Then it happened

Chapter 1

"Mom, can you text Dad and ask him if we can zoom?" I asked for the fourth time. "Oh,  yeah, sorry I got distracted," my mother said. "Thanks," I said before walking away.
"Shey?" She said. I sighed. "Yes Mom?" I turned around, and looked at her. "Do the dishes, and this time do them the right way, like we taught you," she said, without even looking up at me. "Ok, let me get my headphones and I will be right in there."

I turned and walked into what we called the "Schoolroom" even though we didnt do school in there, it only had mine and my sisters clothes. My brothers clothes were out in the living room, at least they didnt get dressed in here.

I picked up my MP3 player and my headphones and left to go to the kitchen. When I had finished cleaning I went back to the living room to sit on the couch and read the third Harry Potter book. I was re-reading it for like what? The fifth time? A few years ago my Mother bought me the entire series, but insisted on only giving me one book a year, on my birthday. "Your supposed to grow up with the characters, Shey, not scim through all the books in two weeks!" She said. It killed me.

"Did you finish the kitchen?" My mother asked. "No, im just sitting here reading in the middle of cleaning Mom," I wanted to say, but knew it would be better not to. "Yes, Mom. Has Dad said anything?" I said. "Yes. You can Zoom now, but not for long, I need you to watch your siblings while I make dinner."

I took her phone upstairs to the room I shared with my two sisters and one of my brothers. "Your Mom said you wanted to talk, whats up, kiddo?" My Dad said. I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Dad, im not a kid anymore. I have a name you know," I said. "Of course! How could I forget. You are all grown up now," he replied.

"Anyway, I was just bored, and as you are the most interesting person I know, I wanted to talk," I said. My Dad looked at me. "Really? I would have thought it would have been Riley."

I looked at him. "Well, now that you mentioned him, why dont you give him the phone so we can talk?" My Dad looked over to a spot next to him. "My daughter is leaving me for your son, how rude!" I looked at him. "Kansas?" He nodded and gave the phone to Riley, one of my best friends.

"Hey Riley!" I said. "Hey Shey," he responded. "Whats up?" I asked him. "Not much. Want me to read you some horror short stories?" I nodded. "Okie, coming up!"

For the next half hour Riley read to me, and I broke off his sentence more then once to comment. When he was done he took me back down to my Dad, where we played some dice game over the phone.

After like an hour I heard Riley come back downstairs, but he was talking to someone. "Yeah, its fine," I heard him say. I looked at my Dad, trying to silently ask him what was going on, as he suddenly froze up for no reason. "Oh, Shey, this is my cousin, Grace," Riley said coming over to me. He put his phone up to the camera and I could see a girl, in a red, dark room, barely visible.

"Hi," I said and waved. "Hi," the girl said and Riley left, me with my hand in the air wondering what just happened. "Hey Dad, I have to go, Aaron just got home, and I dont feel like getting yelled at for being on for to long," I quickly said. "Ok, bye Shey!" He said, I smiled, and hung up.

Leaning against the wall, I sat in thought. Who was that girl? I could barely see her, but she seemed so familiar. What was her name again? Grace? Right. "Well, I had better go give Mom her phone back." I said to myself as I stood up.

The rest of the day I kept thinking about the girl, who I barely saw and yet somehow already craved attention from.