Innocence

Chapter 2

The dinner was absolutely horrendous.

Sunny thought that it would run smoothly, however when her dad forgot to drive to the market to buy ingredients, she knew that the night would be a rough one.

Staying in the house and getting comfortable was what she had intended to do whilst her father was out getting groceries, but her plans were futile as he called her out to help him.

"Why do I have to go? If I stay here then I can start unpacking and begin to make our house look presentable." she told him.

"Honey, we both know how clueless I am about these things so why don't we just have some father-daughter bonding time as well as buying food, hmm?"

Sunny rolled her eyes when her father wasn't looking. It was no secret how much of a klutz Mr. Kimberlin was when it came to domestic duties. Sunny basically looked after herself.

The market was a twenty minute drive, and the one and only route to the market wasn't even aesthetically pleasing. The dullness of the view made Sunny feel sick to the core. Why didn't her father get sent to a more, perhaps, exciting place, such as the beach? Well, of course she knew that wolves didn't live in tropic climates. They only existed in colder areas where it snowed, but even their new house was quite a trip away from civilization. Almost even two hours away from hot spots where people play in the snow for leisure.

The entire trip to the market was found to be quite annoying since Mr. Kimberlin couldn't purchase one thing without asking Sunny a dozen questions. Eventually, Sunny took over the shopping, and left the payment to her father.

Mr. Kimberlin would get so distracted by some cultural things as well. Not even five minutes in the market and he was already contemplating to purchase some wooden carving of a wolf.

"Dad, you have like a million wolf things," Sunny sighed with disdain. She gestured over to a random stall and said, "Why don't you buy half a kilo of potatoes from that stall?"

After buying all the ingredients for a typical dinner of steak, salad and mashed potatoes, the pair headed back home to quickly clean up the house and cook dinner. By the time the sun had set everything was done and Mr. Kimberlin sent Sunny to fetch Mr and Mrs Johnson and their kids.

Just as she'd anticipated, the Johnson's kids were an absolute nightmare. One thirteen-year-old outspoken little girl, and one ten-year-old boisterous boy. The three of them bickered the entire way down the long dirt road from the Johnson household to Sunny's house.

"Oliver!" Mrs Johnson called out, as the young boy leaped over the pointed, white picket fence surrounding the Kimberlin household. "Please be careful!"

Her attempt at keeping her son in line was futile as he disappeared behind the front door.

"Oh, Olivia, dear," Mrs Johnson said to her daughter, "Please make sure he hasn't utterly destroyed Mr Kimberlin's home."

"Ugh, fine..." she grumbled, before jogging after her brother.

Sunny and Mr and Mrs Johnson followed the two children, and found them to be all seated at the dining table with Mr Kimberlin. Sunny was mildly impressed that her father had managed to keep them under control for the time being. She fondly remembered times of her childhood when she would sneak into his office to read his notes on wolves and Mr Kimberlin would reprimand her, but all she did was laugh in his face and run away. Sunny was a difficult child before she finally hit puberty - then she realized that she couldn't get away with everything.

The Johnson kids' good behaviour was short-lived as Mr Kimberlin began talking about his work. The little boy, especially, was absolutely enamored by his stories of travelling across the world to discover more about wolves.

"Do werewolves exist!" Oliver asked.

Sunny held back the urge to roll her eyes. Just because her strange father was obsessed with wolves, it didn't mean that a mythical creature existed.

"Well, nobody has proven their existence to be wrong, however it's best we keep quiet about them. Could be dangerous," Mr Kimberlin told the boy cheekily.

The fact that her father wasn't discouraging these foolish beliefs made Sunny even more irritated. She knew that Oliver was the type of relentless kid who would keep bringing his nosy self back into their house to hound her father with questions. She wished for dinner to be over already so she could sleep to prepare for the upcoming week.

Her dad had postponed the start of his work so that they could dedicate an entire week to fix up the dingy cottage. They were going to visit the market early in the morning to buy tools and supplies to make the cottage somewhat... hospitable for them.

Sunny stayed quiet for most of the night, which wasn't a problem since the entire Johnson family were too engrossed in wolf trivia to notice her silence.

When they finally left, Sunny hurriedly cleaned up after everyone, and before her father could even thank her, she rushed to her room.

The rough, wooden door creaked loudly as she pushed it open. Her room was rather large, and as she closed her eyes she could imagine all of her belongings neatly placed in the room. But when she opened them again, all she saw was a dark and dingy room, with one mattress placed in the center, and her suitcase shoved against the wall.

She cringed as she looked at the pink flowery wallpaper that was already peeling. If there was one thing she was buying tomorrow, it was going to be brand new wallpaper - and definitely not pink and flowery.