I’m fine, Charlie. Don’t worry about me…

Go back to bed, Charlie. I just need something to help me sleep…

Mucus? Are you OK? Lucas? LUCAS!

Please wake up Luke…please…wake up…

…wake up…

“Charlie? Wake up, Charlie.” Eli snapped his fingers in front of his friend’s face. Charlie blinked a few times and shook her head.
“Ugh, sorry, my mind just drifted off again.” She wiped the sweat off of her forehead. “What time is it?” Eli looked at his watch.
“10:20.” He kicked at a pebble, and it flew across the sidewalk into the road. “Two days into the summer and it already sucks,” he sighed. “I wish something interesting would happen.” Right on cue, a U-Haul truck pulled into the cul-de-sac and parked in the driveway of a small house a couple of houses away from Charlie’s.
“Ask and you shall receive,” Charlie told Eli. He smirked and lightly punched her in the arm.
“Come on, let’s go check it out.” They linked arms and sauntered off to the scene. When they arrived, they stood next to their friend Candace, who was also there to see what was going on. They smiled at each other and sat down on the sidewalk across the street from the house as two burly men in wife-beaters and jeans came out carrying an ugly floral-printed couch.
“What’s happening?” Charlie asked Candace.
“Do you know the Fischers? You know, the ones that lived on the other side of town?”
“Yeah, they adopted a baby from El Salvador or something.”
“And they went to Germany to adopt another kid and made me pet-sit for their evil dog,” Eli said. He shivered a little, even though it was almost 80 degrees outside.
“Well, apparently, Mr. Fischer got a promotion or something, so they’re moving him so he could be closer to his job. Or so I’ve heard.” Candace took a pack of gum from her pocket and offered them to her friends. She passed them out and popped a stick of gum in her mouth. “They came back with the kid, by the way. He’s our age and going into the same high school as us.”
“Cool,” Charlie and Eli commented. They chewed their gum in silence for a while, just watching the movers struggling to carry pieces of heavy furniture. After about 15 minutes, a blue Focus pulled into the driveway. Mr. Fischer quickly got out of the car and opened the door for his wife. Mrs. Fischer opened the backseat door and unbuckled her baby from the car seat. The last to leave the car was a boy, about 14-years-old, with lemon-colored hair and black T-shirt and shorts.
“That him?” Eli asked.
“Yep, that’s him all right,” Candace confirmed.
“I wonder how he can wear dark clothes in such sweltering heat.”
“Nice use of the word sweltering,” Charlie said.
“Thank you. I’m studying for the SATs.”
“You do know the SATs are in, like, four years, right?”
“It never hurts to be prepared,” Eli sniffed. They laughed and spit their gum into the Rosens’ yard, who were known for not picking up after their schnauzer Monster’s…fecal matter.
“Candace! Come back and finish your summer homework,” they heard Candace’s mother yell.
“But mooom, I have summeeer!” Candace yelled back.
“Now!” Candace groaned.
“Alright, I’ll see you guys later.” She stood up, stretched her arms, and cut through the middle of the Rosens’ and the Sewells’ houses to her home. Eli and Charlie waved at her retreating back. Eli watched the blonde boy and smirked. An idea just occurred to him.
“Hey, Charlie.”
“Yeah, what is it, Eli?”
“You see the new kid?” She nodded. “I bet ya ten bucks that you can’t be friends with him by Friday.” Charlie wrinkled her nose.
“Thanks, but no thanks.”
“Then what will you do it for? 20? 30? As you know, I’ve got more money than I can handle, so—”
“I’m not doing it, period. Why do you care, anyway?” Eli gulped. He knew she was going to ask him this, and he had to choose his words carefully.
“Ever since Luke…passed, you’ve been a tad anti-social.” Charlie narrowed her eyes at him.
“What do you mean a tad?” she demanded.
“The only people you hang around with are me and Candace. You need to hang out with other people,” he told her bluntly.
“What, do you not want me around anymore?!” she asked, clearly offended.
“No! It’s just…” Eli sighed and rested his head on her shoulder. “Look, I’m just worried about you, is all. It’s not that I don’t want you around; I just want you to talk to other people besides me. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“I guess so.” She looked down at the leaf of grass she was twisting with her fingers.
“Now, I’m asking you this as a friend: will you please just do me this one solid and talk to one more person?” Charlie sighed.
“Sure, why not. I’ve got nothing better to do, anyway.” Eli grinned. “But you better be prepared to fork over ten bucks when I win.”
“Oh, of course. I just hope that you’re prepared to lose. I bet that kid doesn’t even speak English.”
“We’ll see about that.” She got up, swept away the dirt from her shorts, and marched over to the Fischer’s house.
“Whatever you say, Tulip!” Eli shouted after her. Charlie shuddered. She wanted to be called Charlie for a reason.
Eight months before she was born, Walter Dorsey found out that his wife, who had recently divorced with him, was pregnant with his second child. He already had a son-Lucas, who was five at the time-and he was confident that his next child was going to be a son as well. Lo and behold, the child was born, but it was not a boy, like Walter had wanted. Still, he loved her all the same, and used the name Charles as her middle name.  
As how she got the name Tulip, Charlie’s mother, Norah, thought it would be wonderful to name her newborn daughter after her mother, who hated Walter with a burning passion and thought the divorce was all his fault, even though it was Norah who divorced Walter. Charlie liked to be called Tulip until she met Tulip Senior in second grade. She thought it would be better to be called a boy’s name rather than to be named after a spiteful grandmother.
Charlie went up to the blonde boy, tapped on his shoulder, and stuck out her hand.
“Hi!” she said when he turned around. He had a startled look on his face, which then turned into indifference. His eyes, Charlie noticed, were green-gray. “My name is Charles, but you can call me Charlie. What’s your name?” He didn’t say anything. Charlie cleared her throat and lowered her outstretched hand. “Your parents work in the building next to my dad’s, did you know that?” Still nothing. “So, uh, if you need anything, my house is the white one with green shudders a couple houses down from yours. Okay?” He turned around and walked into his house. “Fine, then, didn’t want to talk to you, either,” she mumbled as she walked back to Eli, who was laughing his butt off on the sidewalk.
“This is going to be tougher than I thought,” she told him with a straight face.
“You think?” he replied as he continued to laugh.