Don't Cover Me

Chapter 3

When we got to the house I was stunned. It was the biggest one on the street which doesn't sound very impressive unless you were talking about a street full of mansions. It was three stories high, the outside was all grey brick with a cobblestone driveway, and huge windows that let you see the entire ground floor of the house. I looked up a little higher and saw that every window in the second and third story was all stained glass. The windows were beautiful. One had a mermaid on it, with the ocean beneath her and fish swimming at her feet, another one to the right had a dragon breathing fire on it with birds flying around it and people with arrows at the bottom. The third window I could see clearly was a woman standing in a white dress atop a cliff looking down to the rushing ocean beneath her.

On the driveway there was a basketball hoop, and more sport supplies like soccer balls, hockey sticks and a hockey net, goalie gear and a volleyball. Beyond that I could see through the gate and behind it was a ginormous pool. It was at least fifty meters by twenty meters and had a diving board at the deep end. I could see a wooden box off to the right of the pool and could only assume that it was a hot tub.

The lawn was perfectly manicured, not a piece of grass out of place. Everything seemed to be in its place. I was afraid that by entering the house I would be destroying the perfection.

We all walked up the stairs to the house in groups of three's. Gavin, Brett and Nick went in first followed by me, Sabrina and Zara then Emma, Ashlyn and Noah and Darren picking up the rear. The inside was even more impressive. It looked like a castle. The ceilings were so high and everything looked handmade. All of the furniture, the banisters, plant pots, everything all beautifully crafted. The interior of this house could probably pay my way through college.

Everyone made their way over to the sofa so I followed them. We were inside Brett's dining room now. The walls were painted a calming beige, with white trim all around the room. There was a piano in the far right corner, a huge flat screen TV right in front of us and black leather couches for us to sit on. I sat down between Ashlyn and Gavin with Sabrina on Gavin's other side and everyone else fighting to get a seat on the other couches.

"So we have an hour till second period. What do you guys wanna do?" Brett asked us all.

"Pool!" Sabrina, Nick, Gavin, Ashlyn, Emma and Noah all said at the same time.

"I guess we're going swimming then" Brett said.

"Sweet!" Everyone jumped off the couches and ran outside. I followed but I didn't really know what was going to happen. I didn't have a bathing suit and didn't really feel like reeking of chlorine all day.

"Come on Sky" Ashlyn said and waved me over. I jogged over to her and saw that everyone was already sitting around the pool. There was a spot open beside Emma and I went to go sit down and take it. She looked over and smiled at me but then her attention turned to Darren and I could tell she liked him. Well I felt like the odd one out.

"Sky, you any good at volleyball?" Zara asked me.

"Yeah, I'm okay at it" I said back.

"Come play then" she told me and waved me over. I walked over to where Zara, Ashlyn and Sabrina were playing volleyball. We played keep up since we didn't have a net and we were all pretty good together.

"Do you like sports Sky?" Ashlyn asked me.

"I love them. I play one every season." I told them, hoping against hope that they liked sports too.

"Really? Awesome! What sports do you play?" Zara asked me.

"Umm lots. Field Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, Swimming, Volleyball, Cross Country, a little bit of hockey more road hockey, Tennis, and I've been in a triathlon before." I told them.