Abnormal

Chapter 2- Adalia

A soft, early-morning glow shone through the kitchen window, a symbol that the storm had finally ended. I smiled at it and turned back to the Earthen-esk waffle which was slowly browning inside our brand new waffle maker. I willed it to hurry up, the skies were clear and I was anxious to get out of the house.

I heard a groan, then a thump from down the hall. I rolled my eyes at my brother's lazy manner then quickly flung open the drawer for the roll of cling wrap, ripping a square off and expertly wrapping it over the bowl of leftover waffle batter. I wanted to save it for tomorrow, and I knew that would never happen if Mat found out it existed. Besides, he would only ever could for himself if I refused to cook for him.

I shoved the metal bowl into the back of the ice box just as my brother appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. I shut the ice box and returned to check my waffle, knowing he would suspect nothing as his eyes were still adjusting to the light. My breakfast was finally cooked, and I easily peeled it off the waffle machine and flipped it onto a plate.

"Mornin' Mat finally said. I looked up at him, his bright green eyes glazed with sleep and his dark hair ruffled and going every which way. I couldn't help but smile, however annoying and lazy he might be sometimes, he was still my brother.

"The storm is finally over," I commented, pulling out a chair at the table to sit down and eat. Mat stared blankly at me for a second, then his head suddenly shot up.

"Right!" he exclaimed and hurried down the hall. I knew what he was up to. He and Fabian were most likely planning something horrific to do in the Emmerson's backyard, or maybe ours. It would be alright, that is providing I was able to keep out of their way. Fabian was a very attractive, strange person and sometimes kind of frightening. His ice blue eyes held a dangerous and mischievous glint which was seen with some of the 'ingenious' ideas he came up with that could be slightly dangerous.

I shoved the last bite of waffle into my mouth and rinsed off my plate before sliding it into the sink. I turned around just in time to see Mat and Fabian burst through the door. Mat must have used the back door and then taken the shortcut to Fabian's house. The boys had obviously decided that whatever 'fun' they planned on having would be at our house.

"Hey Adalia!" Fabian greeted, smiling. I stared back at him blankly. It wasn't that I didn't like him, I just wasn't particularly pleased at having him over and he seemed to be up to something. He shrugged and followed Mat down the hall to his room. 

I rolled my eyes and headed down the hall to my room. I looked around for something to do and my eyes settled on the open book laying on my bedside table. I was an avid reader and loved to escape into different worlds as I turned the pages and absorbed the story. Mat thought reading books was stupid, but he would read manuals from Earth on different machines and how they worked. His favorite things to investigate and figure out how they worked were bombs, fireworks, and well really anything that blows up in one way or another. 

I couldn't get absorbed into Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility like I normally could as my mind was just so focused on our upcoming trip to Earth. 

An idea suddenly struck me: I had learned a lot about Earth from my history textbooks, but I could totally learn more and therefore be even more prepared. Shutting the book and laying it on my bedside table, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and shoved my feet into my vans and headed out the door to the library. Taking the shortcut, I left the house through the backdoor, even though it was likely the boys would be out there disrupting whatever calm was left in our neighborhood.

I quietly shut the door and looked out into our yard; yep, I was right. There was Mat and Fabian with Fabian's turtle, Sebastian set gently on top of a liter sized soda bottle. It was obvious what they were planning to do: soda bottle geyser with a turtle on top. Ingenious. I rolled my eyes and took an instinctive step backwards, hitting the glass door.

"Are you planning on killing your turtle?" I inquired, shocked that they would kill their beloved pets.

"Of course not," Fabian grinned. "He's got a parachute," he explained, ponting out the small, white backpack made of plastic that was strapped to Sebastian's shell.

"Oh, of course. Silly me," I replied sarcastically, "I forgot that turtles have the ability to activate parachutes on their own. Totally slipped my mind," I sneered.

Mar burst into laughter. "Oh Addi," he tutted, shaking his head. "We know what we are doing. We've got a remote control which we can use to activate the parachute for Sebastian. He'll be safe," he reassured. 

"Uh, huh" I nodded slowly, totally unbelieving, "and pigs can fly," I replied. "Not yet, but turtles can" Fabian responded with a chuckle.

"Uhg, fine! I'm leaving you nut heads to your turtle executions" I said, taking off around the edge of the yard to the library.

I jogged across the yard, leaving the boys to their reckless experiments. I skirted around a neighbor's backyard and dashed across the cul de sac on Halley Lane where the Emmersons lived, to the main road. Across the street at a diagonal was the library. I jogged across the red dust-covered road, entering the library with my usual wind-blown hair and infinite energy as I flung open the heavy door.

"Good morning Mrs. Alton!" I greeted the librarian. Looking up from the book she was reading, she smiled and then quickly frowned when she saw that I had left the door wide open, letting a ton of dust into the library.

"Good morning Adalia, now may you kindly shut the door so the books are not ruined by the dust you welcomed in here?" Mrs Alton sighed.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry!" I grinned impishly, while quickly running to shut the door. After shutting the door, I looked around the small library which was basically the same size of my bedroom. It contained a small desk which Mrs. Alton sat at, and a handful of bookshelves which housed about 150 books. A lot of people think that is a lot of books, but compared to the 130 million books on Earth, it is an extremely paltry amount. I turned to the non-fiction section and grabbed all 5 books that we had about Earth, before carrying them to Mrs. Alton's desk to be checked out. 

"Do you know when the next shipment of books will come in?" I inquired of Mrs. Alton, hoping the answer would be soon. 

"Sadly not for another 3 months, at which point you will be halfway to Earth!" she exclaimed, inadvertently informing me that news of Mat's and I's impending trip to Earth had quickly been spread around the community. 

"Sweet! At least I will have some new books to come home too," I grunted, as I heaved the heavy pile of books back into my arms after Mrs. Alton had checked them all out and reminded me to be careful with them. 

***

"Adalia? Are you in there? I need to talk to you for a sec." I heard my mom's gentle voice calling. I placed the bookmark in the pages of the Modern Technologies of Earth book I had found at the library, and opened the door to my bedroom. "Yep," I replied. "Coming." 

"Your father just booked your flight. It's in three days time, which I know is really soon to plan everything, but you know how few flights there are between here and Earth, and the next one doesn't leave for another 6 months and I figured you wouldn't want to wait that long," she explained. 

"No, that sounds great!" I smiled at her. My mother was beautiful with long dark curls, bright green eyes and a gentle, caring persona to top it all off; I had always wanted to be just like her, but sadly Mat got Mom's dark hair and I was stuck with Dad's golden-blonde.

She hugged me and went off to find Mat, and most likely to send Fabian home so we could eat dinner and get started packing. I had no problem starting to pack right away, and I certainly had no problem with Fabian going home as he had been here all day, I thought as I dragged the giant, faded dark blue suitcase out from under by bed. The suitcase hadn't been used since my Gran-Gran traveled from Earth with the first people to settle on Mars. For a minute I gazed at the old suitcase and thought about our upcoming trip. It was going to be so awesome and the next three days going to be super busy, but I planned to enjoy each part of it.

A/N:
Sooo what do y'all think? Would any of you be like Adalia's great grandmother and go live on Mars?