This is the second chapter of my second serial novel, The Year of the Winding Road < click here to see the main page for the novel, read the other chapters if you missed them or have no idea what this story is about.
Note to readers:
While this story does have events in it that were inspired by true life and the people who made them happen, all of it is fictional and made up. The people, aside from the popular culture figures that pepper this novel, are made up using qualities and quirks I have observed in the people I have met in real life. The places are also made up. The popular culture figures are used fictionally, though I tried to remain true to them in my writing.
The emotions though are very real. High school is a time for angst. High school is a time for finding one’s self and learning who and what one will become. I tried to keep that ribbon alive in this piece of fiction.
Home Life
The Washington family lived in what was essentially a suburb of Los Angeles, California, though they lived about twenty miles south of the heart of downtown. It was a sprawling landscape of concrete and planted trees in a college city. The three bedroom-ranch-style house was situated in a neighborhood where the streets were named for trees and kids rode their bicycles up and down the sidewalks.
The Washingtons had moved into the house when Brianna was in the middle of her third grade year, since Dad had been transferred from North Carolina to a new branch in the company that he worked for. But then a recession had hit and Dad lost his job. Thankfully Mom’s job kept them afloat until he found a new one, but the year and a half he was out of work was something Brianna would never forget, since they almost lost their house and they had to scrimp.
Charlie and Matt shared one bedroom, sleeping in bunk beds because they had the smallest room in the house, whereas Brianna and Annabelle shared the second bedroom, which was divided in half for them.
Brianna’s side had cut out pictures of male celebrities she thought were cute and inspirational posters she had collected. A tall bookcase sat near the head of the bed, one of its shelves doubling as a nightstand as books overflowed the shelves. Her dresser was at the foot of her bed, covered in pictures and the boombox. A desk delineated her side of the room from her sister’s and was the only thing the girls shared.
The two girls even divided the closet, though Annabelle often borrowed Brianna’s clothes without permission. Brianna was often annoyed, since the articles in question came back usually with stains or rips in them. She was still slightly larger than Annabelle, though she had stopped growing. Mom figured Annabelle might be taller than Brianna eventually, since she was still in the midst of her growth spurt.
Brianna wasn’t looking forward to that day. Her sister often already bullied her, though she was known to give as well as she was given.
Mom and Dad had the final bedroom, complete with their own bathroom whereas the four kids had to share the second one at the end of the hall. Each kid had assigned shelves for their toiletries, though Brianna had taken to using a signature purple and teal tote that she kept under her bed to store her cosmetics in, since she didn’t want her siblings to mess with her stuff.
Besides the human occupants of the house, the Washingtons had two dogs. Badger was a small dog, an indeterminate mix of breeds with a shaggy coat. Wolfie was a large labrador mix. The family also had a cat, Puck, and a large fish tank in the den with a couple of goldfish.
Dad took care of the goldfish, for they were his pride and joy. But the rest of the animals were often the responsibility of the kids. They were expected to walk the dogs every afternoon or evening, clean Puck’s litter box every day, and feed the furry creatures at breakfast and dinner.
It was a comfortable life, though sometimes the family was strapped for cash. It was one of the reasons Mom had the rules she did about having to earn one’s own keep. All of the kids were also expected to pitch in with chores. If they wanted something extra that wasn’t in the budget, they had to earn it by working somehow.
It created a strong work ethic in the two older kids, Brianna admitted in later years. But as a teenager, she felt some resentment about having to find ways to earn her own money for everything she wanted when some of her friends seemed to have money thrown at them. But she was also proud of the fact that she could earn her own money, for it made her question whether or not things were actually worth buying when she wanted them.
The evening of the first day of school, the family had gathered. Mom was late getting home, since the daycare center she ran was having a staff meeting after they closed for the night. Brianna had to make dinner, which was chicken nuggets, boxed macaroni and cheese, and steamed vegetables.
Charlie asked to help her, so she assisted him in figuring out the temperature they needed to preheat the oven to. He got to pick out the night’s vegetables too, choosing from the stash of frozen veggies Mom and Dad had bought.
“How do peas sound?” Charlie asked, looking in the deep freeze as Brianna arranged the chicken nuggets on two of the trays. With six hungry people in their family, they would go through almost all of them tonight.
She made a face. Peas and lima beans were her least favorite. Peas smelled like a wet dog to her and she couldn’t get past that smell to eat them. Lima beans had a funny texture that she couldn’t stand unless they were in a soup.
