This is not a wham bam, thank you ma'am story with sex during the first 750 words. I wanted to lay a lot of groundwork in this story so that our main character could tell her story the way it was intended. I hope you enjoy it. Please remember to rate and comment at the end.
No one under the age of 18 is engaged in any sort of sexual activity in this work of fiction. It is neither implied, inferred, suggested, nor endorsed by this author.
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Main Characters -
Teresa, also goes by TJ, 26 years old, 5'3", 115 lbs., 34B-22-34, shoulder length red hair, green eyes.
Katie, 25 years old, 5'6", 130 lbs., 34C-26-36, blonde hair halfway down her back, blue eyes.
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Have you ever heard of the expression "red headed stepchild"? I literally and figuratively felt like that growing up in a small town on the outskirts of Athens, Georgia. I was the middle child of five. My oldest sister Tonya, now 36, had brown hair and brown eyes. My older brother Thomas, now 30, had brown hair and brown eyes. I (Teresa), now 26, had red hair and green eyes. My younger brother Theo, now 24, had brown hair and brown eyes. Then there's my baby sister Tracy, now 22, who also had brown hair and brown eyes. Mom and Dad? YEP! You guessed it. They had brown hair and brown eyes.
I often got ridiculed for being the odd ball, the square peg in the round hole, the milkman's child. You name it. I took the brunt of every joke in the book. Mom and Dad were so perplexed about me having red hair and green eyes that they had a DNA test done. How humiliating. They also ordered ancestry kits from two different companies. Of course, the DNA test came back that I was, in fact, their daughter. They both had mixed reactions which really hurt my feelings. I cried just about every day and night for two weeks because they weren't as accepting of me as they were of my other siblings. I had to grow up knowing that I felt like they "tolerated" me, rather than treat me like their daughter.
When Mom and Dad reviewed the ancestry results with me, we discovered that I had two great-great aunts with red hair and green eyes, a great-great-great grandmother with red hair and green eyes, and a great-great-great uncle with red hair and green eyes. It turned out that our family, for the most part, originated in Ireland. Our family also had roots in England and Scotland as well. For me, personally, I felt like it was a moral victory. However, that was short lived because they didn't seem to accept the red hair and green eyes as being part of the family's lineage.
Growing up, my brothers had their own bedroom and we girls had our own. Tracy and I had bunk beds, I on the bottom and she on the top while Tonya had a twin bed on the other side of our bedroom. My siblings all had their own groups of friends and I mostly stayed to myself. A lot of their friends referred to me as square peg or milkman's baby. I truly felt like a complete outsider and often played by myself. I couldn't wait until I became an adult so I could get the fuck out of the literal hell I felt like I was living in.
Going into high school, I had made the decision that I wanted out of "Hicktown USA" and wanted better things and a better situation for myself. I threw myself into my books and was determined to be the scholar in the family. I didn't care if anyone was going to be proud of me or not. I did it for MYSELF. My hard work and dedication paid off. I was in the top 5 of my class each year in high school and I had colleges writing me and asking me to come for a visit. Mom and Dad thought it was a waste of time and effort. I can still hear Dad yelling after downing his fifth Budweiser on the front porch on a Friday night. In his gruff beer infused, chain smoking cigarette inhaling (to the point it looked like he was smoking a joint) voice, I could hear it play over and over -
"College is a waste of money. You'll have student loans until you're 50. And, for what? A job that pays you less than the tuition? I call bullshit."
I bet I heard him repeat that phrase a hundred times while I was in high school. And it always seemed like it was on a Friday night. It was always after the Budweiser and he was ALWAYS on the front porch when he would give me the college, waste, student loans, blah blah blah blah blah. I wanted so much to shove one of them beer cans right up his ass sideways.
My senior year came and I had just turned 18. My oldest sister, Tonya, was shacked up with some guy a few miles from the house and they were on baby number three. My older brother, Thomas, was living in an apartment in the next town over and working as a mechanic at a car dealership. My two younger siblings were still in school. Me? I had plans. I decided it was best not to divulge any information to anyone because I didn't want anyone trying to talk me out of what I wanted to do. I had my mind made up and I was going to follow through.
Graduation day came and I was happier than I had been since I was a child. My life and my circumstances were about to change in just a matter of a few short days and I was excited about it. I was also nervous because I was so afraid that someone would find out about my plans and try to derail me from achieving my goals. I had applied, been accepted, and offered full academic scholarships to no less than 28 major universities across the country. I had also taken the ASVAB tests my junior year in high school and was eligible to join all of the military service branches. I was like a kid in a candy store, able to pick any flavor of candy I wanted. The buffet of happiness I was seeking was on the other side of me walking across the stage and getting my high school diploma in my hands. No longer did the little red headed, green eyed oddball have to concern herself with what people said or thought about her.
There was no major fanfare the evening I graduated from high school. Mom and Dad made a big deal out of Tonya and Thomas graduating by throwing a big cookout for them at the lake. Celebrating my graduation consisted of Mom and Dad taking me to McDonald's, just the three of us. I don't think I had ever been so insulted in my entire life. Here I was, 18 years old, and I still was the same person that didn't fit in, the same person seeking acceptance, and the same person who wanted to be loved and reassured that she was loved. For 18 years I had never heard my Dad utter the words "I love you", not even once. I could count on ONE HAND how many times I had heard Mom tell me she loved me. We ate. Actually Mom and Dad gobbled their burgers down like they hadn't eaten in months. I took four bites of my burger, ate six fries, and drank half my soda. I just wanted to go home to the safe haven of my bunk bed and cry myself to sleep.
"Operation Teresa's Freedom" was about to take full effect. The next morning, I asked Mom if I could borrow her car. I told her I needed to go to Walmart and pick up some personal things. She said "Sure" and I bounded out the door with some pep in my step because I knew I was only a few short hours away from getting to do what I wanted to do in order to be happy. Before I went to Walmart, I had to take a detour into Athens to see my Uncle Vince, Mom's younger brother, and Aunt Lisa, his wife.
For some reason, Uncle Vince and Aunt Lisa treated me better than my own Mom and Dad when I was growing up. I loved spending time with them, especially during the summer months. I actually felt like I belonged, like I was part of something, like I was actually loved, when I was with them. We always told each other we loved each other and I so desperately wished they had been my actual Mom and Dad when I was growing up. We had such a good time together and I cherished every minute I had with them. I pulled up in the driveway and they came to the front door to greet me. I gave them both a big hug and told them I needed to talk to them. Vince could tell my tone was pretty serious so he suggested we go inside to the living room and have a seat.
We walked in and I took a seat in the recliner next to the sofa where Uncle Vince and Aunt Lisa were sitting. He initiated the conversation -
"What's going on TJ?" That was the nickname he gave me when I was a little girl. Teresa Jane were my first and middle names so he shortened it to TJ. I loved when he and Aunt Lisa called me that.
"Uncle Vince, Aunt Lisa, I need to ask you for two favors. Well, actually, I need your permission for one and the other is actually a favor."
"Sure, go ahead." He replied.
"TJ, we would do anything for you that wasn't illegal." Aunt Lisa said.
"So, I am gonna just come right out and say it. I joined the Air Force. I leave tomorrow for basic training. Part of the paperwork is assigning a beneficiary on my military life insurance in case anything happens to me. Uncle Vince, with your permission, I want you to be the primary, and Aunt Lisa, I want you to be the secondary."
I could see the tears forming in both their eyes.
Uncle Vince spoke, "What about all those scholarship offers to all those colleges?"
