Madeline

Madeline: Chapter One

Chapter One

That tingling sensation woke Madeline up. Her eyes were swollen. She had a runny nose, and her hair was a mess due to sleeping. But overall, she was fine. She just needed a hot cup of relaxing jasmine tea and a plateful of her mom's homemade blueberry pie.

She stretched her arms and legs as her spines began to adjust themselves. It was the most relaxing thing she could ever do after a full-night study. She only slept for about four or five hours:so much for being a college student.

She yawned and put on her bunny slippers. The fluffiness of the slipper made her felt as if she was being tickled. She unlocked her phone to check the time. '06.55 a.m.' she thought. "Oh no, I'm going to be late!" But then, she remembered it was summer. Well, six more days and summer would be off. She put her phone on her desk. She sighed as she saw a photo frame with the picture of her mom, her dad, and herself.

Madeline never wanted to leave her parents. She was now in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while her parents were in a small city called Annex, Oregon. She would love to buy an apartment near Massachusetts if she had the money, but she didn't have super rich parents that would buy ten apartments all around America just for amusements. Besides, she couldn't turn down the offer for a scholarship at Harvard.

She quietly stroke the frame. Madeline was seven when that picture was taken. The three of them were traveling to Florida. Her parents took her to Disneyland. In that picture, she was holding a small brownbag of popcorn while her parents grabbed both of her hands. They were smiling widely. Madeline felt homesick.

Madeline walked towards her bed. She let her body fell graciously into the bed. She planted herself into the warm, and cozy bed sheet. Her body was trying to say, 'get up. get up.' but her mind says, 'Just go to sleep. The pillow's fluffy. The bed is cozy. Just sleep.'

She let herself be in that position for five minutes and three seconds, and then she groaned. "I wish I could go back home, meet my parents, sleep and eat."

What a thoughtful wish.

Some random thing vibrated. Madeline couldn't see what they were, since her face was still buried in the bed, but she was definitely sure it was her phone. The only thing that could vibrate a Morse code that says, 'telephone,' was her phone, which she had set on silent mode.

Madeline grunted. She just wanted to curl up in a ball, talk with her parents about everything that had happened while she was in college, and watch a movie with them. This might sound as if she was a spoilt, and nonindependent child. But who could resist the urge of meeting their parents after a year and a month of not seeing them? She was too busy finishing her summer project so she could finish her study earlier with some high grades, and she only talked with her parents on the phone. If only she had had more time.

She pushed herself up and walked towards her phone like a zombie. Her hands were dangling limply. Madeline grunted under her breath. She grabbed her phone. Just when she had grabbed it, the call went off.

"The world is being cruel to me." She dragged her way back to her bed and lay down while checking who had missed calling her. It turned out it was Mark.

Mark was her most trustful friend. Out of all the people she had met, Mark was the only one who understood her. He came from Nashville, so he might as well be as homesick as she was. But the difference was that Mark had the money to take a plane from here to Nashville.

Just when Madeline was about to call him back, someone called her. It was her neighbor and best friend Eliza. "Hi, Eliza. What's up?"

Eliza did not respond at all. The signal was so poor in her place that she just wanted to climb out of the window and shout, 'Where's the signal?"

"Hey, Eliza? You there? The connection's really bad here. Wait, are you crying? What's wrong?" It was rare for Eliza to cry. Madeline knew her so well to figure out that the thing that has happened must've been something bad, really bad.

"You wouldn't believe this Madeline." She spoke quietly between her sobs. "Ugh, I don't know where to even start."

Madeline felt a chilling sensation through her spine. She shuddered. "Uh, let's start by talking to my parents. Are they there? Can I talk to them?"

Eliza stopped. For a moment, Madeline sworn she heard Eliza saying, 'Please hold this.' and then cried hysterically. The phone was now being held by another person, and a deep male voice appeared from the other end of the line. Madeline guessed it was Eliza's brother, which was true. "Um, hey, it's Arnold. Uh, about the thing that you wanted to talk with your parents... Um, how do I say this?"

Madeline gulped. Whatever he was about to say about her parents wasn't going to be a nice one. "Oh come on, Arnold. The suspense is killing me. Why is Eliza crying?"

Arnold hesitated. Everything went from hysteric to eerily silent. It was a bit annoying, since they were like holding back the truth. "Your parents had a car accident. They, died."

That ends it. Madeline fell to the ground as her body went numb. Her phone hit the ground so hard, it created a loud thud. She let herself fall to the ground harshly. Her hair was thrown all over the floor, her entire body felt motionless. She didn't realize that tears started to roll down her cheeks, slowly and painfully. She sobbed.

"Madeline? Madeline, you're still there?" and then the line went dead.

All of the memories with her family suddenly rushed through her minds. The sweet and warm moments, the times where they would go to the park together, eat ice cream together. She missed her mom's blueberry pie, she missed her dad's strawberry scented mustache. She even missed the times when her parents would give lectures to her, or ground her for sleeping so late. But they were all just memories.

She could hear her mom's voice echoing in her mind saying, 'When you're feeling depressed or sad, just let us know, okay? Your Dad and I will try our best to support you.'

'How am I supposed to talk to you guys when you're gone?' Madeline thought. She cried harder and harder as streams of memories flowed through her brain. "I wish I could just see you for the last time. Hug you for the last time."

She stayed there on the floor, lying depressed while tears rolled down her face. She couldn't barely move an inch, as it was very hard to move. Madeline was like a crying statue.

Creak. The door of her room was opened. Suddenly, she became alerted, "Who's there?"

But it was all too late, as a heavy object hit her head hard. And everything went black.

A/N

Hey guys! I will be updating every week. I hope it's not too boring. Btw, this is my first book. Vote - comment - follow :)