Remi gave the unsaved number a suspicious look. “W-Who is it?” Tadashi asked shyly, having looked onto her cell phone screen. Remi shrugged her shoulders, “Dunno.”
She accepted the phone call anyway, “…county jail. Do you accept this phone call?”
Jail? She thought to herself. “Yees…?” She looked over at Tadashi unsurely.
“Remi?” A familiar voice asked her.
“Ashley? Why are you calling me from jail?” She demanded, though she had a pretty good idea why.
“I…got arrested…”
“Arrested? What did you do?” Her sister didn’t say anything and Remi knew exactly why. Groaning, she checked her watch. “I’ll come get you.” Remi looked at Tadashi. “I have to go. Ashley got arrested.”
Tadashi looked surprised but also concerned. “Okay…” Remi got up from the couch and put her shoes on. “I’ll call you later.” She gave him a hug and hurried out of his house.
“Assault and assault of a police officer?!” Remi scolded as she walked around her car to the driver’s seat. Ashley rolled her eyes, sitting in the passenger’s side. “Have you lost your mind?!”
“I hear all the best people are mad.” Ashley commented, slouching in the seat as Remi began to drive.
“This isn’t a joke, Ashley.”
“Sure it is.”
Remi gave her sister a dirty look before pointing, “Put your seatbelt on.”
“Why? You’re a great driver.”
“Everyone else on the road isn’t.” Ashley huffed in aggravation, clipping her seatbelt into place. “The assault part, that sounds like you. But for some reason you decided that today of all days you wanted to swing on a police officer?”
It wasn’t as if she’d gotten a hit on him. By the time Ashley had swung she was pinned on the ground. “He charged me for no reason. He was just being a dick.”
“Stop swearing.”
“Can you not mention this to dad? He was supposed to give me forty dollars for some shoes.”
“’Not mention this to dad’?” Remi repeated in disbelief. “He’s the district attorney, he probably knew you were arrested before you even got to the station!”
Ashley frowned. She’d forgotten all about that. “It wasn’t even my fault.” She grumbled, folding her arms and slouching in the seat again.
“It’s never your fault.” Remi smiled, looking over at her.
Ashley glanced at her sister and she couldn’t help grinning. “Stop it.”
“What?”
“Stop smiling at me. You always do that.”
“Am I supposed to frown at you?” Remi asked her curiously.
“I’ve never seen you frown. Aside from your stern ‘Ashley you can behave better than this’ mother look.” Ashley grinned at her.
Remi rolled her eyes. “You’re always calling it the mother look.”
“Because it is! It’s the Mother Remi look.”
Remi ignored her, “I swear Ashley if I’m late—”
“What are you gonna do?” She challenged curiously.
“I won’t make you frozen yogurt for a month.”
Ashley scoffed, “No you won’t.”
“Yes I will.”
“We’ll see.” She replied, confident that Remi was all talk. All Ashley had to do was give her a pleading look and she would melt in her hands. Like butter. “Maybe you’d have a better chance of being on time if you drove over the speed limit.”
“Hey! I don’t criticize the way you drive!”
“That’s because I barely have my learner’s permit and you’re not over the age of twenty one.” Ashley says to her, “Hence, you don’t criticize the way I drive, because I don’t drive—”
“You’d be allowed to drive with dad if you didn’t do it like a madman.”
Ashley shrugged innocently, “What can I say? I’m a sucker for the real life Grand Theft Auto experience.” Remi rolled her eyes. “And who says videogames don’t incite terrible behavior?” Ashley pointed out, “And I thought we already covered that all the best people are mad.”
“Sorry, I was busy not listening.” Remi teased, quoting her sister’s near catchphrase.
Ashley gave her a look of disbelief. “That’s my line!”
“So what?” Remi beamed.
Ashley could see the anxiety building in Remi. “How was I supposed to know that being processed out of the system takes so long?”
“And that was with the people there knowing your last name.”
“They didn’t even give a shit about last name. They all kept calling me ‘Mercy’. Mercy Mercer.”
“Is that a play on your violent tendencies?” it obviously was, but Remi liked to mess with Ashley.
“Ha-ha.” Ashley leaned against the window. “Where were you anyway? It took you forever to get there.” Before Remi can answer, Ashley went on, “You were with the Bennett kid, weren’t you?”
“Why do you call him that? He’s still three years older than you.”
“Two and a half, Remi!” She exclaimed. “He’s so annoying. With his timid personality and need to be told, ‘Good dog,’ every five seconds. I’d like to lock him in a closet somewhere.”
“Not funny.” Remi said solemnly to her sister, parking the car and retrieving a bag from the backseat.
“See? We got here on time.” Ashley said to her sister as they got out of the car.
“I’m seven minutes late!” Remi said to her as they hurried into the building.
“You act like you’re not fast at getting ready.” Ashley said carelessly, tossing her blonde braid over her shoulder. Remi pointed to the door that lead to the auditorium of the dance studio. “I know where to go.” She barked at her. Remi giggled and blew her a kiss before she’s whisked elsewhere.
Ashly really didn’t like sitting through Remi’s dress rehearsals. She’d only been to two or three of them, and they took so long to be over she always felt like she was going to suffocate from boredom. If Remi wasn’t dancing, she honestly didn’t want to sit through ballet. And on another note, why couldn’t Remi be a small time ballerina? No, she had to be in ballets with entire stories that took four hours at a time.
But Ashley was really proud of her.
A woman entered the auditorium barking orders and Ashley recognized her as Remi’s dance instructor. Ashley frowned at the sight of her. The two had gotten into an argument, and being the childish person Ashley is, she always goes out of her way to harass the woman.
“Let’s start today with Remi’s solo.” The dance instructor announced. The lights changed and Ashley put her feet up on the chair in front of her. “Remi, do you remember how well you performed the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy this past Christmas?”
A few moments pass and Remi’s head pokes out from one side of the curtains, “Yes ma’am.”
“I expect nothing less.”
Remi nodded, “Yes ma’am.” Then she disappeared behind the curtains again.
Ashley spent majority of the remaining time criticizing the dance instructor and admiring her sister’s dancing. Once it was over, she left the auditorium, she could hear the dance instructor complaining about how some of Remi’s steps had been off by just a few seconds, and that some of her moves weren’t met with complete discipline.
“She dances better than—” Ashley looked up to see whose soft hand had covered her lips. None other than Remi herself. She smiled down at her sister, “Uh-uh.”
Ashley glared up at her. “I bet if I were the Bennett boy you’d let me.” She grumbled.
“He would never say anything to Ms. Petrova. And haven’t you caused me enough trouble for the day?” Remi asked her, walking to the exit.
“No. it’s only ten o’ clock. I still got two more hours to cause more trouble.”
“Don’t.”
Ashley put her seatbelt on. “You looked really pretty.” She said quietly.
Remi looked over at her sister. She could see the anguish in her face. Ashley wished that she was good at something that her parents could be so proud of. Ashley could feel the tears building. Remi unclipped her seatbelt and leaned over, wrapping her arms around her sister. Ashley turned into her hug, hiding her face as she began to softly cry.
“Thank you.”
