Burn

Chapter One

    Dad always said everything would be fine. He had this belief that everything happened for a reason carved into his mind. I never doubted him until the day our house lit up in flames and all I could do was watch in horror as my world slowly died. 

   "Do something!" Audrey, my younger sister yelled in a panicked state, but all I could do was stick there, doing nothing, watching my father slowly die.   

   My older sister, Ashley pulled out her phone and dialed 911, while I was frozen, even though we were so close to the flames. 

   That's when my life got severely out of hand. I was forced to leave my fallen apart home, in the suburbs of Washington DC to the wonderful state of West Virginia to live with my  Uncle that I'd never met. 

  My uncle, Alexander John Anderson, the man I was named after, my name being Alexandria Jane Anderson, our names were almost exactly alike, of course I was given the feminine version of his name, the city in Egypt named after Alexander the Great. Not Alexandra because my parents thought that they needed to apply at least some creative thinking. Not the best idea on their part, because 99.999999% of the time people call me Alex.

   What I didn't expect was that I'd be living with 5 new cousins that I'd never heard of. 

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   "Alex hurry up!" Ashley shouted from outside the car. I'd reached the state of almost sleeping and I wasn't too happy to be interrupted. I grabbed my suitcase full of my belongings from my half used eyeliner sticks to my thousands of photographs all shoved into my purple folder. As I watched Ash open the door I was immediately greeted by a half naked teenage boy wearing the least fashionable shorts I'd ever seen in my entire 13 years of living. 

   "Who the fuck are you?" Ashley asked him. We expected a middle aged balding man, not whatever this is. 

   "Who the fuck are you?" He asked her back, I took a minute to observe him, he was around 6'2ish and he had blonde hair that clearly had way too much product in it. 

   "Hey don't curse around the kid." Ashley said, putting my hands over Audrey's ears. 

   "I'm eleven, not five." She complained, shoving my hands away. 

   "Same difference." I said. 

   "No, 'cause seriously who the fuck are you guys?" The guy asked, running his hand through his hair, grinning. Oh shit, was he trying to impress us???

   "Your mom." Ashley said, with a smirk on her face. Recently she'd been saying it constantly, thinking it was the funniest thing in the world. Typical of her. 

   "She's dead." He replied with a solemn expression displayed on his disproportional facial features.

   "Omg! Samesies!" Ash replied, with an overly dramatic voice. 

   "Hey! What's going on down there?" I heard a deep voice yell accompanied by what seemed like an unnecessary amount of shuffling. 

   "Oh hi, you must be uh... Audrey?" The man from earlier said. He was a balding middle aged man, dressed like he was a middle school boy. He was in perfect uniform, the dark blue hoodie and the neon yellow highlighter shorts, and the jordans. Perfect. 

   "Ashley." She replied. 

    "Who are they??" The boy asked, very confused. 

   "Braden, these are your cousins, Ashley, Audrey, and Alexandria. Also I thought you were sick today? Why are you answering the door and giving everyone who sees you your illness?" He said scolding the boy who I now knew as Braden, and now knew as my cousin. 

   "It's actually Alex." I muttered, as our Uncle and cousin took us through the hallway. 

   "Huh?" Braden asked. 

   "I'm Alexandria, I go by Alex." I spoke a bit louder. 

   "Oh uh, ok." Our uncle said. 

   I'd tell you how the place looked but I get annoyed when authors give too much detail, like I really don't care that their kitchen had a glass ceiling. 

   "I suppose we better do some introductions," Our uncle said. "I'm your Uncle Xander, I'm 47, uh... I'm a fourth grade teacher at Bright Scholars academy." 

    Uncle Xander nudged Braden's shoulder and he unhappily Obliged. "I'm Braden, I'm sixteen so I'm gonna be a sophmore this fall, uh...." 

   "I'm Ashley, I'm sixteen." 

   "Alex, thirteen." 

   "I'm Audrey and my favorite color is red, and I really like dogs, do you guys have a dog? Oh and I'm eleven but basically twelve because I'll be twelve on September 16, also I like art and-"

   "Braden, how about you show them to their rooms." Uncle Xander requested, with a very obvious fake smile on his face. 

   "I'm sick." He replied, adding a cough for dramatic effect. 

   "We all know you were lying, you just didn't want to go to work today, now get your ass upstairs and be helpful for once in your life." Uncle Xander said. "I have to be at work in a few, I'm leaving." 

   I watched as Braden grabbed our suitcases and took them upstairs. 

  "I didn't know we had any cousins." Audrey said. She loved to comment at inappropriate times, but that's what made her Audrey. 

   "Yeah, but I guess one more kid in the house won't be too bad." Ashley said. 

    I could hear Braden's laughter as he walked up the stairs. "One? Did Xander not tell you? I have four brothers. You don't have one cousin, you have five. "

   Well, there goes all my summer plans. 

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Thank you guys for reading! 

Thoughts on Braden? 

- Artemis <3