Nyx Eris

Chapter 1: The New Girl

Sun.

Another day of blasted sun.

Her aunt had said there was a forecast of rain on the horizon, but from what she could tell, the weatherman had been incorrect.

It was a pattern with American weathermen, she noticed.

It had certainly been a pattern that summer.

She wanted to return to London.

They had been happy in London.

Her parents hadn't fought in London.

"You're thinking about London again, aren't you?" asked her sister.

"We should have never moved to LA," she replied. "Mum and Dad would still be together if we hadn't left London."

"I like LA," said her sister. That wasn't a surprise, for Adrianna and Callie McKay rarely agreed on anything except about how much they disagreed on everything.

"I don't," said Adrianna. "Don't you miss our house? Our beds? Dad?"

"I like living with Aunt Val," said Callie. "She's cool and she said she would bring by McDonald's for lunch so I won't have to eat any of that cafeteria food Christy says is so yucky."

"We aren't going to stay living with her," said Adrianna, bunching her dark hair into a high ponytail with just a touch of spray for added effect. "You'll see. Mum and Dad will work it out."

"What's a horndog, Ade?" asked Callie.

"Sorry, what?" asked Adrianna.

"A horndog," Callie repeated, her braids bouncing in her hopscotch steps. "Sammy said he heard Uncle Brandon talking to Uncle Steve and Uncle Brandon called Daddy a horndog."

"I don't think you should be using language of such vulgarity, Cal," said Adrianna.

"Why not?" asked Callie. "Sammy does."

"And Aunt Kelly gets onto him, too," said Adrianna.

"Daddy does."

"When you're Dad's age, then you can be as vulgar as you'd like," said Adrianna.

"You sound like Mum, back before she hated Daddy."

"Mum does not hate Dad."

"She told Aunt Val she wishes she could hate Daddy."

"Wishing is not the same as doing, Callie. Mum doesn't hate Dad. And you shouldn't eavesdrop on people; it isn't nice. Now hurry up, or we'll be late to school."

Adrianna tentatively knocked on the door that led to the room her mother had been sharing with Valerie Malone since that fateful night in mid-July.

In sixteen years, she had never seen her parents fight once.

She had heard stories, largely from her grandfather prior to her mother's request that her grandfather no longer tell her such stories. She knew there had been a time before her when they had been separated for several years and that at one point, her cousin Sammy had undergone a paternity test to confirm his father was not Adrianna's father.

But all of that had been before her. Her parents weren't supposed to fight during her existence; certainly not to such a degree.

There may have been small arguments here and there, as in any marriage. If those arguments had existed, her parents had done well to keep them successfully underwraps from their children.

At least; they had, initially.

"Mum?" she asked. She kept her tone upbeat, hoping it would influence her mother's own. "I'm ready for school."