Lochby

Chapter 2: New Discoveries

Day One: June 24th

The sound of roosters filled the bedroom of Gina Hatfield. She reached for her phone as the noise slowly began to blare. Half awake, she pushed the snooze button for the fifth time, without thinking that pressing snooze would only make her more tired. She barely slept the night before. The little girl that was injured from the hit-and-run stormed through her mind. To put it at ease, she went searching for a way to calm her stress: chocolate.

That night, she shuffled in the dark to go eat brownies. These weren't ordinary brownies to Gina. They were her favorite: supreme fudge. These brownies created a spark in her eyes bigger than when Thomas Fletcher asked her out in the seventh grade. As she made her way to the kitchen, she imagined the crackly top breaking as she would sink her teeth into it. The exposed inner part of the brownie would travel up to her nose to bring an aroma of sweetness. Crumbs would fall into her hand that would be inches below to catch the rich fudge, as if being given a second chance at happiness.

When she reached the kitchen, she uncovered the foil that encased the pan of brownies. They were uncut. A trick that Gina usually did was cut the brownies into tiny portions, so she could get away with eating more at once. She thought about grabbing a ruler to measure the pieces evenly before cutting, but she didn't want to wait any longer.

Her mother, Lori, had made them earlier in the day. Although they weren't homemade, a lot of effort was still put into it due to the little time Lori had in her spare time. She told Gina she had to wait until the next day to eat them in hopes of making the brownies last longer and prevent Gina from eating them while Lori was asleep. Gina looked at the time that was displayed on the oven. It was a few minutes late, but it still plastered a smile on her face: 2:18 a.m. She slowly opened the drawer of silverware to not wake her mother. A butter knife would not give her the satisfaction of clean cuts, so she chose a sharp knife and began to cut the brownies.

She laid in her bed with her eyes closed but not quite asleep. Instead of getting the silence she desperately needed because of her midnight rendezvous, her mother called for her.

"Yes?" Gina asked with her eyes still closed.

There was no response. Gina took a deep breath and harnessed all of her power into letting out a loud boom that her mother would surely hear.

"Yes!"

There was no response. She was forced to leave her comfortable bed to find out what her mother wanted.

After pulling the covers back, she slid into her worn out bunny slippers and was on her way out. The room that was silent became a rooster's perch at sunrise as the alarm went off. Gina rushed to silence her phone and went looking for her mother.

On the way to the living room, she was stopped by her mother, Lori. She made herself known that she was in the kitchen.

"What do you think is wrong with this picture?" Lori questioned as she pointed to the brownies.

"Are the pieces too small?"

"Well, yes, they are, but half of the brownies are gone. I made these yesterday, Gina. I thought I told you to wait until today?"

Gina glanced at the pan of brownies. Originally, she had cut it into sixty-four pieces, or eight rows and eight columns. There was a total of forty remaining in the pan. She had only eaten the ones in the middle and created perfect symmetry with the rest.

"I only ate twenty-four of them. There are still a lot more left. Besides, I ate them at two in the morning, so it was technically the next day," Gina responded with a smile on her face.

They both sat at the table to eat cereal. Lori turned on the television to watch the news. A reporter claimed that it was going to be a bright and sunny day.