November

Chapter One

"Go ahead, November! Open it!" Yvonne cheered holding up the recorder to face her little daughter who was anxiously shaking a neatly wrapped Christmas gift. Her amber colored curls were held out of her face in two cute pigtails, and she was flashing the camera a toothy smile as she tried to guess what surprise awaited her in the box that she held between her soft little hands. A clanking sound escaped the wrapping.

"Careful November, don't break it now." Rob, her father laughed taking a sip of his luke-warm coffee. Yvonne zoomed in on November's pale and excited face as she started picking away the red and white candy cane wrapping paper.

November piled the discarded wrapping paper in a little pool next to her, trying to be organized like she always was. For an eight year old, she certainly was quite put together and polite. She never yelled or had tantrums. She never left things out, and tried her best to follow the rules. She had always been like that, for as long as Yvonne and Rob Kendra could remember.

November cautiously eyed the little brown cardboard box in her hands, and slowly opened the top two flaps to reveal her present. She gasped and reached in the little box once she got a glimpse of what lay in it.

It was a little pale blue glass ball with pastel green continents painted intricately on it. It was just clear enough to stain the image on the other side of the glass sphere green and blue when you looked through it. Microscopic air bubbles blown into the glass made it look like the swells and currents of the oceans that the tiny globe portrayed. Swirls of different greens made the continents look alive with mountain ranges and deep valleys. November coudln't take her eyes off it for a second.

"You always said that you wanted to be able to see the world." Rob said wisely, setting down his coffee, "So we are giving you the world to see."

Yvonne handed little November an envelope. Reluctantly, November tore her eyes away from the palm-sized glass earth in her lap and opened the white envelope. Being only eight years old, she didn't understand exactly what the little piece of paper was, since she didn't know anything about Savings Bonds.

November just said thank you to her parents who laughed warmly at her confusion. Yvonne snuggled close to her husband Rob as they watched their little girl open the rest of her presents consisting of a new notebooks, a new dress, an atlas, and a copy of the book Charlotte's Web.

It was a perfect Christmas morning. The fire glowing in the fire place, the tree sitting happily in the corner, and the stockings satisfied with their spot on the mantle as the little lights strung across the walls flickered on and off festively. November in her winter night dress, was wrapped cozily in a fleece sweater while Yvonne and Rob shared a blanket on the couch. The room smelled of coffee and the air was lazy and comfortable as the Kendra family sat together to share the famous holiday.

Unfortunately, that was the last Christmas holiday they spent together.

~

The same morning went down quite different over at the Quinn's house. The house was filled with a tense and rushed aura.

Lauren and Marcus Quinn were running around the house frantically grabbing presents and getting ready for a Christmas party they were late for. The Quinn's youngest child and only son Cole Quinn was sitting patiently in the car as his parents tossed things randomly in the car while his two sisters yelled at each other.

"Rebekah! Shut up! You can't just go around claiming that you I cheated on my boyfriend!" Tiffany yelled. Rebekah pointed an accusing finger at Tiffany and then shoved it to her lips to signal her to be quiet. Rebekah huffed and crossed her arms while turning to the window.

Cole sat silent between the two as waited until Lauren and Marcus climbed into the front seats and drove away from their large house, and headed toward Aunt Florine's little cabin across town.