Run, Girl (If You Can)

The three children working on the Lego castle heard some thuds and other loud noises coming from downstairs but nobody was crying so they ignored it.

"This has to be the worst babysitter we've ever had," Violet sighed as she put together a turret.

"Probably," her twin agreed. "I hope Aunt Jen and Uncle Cameron come back soon."

They all turned toward the digital clock in the room. It was only 9:02 PM and the party wasn't supposed to be over until 10. It would be a while yet.

"I hope Mom and Dad don't run into Grandma and Grandpa Hale," she said worriedly.

Violet had been thinking about this a lot since she found out the party was to celebrate Hale Investments' 100th anniversary. The company had their last name on it so it had obviously been in the family for a long time.

Dad never talked about his parents but she deduced they were alive somewhere because Grandma Hall was dead and Mom talked about her all the time. She obviously missed her mother. Dad didn't seem to miss his parents at all.

She had wondered why for the longest time until she overheard a couple of her teachers gossiping in third grade. They had been whispering about how she was one of the secret children from a big scandal eight years earlier.

Apparently, her dad took over the company by force to kick his father out because he didn't approve of her mom and wanted him to marry someone else. After hearing that it all clicked into place. That scary man her dad argued with the day he took her to work back in preschool must have been her grandfather.

Not that Violet cared. She had no desire to see someone who disrespected her mother or didn't approve of her or her brothers' existence.

Noah tilted his head in confusion. "Why wouldn't you want that?"

"We've never met them," Kaleb explained. "My dad hates them."

"Only because they hate us and Mom," she added quickly.

She didn't want Noah thinking her dad was simply being petty. He had definitely made the right choice. Violet loved her family and couldn't imagine it being any different than it was. Her parents were perfect together; anyone who couldn't see that was an idiot.

"How could anyone hate you?"

Violet smiled at the earnestness in her friend's voice. He seemed genuinely offended on their behalf.

"I think it's because Mom isn't rich," Kaleb said with a shrug. "I've heard people talk about Dad before. Apparently he was a pretty big deal before we were born."

"He's still a pretty big deal, dummy. Don't you know he was the youngest Fortune 500 CEO ever?"

He frowned. "No. How do you even know that?"

"Don't you remember when Dad had to give that interview for a business magazine? They gave him a copy and I happened to read it. Dad is super smart; he's practically a legend in the business world," Violet said proudly.

She thought it was pretty cool her dad had accomplished so much, especially since he did it for the sake of their mom. Apparently he had always been a mushy romantic. Just looking at the way he acted around his wife and children you would never suspect he was such a big shot.

Kaleb raised an eyebrow at her. "You read something from a grownups magazine when you were like six? Why am I not surprised."

Violet stuck her tongue out at him. Her brother was always teasing her for how much she loved to read. She would read anything she could get her hands on, okay?

Fiction, nonfiction…it didn't matter. Books were how she survived being alone at school. Sometimes she sat with her brother and his friends at lunch but they were so noisy. She typically preferred spending her lunchtime in the library since fourth graders and second graders had different lunchtimes and she couldn't hang out with Noah.

She had actually run out of interesting books to read at the elementary school's library so her mother started taking her to the public library every week to get more challenging reading material. Violet always kept one or two of those books in her backpack so she wouldn't get bored.

"I think it's cool that you read so much," Noah said absentmindedly as he focused on building the Lego dragon.  "You get your homework done faster than anybody because of how fast you can read. I'm jealous."

This was true. Violet and Kaleb had roughly the same amount of homework even though they had different teachers and she always finished hers in one fourth of the time that it took him. He had complained about it more than once because she got to go play while he was still working at the kitchen table under his mother's watchful eye.

She shrugged. "You say that but kids call me a freak for finishing workbooks in class so quickly. Sometimes my teachers think I'm cheating on tests too. I'm not though; I'm just fast."

"Well that's dumb. They shouldn't give you a hard time for being smarter than them," Noah said as if it should be completely obvious. 

That's exactly what she thought, even if she wouldn't admit it aloud. Her mom always told her it wasn't polite to brag when she said things like that.

"People don't like what they can't do themselves," Kaleb said gruffly. "That's on them, Vi, not you."

Violet felt an overwhelming surge of affection for her brother. Normally he wasn't so great with words but she definitely felt his fierce love for her from those words, even if they weren't conventional. She leaned over to kiss his cheek.

"Thanks, Kal," she said with a bright smile.

Kaleb turned red. "Don't do that; it's embarrassing!"

She couldn't see what the big deal was. Cheek kisses happened all the time in their family. He didn't seem to mind when Mom did it. Then again, she normally only did it at home. Noah was watching.

He didn't seem happy about it either. A sulky expression made its way onto his face. "Where's my kiss? I said basically the same thing he did!"

"You're not my brother," Violet said as she rolled her eyes.

It was completely obvious. Mom said you weren't supposed to kiss people outside your family until you got older, advising her to save it for someone she was in love with. She couldn't even imagine something that far off.

Noah grumbled but didn't have an adequate response for that so they went back to building the castle in silence.