Intellectual Property
Dinner was Amber's favorite. Sweet and sour pork with fried rice. Mmm, so good! Man, I missed this home cooking! I would have to get James a food truck or something. He was a good cook. I helped to fry the pork while he fried the rice and veggies with egg. I paid attention to the seasonings so I could cook it later. He used to distract us when he was adding the seasonings to keep it a secret. He would say the only reason my mom stayed with him was for his cooking. He might be onto something. My mom told me once he didn't have much else going for him. Once I exposed his good Christian act, she might leave him. For now, I would just enjoy the food.
We watched a comedy movie together and went to bed. The next morning at school I went to the library to find a good Intellectual Property Lawyer. I could use the phone book, but Google was faster. I found a list and printed out their contact information. I will call them later. Not having a cell phone was annoying! I could use our landline after school.
During class one of my frenemies that I remembered asked me, "What's up with you lately? It seems like you've changed." I replied, "Hi Jessica, what do you mean by I've changed?" She responded, "For one thing, you aren't wearing makeup anymore and for another, you are always busy writing in your notebook." I remember in my past life this girl made me so depressed that I tried to kill myself. It was a stupid argument about body types, and it made me so depressed that I wanted to die. Jessica had a typical model body type thin and tall, but she was flat-chested. I was a little shorter than her and had thick bones but also thin. I also had slightly bigger breasts than her.
She was bragging about her new bikini, and I told her something my mom told me when I asked to wear a bikini. "You can wear one when you can fill it out!" Jessica did not take that very well and told me, "It would be nice if your shirt could fill out more than your stomach." That one sentence made me hate myself back then. After school that day I went into my mom's closet and found her secret liquor stash and sleeping pills. I took them together and instantly regretted it when I thought about how sad my mom and siblings would be if I died. I ended up making myself throw them up in the toilet. Thank God I did it in time.
This time, I was more confident and mature. I informed her, "I realized that I don't need makeup to be beautiful and I should let my skin breathe." I told her, "We are all beautiful in our way. I'm trying to heal my skin and putting heavy to cover the breakouts makes them worse." She thought about it and responded haughtily, "I think you look better with the makeup, but whatever." I just laughed at her snarky comment. She seemed like a little girl to me trying to start a fight. I wasn't going to argue with her over something so small. I just ignored her and went back to planning my lawyer's calls. I even wrote out a script so I wouldn't mess up. Jessica was talking about her new bikini, and I kept my mouth shut. I just nodded along and smiled. That seemed to annoy her, so she turned around and talked to her other friends. Teenage drama!
After school, I walked home with my siblings as usual. I cut up some fruit slices for their snack and went to call the lawyers. The first lawyer did not offer pro bono or free consultations. The next one talked down to me because I was a minor and a female. He didn't come out and say it, but I could hear it in his tone. The next one was nice and instructed I could set up an appointment this weekend. I set one up for Sunday afternoon. I was planning to spend time with my mom on Saturday and we had church Sunday morning. We had to be there early so James could set up for the band and stay late to help him. We were his group of roadies, and we didn't even know it.
We would go to church on Wednesday nights so he could practice with the church band. We ate at McDonald's on the way to church. It was one of the rare times we ate out. McDonald's used to have 10-cent burgers on Wednesday, so we each got one and shared a large order of fries. Dinner for 5 kids for under $5! Caitlyn and Jimmy like onions, but I didn't. I would have to scrape them off and add more ketchup because they would always mess up the order. I guess you can't be too picky for 10 cents.
My sisters and I were in the church choir. The boys would play in the pews. Sometimes the pastor would get them to do odd jobs like make sure there was a bible in every row. Tonight, they got to put up flyers for the new men's retreat the church was planning. I loved to sing and so did my sisters. I was glad we bonded over that. It was nice to have something in common.
Our church was trying to come up with Christian parodies of popular songs so they could interest the younger audience. I was pretty good at writing songs, so I volunteered to write a few songs. Amber also had some songwriting talent but was shy. She was currently learning how to play the piano and keyboard. She was pretty good but didn't like to have all the attention on her. I tried to support her and encourage her. Caitlyn was so cute. She loved to sing, but often forgot the words. She was only 9. We would overlook her forgetfulness. I told her, "When you forget the words just lip-sing until you remember."
I had written a parody of Tonic's "If You Could Only See". It was easy because I only changed a few words. 'If you could only see the way God loves me, then maybe you would understand, Why I feel this way about God's love and what I must do.' We were currently learning my new song while the band was practicing the music. It was easy since the music didn't change. I felt proud that I was being recognized. My sister had written a completely original song about a little boy and girl who were going through a dark time, but not to give up hope because God still loved them. I tried to get her to share it, but she was too shy. I didn't want to push too hard. I would keep gently encouraging her. She was talented. I think songwriting was an outlet for her. Music is supposed to heal the soul.
We went to a non-denominational Christian church which meant it was more inclusive. We even had some days when the preacher's wife would give the sermon. She was good. I appreciated the church's open-mindedness and that they didn't teach fire and brimstone. They focused more on God's love and acceptance. One of my best friends from middle school was gay and I tried to get him to go to church with us. He was scared because a lot of Christian and Catholic churches were not tolerant of gays and claimed it was a sinful choice. I didn't agree with that. I believe God made us just the way we are, and it is not a sin to love someone.
One day I asked James if I could invite my friend Gabriel to church, but he didn't want to bring him because he was scared Gabriel would turn my brothers gay! What a hypocrite! Lol! I mean, I know people can experiment and might find something they like, but a lot of people already know they won't like it and don't want to try. That is ok. Love is love! No matter what it looks like on the outside. That doesn't mean that everyone needs to try everything. I felt bad that Gabriel was judged based on his preferences. He was funny and we had a lot of fun gossiping about other girls at school. He was like one of my girlfriends. I felt comfortable around him because there was no sexual tension.
In high school, we had a few openly gay guys. One was our high school mascot. I don't think he was bullied because he was fun, and the football players all hung out with him. He got along with everyone. The mascot we had last year was a female little person named Jenny. She was the baby tiger cub while Roger was the daddy tiger. It was adorable!