One Step Chapter 1 A usual Thursday night at home. After school babysit little sister Mandy. And like every Thursday at 60 sharp. It's a go fish marathon. "Got any 4's?" I asked mysteriously. "Go FISH JASON!" she screams at the top of her lungs. "Ssh Mandy! Some people are sleeping in this town!" I said jokingly. "NO theyre not!" she shoved me. Mandy isn't like any other 7 year old. She has something different in her body. She thinks differently. She has down syndrome. I don't see her differently than anyone else. Everyone has their quarks. Hers are just a little bigger than most. The doorbell rang. "I guess moms home early." I tell her and head for the door. "MOMMY!" she screams and runs for the door. I laugh and follow her along. But I hear her down the hallway. "JASONNNN!! THATS NOT MOMMY!" next thing I know she's grabbing me around the waist shaking. I get serious. I grab my gun and yell "Who's there?" A girls voice comes out "your cousin Debra Chan from Caston Community College. I'm here to visit?" She pops her head out. "Your mom said I could come over whenever and my classes are over with so I decided id come now." now I recognized her. She was at the family reunion 4 YEARS AGO. My mom says she's stubborn and irresponsible. She's going to be a teacher. Lord help those children. "Oh," I set my gun back where it was, "Would you like to go to the kitchen?" "Sure," she says happily. I crouch down to Mandy's level and talk to her, "Okay Mandy I know that isn't mom but it's our cousin ad she wants to visit. So you've got to behave." "But I HATE visiting," she pouts and crosses her arms across her chest. "No pouting, how about you go bring some toys to the kitchen so I can watch you and you can still play with toys?" "okay!" she hugs me " I love you Jason!" "I love you too Mandy," as I hug her back. We headed to the kitchen where Debra was sitting there texting on her iPhone. "Oh hello Jason," she smiled flirtatious. Inside I was rolling my eyes. I hated when girls did that to me or any guy. It doesn't want us more to like you. It just makes you more weirder than most girls. "Hi Debra, would you like something to drink, milk, water, OJ, apple juice?" I looked through the fridge. "Water is fine thank you." she said still texting. Mandy set her toys on the floor and started building blocks into high towers. "Good job Mands." Deb said as she finally put her phone away. "My names Mandy." she said a matter of factly. "Sorry Debra, she thought you were gonna be our mom." I said as I sipped my apple juice and handed her water over. "That's fine," she quietly looked around the room, " I love this house. It's so roomy and it feels like home." "Thanks, when we first moved here when I was like 5, my mom designed it. She didn't really want anything fancy she said." I explained. "Well i think it's fancy and divine." she touched me on the nose. I looked at her weird. I explained "Um..Debra..I'm not 2 anymore. I'm actually 16. Please don't treat me like that. Even though the last time you went anywhere family related I WAS 2!" She looked at me like I just broke up with her "Excuse me? Don't treat a lady like that!" "Your not a lady. You're an immature little girl!" I yelled and pointed to the door, "You can leave!" "Fine!" She picked up her purse and jacket, "I didn't want to be a bunch of retards anyway." She.crossed.the.line. "Don't you ever call my sister that EVER! Or I will hunt you down and you will never be able to have a job or #life again!" I pushed her out of the house and threw her stupid present she gave us at her head. "And you can keep this RETARD!" I slammed the door and I turned around and their was Mandy sucking her thumb. "J-Jason?" she asked nervously. "Yes?" "What did you do?" I looked out the window to watch her drive away "I just shoved the devil out of our house." She smiled and patted me on the arm "Good boy!" and walked to her bedroom. ---Mom finally came home after a half hour and I immediately told her about Debra's visit. My mom sighed "I knew that girl was up to no good. She got kicked out of her last college because she was-" she looked at Mandy looking tentatively up at Mom. "Mand, please go to your room." she says. "Okay mommy," she gives me a hug, "Bye Jason." "See ya Mands." I say sweety and hug her back. Once Mandy left mom continued, "she got kicked out because she was caught drinking. In class! She is such an idiot!" she places some papers on the kitchen table. "Here are some important papers for my next project please. Tell Mandy to NOT touch these alright?" "Why don't you put it in your 'office'?" I said sarcastically and laugh. She hits me with the newspaper. "Knock it off!" she walked off. Mom did have a office. Before Mandy was born and then we didn't have room for her office. We had to put in her bedroom. When Mandy was just a baby we still had her stuff in the room then when Mandy finally got big enough, we moved mom's stuff to the basement. But, 2 months ago, we had to redo the basement because of flooding. Now the only office she has is her studio in town. Mom came back in with a envelope. "Oh here's a letter from your dad, it came yesterday forgot to give it to you," she handed it over then left again. "Thanks," I said as I grabbed a banana and looked at the front. Jason