Charlie laughed as he watched her face.
“How about mixed vegetables then?” he asked as he grabbed the bag from the freezer and brought it over. “That way you can pick out the peas and eat everything else.”
She smiled as she opened the bag and poured the contents into the steamer basket she had set up over a pot of water on the front burner. The other front burner had the water for the macaroni already set up.
Dinner was ready to go when Mom got home from work and the family fixed their own plates. Brianna had tried in vain to pick out as many peas from her serving of vegetables before she moved from the stove, but Dad got annoyed.
“What are you doing?” he asked irritably. “Get out of the way so the rest of us can get our food!”
Annabelle pulled a face.
“I don’t like green beans or corn!” she whined.
“Be glad it’s not carrots,” Mom joked, eying Dad as she said it. He rolled his eyes.
He detested carrots with a passion. He once had a elderly relative back East who he visited often as a kid who put carrots in everything she could conceive of since it was her favorite. As a result, he grew to hate them. He did eat them when they were in a batch of mixed vegetables though.
Brianna laughed as she sat down at the dining room table and waited for everyone else to finish getting their food. Matt sat next to her, scowling as he waited. Once everyone was seated, Dad said a quick prayer of thanksgiving for their food.
It didn’t take long for Mom to start asking them questions about their first day.
“It went fine,” Brianna said when it was her turn to answer. “I had lunch at the planter with Maisie, Adelaide and everyone. My teachers seem to be really good this year. I think I’ll like my English teacher.”
“So you won’t be getting a bad grade again?” Dad asked after he had swallowed the bite of food he had just eaten. “Like you did in Honors English?
Brianna scowled at him. Of course he’d bring up the fact that she practically failed Honors English.
“Yes, Dad,” she said with a sigh.
Matt spoke up from his seat next to her.
“She was walking to one of her classes with a new boy,” he said teasingly.
Mom looked at her as Brianna turned to scowl at her younger brother.
“Oh really?” she asked. “Who is this boy, Bree?”
“His name is Patrick. He’s a new student to the school this year and was hanging out with us at the planter. I walked with him part of the way to his fourth hour class.”
“Is he cute?” Annabelle asked.
She swallowed the bite of chicken nugget she had just eaten before answering. She weighed her words. If she said he was cute, Mom would hound her about asking him out. But if she said he wasn’t cute, Mom would know it was a lie.
“He’s okay.”
Mom sighed. Brianna knew she had hoped this would be a romantic prospect for her eldest daughter. She chided Brianna often to “put herself out there” and find someone. But Brianna was content not having the short lived romance that high school students were notorious for. She liked the way her life was going.
She chose not to tell her parents Matt had flipped her off when he saw her with Patrick. Even though sometimes she liked getting him in trouble, she just didn’t have the heart today. It would have deflected the attention off of her, for now her mom was scrutinizing her. But she also didn’t feel like having to deal with her brother’s repercussions later.
When they were younger, she had gotten him in trouble for sneaking out on a day they were supposed to be grounded to hang with some of his friends. He retaliated against her one afternoon by hanging all of her naked fashion dolls to her closet bar with dental floss nooses. Mom laughed about the nooses when Brianna sought her out to punish her aggressor. The only thing Matt got in trouble for was wasting an entire package of dental floss.
He was smarter than she was and Brianna knew it. It made retaliating against him for things he did difficult, for he was always able to reciprocate with something better. It was awesome when they were allied on something, like ganging up on their younger siblings. But when they were at odds with each other, he almost always was the victor.
Dinner was finished and the chores were done for the evening. Brianna took Wolfie and Badger for a long walk around the block, allowing herself time to think.
She did think Patrick was cute. She was attracted to him. But she was also so shy that even the thought of asking him out caused her anxiety. That was why she was content with her life the way it was. While she admired boys from afar, she would not allow herself the potential heartbreak she were to incur if she were ever rejected by a guy.
She had come to accept that her life was just a faded sign, comfortable and content to just leave it be the way it was.
Click here to read the next chapter – Outing (live on 19 July 2025)
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction written by K. S. Wood, and thus is copyrighted 2025. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author. All rights reserved.If you enjoyed this chapter, please share it with others. Every other Saturday, there will be a new chapter posted for your reading pleasure. The entire story can be found on this page – The Year of the Winding Road
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K. S. Wood Writes 
excellent writing Kelly! Enjoyed your second chapter a lot! ❤
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