Destiny

1

"So what would you like for your birthday?" My mom asks as she pulls weeds out of her garden.

I pull my shades down and look at her.

"The same thing I've been asking for since my tenth birthday", I say as she rolls her eyes.

"Destiny, a dog is a lot of responsibility, especially the one you want. It needs to be walked, it needs to be fed, bathed, there will be vet bills and I don't not plan on taking those responsibilities on while you go be a teenager."

"I promise you I will take care of Jasper! I'll pay for everything and I will take him with me everywhere when I am not in school." I say as I turn to tan my back.

"How do you have a name for a dog that doesn't exist?" She asks standing up whipping her hands on her pants.

"Jasper does exist, he's just waiting to be brought home wherever he is."

"Well, his home is not here," she says patting my sunburnt back as I wince.

"Rude!" I shout as she goes into the house.

I've been wanting a dog every since my father got sick and passed.

After he passed I thought it would be good to have a furry pal to do the things my dad and I would do.

My dad was so fun and outgoing, and always ready for an adventure. Our favorite things to do together were to travel, go hiking, and walk trails.

My mom hated the outdoors so I spent a lot of time with my dad. And not to say my mother wasn't involved, she took me to every soccer game, ate every meal with me and always read me stories at bed time.

Mom worked for our family's business everyday from home so she was always there if I needed her.

What's our family business?

Well we work very close with our sheriff department and they call us for big problems.

It's called Stone and Company and we're Crime Scene Cleaners. Not we, they. I wouldn't be caught dead cleaning bodies or blood.

Wow, great choice of words Destiny.

Sounds terrible right? But hey, it paid the bills and we lived a good life.

My dad also worked for the Business, and was actually going
To take over the business once Grandpa Owie retired.

But since the passing almost eight years a ago, Grandpa Owie is still running the company and is now training my cousin Kyle to take over.

"Hey Teeny, how was your day?"

"Hey Kyle, it was good till you blocked the sun from me." I say sitting up look over to see my cousins approaching me.

"I'm saving you from sun cancer Teeny", he says giving his hand out to help me up.

Kyle is my cousin from dads side, he's twenty-one, three years older than me.

He used to call me DesTeeny when I was younger but it shortened to Teeny, which I don't mind. But only he can call me that.

He dropped out of school his junior year when he was seventeen and right away got a job with our family.

He received an equivalence to what a diploma is a year after dropping out, which he and his family were more than happy with him doing.

He always told me school doesn't prepare us for the real world.

My mom on the other hand told me don't get any ideas.

Once I'm up, I throw my big tshirt over my head and pick up my towel and speaker.