"I'm not crazy. Cross my heart, hope to die."
Lana Abernathy is a sharp talking 13 year old with a knack of finding things.
What she found that summer of '58 was practically unspeakable until she found 7 other kids who experienced the same thing as...
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It was a somber summers day. The fresh smell of petrichor filled the air. There had been heavy rain the night before but surprisingly the grass in the Abernathy's front garden was damp and drying rapidly. 11 year old Clarissa Abernathy decided that this was as good as the so far bleak summer weather was going to get and got ready to go on an adventure.
Clarissa was 5'0, relatively tall for her age. Combined with her mature looks and attitude people usually confused her and her twin Lana for being older than they actually were. She had long dirty blonde hair, naturally straight but it got wavy at times. Compared to her sister, she had thinner lips and a thicker nose, both qualities she had gained from her father. Clary loved exploring with her sister. They'd get on their bikes and cycle around town until it got too dark and they had to go back home. They'd go down to the Kenduskeag, near the Barrens. Infact, they'd go anywhere really. There was practically nowhere in town they hadn't been. They knew it like the back of their hand. Well maybe except Neibolt Street. The old house there gave her the heebie-jeebies.
They'd play all sorts of games, Lana would always pick. She had such a great imagination, she could put herself into any role they played as. Wether it was princesses or explorers or pirates.
Honestly, they were each others only true friend. Sure, they got along perfectly fine with the other kids in their classes but never found the need to properly hang around with them all the time. Clary and Lana were two peas in a pod and funnily enough, in that pod there wasn't room for anyone else. Lana was more sarcastic and 'too much' of a tomboy, Clary was shy yet charismatic but looked up to her slightly younger sister. Their mother always whined about how Lana would never find a husband as quick as Clarissa would and moaned about her quirks. Neither of them cared. They didn't even need a husband, they could just stay alone together forever ( or maybe they'd adopt a cat or two), that's all they needed. It would've been a paradise, they could sit around and watch Crackerjack and eat ice cream until they could no longer move or their stomachs exploded.
Clarissa lived across the street from the Derry Rite Aid, near the elementary school (and near the spot little Georgie Denborough would get his arm ripped off a year later). She peered once again out of her kitchen window to see if the rain had returned but it seemed clear for the time being. Lana was sleeping, so were her parents. It was 7 in the morning and father had no work today. He was a businessman and a very busy one at that. She tried to wake her sister up but her twin dismissed her by saying that she'd 'get up in five minutes'. Only five minutes turned into ten and ten turned into twenty and eventually Clarissa was so fed up with waiting that she decided she would uncharacteristically ditch Lana.
She wore a loose fitting blouse and a knee high flouncy skirt that clearly wasn't made for cycling or playing in dirt but Clary didn't care. She always contrasted to what Lana wore, and Lana wore either shorts or dungarees. Her cardigan lay discarded on her bed, it was too clammy to wear anyway and it would've just gotten dirty. Mom always complained when her cardigans got dirty, cashmere was hard to wash apparently (but Clarissa wouldn't know that).
