The Doorway, Chapter 1 -Choices

Word Count: 2125

There she sat looking out into the grey ripples of the rain soddened window. Yet again another dark and dreary water logged day in the Pacific Northwest. 'Yeah me', Kaia thought to herself. 'Would just a little sunshine hurt'? Of course she is wasting time complaining. The weather never changes until late July and it is only February. The rain just added to her overall gloom of having to go to the school she hated and see the people that hated her just as much. Maybe if she had been born into money, they would have respect for her. Maybe if she was the star of the volley ball team, or basketball squad they would think her talented. Maybe if she had blond hair or blue eyes she would be thought of as decent. But no, she was none of the above. She was too short for either of the most popular sports, of mixed ethnicity falling into no one category and constantly wearing old ratty used clothing. No matter how hard she tried she failed and was soon cast aside as "different" no matter what school she attended. This was only her junior year and already she had attended five High Schools. It makes it very hard to fit in when you are constantly uprooted every three to six months.

'One day I'll stop caring what people think of me' she said out loud to herself as she looked at her clothes. She never could find anything that would help her to just blend in. If it were a private school that wouldn't be a problem, but being raised by a single mother making barely over minimum wage and two kids didn't afford that. Not to mention her grades were nothing to brag about. Definitely not "Gifted" material as her teachers once said. It’s not that she wasn't smart; she had no one to encourage her. Her mother worked two or three jobs and was recently in "Recovery" and that meant little to no time for the Kaia or her twin sister Keera. The girls tended to fend for themselves for food, bed times, and homework meaning they ate whatever they had in the house mostly beans, chips and cheese, or ramen noodles. Executive chefs were none of them; so they kept to the simple things. They also didn't have anyone nagging about homework so they both did the bare minimum to pass the class and were averaging a "D" in all things and bedtime was when they finally passed out in front of the TV around one or two am.

Kaia's clothing thoughts were interrupted by her sister who was frantically scrambling in the room yelling- "Dude we are gonna be late again! Get your clothes or get outta my way, you take forever! I can't do detention AGAIN!" Keera's ever-dramatic statements could wake the neighbors and often did... hence the consistent moves. You can only have so many complaints in an apartment before they have to enforce the quite hours. It really wasn't her fault. She was just loud by nature. It was hard to see that they were twins and so completely different. One thing was the same though, neither of them were popular at the school and either would have done anything to never have to go back.
The girls finally achieved a state of readiness and ran off to catch the city buss for school. Of course late, meaning that they both would be in detention later on that day. As if school, itself wasn't bad enough. Keera forgot her homework and was going to get more points docked from her already sorry excuse for an essay. She would now have to make up extra credit just to keep the "D" she was barely clinging to. Kaia listened to her sister gripe the entire way to school and barely heard anything she said. All she could think of is a way to change their lives for good. 'This can’t be all there is. It just can’t. Why would people choose to go on this way if that was all there was?' The last she said allowed and her sister stopped a little freighted as to what she just heard her sister say. 'Kaia, What did you say about going on'? Kaia at first wanted to say never mind but knew better. Keera was not the type to let it go once she was focused. 'I mean, look at our lives Keera. Mom is never around. I hardly ever see her anymore. She’s not drinking anymore so we don't have to clean up puke off the couch or floor anymore but she is just as distant. We hardly have any money for anything let alone clothes. Hell we cannot even afford to take our clothes to the laundry mat. We have to wash them in the tub for god sake! Neither of us are model students so we have nothing to look forward to. No college, no good jobs, no career. What are we even doing? What are we going to do for the rest of it? Is this why Mom drank in the first place? Is that all we are ever going to amount too?’ It was a sobering thought that Keera refused to put much thought into as it was too depressing. She always knew that there was a possibility of being a failure in life but chose to be in denial. She thought of herself and her sister as better than that, but better than what? She didn't know. Kaia was always the thinker out of the two of them. ‘Kaia sometimes I wish you didn’t think so damn much. Your downright depressing sometimes'. It was all she could come up with. With their moods more somber the girls sat in silence the rest neither of them wanting to acknowledge the reality of their lives.

They both slumped through their school day trying to hide in any corner big enough to try and not be hassled or teased by the other students. The other kids must have been preoccupied with the school dance to bother with the twins today. As the last bell rang, they both ended up in the principal’s office to face their detention fate for the day. Neither one ecstatic but knowing they had no other option than to deal with their punishment. The principal had someone in his office so they both sat in the waiting room chairs. Keera noticed that the people in his office were not students but they were young too young to have a child old enough to be in high school. Keera nudged her sister and her sister saw what she was motioning too. ‘Do you think they are students’? Keera asked. ‘They look too old to go here, maybe they are interviewing for an aide position or something’ Kaia responded.

