Chapter 2
Ren:
School? Torture, even if you are in collage and pursuing a career that you actually like. To be honest, I didn't even want to go into Marine Biology, but when graduation came and someone asked me what I wanted to go into, I panicked and just said the same thing that Dominique said. I should have picked an easier major.
It's not that I am lazy... I just have a little problem with procrastination... well maybe a little bit more that a little problem. I sighed, right now, I was in my oceanography class and next I had my biology class, I did have an hour in between them and I would also then be done with classes for today, but alone with procrastination, I was also extremely impatient, and a little Attention Deficit, but that's besides the point.
I struggled much more than Dominique to keep my grades up and keep me with her; I needed to keep a high grade point average so that I could keep my scholarship. My parents had wanted me to get into collage and I couldn't go back on that promise, not now, not after all that has happened.
When the class ended, I practically ran from the room, Dominique was still in class for five more minutes so I had no one to wait for. I reached into my backpack and felt around until my hand found the swimsuit that I always had with me and headed to my own car. Since Dominique's and I schedules weren't the same, we both brought a car to school so that when one of us was in class, the other could leave without stranding the one left in class.
I needed to get away, I felt the memories coming and I couldn't let them surface here. I parked the car at the beach and went into one of the public bathrooms to change into my suit before I set foot in the cold Pacific water. I took about a minute to get used to it, then I walked out deeper and dunked my head. I gasped and spit the salt water out of my mouth and then put on my goggles and swam out to my sandbar.
The sandbar that I was talking about was about a half mile off of shore, but it was very private and most people couldn't see if from the mainland unless they knew it was there. That, and most people didn't go swimming that far away from the beaches in Los Angeles, but I never said that I was normal.
When my feet hit sand again, I clasped onto it and started to drag in deep breaths as I pulled myself onto the sandbar. It wasn't that I was tired, I was an excellent swimmer, it was just that the memories that I fought to overcome were beginning to overcome me. I ripped the goggles off of my head and then let the memories take me.
I was back in my old house a almost two years ago, Dominique and I were sitting in my small living room doing homework. My grandmother's old clock started to chime thirteen times and we both jumped and screamed.
Dominique gave me a look. "I thought you said that old thing was broken."
I swallowed passed the lump in my throat. "It is, it hasn't worked since she died. And since when does a clock chime thirteen times?"
I looked over at her and her normally tanned face was completely pale. "Fuck, shit, damn!"
"What the hell?"I squeaked out. Sure I was scared, but she wasn't helping. The clock could have been fixed without me knowing and the thirteen chimes could easily just be a miss count, right? We were overreacting.
She didn't seem to think so. She whimpered and put her hands on my shoulders before giving me a short jerk as if to make me see reason. "Ren... Renny... thirteen, is the most unlucky number there is and- and if a broken clock suddenly works, that means that someone in the family is going to die- or already has."
"That impos-" my denial was cut short by the sound of the phone ringing. Dominique screamed and burst into hysterical tears before running over and hiding under a blanket that was sitting on the couch. "Hello?" I answered, slowly, cautiously.