Clark 129 Pluck St. Denver, Washington 83931. And in the top corner. Matt Clark 213th Avenue Apt. 14 New York, NY 73910 I looked at more closely. Wow. Dad you had to move again? I thought. I went to my room and my mom probably expected me to read it, my dad probably thinks I'm reading it, but I don't. I place it in a shoe box under my bed and hope to never see it again. Like all the other 30 some other letters I've had no interest in reading. *************** When I was 6 going on 7, my family was expecting a new addition to our family. A baby girl. Everyone was so excited. Right after the doctor appointment where we found out it was a girl, we went to Home Depot and bought pink paint, pink crib, pink curtains, Pink EVERYTHING! and being a little 6 year old this was the most tortuous thing ever. When we got home we started right away with taking all mom's office stuff out to start painting. Dad and mom were joking around playfully putting paint on each other and playing with the curtains and other girly toys. My mom and dad were high school sweethearts. Right out of high school, moving out of their hometown, and heading out across the country to start their lives together. Then my dad went to college to be a college professor in human anatomy and my mom an interior designer. Then I was born. I was my Dad's pride and joy. He taught me everything; how to throw a baseball, ride a bike, dribble a basketball, shoot a gun, etc. You know the deal. Anyway, a couple of days after finding out it was a girl we got a phone call. It was telling us about Mandy's "Quirks" as I call them. My mom cried, because she felt so sorry for the baby inside her. While my dad, he flipped. For the next 10 days he drank alcohol like no other. My parents NEVER drank in front of me at a young age. They thought it was wrong and rude. But my dad did it all the time during his "Flipping time", as I call it. He quit his job at the University, beat my mom when she tried to get him to stop with this nonsense and after those ten days of torture for me and my mom, he finally left us for another woman. I have never respected him ever since. And when I was ten years old, I promised myself that I would NEVER EVER beat my wife or kids. I will never leave my family for anything I will stay strong for them. After Mandy was born it was hard to cope with a baby with down syndrome. My mom decided to get help. We got a lady from this agency named Carol. She was a Christian and always was trying to convince my mom to come to her Baptist church while helping with Mandy. After a couple of months my mom and I finally went. The sermon was about being saved by our LORD God Almighty and that was the day me and my mom gave our #life to God. And we have never looked back ever since. Chapter 2 The next day I didn't wake up to my alarm clock. I woke up to Mandy shaking me yelling " JASON! JASON!! You need to make me breakfast!" I looked at her grugly. Then patted her on the head "okay, I'm coming!" She ran off. I threw on a pair of jeans and T-shirt and went out to make breakfast. As I was placing more bacon on the frying pan, my mom came in dressed for her job in our little town of Denver (1,220 people). "You ready for your day of Preschool today Mandy?" my mom asked Mandy and kissed her on the forehead. "Yeah! Mrs. Popper is letting us play with Play-doh AND have Oreos for snacks! She told us yesterday!" She looked at me "Do you have football tonight?" "Yeah and afterwards I'm headed to Macy's." I flipped a pancake for Mom. "Oohhhhh Macy! Do you like her? You've been hanging out with her a lot lately!" my mom taunted me. "Oh be quiet! We've been best friends since Kindergarten, what do you expect? Nothing is gonna change other than best friends!" I turned the stove off and placed the bacon and pancakes on plates and set them on the counter for Mandy and Mom. "Orders up! Gotta go!" ***** I dropped Mandy off in her classroom and gave her a hug and went over to the high school side of the school. Our school is pretty small we have one building for PreK-Grade 12. I found my friends in the lunch room playing finger football and cracking jokes. I sat down by Kevin. I also saw at our table was Jimmy Marks, Calvin Smith, and Macy Tomlinson. Jimmy saw me and threw the paper football at me and yelled "Hey where ya been?" I looked oddly at him, "What do you mean?" "Duh Dumbo! You're a BIT late than usually." Jimmy said as he sipped his orange juice. "Oh, had to drop Mandy off today she took awhile to get ready this morning," I took Macy's grape juice and took a guzel. "Thanks a lot Jerk I'm sick!" Macy protested as she pulled it out of my hands. "Yeah. 'sick'!" I air-#quoted and laughed. She punched me in the arm. "Do you want our girls to lose me off the team for getting sick not able to play our biggest rival tomorrow?" I shook my head. "Good," she threw her grape juice in the nearest trash, "because they've got the best hitters in the state and coach is counting on me to block them like crazy!" "You'll do great Macy doing worry!" "Aww aren't you sweet Jason?" Kevin asked sarcastically with puppy dog eyes. I punch him in the arm "Aw Shut up Kevin, growing up with 2 women in the house I know how to impress the ladies!" Macy gasped and hit me on my arm "Well, that's just rude!"