Amy Flemming | After the Flames

9

The chirping birds, wake me up before I open my eyes. Valerie talked about going for some workout, the night before, her bed is empty which means that she most likely has left already.

I get showered before making my way downstairs for breakfast. Since I am a little bit late, the others have most likely already eaten which makes me the only one in the dining area. Since I am the one on chores, I clean up the table and the dishes and then make my to the library to do some reading. Suddenly, I remember something that my uncle told me before I came back to the school: "Before you go back, I want you to know that your dad, Suzy and I hid all of our stuff somewhere in the house. I want you to find it."...

My feet carry me to the current laundry room. "If you go to the back of the room, right underneath the window, you will find a hatch, if you pull on the hatch there is a big space that holds the box."

I look around and try to find the hatch. I replace the hampers and find the hatch underneat. I pull up the hatch and then try to pick up the box. Uncle John did tell me where it was but not that it was to heavy to pick it up. I need someone to help me carry it to a safe place. "Are you looking for some of your laundry?" I hear someone ask me. The voice makes me jump before I quickly turn around seeing Kate standing in the door opening. "Uhm. Yes. I-I was looking for my dress." I tell her going through the pile of clothing in the hamper as I carefully close the hatch with my other hand behind me. "Oh, the laundry is done in a few minutes. Maybe it will come out of the dryer." She tells me with a smile. "Okay, thank you." I say before standing up quickly and going downstairs. I can see that she looks at me with a suspicious look on her face before going to do something in her office. When I hear the door of her office closes, I head over to Ethan and Chester's room but see that neither of them are around. On their calendar, I see that they are having rehearsals with the band. I sigh before leaving their room.

I decide to take a walk outside and enter the forest to reach the park. After half an hour of walking, I hear my name being called. "Amy." I hear as I see Valerie and Mason run towards me. Together, we walk back to the house and then walk over to our bedroom. Valerie takes a long shower and then walks in to the bedroom. As she is doing her hair, I tell her about the box. Her eyes go wide. "We have to get that box out of there before Kate finds out about it." She exclaims. "That box has been their for a few decades, I noticed that nobody has opened that hatch since it was pretty hard to open and very dusty, she would have taken it out and replaced it if she would have found it." I tell her and she nods agreeing with me. "But we do need someone strong to take it out. I can not do that on my own." I tell her. "Mason has gone out to train in the gym, Chester and Ethan told me that they would be out until late. That leaves one person." She tells me. "Someone who knows about this whole thing..." She tells me. "Elijah."

We walk down the stairs and go towards the corridor which holds the boys bedrooms. We knock on the door of Elijah's bedroom before he opens the door for us and lets us in. He crosses his arms as he looks at us. "Let me guess, you need help to carry out the box from the compartment under the hatch in the laundry room?" He asks us as soon as he closes the door behind us. Valerie and I look at each other before looking back at him. "How do you know?" I ask him with a surprised look on my face. He steps aside, which reveals the box from the compartment on his desk. "I saw you trying to get the box out from under the hatch before being caught by Kate. Since I know how curious she can get, I took it out before she could remove it and placed it here." He explains. Valerie stares at him wide eyed when he finished talking.

"Were should we hide this, it is not that we can keep it in our rooms. Kate will find it." I mention and they nod. "Can't we hide it in the cottage?" I ask Valerie. "In that creepy house, I don't.." She begins to speak but I stop her. "Everything that is in that cottage hasn't been touched when we put things there. We will just have to think of a safe place." I tell and think of a location where it is safe to hide the things at. "Okay but what about the weight of that thing. Kate will notice it if you walk through the house with it." Valerie mentions. "I will think of something to distract Kate, you two take that box with you and I will be on the lookout."

Elijah and I are gone to the cabin as Valerie distracts Kate with some lame story about the one time that she tried to catch a chicken in a biology class.

We reach the cottage and decide to hide it in one of the cabinets against the wall. Somehow that is the only one that could be locked with a key so we lock the cabinet and take the key with us. I don't have the need to stay here much longer right now so we store the box with items away and leave the cabin.

When we have arrived home, it is time for dinner. Dinner is served and everybody begins to eat. There aren't that many conversations, the only ones are about the PE class upcoming week or the fashion course that Heather will be joining, but other than that there isn't much being said. Kate tries to start some conversation with some of us as we eat dinner. I am not hungry for some reason so pick into my potatoes with my fork as I listen to the talking people around me.

After dinner, we all go our separate ways. I notice that everybody goes to their own rooms. Valerie and I talk a bit before we decide to go to sleep on time.
You can notice that this first week has been pretty rough on some of us. Being in the school after such a traumatic experience has been hard and also in combination with the holiday ending. It has all been pretty tough but we survived the first week so I guess we will all be fine....