Our Days

Chapter 5

In our house we have a weird basement. There's a staircase to the basement in the house and a staircase to it in the barn. The staircase in the house goes to a room with a lot of our ancestries stuff. Things like book cases, mirrors, books, tables, and others, we aren't allowed to move stuff down there. The stuff is too fragile. The staircase in the barn goes to a library. I love reading so it's nice being really close to it. There's a secret passageway in between the two basements. I'm the only one who knows how to get into it.

"Hey, can you help me with something?" I asked James Wednesday morning before school. "What?" he asked. "You have basketball practice tonight, right?" I asked him realizing the problem in my plan. "Yeah, but you have to work, so if you're planning something we can do it after your finished." he said already knowing that I had something planned. "Sounds good. Meet me at the cafe and we'll go to my house." "What is this plan?" he asked. I thought for a second then said, "I need you to help me steal something from my basement." "Wait, steal something from your basement. Why can't you just take it!?" He said. "My mom doesn't let us take stuff from the basement." I answer. "Oh, okay. I'll see you after practice, Damsel." "See you then, Bye." I said starting to walk away.

After school I met James at my eighth hour room and we left school together. The three girls didn't bother me. "It's really working, thanks. Again." I said. "Don't worry about it. I have to go to practice, bye damsel." and then he kissed my cheek and then he left. "What just happened?" I asked myself, "was it an accident?" I went to work not being able to focus on anything else.

Thankfully work didn't take too long and I left at 5:00, the time I should go home every day. James was waiting for me when I left. "Hey, you ready?" I asked, still not being able to think about anything other than the kiss. "Yep, let's go." he answered. We drove in separate cars to my house.

When we got there I showed him the secret passageway and explained that I needed something from the other basement and that we'd have to go through the passageway. "How do we get in?" James asked examining the lock. "With this." I said grabbing the key from the secret spot I had hid it. "Cool. I know that this isn't a real breaking and entering, but it still feels like It." he said while unlocking the door. The passageway was long, narrow, and dark. It was only wide enough for one person to go through at a time, so we had to walk one after the other. I forgot the flashlight so we had to go in the dark and since there were some turns that led to dead ends I had to lead.

The moment James closed the door I grabbed his hand. He didn't make fun of me for being scared or let go of my hand. "Let's go." I whispered. We started to go forward. I had the pattern memorized second right, first left, forth right, and forward until door. When we got to the door I let out the breath I had been holding. I opened the door and the light from the room spilled in. I had to close my eyes for a little to adjust to the light.

"Come on. We need to find it quickly." I whispered in case any of my family was close to the door. "I know that there's a flashlight down here somewhere, find it and I'll find the trunk." I said. James nodded. I found it right away, the trunk that had belonged to my great great grandmother, Paris. I picked it up, it was surprisingly not heavy, and started walking towards the passageway. As I put it down in the passageway I heard a door slam. "That was my sister." I whispered to James, he had the flashlight.

We got in the passageway just as I heard my sister slam the door to the stairs. "Don't turn the flashlight on." I whispered in his ear. I listened to her footsteps go to her room and I heard the door slam. James turned on the flashlight and I smiled at him. "Let's go." I whispered to James. We had to switch places somehow because I needed to go first. I finally decided to have him go into a ball and I would just step over him. It worked and James handed me the flashlight. He grabbed the trunk and we were off. We got to the library and I hid the key. "Let's get to my room and hide this quick." I said.

He followed me up the stairs to my room. "Okay, could you tell me what's in here? It looks like it should be heavy but it isn't. Is it empty?" he said when we got to my room. "It's clothes." I said, "My great great grandmother's to be exact. I've been doing a lot of research on my family and I found out that she always had clothes ahead of the times. It was really weird." "So you're saying you think these clothes have a clue to your family history!?" he exclaimed. "Yes." I said taking the box from him. "Stay here," I said, "I'm going to try these on." "Okay, Damsel." He said sitting down on my couch.

I searched through the trunk for a little and found that they were operated into outfits. The first outfit I tried on had a tattered looking bright red dress with spaghetti straps, a black floral choker necklace with dangling beads and a matching bracelet, and black cloth heals. I left the closet to show James. He stood up and said, "Wow..... You look. Beautiful." I felt myself blushing and I looked down and said, "I'm going to try on the other ones." "Yeah." he said sounding embarrassed. I left and tried on the one of the others. It was white dress with black polka dots, a black belt, and a black scarf. There was a metal bracelet with a picture of an elegant lady in the center and white fake leather heels. When James saw the outfit he came closer to examine the bracelet. He said, "This has really intricate designs, she did have a style ahead of the time." I went to try on another one. The dress was plaid, red and white, and had black buttons from the top to the bottom of the dress, this one didn't have shoes so I guessed that she whore it around the farm. When I showed him he guessed that to since it also didn't have jewelry. "I think you get it know she had very modern outfits for the time she lived." I said when I had changed out of the dress and back into my normal clothes. "Yeah, we definitely need to do more research on your family. There is diffidently something going on here." James said. "Yeah." I said.

"Could we talk about something important?" James said suddenly being very serious.

"Sure." I said already guessing what he was thinking of.

"Do you like me?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked knowing that my guess was correct.

"I know you like me as a friend, but do you like like me?" He asked.

"I...... I don't know." I answered truthfully.

"Well, I think I like you." He said slowly.

I didn't know what to say.

"You know what, I'm just going to say it. Do you want to go out with me?" He asked.

"Yes." I answered before he could say anything else.

"Really?" He asked.

"What do you mean really," I asked getting closer to his face," Did you think I would say no?"

"No, I just....." He started to say then trailed off.