Eeeny, meeny, mercy, die

Chapter 1

Aria was always the brilliant one, brilliant mind, brilliant looks and brilliant character, then there was me, the average one. I had an average mind, average looks and average character, every bit of me was average except my computing skills but I just wanted an average life.

Aria outshone me in every way, the teachers rabbled on about her confidence and intelligence in primary but they had little words about me because I spoke little words myself, I let Aria do the talking, she had it all planned out for me. We were both going to be these amazing scientists and discover why we exist, if god exists and if ghosts exist and the whole world was going to thank us. I just wanted to live in a happy home with a happy family but I went along with it to please her.

We'd been best friends since forever, she took me in off the playground floor when the 'big boys' hurt my feelings and been kind to me since then. We both went to the same uni, a relatively good one called Plymouth University. Aria could have done better but her parents couldn't afford Oxford whilst my parents could afford it but I only just scraped getting into Plymouth with my straight c's, they weren't so proud of those results.

After Uni we decided we wanted to live together at least for now as she wasn't into boys still and I couldn't get them. It was torturous looking round all the flats but she was determined to find 'the one'. We travelled from house to house for months looking at torn down flats and damp ridden studios that stank of alchohol and teenagers.
The last little house we looked at on Friday 13th August 1999 took us both away for only £200 pounds a month as well.

We walked in to the always welcoming smell of damp and moss slightly masked by colossal amounts of fabreeze. Large medieval pillars towered above us engraved precisely with a careful hand and a carving knife. The floor boards creaked dramatically as we walked in but they were beautifully stained and had an authentic wood pattern.

The place looked like a palace with its Victorian features. The bedroom floors were covered with old style red castle rugs and the walls with huge fairytale mirrors. The highly polished marble stairs led into a breathtaking white spiral staircase. The dining room/ kitchen was the most astonishing though, with its crystal chandelier and beautiful hand carved walls with symbols from ancient times. It all seemed to much.

The estate agent explained that it was so cheap because the last owners had died in the house and he was obliged to tell us this, probably just ill or something. He continued to show us round the mansion explaining about half the house being 600 years old and the rest Victorian, it used to be an old age orphanage but was converted into a house and storage back in the 18th century.

Aria whispered in my ear "This is the one." I nodded in agreement. "We'll take it!" she spoke with a smile as wide as the floor and somehow two weeks later we were signing the papers to move into our first home, just Clover and Aria in the big wide world.