Zebra Stripes

Chapter 1

Spiders. Also known as Arachnids.
You know how they are, crawling up your walls, surprising you by that slight movement out of the corner of your eye.
Then you freak out and run as far away from it as possible.
Not me. I have a special cup for just this sort of thing.
Yes, I said special cup.

I call it the Spidey Cup.
It is basically just an old styrofoam cup, the whitewash color of the cup has long since been dirtied and the cup now resembles a musty piece of cardboard.
I use this cup to scoop up the spiders I find and put them outside. I mean why not?
They are probably just poor helpless creatures that just need a ride home.
Or they are vicious, blood-thirsty, monsters that want to eat your brains out.
Just depends on the type of person you are I guess.

Anyways, I was doing my summer reading for school. I am going to be a Junior next year and we were assigned the book "Lord of the Flies".
It is an interesting book in my opinion.
But most of my other classmates do not feel the same about the book, like my best friend Janey who is currently reading the book aloud to me in my bedroom.
We each take turns reading a page and it is currently Janey's turn.
I never told her but I had already read the book cover to cover.
Four times.

That is when I saw the spider.
It crawled across my floor and I watched it struggle through my thin grey carpet.
I wonder if it has a family.
A family that it works hard everyday to provide for.
I wonder if- "Merrily!" Janey interrupted my thought.
"Hello? Earth to Merrily!"
I met her intense gaze and we had a brief moment of silence.
My grey eyes pierced through her light blue eyes like fire and it seemed like the silence would never end.
Then we both cracked up laughing.

"Why is this so funny?" Janey giggled as her book fell from her lap to the floor.
"Because we are dorks." I responded in a very serious tone.
I tried to keep the cool but eventually a smirk began to spread across my lips and I threw back my autumn red hair and laughed as I felt my curls hit the middle of my back.
Then I looked in the mirror across the room from where I was sitting.
I have been told by people that I have a "cute figure" but I am 16 years old and 5 foot 4.
Yes I have a "cute figure", if you mean munchkin cute.
Blech.

Janey on the other hand, is 5 foot 7, and also 16 years old. She has straight dirty blonde hair that barely reaches the end of her shoulder blades.
Lucky Duck!
Janey and I have been best friends since birth.
We were born on the same day.
In the same hospital. One room away from each other.
And we now live right across the street from each other.
So literally, we have been friends since birth.

The only difference is, my mother had to be transferred to the ICU after I was born.
Something went wrong with my birth.
She died two days later.
We don't know why she died because the doctors kept quiet on the subject.
Only my dad knew.
But he committed suicide when I was two.

So now I live with my father's mother.
Or my grandmother I suppose.
But I call her Gram.
Her husband died many years before I was born.
A lot of dead people in my life huh?
I agree.

I don't have any family on my mom's side, but I do have an aunt Janet on my dad's!
She is this awesome amazing person who lives about five minutes away.
She lives in a cute little blue house that resembles a doll house.
Her husband, my uncle Todd, is in the Navy. So he is not around much.
But when he is around, he is pretty cool. He always makes my Aunt Janet super happy.
And she deserves to be happy.

As if on cue, I hear a loud knock at my door.
"Yoo hooo!" My aunt shouted as she opens my door.
"Hey Aunt Janet!" I replied.
"Hi Mrs.Benton!" Janey yelled in the same energetic manner as my aunt.
"Now Jane! I told you that you may call me Janet ya hear?" Janet replied.
"Yes ma'am!" Jane replied sarcastically.