RENEAOLE BLACK AND THE BLACK PHOENIX

Revealed

The summer holidays were coming to an end and all day long, little Surwhiskey Street welcomed back its home owners after their summer getaway. Twelve-year-old Reneaole lay in the back garden of Number 7 Surwhiskey Street staring into the clear starry night sky. The moon, like a distant floodlight, bathed the sleeping city of London with its magnificent rays giving it a soft silver glow, the leaves gently rustling against the quietly blowing wind.

"Reneaole! Renny? Where are you?" a soft voice called from the house. She heard it, she just chose to ignore it seeing as all she wanted was a little quiet time alone. It was her birthday and just like any other ordinary day, she decided it best to spend her evening all alone in their garden.

She stood up, looked around, and walked over to a bush below the kitchen window where she sat, her hands wrapped around her knees. Here, she knew, she would not be seen by anyone. She could still hear the calls of her mother, Penny and her sister, Trinity, as they looked for her in the house, clearly worried. She then heard her father, Michael, tell her mother and sister to stop worrying and that she, Reneaole, had gone to bed. The Amazon family had just finished dinner when she had excused herself claiming she was going to bed. It was then that she had sneaked out the back door.

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Reneaole was like any other girl her age, except for some two extraordinary features. Her waist-length platinum-blonde hair and eyes that had a luminous green hue were not the kind of things you would see very often. At first sight, she looked rather strange but another look, and she had a striking beauty.

She did not love the fact that she drew much attention, and so, as often a she possibly could, she avoided people. Other than her older sister and Ron, a boy who lived a little down the street at Number 12, she had no other friend. In her opinion, she did pretty well on her own and didn't need much company.

She spent a lot of time reading, studying birds and animals and learning new languages; she was actually beginning to perfect her French. She had a pet, a small ginger cat that she had named Griffin and the household pet was a green parrot, named Shrek by Trinity.

Reneaole often felt she could understand and communicate with the animals in an odd way, one she could neither explain nor understand. It was not the kind of communication where you would tell a dog to sit and it would do so or to roll over and it would obey, no, it was not that kind. It was the kind that she would jokingly ask Griffin if it wanted a bath and it would shake its head in disapproval or, again, jokingly, suggest to Shrek that a friend would be nice for company and it would nod. It was not a normal thing, but is she told either her mother, father or Trinity, none would believe a word she said.

All the time she had on her hands, since she had little to do, meant that whatever she put her mind to, would succeed. She was home-schooled because her mother had insisted on it and Trinity schooled in a nearby school, a walking distance from their home. Ron too was home-schooled, for reasons he had chosen not to disclose to Reneaole, at least, not just yet.

Reneaole didn't mind home-schooling, it greatly helped her reduce the amount of questions she had to answer about her appearance. Trinity was not bothered by the fact that she went to school while her sister stayed home, it was actually enjoyable not having someone to follow her around everywhere she went.

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Still lost in thoughts, Reneaole did not notice the front door of their house open. Her mother walked silently around the house looking for her and from a distance, spotted her beside the bush. She walked over to her trying not to be noticed but failed at this. Reneaole looked up at her mother and moved to create room for her to sit. Penny sat next to her and gazed up at the moonlit sky. She leaned over towards Reneaole and whispered, " Beautiful, aren't they? " Reneaole looked at her mother and murmured, " Yeah, right. "