My Doll Collection

Chapter 1

Why are speeches so dang hard. Sitting at my desk staring at the wall in front of me is not answering my question. There is a creak behind me so I turn around to see Kaitlyn in my doorway.

"Amanda, can you help me with my family tree?"

"I'm a little busy right now Kaitlyn."

"Don't you have yours from eighth grade?"

"I'm sure I do but it could be in the basement. I'll find it later."

Then she left and forgot to close my door. I got up and closed it then sat back down at my desk and tried to concentrate. 5 minutes later my notecards have nothing on them. The room is getting too stuffy so I think I need a drink. Don't call me a procrastinator, that is just my style.
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Walking to the kitchen I count the steps. 26 steps into our foyer with roses painted all over the walls. Mom says that's the decoration style in older homes.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the basement door is open. I turned on the light and went down the stairs. There were noises coming from the left corner.

"Girls I'm home!!"

Crud! Why is mom home early. She works at a very successful office supply company. And is usually home really late or early in the morning.

The noise sounded like someone or something was digging through our junk. I took a ball out of a box and hurled it at the corner.

"Ow! Amanda did you throw a ball at me?"

"Yeah, why are you down here?"

"I was looking for your project and I found a doll."

To say Kaitlyn was a collector of dolls would not be enough. She is absolutely obsessed. She has over 200 rag, porcelain, and ceramic dolls perfectly sitting on shelves and bookcases.

"Come on moms home and we're not supposed to be down here."

We climbed the stairs and I shut the door as quietly as I could. Mom was in the office so that gave me and Kaitlyn the perfect opportunity to sneak upstairs. I told Kaitlyn to skip stairs 3, 16, and 20 because they creaked loudly. I was heading to my room but was stopped.

"Amanda can you tell me a story?"

Sometimes Kaitlyn reminded me of a 7 year old but I either tell her a story or go back to my speech.

"Sure Kaitlyn I'll tell you a story."

I hated going in her room. All of the creepy dolls staring at you almost like their judging you. They don't seem to have that effect on Kaitlyn though because she never lets anybody touch them. When she was comfortable I started.

"Once upon a time their was a couple named Victoria and Richard and they didn't have a lot of money. Richard worked very hard though and when they had enough money he built a giant house. They had a baby girl named Shara. All of the village kids envied her. On her 8th birthday her parents got her a doll with vivid green eyes. Shara would take the doll everywhere and talk to the doll. The other kids thought she was crazy. They grabbed the doll out of the girls hand and cut the dolls hair--"

"Amanda can you stop."

"Sure, well good night."