The Sound of Shooting Stars Read Online Free Page B

pipes up removing herself from my side and instructs in her typical business tone, “Okay you two have a seat for the ground rules.”
    Jamie sits back down as I take the lone chair across the room. He stares at me the entire time as my mom’s voice drones on. I tune her out and look down to the pale rug under my feet but I can still feel his intense stare. I want nothing more than to scream at him to go back where he came from, that he doesn’t belong here.
     

 

    Chapter Five
    Jamie Grey
    Aries – The Ram
    Aries is the golden ram that rescued Phrixus and took him to Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram to the gods. The ram’s skin, which he placed in a temple, was the Golden Fleece.
    ~*~
     
    The minute we pulled up to the Chase house as Michelle calls it, I tuned her out. I became defensive before we even walked in. I’m a charity case now and the resentment at Michelle permeates off of me. I know it is wrong to feel this way because I get it. I’m a seventeen year old boy. No one in their right mind would foster me. Just those lone facts would turn someone away. But here we are in front of a home fifty times the size of that where I’ve lived for the past six months.
    She takes a deep breath and turns to me before twisting the key to turn the car off.
    “Jamie, are you ready?”
    I look down at my hands resting loosely in my lap and purse my lips in a tight line.
    “Come on Jamie. I know you get it. Less than a year now, you can do it.”
    I look up reluctantly and nod.
    “Mrs. Chase is an old college friend. I can assure you there will be no violence here and if you need me, I’m just a phone call away.”
    I avert my gaze to the house. It towers over us with a Spanish-tiled roof and a four foot fountain in the center of the circular drive. The water spanning for miles behind the house peeks off in the distance. I take a deep breath and reach for the handle as the car sputters off.
    It’s dusk so spotlights at various angles across the front of the house begin to flicker. I look across the roof of the car at Michelle and she assures me once again, “It’ll all work out Jamie, I promise.”
    I reach into the back seat and pull out my duffle bag, lifting it to my shoulder. As soon as we climb the wide steps to a tiled porch, the front door opens. A woman dressed in a flowered dress steps out. Her brown hair is cropped short and she wears a warm smile.
    She gushes, “Michelle, just look at you.”
    They embrace each other and exchange pleasantries. I look through the door into the house. I can see through to the backyard where the water laps at a sea wall behind the house. How in the hell did I end up here?
    The woman turns to me, “You must be Jamie.”
    I nod and mumble, “Nice to meet you Mrs. Chase.”
    “You can call me Marla, everyone else around here does. Here, let’s get you in out of this heat. I can’t believe the sun is down and it’s still so excruciatingly hot.”
    I follow Michelle through the door noting the immense size of the room housing only a round table in the center. The floor is wood and spreads through wide doorways in all directions. This is unbelievable. I couldn’t feel more out of place in any other setting.
    Marla states, “Sasha is just finishing up on dinner. Jamie, are you hungry?”
    “I’m okay, Um Marla.”
    She laughs, “Well, I’m sure you could eat. Let’s go and sit at the table.”
    She leads us to a room off of the entryway. I can see a huge kitchen beyond and a woman bustling around placing food on platters.
    Marla ushers Michelle and I to sit at a rectangular dining table set for three. She apologizes, “I’m sorry David couldn’t join us. He had to go back to the office today and got held up.”
    The woman from the kitchen comes in carrying a huge spread of chicken and bowls with mashed potatoes and broccoli. Marla suggests we get started as she asks Sasha to get us something to drink. At the sight of the food, my stomach involuntarily growls.