Thicker than Blood - Book One (Watty Awards 2012)

Chapter One

My alarm woke me at exactly 7 AM. I groaned loudly at it as I fumbled to turn the annoying sound off. I hadn't yet gotten used to the arrangement of the furniture though so at last I had to give up and get out of bed.

The alarm was balanced on an unpacked box near the outlet not within reach of my searching hand.

I groaned again; first day of school. First day in the new house... How could I forget? Although my very pleasant dreams about sunny white beaches and the small house my mom and I had lived in might have had something to do with that.

It had been three years now, since I had had to move in with my father. The man I'd never seen before until then. My mind shied away from the reason I had to live with my father.

Getting out of bed I hurriedly dressed in jeans and a black top, adding my mom's silver hanger on top. It was an angels wing, designed so beautifully that you could see every miniscule feather to the very smallest detail.

It was one of the few things of her I had left. Almost everything else she'd owned had been sold, my father hadn't cared one bit about any of it. At fifteen at the time I had been too unsure of myself and mostly to overcome with grief to do anything about it.

Downstairs I hurriedly made breakfast in the huge fancy kitchen, it was empty and cold. The nanny would be here soon to prepare breakfast for my little brother and to drive him to school after that.

After all, one couldn't expect my flashing new, young step mom to take care of him... She had way better things to do, like doing her nails, shopping and most importantly screwing around.

I didn't get how their relationship worked. My dad was a workaholic and almost never around but I was sure he knew his new wife was anything but faithful to him. I mean how could he not miss it? Sometimes the guy was barely out the door when he came home...

My father had a very well paid for job even though I didn't know exactly what he did, it involved traveling a lot for him and it had resulted in moving all together four times already in the three years since I started living with him.

That was very hard on my little brother, he was really shy for an eight year old. It seemed like every time he'd finally managed to make friends we had to move. On top of that no one but the long procession of nannies and me seemed to take any interest in him at all.

I hurried down to the garage where I knew a driver would be waiting with the shiny black BMW, ready to drive me and my step sister to school.

Yes I had a step sister... The daughter of my step mother from a former marriage. The two of them were so alike in character and looks. Although Eliza's long blond hair was real, unlike her mother who dyed it.

The reason I hadn't run into her yet was because she always took her own sweet time getting ready. Especially on a first day of school. Eliza loved first days of school. She didn't mind moving either... She claimed that after a year she was sick and tired of all the boys anyway and looked forward to some new 'meat'.

I shivered at that thought even though I knew she really thought that. She always managed to make herself the most popular girl in school in a matter of hours and then proceeded to work her way around all the hot guys in the next year.

At our last school it didn't even take her all year... And that was not for lack of hot guys, I knew because Eliza loved to gloat about all her conquests to me.

So after our first day I was always forced to ride with Eliza, something she hated almost as much as I did. If I had gotten on her bad side, which was often, it meant I had to walk or catch the bus...

It was getting late and I fidgeted in the leather seat, I sat in the back because I knew Eliza would give a fit if she didn't get shotgun. That had happened last year and we'd nearly been late because of it...