The Monster and the Stones

Three

          The new house is located in a different town about two hours away. From what Alex has heard, it is much different from her nice little town she was used to. As the family SUV gets off the highway and cruised through the small town, Alex notices many differences. The town is just a bit smaller, at least the part their new home was in. The downtown area consists of many smaller buildings. A few are empty and for sale, others are old-fashioned. Still, with the small amount of attractions, there were many people in the street, conversing and connecting outside the few shops.

"This is a much smaller town, all the people here know each other," Alex's father smiles. Michael sits up for a second, almost seeming excited for those few moments, but the emotionless teen sits back, shifting his attention back to his phone.

Alex looks out the window uncertainly. She knows her father's words didn't pertain to her; her own family didn't even know her. She decides to ignore his whole spiel of encouraging his family and focus her attention on the town.

She notices that behind the few blocks of bright shops, a chain-link fence separates the different parts of town. Between the alleys, the darkness made an easy transition to the dirty and abandoned streets behind the main street. Nothing lays back there, the most you can see are boarded up windows, trash laying in the streets, and graffiti on the walls of the different buildings. Alex is curious of what else lies beyond those fences.

Finally they pull up to their new house. Alex isn't surprised that it is smaller than their first one... Cassidy doesn't work a very high paying job. It is a one-story ranch house with a disconnected garage and small back yard. Now that she thinks about it, Alex isn't sure if they actually have a room for her or if she will be sleeping in the tiny garage.

Before they open the trunk and start grabbing boxes, Alex's father hurries everyone inside to show them around. Alex trails behind, just taking everything in herself.

The entryway is very cramped, there are two empty rooms on the left and right, just beyond a closet and bathroom sits a kitchen. It is pretty spacious compared to the first few rooms, a place for Cassidy to make her sub-par meals.

"Alex," her father calls towards her. She turns around swiftly, surprised her father knew she was there. He opened a door and gestured down. "I will show you your new room."

"In the basement, not surprising", Alex thought to herself. She walked down the janky wooden stairs to a slightly finished basement. While the stairs were still their original wood, the flooring was made of cheap plastic wood tiling, the walls painted a light red, almost a pastel, one of Alex's favorite colors. There was one larger open area and then another room on the other side of the stairs.

Alex's father opens the door for her and leads her inside. There is only one source of lighting; one windowsill that opens up from the backyard. Alex is sure going to miss looking at the night sky from her bed. Despite the one window with a bad view, the room is still very similar in size to her old room. There is a small closet on the other end with no doors, but it has nice shelves inside. Alex doesn't want to admit it, but she likes it. Plus, it is separate from the rest of her family.

Alex turns around and notices she is now alone, her father has left her to show the others the rest of the house, but this doesn't bother Alex. She closes the door. It shuts quietly; that could be useful for sneaking around. She takes a deep breath, the room smells old, but she doesn't have a problem with that, Alex likes old antiques, she wishes she was born in the 80s. Still, if the smell is a problem then she can easily change it with an air freshener.

She thinks for a second, her mind wandering. This doesn't happen very recently. She thinks back to the chain that she has secretly hidden in her bag that her dad forbade her to retrieve. She turns back towards the door, listening for him, but he is not in the basement anymore.

She takes off her backpack and unzips a small pocket, pulling out the purple crystal on the necklace. She inspects it carefully, it shimmers in the light from the window, Alex has never seen anything like it. She remembers her mother wearing it all the time. It glows brilliantly in the sunlight, almost in an unnatural way. She wonders what the stone is made out of. She throws the chain over her head and hides the stone beneath the collar of her shirt, making it unnoticeable and hidden.

After a few days of unpacking and unloading furniture from trucks, their house was starting to feel more like home. Alex likes her room being in the basement for many reasons. Aside from the fact that she has an awful view, she enjoys being separate from the rest of her toxic family, and she is pretty sure they like it too. The summer started off smoothly, until Alex's father presented some unfortunate news.

"Summer school!" Alex nearly chokes on her cereal. "Why do I need to go to summer school?"

Her father stands at the fridge, unloading groceries inside neatly. "You are going to be a senior this year, however your grades are below standard for Northbrook high. I already talked to the advisors there and they explained to me that if you take one summer course it should bump up your GPA enough to be caught up with your class..." He pauses his duties unloading groceries to reach behind him for a packet and sets it on the table in front of Alex. "It may also give you some extra room to take classes you want next year," He adds.

Alex looks from the packet up to her father. She could take more classes next year, no problem, however she knew that it probably wasn't best to argue with her father. Besides, summer school could get her out of the house and away from her family. Alex flips through the packet briefly. "When do I start?" She asks.

"There's a social studies session that starts next week, I already have you signed up for it." He closes the fridge door and throws out some old salsa into the bin behind him. "It might be a good way for you to make friends, as well." He adds. Alex sighs. It isn't the part about making friends that bothers her, she just hates history.