Highly Strung

“Taylor! Alex is here!”

“Coming mom!” I shouted, hauling my two suitcases and purse behind me toward the staircase.

“Do you need help sweetheart?”

“No, thanks da-” My words were cut off when I tripped over a shirtsleeve that I had failed to pack away into the case and was hanging out, and catapulted forward. My parents came running out of the living room at the huge crash my body made as it made contact with the first floor landing.

“I’m okay!” I pulled myself up with the help of the railing. One of my suitcases had popped open, spilling clothes and various other things all over the stairs, while the suitcase that had plotted my murder sat innocently at the top of the staircase smirking down on me.

“Oh, it’s on you evil, evil thing!” I pointed my finger threateningly at it, noticing my parents giving me really odd looks over their square-framed glasses.

My parents were professors at the local university, but they weren’t old or stuffy. My mother firmly believed that I should learn from my own mistakes, not from her mistakes, and of course my father agreed.

They were letting me go off for the entire summer with my best friend and her parents, but I mostly suspected it was because they were teaching summer classes and wouldn’t want me sitting around the house the whole break.

An impatient series of honks from outside cut off any other potential threats, and had me hurrying to gather my things back together into the suitcase.

“I’ll close this, go get your other suitcase.” My mother sighed, pulling her blonde hair back into a bun and leaning down to try to close my overflowing case.

“Okay, thanks mom.” I hurried up to the top of the stairs, picking up my purse and slinging it over my shoulder before giving Satan’s Luggage one final glare and dragging it down the stairs behind me, making sure to thump it off every step.

I pulled open the door and shouted. “Alex! I need a little help!” And continued dragging the heavy suitcases toward the door. My parents had hurried off upstairs to get ready for their first classes of break, so I was alone.

I didn’t bother turning around when I heard footsteps on the creaky porch behind me. “I have this one, can you just grab that one?” I twisted around, and froze.

Standing in front of me was none other than Cole Hays, Alex’s slob of a twin brother who I hadn’t seen in a few years as his boarding school was on the other side of the country and the Hays’ couldn’t afford to fly him over as often as they liked.

“W-what are you doing h-here?” I stuttered a little, frowning in distaste at the plug in his ear and the tattoo peeking out from under his shirtsleeve.

“Everybody else is in the van, but I had the misfortune of sitting near the door, so here I am, at your service, princess.” He smirked a little, crossing his arms and leaning against the railing.

“Don’t call me that.” I snapped, grabbing my suitcase and dragging it off toward the waiting van. I’d only made it a few steps before Cole was scooping it out of my hand and continuing on to the van, where he easily loaded both into the back.

“I could have carried that.” I huffed in annoyance, pulling open the van’s door and sliding into the very back next to Alex.

“Thanks for the warning.” I hissed as her brother climbed into the seat in front of us.

“Everybody ready?” Mrs. Hays smiled, turning in her seat to make sure everybody was buckled before she waved at my mom who was standing in the doorway and we were off.

“Sorry.” Alex smiled, popping in her ear buds and leaning back in the seat, her dark curls fanning out around her.

“You should be.” I grumbled, settling in for the four hour drive to the lake cabin.

* * *

“Wow ..” Was the extremely articulate thing that came from my mouth when we pulled up to the large cabin.

The cabin itself was beautiful, if you could really call it a cabin as it was more like a really big house on the lake.. It was old white clapboard, with a huge wraparound porch with red shutters, and lots of trees edging the yard. There was a tire swing tied to one of the bigger trees, the whole scene reminded me of something out of a movie.

The lake was sparkling beyond, a dock stretching out into the water with some chairs at the end.

“Haven’t seen this place in awhile.” Cole mumbled, pushing off the van and strolling off.

Mr.Hays was already piling the luggage out while Mrs.Hays supervised, explaining where everything should go and humming about how excited she was to be back.

“Oh, Taylor sweetie?” Mrs.Hays called. I turned toward her, eyebrows raised.

“Yes?”

“Can you go find Cole and ask him to come help with the luggage. Alex, go open all the windows to let some air inside.”

“Sure.” Alex and I responded in unison.

People often said we were like twins because we were so much alike, besides the fact that in appearance we were opposites. While Alex was tall, tanned with a never-ending supply of curls to go with her hypnotic brown eyes, I was shorter, pale with blonde hair and green eyes.

But we had the same taste in a lot of things, and both Alex and I were extremely smart, setting us apart from those around us.

I followed Alex inside, hoping Cole would be in there so I wouldn’t have to go far, but a look out the back window revealed him to be down at the end of the dock, the afternoon sun glittering off the water.

“You’re wanted to help carry bags.” I perched on the railing of the chair, leaning over to see that Cole had fallen asleep in the chair opposite.

“Cole.” I shook his shoulder, frowning when he didn’t move. “Cole, your mom wants you.”

I stared at him in complete and utter silence, resisting with all my might to poke him in the face.

Poke.

“BLARGH.” Cole jumped out of his seat, startling me beyond belief. I stumbled back away from him, not seeing that I was at the edge of the dock and slipping into the water with a splash.

“Cole you idiot!” I came up gasping, swimming over and grabbing onto the dock a safe distance away from Alex’s idiotic twin.

“I’m sorry, Tay!” He smirked a little, watching me pull myself out of the water, dripping wet.

He averted his eyes politely. “Your shirt’s white there darling.”

My face flushed bright red, and I crossed my arms over my chest quickly, stomping off toward the house.

“Your mom needs your help.” I spat over my shoulder.

If that was how the rest of the summer was going to be, God help me.

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A/N: I'd just like to say that I usually write Action and Fantasy, so this novel is a bito f a stretch for me, but it's a way of keeping summer alive as winter moves in on us. Hope you enjoy!    -Ellie <3