Chapter 1
As I walked to the window I could see a dark, shadowy figure looming under the shady, green willow tree. I rubbed my eyes and tried to wake up some more. I must be still dreaming, I thought. For out there, in the middle of a hazy night was Mark, the boy from my math class. But that couldn’t be, Mark was still in critical condition at the hospital for the serious wounds he got from the car crash.
I walked over to the door and opened it to the freezing cold night. Despite that I was only in a t-shirt and shorts, I grab a flashlight and walk out into the cold. The frozen ground covered with snow crunched under my feet as I headed toward the old tree. The shadow was still there. But now, you could barely make it out. The shadow has moved back! Its afraid of me! I had to move quickly before the shadow gets away.
I sprinted toward the tree as fast as I could. Then all of a sudden, about halfway there, I fell and smacked the ground hard; losing my flashlight and landing with a loud THUD! I scrambled up and scanned the area trying to find the shadow, but it had run away when I had started running. DRAT!!! I lost it! Behind me I could hear rustling and I could see lights shooting out across the lawn from the house. “ELIZABETH ANN JINKONS!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE???????” My mom whispers angrily into the darkness.
Uh Oh. I’ve woken up The Beast. I turn around slowly to the woman. You can tell she has just woken up, with her long, soft, hot chocolate colored hair in a mess (which is usually kept neatly in a tight bun). Her robe slanted and not tied, but instead tightly wrapped around her body; and her bare feet, with the mild dark shade of red nail polish on her perfectly painted nails, tapping on the cold grass.
I put on the most innocent look I can and start walking toward her,
“I’m sorry mom, its just, I thought I saw something out here.”
As I walk closer I can tell she is mad.
“Oh, of course, you just saw something out here. I’m sure you ’re not going to a party or something “, though as she says this, a look of confusion crosses her face. I start to smirk when I realize she is just noticing my clothing, but stop and say,
“No mom, it’s a school night I wouldn’t go to a party tonight, or else I would be really tired tomorrow.”
“Like that’s stopped you before,” she murmurs.
That is true. Usually, I would sneak out and go to Samantha’s for some R-rated movies and popcorn. Or maybe even go to Raven’s and do something with ghosts. But tonight I was truly not going to sneak out. I was going to go to bed and get some sleep. I mean, I was really tired from all the parties, movie nights, and ghost thingies from the days before.
“Mom I was not going to a party as you can see,” I say while indicating what I had on, “and I really did see something out here.”
Mom sighed, “Honey, I’m sure you just saw a rabbit, or skunk, or something like that. Let’s just get inside before we freeze to death.”
I huffed out a breath that we both could see, as if to prove her point, and agreed.
We both walked inside our enormous house and I immediately began to feel warmer. I sank down into one of the kitchen chairs and laid my head on the table. “Want some cocoa?” my mom asks, “It’ll warm you up.”
“Sure. Why not,” I say sleepily with some grogginess. Man I’m really tired. How late is it?
The water had just finished boiling when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I looked up and saw my big sister in her purple house robe, purple slippers, and purple pajamas. My sister takes after our dad and has gorgeous blond hair that comes down to about mid-back. She has dads green eyes to. They have light green in the center and get darker as they go out. Her perfectly tan skin is blemish free. (though she uses no products or ointments)
“Mom? What are you and Elizabeth doing down here at one-fifteen in the morning?” she says dazedly.
Huh, so that’s what time it is. No wonder I’m so tired. Mom looks up from stirring our cocoas to answer my sister.
“Elizabeth just thought she saw something and went to investigate. But she made a lot of noise when she fell, so I came down here,” Mom says and then yawns.
“Oh, okay,” yawns my sister, “Are you making hot chocolate?” Mom nods and motions Mary to join us as she grabs another reddish brown cup from the cabinet. Mary sits down across from me and begins to fiddle with her robe. As mom hands us our scorching hot cups we pass around the marshmallows, making sure we each get three.
“So,” my sister yawns, “what did you see?”
“Oh,” I look up surprised she asked, “Just a shadow.”
“That’s it?” she asks, still not satisfied.
“Yeah. Why? Are you happy with what I saw?” I say, getting annoyed now. She takes a sip of her hot chocolate.
“No, I was just wondering. Sheesh, a little snippy there aren’t you.”
“Well, if I’m so snippy, I’ll just take my cocoa and leave,” I shout.
I push back from the table and storm out of the kitchen. I rush up the stairs, but at the top dad is there and by the look on his face you can tell he has lots of questions.
“Not now Dad, I’m tired.”
He nodded and stepped to the side to let me through. I dashed past him and rushed to my room. I slammed the door and collapsed on my bed. I was out before my head hit the pillow.
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i hope this is good so far. this is my first story on wattpad. hope you like it!
AJ