As both were still speculating, the principal opened the door and motioned to the girls to join her. They looked at each other quizzically as the strangers were not leaving the room. Keera looked at her sister and said, what do they have to do with our detention?’ Kaia just shrugged but was equally perplexed. They slowly gathered their belongings and walked into the principal’s office. There was not much room so they both stood along the wall as far away from the others as they could get. Mrs. Renner the school principal smiled at the girls. She was always nice to the girls but firm. She would always ask them why they just couldn’t abide by the rules. They are good kids but they cannot continue to be chronically late. They will never make it in the real world if they couldn’t make it at the school. She would then get on them about their grade. At least someone cared. In a large inner city public school, you would be lucky to have anyone care. Sadly, they had the attention of the principal on a first name basis. Not something you want known on a college application.

‘Good Day girls. I see that you have missed the bus yet again. I do believe that this is the third time this week and its only Wednesday. Are you attempting a new school record’? It also seems that you are not taking our rules or our hours seriously. I do believe that when we spoke yesterday that it was the final instance before a forced suspension would be initiated. Is this what you want?” The girls responded in unison, “No Mrs. Renner.” “Well it seems you two have a perfect opportunity to change your tardy ways and maybe get some help for your college transcripts, we all know they could use all the hope you can get.”

“This is Ms. Sinead and Mr. Keeven” motioning towards the man and woman that had been sitting quietly during the public admission of their crimes against the tardy bell. “They are running a new community outreach project here in the city and have come here asking for marvelous high school students to assist. This new program was very successful in other large cities and it gave at risk students an opportunity to gain extracurricular activities for college applications that they may not have had otherwise”. Mrs. Renner sounded thoroughly pleased with herself at this point. Neither of the girls said anything but looked at her a bit confused. Since she wasn’t getting a response she began to inquire if the girls had heard anything she had said when Ms. Sinead interrupted- “May I Mrs. Renner”? “By all means” replied Mrs. Renner. This program is a volunteer program that is designed to help better the community with students helping others less fortunate then themselves. Most of it is helping the elderly that cannot do for themselves. We have a house that an elderly gentleman resides in at the west of town that needs a lot of work. Mr. Neelan is virtually disabled and cannot to do things on his own. He needs help with some minor repairs and cleaning around the house a few times per week. It is a large house, which is why we think the two of you would be perfect. It will require some dedication on your part. Mr. Keeven and I have worked out a deal so to speak with the school here”. Sinead then looked to the Principal to elaborate. What Ms. Sinead is meaning is that at this point both of you risk suspension and if there are any additional tardies after serving the suspension I will have no choice but to subject you to expulsion”. Both the girls began to beg forgiveness at the same time. Mrs. Renner raised her hand to shush them. “Now let me finish.” If you both agree to participate in this program here with Mr. Keeven and Ms. Sinead will consider this time served and depending on how well you do, we may be able to erase the 40 tardies this year alone… wiped clean, and you can start over. Aside from that, you can now put on your school applications that you were involved in the community. That should help you get into the local colleges if you get decent STA scores. Now what do you say girls?’, asked Mrs. Renner. Keera and Kaia looked at each other unsure what to say. Kaia spoke first, ‘what do we need to do, I mean how, when do we start’? Mr. Keeven spoke for the first time. 'We will have you meet us at the house to be introduced to Mr. Neelan. He is the owner of the home and the person you will be helping. We will show you what he and the house needs. We will also provide you with the tools and things you will need to complete the tasks. You will start Saturday morning.”

Kaia looked at her sister and after seeing the alternatives said we will do it. What time do we start. Keera exclaimed “What are you doing? Don’t you think we should talk about this first? Like maybe we should tell mom?” Kaia said angrily. It was the first time she expressed anger at her sister in a long time. She only really got stern like this when Keera was refusing to acknowledge the obvious and being selfish at both their expense. “Do you want to tell mom that we may be getting expelled or should I? Second thought, do you think she will even notice that we’re gone?” Keera couldn’t say anything to that, Kaia spoke the truth. Neither of them would want to tell their mom that they were threatening expulsion. Kaia again asked, “What time Mr. Keeven?”