The Rule of Three

Chapter 10

"Copeland, are you ready?" Anna calls from the kitchen. She fumbles through her purse looking for something; she suddenly hears Gaillard and Patterson giggling. She looks up from her purse and eyes both of them, "What?" The girls laugh and point to the key ring on the wall; hanging on the second ring is Anna's car keys. Anna scoffs, "They've been there this entire time and you're just telling me now?" The girls laugh more as Anna grabs her keys off the ring. Anna had the girls come home right after school today because she is taking Copeland to an art show downtown. Every once in a while, Anna takes one of her girls on an outing so that she can spend some quality time with each of her daughters. One of Copeland's favorite local artists is showing his work in a coffee shop down town, and she really wanted to go. Patterson and Gaillard are going to spend the night in just like a normal school night, except they get to order pizza for dinner. When Copeland finally walks into the kitchen, Anna kisses Gaillard and Patterson on the cheek, then wraps her arm around Copeland's shoulders. "We'll be back later, around 9. Please stay in the house and do your homework," the girls sigh sarcastically. "Yeah, yeah," Anna rolls her eyes, "be good." They walk out the front door, and Gaillard and Patterson are left alone.

Patterson heads for the stairs, "I'm going to change." Confused Gaillard follows her up stairs into her room.

"Why?" she asks. They weren't going anywhere, so it seemed unnecessary to change clothes.

"I'm gonna go on a run," Patterson says as she changes into running pants and a long sleeve running shirt. "If I'm going to run the marathon in May, I have to train everyday," she begins lacing up her running shoes. It is about time to get her new ones because they are falling apart.

"Mom said to stay in the house," Gaillard says folding her arms and leaning against the frame of the doorway. "I'm not getting in trouble for you," she raises an eye brow, "Sorry to disappoint you but you're not leaving." She stands blocking the door way.

"Gaillard," Patterson says, "I'll be gone an hour tops." Gaillard isn't convinced. "I'll only run eight miles," she pushes past her sister and heads down stairs. "Look mom knows the route I run, it's safe," she grabs headphones, "if we called her right now, she'd be fine with it."

Gaillard reluctantly lets out a frustrated sigh, "fine, but one hour. I'm timing you and if you're not back I'm calling mom." She raises her eyebrows and  puts her hands on her hips.

"Thank you Gill," they both start walking to the front door, "I'll be right back." Patterson opens the door and begins to walk out. She barely gets one foot out the door, when Gaillard grabs her and drags her back inside. Gaillard slams the door and locks it. "What are you doing?" Patterson asks, "We just talked about this, I'll be back in an hour." Gaillard grabs Patterson by the wrist and drags her to the window a few feet from the front door. Gaillard parts the blinds and peeks through. "Gaillard, I'm leaving," Patterson as she heads back to the door.

Gaillard grabs her arm again, "No, just come here and look." Patterson parts the blinds and looks through as well. "That creep of a teacher is out there," Gaillard says, "I saw her jogging past the house when you opened the door, and now she's sitting in her car outside our house."

Patterson looks at Gaillard, "You're kidding right?" she asks. "You're freaking out because a teacher from our school is  jogging in our neighborhood? Unbelievable," Patterson goes to walk out the front door again, but is once again grabbed by the wrist by Gaillard.

"Patterson, you have to at least admit she is creepy," she says, "first, she randomly shows up that day in the parking lot, then she has an extremely creepy conversation with Copeland, and now this. Excuse me if I don't trust  her." Gaillard takes a deep breath, "Look, you will be fine missing one day of training; you can run twice as much tomorrow."

Patterson wiggles out of her sister's grip, "The first day she was just trying to help, the second day she was just being friendly, and this is a mere coincidence." She puts her hands on her sister's shoulders, "Don't be paranoid, I'll be back in less than an hour," she walks to the door and opens it. Gaillard pushes the door closed before she gets out.

"Please stay here," she asks.

"Gaillard enough." Patterson turns around and lightly pushes her sister back. "This is ridiculous; she is just a friendly teacher. Now I am going on a run, and you can't stop me," she turns back to the door. Gaillard grabs Patterson again.

"Why are you being so selfish?," Gaillard yells, "I know this precious marathon is really important to you, but you can take a break for one day."

Patterson squints her eyes, "I'm the selfish one? You're the one judging this woman because you felt a little uncomfortable." Patterson shoves Gaillard's hand off of her arm with no luck, "You get to practice your violin, even though your lesson was cancelled. I'm. Going. To. Train." She yanks her arm away and opens the door.

"Fine, whatever, get kidnapped by her for all I care," Gaillard screams as Patterson slams the door behind her. Gaillard takes a deep breath and crosses her arms. She turns to walk to the kitchen, but she hears a knock on the door. She rolls her eyes and walks to the door. She reaches for the door and opens it, "Done training already?" Gaillard gasps when she notices it is not her sister standing on the porch. Gaillard is shocked to see Ms. Denton standing on the porch, "How can I help you?" Gaillard asks trying to be polite as possible.

"Is your mother home?" Ms. Denton smiles.

"No, she is out with Copeland, " Gaillard quickly begins to wonder if she is giving away too much information.

"Well then I guess Patterson is the one who went training?" she asks. Gaillard is growing suspicious of how many questions she is asking.

"Excuse me, but I really need to go do my homework," Gaillard smiles.

"Of course, I'll get out of your hair," the teacher smiles. She then turns and walks back to her car. Gaillard closes the door and locks it behind her. She checks the clock; Patterson has 55 minutes left in her run. Gaillard takes a deep breath and walks into the kitchen. She begins to work on her homework keeping a mindful eye on the clock, timing Patterson. Patterson will be home in about 30 minutes. Out of all the silence, Gaillard hears the sound of breaking glass and Samson barking at something.

She looks up from her homework in the direction of the sound. Samson is outside so it couldn't have been him that broke the glass. "Patterson?" she calls out. She feels her stomach gather into knots; someone else is in the house. "Hello?" Gaillard calls out one last time before she suddenly blacks out.