me like that, Cassandra Ray. I am your father and deserve some respect." My mom puts her hand on his arm to try to calm him down. I noticed that she does this a lot when he is pissed.

"Then earn it." I stood and all of my siblings followed after me.

I am not usually a bitch, I understand that it was hard to run a restaurant in the city and keep it afloat with four kids. But they were never around. I don't even know if they know of the twin's condition. Even now as they all follow me to my room they are holding hands. It's how they cope with stress. People don't understand, I hate it. Not them for doing it, I am past that. I hate that they feel so much that they can't cope without each other. Calab scoops up his cat, little demon, on the way to the bedroom. That's his security blanket. A cranky old black and white cat that I want to throw out the window.

When we enter my room Calab shuts the door behind us. "What are we going to do? We don't know shit about living in the country. We learned a little from Uncle Jared this summer, but not enough. Mom and dad are going to be busy. You know that that means the ranch will fall on us."

"Fuck the ranch." I mutter. Calab looks at me like "cut the crap". He knows I would never do that. I care too much about taking care of shit. "We are just going to have to learn." I sigh, leaning back on my bed.

Brittney and Bret are sitting together on the floor. "I wonder how the classes are going to be." Bret says. He is the most spoken of the two of them. Usually Brittney looks to him for answers.

"I don't know. Probably small. So less people to start shit. That's a plus." I smiled at them.

Brittney looks at the ground. "Yeah, less friends to have too."

I scoff playfully. "Who needs friends? We have each other." I smile at Brittney who lights up a little more.

"Does that mean you aren't going to leave after you graduate?" She looks at me hopefully.

"I can't leave you guys in the middle of nowhere now can I?" I give her a comforting smile. She leaps off the ground and leaps on me on the bed. I really can't. It just isn't in me to leave these guys like that.

"Thank you Cassy."

I groan. "You know I hate being touched. And don't call me Cassy."

My brothers have to join in and then they all start tickling me. "Cassy." They all chant. I laugh.

"Alright. I give." I cried after a few minutes.

They all sit back and we are now all on my bed. Calab sighs. "I guess we are going to need to pack."

We are all somber again. Because as much as we want to pretend that this isn't a crap move, it is.

We had one month to move. We had to pack up our whole lives in one month.

By the way, the cat was not happy. It did not like being in a cage all the way to the new home in the middle of the country. Dad and his brilliant ideas, suggested we leave it behind with a new family. Let's ignore the fact that the cat is really old. But this was Calab's cat. This was how he coped. Another thing our parents didn't know. So I went to bat and pulled for the cat to come with us. Even though to be honest I hate the damn thing. It's always jumping out at me and clawing my feet. I call it little demon. It's name is really Shadow, but I don't care, it is a little demon

Now we are at this ranch in the middle of nowhere with crap internet. Shotty cell reception. So good luck talking with some of our old friends. School is supposed to start tomorrow and we don't know anyone. Anyone that we would have met would not remember us because it was in passing and to them we were just on vacation. Hey that's what we thought too folks. Our parents should have told us that we were moving here. We could have made some connections before school started. This feels like hell.