When she dragged herself out of bed the next morning, Tina was already in the kitchen, humming to herself as she poured cereal into a plastic bowl. Meaghan stopped and looked at her sister.
Tina had the fair colouring and delicate bone structure of their mother. Although she was fifteen, she had the look and manner of a much younger girl. Meaghan remembered a conversation she once had with her mother, when Tina first started middle school.
"She's like a leaf, that one, flying back and forth wherever the wind takes her," her mother had said, despairing of Tina ever becoming sensible enough to find friends in school. In fact, her nickname was "Leaf", although it was never used outside the family circle.
As they sat down for breakfast, Meaghan looked at Tina's fingernails, black nail polish chipping off on the edges.
"We need to redo your polish," Meaghan said. Tina just shrugged and continued digging into her bowl. "Do you have any exams today?"
"Yeah, a stupid one in math class. Who cares about algebra?" Tina picked up her bowl and placed in the sink, then grabbed her backpack. "I gotta go."
She looked over at her older sister, then impishly gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head and ran for the door, giggling.
Meaghan shook her head bemusedly, sighed, and headed for the bathroom to get ready for work.
~ ~ ~
At work, Meaghan focused on the pile of paperwork Cynthia had left there last night. There was still no word from Ivoire, and she was worried, so she called the main office number and left a message for someone to contact her first thing in the morning, their time. By then, it would the afternoon in Kuching, and they could resolve the final figures of the report.
Suddenly, there was chirp from her computer as she received an email. 'Please let this be from Ivoire', Meaghan thought. She was disappointed to see it was from someone she had never received mail from, Misty. The email address was from the company, though.
[Good morning. I am your new contact for your European distribution company. Attached please find the EOY figures you requested, and I look forward to working with you.]
Meaghan frowned; she hadn't heard that Ivoire was planning to leave the company, but maybe she got a better employment offer or something. She quickly downloaded the spreadsheet to complete the report, and began compiling the data.