groovygamers.com

Megan Howell came into the house trhough the front door.  She could hear her mom and brother in the kitchen as she put her stuff down, "Megan, that you honey?"  she heard her mom call.

In the kitchen she saw her brother sitting at the counter drinking a glass of OJ, and reading from a textbook, "Hey runt."  He says in greeting.  Her brother Donald was only two years older then Megan but he was already an inch over six feet tall.

Megan's mom gave her a sideways hug and a kiss on the cheek and she went about getting cookies from the over and putting the one's that had cooled into containers.  Obviously some charity bake sale was in the near future and mom was doing her part.  Megan had always gotten the impression that mom's job was to take care of things.  She'd taken care of Megan, her sister and brother all their lives as well as looked after her father.  Now that the kids were older, she did a lot of volunteer work and charity drives.  The kid's didn't need as much attention, so she focused her need to help on other people.

"How's practice going honey, you making new friends yet?"

Megan gave her brother a bit of a sneer at his comment and otherwise paid him little mind.  Focusing back on her mom as the older woman went about her activity, she replied, “practice went great, I should be more than ready for Friday’s game.  The girl’s on the squad are great, so I spend a lot of time with them at lunch and after school, other than that, I haven’t had much opportunity to get to know too many of the other freshman.  But Sarah Rollins is in my Freshman class, though we haven’t really had a chance to talk yet.”

Moving over to stand across the center island of the large kitchen, the young teen continued.  “You know mom, spending time around the girls on the squad and seeing how many of the other girls dress at school, I realize that I have to do some serious updating of my wardrobe, so…”

"Sooooo."  Mom said with a smile, "I was wondering when this would happen.  Denise said the same thing, although I think it was the first day of school."

Mom goes about unloading another batch of cooled cookies into plastic containers.  "You're reaching the age where I'm no longer required for the back-to-school cloths shopping."  She makes mook crying sounds, "My little girl is growing up."  the smile on her face never shrinks.

"It's about time."  her brother says from his seat.

"Donnie."  Megan's mom says, "Just because you're gonna need to duck going through doors doesn't mean you have to take it out on us short people."

Donnie shakes his head and goes back to reading.

"Well."  Mom says, "We'll have to do something about this then."  She walks over to the counter by the back door where she keeps her purse and takes out an envelope, handing it to Megan.  "Don't go crazy, fiscal responsibility is something you need to learn."  Inside the envelope is account information for a checking account in Megan and her mother's names and an ATM card.  "You're too young to have a credit card, but I thought you might need this for some emergency cloths shopping."  She hands Megan an American Express Gift Card.  "That's got to last you three months, so be careful.  I'm having your dad forward your allowance to your checking account from now on, so you'll have to learn to take care of your own money.  Don't hesitate to ask for help though, it can be a little daunting when you first start out."

Megan took the envelope from her mother with a wide smile as she gave the older woman a hug.  “Thanks mom.  I’ll be sure to let you know if I am having problems with balancing the checking account.”  Starting towards the exit, she passed by her brother, elbowing him in the upper arm as she quickly passed by and made her way upstairs to her room. 

Once there, she got onto the computer at her desk and went online to check the balance in the gift card and then took out her cellphone.  Dialing Lisa’s number, she waited till the older girl picked up and said, “Lisa, its Megan.  My mom was already ready for this, so I have gift card and an ATM card tied to a checking account for me, so we are set for tomorrow if we can find the time after school.”

"Not a problem.  I can get my mom to take us over to the mall right after class if you want."

“That sounds great, looking forward to some shopping.”  Megan replies with a smile.  “See you tomorrow Lisa.”

After her homework is finished and the family has had dinner Megan is relaxing in her room reading when he father knocks on the open door, "Hey kiddo, I hear you've entered the world of the financially responsible.  Congratulations."

He comes in and sits on the edge of the bed.  "I may not be able to get to many of the games this year, but your mom said she'd try to video tape some, so I can at least see you and the rest of the squad do your routine.  I'm hoping to get to the homecoming game in October though, so I should be able to see the squad perform at least once."

Megan looks up from her textbook at her father with a smile as she replies to his comment about her new bank account.  “Thanks dad.”

As he took a seat on her bed, she pretty much knew what he was going to say.  “Its okay, I understand.  Hopefully you can make the homecoming game, the routine should be a whole lot smoother by then too.”

"Yeah."  he said with a smile, "I'll have my secretary make a note of the homecoming game so we can try to keep things clear."  With that he left her to her reading, "Goodnight kiddo."