You're Not Alone. {Book 1}

The big gate crash.

chapter one                                                              

It was a lazy Sunday morning in the picturesque town of Austere Ville. The lanes and shops were isolated as everyone in town was still huddled up in bed, except for a few like the Romero’s. Dressed in her denim jumpsuit,   Francesca sat glued to the television in the living room. Munching on her favourite potato chips for breakfast, she watched the repeat telecast of the wrestling match that she loved so much. Taking the last chip in hand, she shoved it in her side pocket, saving it for possible emergencies, like starving to death while going shopping with Gia.

"Frisca, you aren't starting your day with a healthy breakfast," Tori lectured her from across the dining table, in the kitchen behind her.

He continued, "According to a survey, your cholesterol level increases and damages the heart..."

"Oh Mr-Know-It-All, will you please give it a rest," she replied from the couch, and increased the volume of the television. “I’m trying to concentrate on the match! So be quiet,” she warned him and stared at the screen.

"That’s what I call a dumbass show, It’s all scripted, the whole thing is a big lie you’re watching" Tori complained and began getting on her nerves again.

"Says who?" she made a face

"Says I." He wrinkled his nose and switched of the television with the remote control. Frisca shrieked and turned around to give him a nasty stare. Seeing him stick his tongue out to tease her, she sprung off the couch to attack him. “Give me that!” She demanded when suddenly their mother, Sophie Romero came in the middle.

"That’s enough! Both of you behave like other normal siblings for Christ sake," Sophie, their referee interrupted and stopped the two before they could get their hands on each other.

"And Tori stop bugging your sister all the time," she frowned at him as she spread the grocery bags on the table.

“Eh! You heard the man of the house, didn’t you? Now hand over the remote control,” Frisca raised her brows sarcastically and smirked as he reluctantly pushed it across the table.

"You always take her side, I wish I wasn’t born in this house," he murmured and started peaking inside the bags for goodies.

"Well you aren't. You're adopted, didn’t you tell him mom?," she commented and looked in his direction.

"I hate you!!" Tori stormed out through the back door and climbed inside his tree house.

"Oh God! What is it with the two of you?" Sophie sighed as she sat down to arrange the bills.

Tori was Francesca’s kid brother or say Frisca’s as everyone liked to call her. For others he was her brother, but as she would like to put it, he was a virus, born especially to ruin her mental stability. According to her, his main intention was to annoy her with his plethora of bookish knowledge, thanks to his high IQ level that set him apart from other kids his age. Sophie however, was the typical concerned mother & peace maker in the family.  Ever since their father died in an air crash, Frisca had been shouldering the responsibilities with Sophie. She had seen her go through a lot in life. she was just eight back then when her mother was pregnant with Tori. Having turned seventeen recently, Frisca lived in their humble home with just Tori and their mother, Sophie.

"Frisca! Get ready dear, you promised to deliver the wedding cake at Ms Shaw’s house," Sophie reminded her.

"What! Today?!" Frisca cried and frowned. “But her house is so far, I know you don’t have the heart to send me all the way up that hill?” she protested and fluttered her eye lashes. The Romero’s lived in a small town called Austere Ville, which wasn’t far away from the main city in Alabama. The hill where Ms. Shaw resided was part of the forest reserve that crossed their town.