Lawrence & Lenexa – Part 1

 Good morning!

It's been a busy week for me. Not a lot of different things, but working almost full time at the County Clerk's office here in town for 7.5 hours each day has been different. ;) I've done a lot of filing, getting people registered to vote, and voting people. I've learned all kinds of things about elections and how things work in the office and behind the scenes. 

With work, I haven't had a lot of time to do other things. However, there is the Five Fall Favorites blog party going on! Today is the LAST day to enter the giveaway! Have you entered yet? If not, will you help us reach 60 people entered? That's just over 10 people. If you have entered, can you find 1 or 2 people you can get to enter?

I'm home until Tuesday, and boy, do I have a lot of things to do! Things to clean up, put away, take care of. Things to write, format, edit. Things to organize, tidy, figure out. Things to prepare, sign up for, create. Yep, I won't be just sitting around wondering what to do. ;)

Today's story is the very first part of my novel "Lawrence and Lenexa" (working title). Enjoy.

 

Lawrence & Lenexa

Part 1

    “Mrs. Hamstead will be picking you up today after school, remember?” Mrs. Johnson said, stopping her silver Cadillac in front of Biltmore Preparatory School where her two children attended. “And Dad and I have a dinner tonight.”
    Climbing from the car, Lawrence nodded. “Got it.”
    Lenexa gave a wave. “Bye, Mom.”
    As the silver Cadillac pulled out into traffic, the siblings glanced at each other with a shrug. “I don’t know why she bothered telling us they have a dinner,” Lawrence muttered, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “They seem to always have a dinner, or a meeting, or something.”
    Beside him, Lenexa nodded and brushed back her light brownish-red hair. “Maybe we can do something then. After orchestra.” She shifted her violin case to the other hand.
    Together they walked up to the front doors of their school. They were almost the same height, although Lenexa was just over a quarter of an inch taller than her twin brother.Her bangs pulled back in a dark ribbon. Both wore their school uniforms with white shirts. Lawrence had on dark slacks while Lenexa wore her dark plaid, pleated skirt. They looked just like the dozens of other students arriving and were soon swallowed up in the crowd and swept into the stuffy, snobbish halls of Biltmore Prep leaving no time for further conversation.

*

    The sun was bright and the afternoon was warm, indicating the approach of summer and the longed for end of the school term. Mrs. Hamstead was waiting in the car when the twins finally emerged at the end of the school day. She was the Johnson’s housekeeper and rarely spoke to the children of the house unless necessity required it, for she didn’t like children. It was only in extreme circumstances that she would condescend to pick up the twins from their school.
    Today had been one of those days. With a grim face, she waited in silence until they had climbed into the back of the car and fastened their seat belts, and then, still without a word, she pulled away from the curb.
    Sensing tension, Lawrence ventured to roll his eyes, at his sister and Lenexa bit back a giggle. Both knew it would never do to get Mrs. Hamstead in a worse mood than she already was, so they kept silent and watched the landscape flash by the windows.
    The country atmosphere that surrounded the prep school gave way to high office buildings, bustling lanes of traffic, and occasionally the lights and sirens that signaled an accident. Mrs. Hamstead, though she wasn’t an enjoyable companion, was an excellent driver, and before long the majority of the traffic was left behind and the car turned onto a winding residential street. The houses were modest, single story affairs and Lenexa and Lawrence had often privately wondered what it would be like to live in a house that small. As they continued on, the houses grew larger, the lawns more spacious, and finally Mrs. Hamstead turned onto a long driveway and parked before the Johnson’s house.
    Large, grand, three-stories tall, this mansion was the home of Mr. Lawrence Lancaster Johnson III, attorney at law, his wife, Camilia Lenexa Johnson, and their son and daughter. It was also the working place of several “hired help” who cleaned, cooked, tended the yard, washed the cars, and maintained the appearance of the Johnson home in general.
    “See to it that you do your homework before you do anything else,” Mrs. Hamstead ordered, speaking suddenly as she parked the car.
    “Yes, ma’am,” chorused the twins before scrambling out of the car. They wanted to run into the house but knew that would only bring a scolding from the housekeeper, so they contented themselves with a brisk though dignified walk.
    Once inside, however, they dashed up the stairs to the second floor, down the hall and stopped before their rooms gasping for breath.
    “Race you in changing,” Lawrence challenged.
    “You have to let me put my violin down first,” Lenexa said, “or the new string might come loose again. Not that I would care very much, but my teacher would probably scold.”
    “Okay, but then you have to come back into the hall so we can start at the same time.”
    Lenexa grinned and hurrying into her room, carefully set her violin case right side up on the plush, cream couch. Then she ran back to the hall. “Ready, go!”
    The race was over in minutes with both children jerking open their bedroom doors within half a second of each other. This brought a laugh.
    “Now homework. Ugh,” Lawrence groaned. “I can’t wait until school is out!”
    “Me too.” Lenexa grabbed her backpack. “Let’s go to the play room and do our work there.”
    Her brother nodded, and they crossed the hall and entered the large room. Windows on two sides let in plenty of light while bookshelves lined most of one wall and the floor was thickly carpeted. This had been the room where the twins had spent much of their time when they were young. Even now the large closet held their favorite childhood toys, remnants of their monotonous life.
    Not thinking about the past, the twins were soon seated at a table near one of the windows with their homework spread out. Almost complete silence filled the large room for some time with only the turning of a page and the scratching of a pencil to disturb the stillness.
    “Lexie,” Lawrence said at last, fiddling with his pencil.
    “What?”
    “Summer’s coming.”
    “Yeah.” Lenexa looked up at her brother expectantly.
    “Where do you think we’ll go to camp?”
    “Same place as always.” Lenexa couldn’t keep back a sigh. “It’ll be boring as usual, and the snobs in the cabin will be just as annoying, and when we come home Mom and Dad will say, ‘Did you have fun?’ but won’t have time to listen to us say more than yes or no.”

Have you entered the FFF giveaway?

Have you ever been to Summer Camp?

What did you do this week?