Day 3

Later when they returned home on the bus they agreed to meet up sometime over the weekend. Marian wanted to see James’ bird catalog. James thought maybe they could work together on some of their harder homework assignments.

Julie Taylor pulled her fuchsia t-shirt over her white tank top. The white daisy print crept up the shirt from the bottom and down the sleeve on the opposite side. It was one of her favorites that she had bought over the summer. Her mother had found it when they were out shopping and Julie just knew she had to have it. They went nice with her jeans. She decided on a white headband to hold back her, now straighten, black hair.

A knock on her door startled her. “Almost ready?” Her brother’s voice had grown deep over the summer. It was still strange to hear it but at least his squeak had disappeared and people wouldn’t laugh at him this year.

“Yeah, I’ll be another minute yet.” Julie slipped into a pair of new white leather sneakers. Her messenger bag sat next to the bed. As she picked it up she saw something shiny under her bed. Her room was spacious enough that she only kept a small shoebox filled with a few mementos under her bed. It wasn’t a place that she kept things.

Getting down on the carpeted floor Julie reached her hand in under the bed and fished out the object. Still laying on her back she stared up at blue stoned ring. It wasn’t quite the color of a turquoise and lighter than a sapphire. She didn’t remember buying or being given a ring like this. Where could it have come from? Her mother had several rings but she didn’t remember this one. Pushing it on her finger, up over her knuckle she looked at it for another moment before she heard Joshua call her again.

Standing up and putting her bag on her shoulder Julie ran to the kitchen. Swiping to granola bars from the cereal cupboard she raced out the door behind her twin brother. They both made it to the sidewalk just as the bus pulled up to a stop. Together they climbed on one after the other and joined their nearest friends.

As the days past Julie forgot about the ring even though it remained on her finger. That was until they were sitting at the dinner table nearly a week later. Something sparkled on her brother’s finger. She heard it click against the silverware. “Joshua, what do you have on your hand?”

He glanced down then extended the ring toward her. “Found it on me dresser yesterday morning. I thought maybe you’d put it there or something. I was going to thank you but I guess I forgot.”

Julie looked from her mother and father back to her brother. No one knew where the ring had come from. “I have one too she held it up to show her family. It was under my bed. I found it the first day back to school. I was going to ask about it but I forgot about it by the time I got home.”

“Well they are fine rings.” Their mother replied, “I don’t know anything about them. Are they giving you class rings already or something? Maybe one of your friends brought them over for you?”

“They look pretty expensive!” Mr. Taylor admired them, “I didn’t realize that they gave class rings to freshmen.”

“But there not...”

Joshua stopped Julie before she could finish. “I bought them with my summer job money. I figured that we only go through high school once it was worth having something to remember our special time by.”

Julie just stared at her brother in bewilderment. He only gave her a wide, I’m a great brother, kind of smile. Their parents didn’t seem to notice and the rings were soon forgotten. Later Julie and Joshua went to the back porch to talk.

“Where did these come from? An why would someone give them to us?”

“I don’t know and I’m a little worried about this. What if they were stolen by someone and planted at our place?”

“I think we’d have heard something by now about a robbery. Some one would have at least blamed us already.”

“Well I think we should keep an eye out for whomever might have given them to us. Meanwhile we look for clues in the house to see if someone left anything behind.”

“I really don’t think so Juls. They really didn’t seem to understand that we didn’t know how we’d gotten them.”

“Do we keep wearing them?”

“I think it maybe the safest place for them for now. I’ll pick up some necklace chains over the weekend so we can wear them without having to risk someone seeing them.”

Her waves of brown curls caressed her face as her darker brown eyes danced in the morning light. Swinging open the door Carol Joy Grant entered into The Best of AstroValley. It was her mother’s bakery. Her father ran the deli off to the side. It was a mutual agreement between the two that neither would work the other’s shop. THey’d done it once and it had been a disastrous event. No one wanted to see it again. Carol didn’t mind the two always knew what each other were doing since they were always in yelling distance of each other. She thought that this might have been what made them such a close family despite what it might look like.

“Customer number five! Oh, its just you dear. Wouldn’t you be a sweety and grab those muffins out of the oven please?”

Carol grabbed some mittens and whistled while she worked. She loved her mother’s bakery. It always had such good smells. Nothing quite compared to it in all the world. One day she wanted to run a bakery just like her mother. Although right now she was going to scarf one of the warm muffins and walk to school. Her mother always complained about the thieving but Carol knew she didn’t really mind.

Note ~

I didn't make my word count today but have all the plans in the world to catch up what remains of it tomorrow!