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She was really more sensory seeking than avoiding. That could be just as problematic. Crispin liked the feeling ofmoving.
Besides, moving washealthy.What was so wrong with that? She didn’t bounce all over the classroom anymore. She didn’t need one of those bouncy ball chairs or giant rubber band straps under her desk she could run her feet over any longer. No more fidget toys or anything like that.
She’d outgrown that years ago. Well, three or four years ago, anyway. She was in better control now.
No one in Finley Creek evenknewshe’d been the girl with severe ADHD and wacky sensory issues and a freaky high IQ that disrupted class sometimes. Well, they were learning about the IQ thing. She was the youngest in her classes at FCU by at least three years, after all.
She did, however, keep herfidgetingin class to as much of a minimum as possible. She’d do all themoving she couldwhen she finished with class. There were plenty of places tomovearound in the city, anyway.
Crispin wasn’t certain she liked living in the city, though.
She missed home. Oklahoma, and their hometown and the big old house she’d grown up in. This city felt really disjointed sometimes. Like she didn’t fit there either.
She’dalmostfit in back in Oklahoma. Crispin had been just one of those super-smart Coleson girls, there. The school system was used to them and let them move up a grade or two when needed. Like Hope had, and Joy, and Heather, and Cara. Crispin had moved lots of grades. More than her sisters of the heart. Samia was dyslexic, but she’d skipped two grades, too. Cashlyn had only skipped once, but Crispin thought that was because her sister was really, really shy and just didn’t showwhat she could really do.
Coleson girls were really, really smart. Everyonein town knew that.
Their oldtown, anyway.
Everyone had known her family there. They had had friends. People who cared about them.
It wasn’t the same in Finley Creek.
It just wasn’t.
Crispin was still getting used to that. But she’d be ok.
Her family had voted and decided Finley Creek was the best place for all of them now. They were just lucky her sister Cara’s grandfather had left them all a really big house there a few years ago, and some money to pay property taxes and upkeep.
It was still really tight with money, though.
It would get better, once everyone was out of school, and student loans were paid off, and that kind of thing. But for now, it was tight. Really tight.
That had Crispin worried.
Iagan had gotten accepted to a really expensive private school last week. But the scholarship only paid half. He was supposed to start in January. If his mom could come up with fifteen thousand more dollars somehow.
Crispin knew it was going to be hard for his mom to pay for it. Eden worked as a nurse, and that school was really expensive. Eden still had her own student loans to pay for, and some other bills from some bad things that had happened in Oklahoma when she’d had to pay an attorney, too. A really expensive attorney. Stuff that was really unfair.
Crispin was going to have to find a way to help. Maybe get a job or something part time.
Iagan was so smart. He deserved the best school they could afford. Even though legally he was her cousin—biologically he was her baby brother. They’d had the same first mother.
He was Crispin’s brother, too. She was supposed tohelphim. To take care of him.
She could put up flyers. Tutor undergrads in math, or something. She liked tutoring. She could help Eden a little by doing that. A job would help, too. She’d take two less classes next semester. That money could go toward Iagan’s tuition. Every dollar she could come up with would help. And in between, she would tutor. If it took her an extra semester or two to get her degree, well, that was just an extra year or so she got to stay at FCU. She did love the college, even if the city itself overwhelmed her sometimes.
Her mom had said to make this move thing work, they all had to work together. To take care of each other.
Colesons took care of Colesons. No matter what.
They were a family. That was what they were supposed to do.
Now they were in Finley Creek and it was bigger, and there were lots of fun things to do for all of them. And her cousins and sisters and aunts all worked really good jobs now. Mostly. Cara was still finishing law school. Samia was doing her fellowship in trauma medicine. Summer did odd jobs—sometimesreallyodd jobs—to make money that she would invest and stuff. They had the house her grandfather had left them in the richest neighborhood in south Finley Creek. It had a pool—a really big one, too. Eden, Summer, and Cashlyn lived there with Crispin and their mom. Cara and Samia shared an apartment nearby, too. They weremostlytogether now.
Wasn’t that really what mattered?
Crispin loved the pool the most. She tried to swim every day. Not just to keep in shape, but because she just loved moving.
