Erika was just opening the door when she found a small package at her feet, addressed to one of her stepsisters. She picked up the parcel, went inside, and shouted, "I'm home!"
Surprisingly enough, the only living soul in the house when Erika entered was Lucy, who was curled up on a couch and basking in the sunlight. She left the cat alone for now, knowing that the cat would come to her later. As she trudged up the stairs, carrying her backpack, she couldn't help but be pleased at her luck. She had very little homework to do except to start memorizing her script, which left her plenty of time to talk to her friends over the phone, to write, to read her manga, and to watch her anime DVDs.
She made a quick pit stop in her room to drop off her backpack, and then quickly went down the hall to her sibling's room. Jade and Fiona both shared the same bedroom, so Erika figured that there would be no harm in just putting the box inside. As she walked in the room, it was pretty dark- the sunlight was coming in through the windows, but the lights weren't on. 'I guess I beat my sisters home for once.'
Erika gently placed the mail between their beds, and was about to walk back out of the room when she saw a calendar attached to the door. Deciding to let curiosity to get the better of her, she took a quick peek.
The day of auditions was labeled 'Blow everyone out of the water', the day for callbacks said, 'Show up Erika'... but what caught Erika's attention were a couple of dates in the future. Just a day before when the first showing of 'The Odd Couple', there was a chilling sentence written in pink pen and surrounded with a heart on the calendar- '"Surprise" Kingsley'.
But the most disturbing series of addendums came during Homecoming week. 'Eliminate Homecoming Queen competition' and 'Find dates' were amongst the alarming, but the worst of them all were on Homecoming day and the day following.
Her birthday was labeled 'Stepsister's birthday' and 'Have fun with Erika'. But the day after that simply had a question mark with a smiley face where the dot would be.
Erika tried to walk backwards away from the time teller, but tripped over her own shoelaces. She landed right next to the package for her sisters. Fortunately, she didn't land ON it, and took a nice deep breath.
And then the box started to vibrate. Erika may not have been a whiz at this sort of thing, but even she could connect the dots. Quickly, she began slamming the box against the floor, desperately trying to make it stop. A quick look out the window- 'Oh God- they're almost here!'
She threw the box against the door, and finally got a mini-miracle- the box fell silent. Without skipping a beat, she carefully put the box back between the beds and scurried back into the recesses of her room, just in time for her sisters to walk through the door.
Fortunately for Erika and the world at large, the next few weeks were highly uneventful, instead beginning to take some form of normalcy. Rehearsals were fun affairs, and Mrs. Thatcher was especially pleased to see that Kelly and Erika were playing off each other wonderfully. But something just seemed missing. Right before this session ended, Mrs. Thatcher took Erika aside.
"Is something wrong, Mrs. Thatcher?" The English woman tapped her lips with her pointer finger, staring at the star student.
"It's nothing Erika," her teacher began, but she shook her head. "No, there is something a little off." She eyed the young Andress carefully before saying, "How long have you been in the program, Erika?"
'That's an odd question,' Erika thought. Nonetheless, she answered honestly. "Ever since I came to high school."
"Right, right," the teacher replied. "And you've been stellar ever since. It's just- just-"
