Healing Rain Read Free Page A

TV.
    â€œThat’s what I figured. You want me to cook something instead? I could make those chicken strips you like, and maybe some mac and cheese?”
    â€œYeah! Make it now; I’m starving!” he shouted. “I mean, please.” He turned to me, grinning sheepishly.
    I smiled back and then walked to the kitchen. Though I really was not much of a cook, he was pretty easy to please. I took the bag of chicken strips out of the freezer, put a few of them onto a baking sheet, and turned on the oven. Then I put a pot of water onto the stove so that it would boil for the macaroni noodles. Scowling, I thought about what Tyler had said about Mom telling him to make a peanut butter sandwich. That was basically the only thing Tyler knew how to make, so he ended up making them a lot. Mom wasn’t home for many meals, and like I said before, she was usually too tired to cook when she was. I understood that she was busy and everything, but did she think the kid could just live on those peanut butter sandwiches? Sometimes I just wished she didn’t have to work so much so that she could be home a little more often. She worked almost every day of the week and often picked up double shifts.
    I dumped the noodles into the boiling water and set the timer for the chicken strips. As I waited for the meal to cook, I sat down at the kitchen table with the newspaper. The piece on the front page about school registration made me wince. It was hard to believe it was that time again. Less than one week of freedom remained before I had to start my new life in a new school, full of new students and new teachers. My stomach lurched uncomfortably at the thought.
    School had never made me nervous before. As cheesy as it sounded, I even used to like school. I was good at it. My grades were good and I had a lot of friends. Sports and school clubs like Student Council and Beta Club kept me busy. I took gymnastics once a week, and I had been in cheerleading since sixth grade. Since I could walk, I had played softball, and I had also gotten into volleyball since I started high school. Besides being active in school, I was also really involved in my church. My Christian faith was everything to me, and it carried over into who I was at school as well – I was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, and led prayer circles and Bible study groups for my peers. And as if all that wasn’t enough to keep me busy, I also took piano lessons. Luckily, I had gotten an ounce of my dad’s natural musical talent, and by my teen years, I wasn’t half bad.
    Of course, all that was over at the end of my sophomore year. Every bit of it. The good grades, the friends, the sports, the clubs, my faith, everything. I grew up in this wonderful bubble with no idea how my world could be torn apart and how easy it was to lose everything I had worked for.
    As I sat in fear, thinking about what my junior year at a new school might be like, I also felt a strange glimpse of…excitement. It might be nice to start over in a new school where no one knew me. No one knew what kind of person I had been at my old school. No one knew about my dad, and no one knew what I had done to myself. I could pretty much reinvent myself if I wanted; there would be no expectations.
    As I considered this, the timer went off. The chicken strips were cooked, and the macaroni noodles were done boiling. I drained the noodles and put them back into the pot, where I added the cheese sauce and milk. I then got out two glasses and filled them with ice, and took out the jug of sweet tea. “Tyler, dinner’s ready!” I called.
    Tyler came running into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I filled his plate and put it in front of him before filling my own. Then I poured our drinks and joined him at the table. He was already halfway through his plate by the time I sat down. The boy could definitely wolf down some food.
    Neither of us said anything for a