Alaska

Chapter 1

Alaska Summers was fed up with life today. She had had the worst Thursday of all Thursdays, starting with the fact that when she was heading off to school, she found that she had no hot chocolate mix, and then she ripped her tights on the door of her dad's grey SUV. But from there, her day only got worse. Not only did she forget her lunch money, but she also forgot she had a math test, too. By the time she got in the car when her mom picked her up, she was so done with the day that she didn't even care that her mom was playing the radio station that always ever seemed to play Bon Jovi.

"How was your day, honey?" Her mom always asked her this question, though Alaska was never sure if she actually cared.

"Fine. " She replied, Let's just keep this short.

"I want you to know that your beloved pet snakes are going to have to go."

"What? Why?" Nononononono... This day can't get any worse. Alaska had had a fascination with snakes ever since she was younger, and had created quite the collection since then. She kept them all in her room since her mother couldn't stand the sight of them. Her mom would always blame her lack of friends on her large collection of reptiles.

"Well, here we go... We are moving to Alaska."

"Wait, what? Like, us? As in our family? And what the hell does this have to do with my snakes?"

"Hon, there is no way that we are shipping your snakes across the country. I'm sorry, but it's just not happening."

Alaska was overwhelmed with confusion and surprise, "Wait a sec here Mom. Why the hell are we moving to freaking Narnia, again? Could you bother explaining that to me?"

"Well, since your father and I have split, I've been experiencing an overwhelming feeling of wanderlust, you know what I mean?"

No, Mom, I am failing to understand your feelings because they are COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL.

Alaska grunted in response. No way was she even going to try to understand her mother right now. She had a perfectly stable job, a great house, and a great circle of friends. How could she possibly want to leave?

"Mom, I just need some time to process this, it's a lot to take in."

"Well, you'd better process it quickly, because we're leaving as soon as school gets out." Her mom looked at her with a smug grin, flashing her perfectly straight teeth.

"Mom! School gets out in three weeks! Are you crazy?!"

"Nope, just bought the tickets last night, it's gonna be such a magical experience. We're gonna stay with my friend Martha until we find a place to live. Remember her? She's the one who's husband decided he wanted to become a freelance basket weaver and left the family.... She has kids around your age I think."

What the actual hell. We are living with the basket lady. This day is officially awful.

When the finally pulled up to the house, Alaska hopped out of the car and went straight to her room, not even bothering to get her backpack. She ran up the stairs and looked at her reflection in the mirror as she walked into her room. She looked rough. Her tights were ripped, her hair was a mess, and she just then realized that she had forgotten to put on makeup that morning.

Could this day get any worse?, she thought to herself. Just as she thought those words, she heard her mom yell from downstairs, " Hey Alaska, I just got a call from some freaky tarot lady, she wants to buy your snakes! She's coming tomorrow!"

In response, Alaska plopped down on her bed, and promptly fell asleep.

Three Weeks Later

Alaska stood in front of her new "house", if you could even justifiably call it that. It looked more like a bunch of different houses built on top of, and next to, each other, somehow connected by several hallways, with windows for walls.

What the actual hell is this building? Alaska thought, refusing to call it a house, or even anything homey. Building sounded vague enough to be appropriate. Just as she thought that, a greasy lady wearing no bra, a once-green t-shirt, and wearing the dirtiest jeans Alaska had ever seen flew out of the front door, and skipped barefoot through the mud towards Alaska and her mother.

"Barb! It's been ages!" Martha gave Alaska's mother a huge hug, and her mother seems to be unconcerned about this lady's hygiene, which surprised Alaska.

The lady turned to Alaska," And you must be her daughter that I've heard so much about, Amanda!" She squished Alaska in a huge hug as well. She didn't smell as bad as Alaska had anticipated.

"It's Alaska. My name is Alaska.", Alaska said, slightly annoyed.

"Oh, deary, my bad... Well let's not just stand out here in the mud, come on in! I'm so happy you'll be staying with us!"

They walked inside, and the inside of The Building looked just like the outside- mismatched and unorganized. There were walls of many different colors -orange, green, blue, even a black wall- and the furniture seemed to range from one material to the other,as though someone had put them together by hand. One good thing, Alaska noticed, was that Martha seemed to be cooking something.

"What's that smell? It's delicious!" said her mom, who had made herself right at home already, as though she had lived here for years. This surprised Alaska as well, because her mom had always been very prim and proper when it came to manners.

"Oh that's just Finnigan making some dinner, he's the cook in the family." Martha said, attempting to make the table look nice, but she was really just making a bigger clutter, scattering various knitting magazines onto other tables and counters.

Alaska, who had looked at the time for the first time since they had gotten off the plane, realized that it was almost 1 a.m., she had forgotten Alaska doesn't get dark at night in the summer. She suddenly felt extremely tired.

"If it's okay, Martha, I think I'll just go to bed, I'm really tired."

"Oh of course hon, follow me." Martha the proceeded to kick the various magazines she had tossed off the table out of the way, as she led Alaska through a winding staircase into a secluded tower-like, large, circular room, with one giant window that had a beautiful view of the forest surrounding them, along with the mountains, and below her was an extremely old, rotting tree house that must have been there for decades.

"The boys helped me pick your room out for ya. They figured you'd like this one... it just has the best view, doesn't it?"

Alaska was breathless from the view, and quite frankly, the rest of the room. She had a queen sized bed, surrounded by tapestries that must have been much older than Martha. The ceiling was rounded, like a dome, and Alaska realized that this had been the weird top tower that she had seen when they had first pulled up. She then noticed the ancient looking writing desk in the corner, which, if she had seen that right, looked to be growing moss on it. Alaska turned to Martha, who was distracted with catching a mosquito that was buzzing around her.

"Thank you Martha, this is a wonderful room." And she meant it, too.

" No problem, hon. This room has always been my personal favorite. Sleep tight!" Martha left the room, closing the door behind her. As she did so, Alaska realized that there was a fist-sized hole smack in the middle of the door.

Alaska is a weird place, she thought as she was drifting to sleep, not even bothering to unpack and change into her pajamas.