Aqua Jewel

Chapter 1 - Pancakes for Breakfast

The day my life changed forever, I woke up to my sister Oranah screaming into my ear.

"Wake up, Lexa! You're going to be late! Mum's already made breakfast."

I groaned and rolled onto my stomach. Why would I care if I were late for school? Every day was the same in my boring little village.

"Umph!" Something soft but firm slammed into the back of my head, knocking the breath out of me. I rolled back around to face Oranah with half-closed, tired eyes. She stood beside my small bed smirking, with a pillow raised in her hands. "Will you stop doing that?" I asked, irritated by my sister's childish behaviour.

At eleven years old and two years younger than me, Oranah was still a child. But did that really mean she had to act like it all the time?

I sighed, and started to roll over again. Before I could fall back into a peaceful sleep, however, Oranah decided to try a new tactic.

"There are pancakes on the table!" Oranah said in a singsong voice.

Pancakes?

I sat up, suddenly wide awake. My sister snickered. She tossed her pillow back onto her unmade bed beside mine and raced back downstairs, her dirty blonde hair flying behind her.

I slid my legs over the side of my bed and went over to the closet. My dad's clothes were on the top shelf, my mother's on the next shelf down. My clothes were on the third shelf from the top and Oranah's on the bottom. My whole family shared a bedroom. We had to, since there were only three rooms in our tiny house. The bedroom was upstairs, while the kitchen and bathroom were located on the first floor. It was small, but that minor detail didn't matter; the main thing was that we were happy. Well, more or less happy.

I reached onto my shelf and picked out the first dress my hands brushed against. It happened to be the dull brown one I had worn when a few of my friends and I had played in a field on the farm of my best friend Mira's aunt and uncle. I had tripped over Brigelle's boot and had gotten grass stains all over the front of my dress when I had fallen. As I slipped the dress over my head, I noticed that the stains were still there.

I'll wash them off after breakfast, I thought. Speaking of which ...

The scent of fresh pancakes entered my nose as I walked down the stairs to the kitchen. My mother never made pancakes unless it was a special occasion. Confused, I walked over to the four-seat table where my father and Oranah were already sitting. My mother was attempting to flip pancakes with a big wooden spoon. She was standing by the small stove with her back to me. I sat down at the table next to my little sister, who was already finishing her pancakes.

"What's the occasion?" I asked casually.

My family stopped what they were doing to stare at me. Oranah's mouth was open. She had just been about to stuff another pancake into her mouth but had stopped halfway there. The pancake that should have been in her mouth was back on her plate because she had dropped it.

My father had been jotting something down in a leather notebook for his job. By the looks of it, he'd stopped mid sentence, his pen still clutched in his hand. My mother had turned around to face me. She had an odd expression on her face, as if she were angry, but confused and surprised at the same time. She was holding her wooden spoon in her hand, a newly made pancake balancing on the top. It was wobbling, on the verge of falling off.

My family just stared at me for a few seconds. It felt like someone had pressed a pause button on my life, although I knew no one had, because I could hear the other pancakes still sizzling behind my mother.