In The Tower

Chapter 5

(2 Weeks Left)

"Ash! What are you doing!" I screech. Stupid cat.

"I was just trying to get this old toy!" he explains. From the top of the fridge.

"How did you even get up there?" I ask.

He looks around a bit before replying. "Um, well, I don't really know. I jumped? Climbed, maybe? Actually, could you help me down?" he asks a bit sheepishly. While rolling my eyes, I hold my arms out to catch him. He leaps into my arms without a second thought. I wince as his claws dig into my skin. He tosses the toy onto the floor and rolls over in my arms.

I drop him on the ground. He twists in the air and lands on his feet, like usual. I walk away from him and climb downstairs. I can hear him trot after me, so I fix the ladder for him. He keeps following me into the living room. Once I get there, I stop; however, Ash keeps going and bumps into the backs of my legs.

"Ow. Why'd you stop?" Ash whines. I roll my eyes at him again. I'm really doing that a lot recently, aren't I? Oops, Ash is going to start ranting soon. I scramble to remember what he asked, but just as I think of it, he starts talking. "Oh no, you've spaced off again. Are you sure you're not going insane? We could call you Spacy Serena. Well, I could. There's really no we, just me. Are you paying any attention yet?"

"Sorry, Ash. I'm back. And Spacey Serena, really? That's just awful. Anyway, we are finally going to sort through these boxes," I tell him. "They've been crowding my living room for a week now. The attic is sparkling and ready for everything to fill it again."

"But this will take hours! Maybe even days!" he complains.

"So what? It needs done. Remember, you were the one who wanted to do this in the beginning," I remind him. He sits down on the floor and pouts. "Okay, you don't have to help, Ash. You can just sit there."

Looking at the boxes again, I locate some filled with old clothes. Might as well sort through those first. I weave through the stacks until I can get to them and carry them over to the dining table.

"Ooh. What's in those?" Ash asks, suddenly sitting up with wide eyes.

"Clothes, Ash. Just clothes," I say while I sit down at the table. He jumps up right beside the box and looks in. I look too, and see some clothes from when I was a kid. I turn the box upside down and dump them all on the table. I do the same to the rest of the boxes and stare at the large pile on the table.

"Why'd you do that?" Ash inquires from my lap. The avalanche of clothes had sent him there after the first box.

"The boxes are mixes from all different sizes. They need sorted out," I explain, grabbing a dress from the top of the pile. I barely glance at it before I fold it and put it in one of the empty boxes. I assign each box a size and quickly work through the pile. I soon run out of boxes though, so make stacks of some sizes instead. There's plenty of boxes anyways.

Once the first pile has been completely sorted, I go back into the living room and get more boxes. I never had very many clothes; we were rather poor. However, my parents worked hard to give us what we needed. And after they died, I wore my old clothes as long as possible. I eventually did grow out of them, but I wasn't given very many more to replace them. I only ever had enough clothes for maybe five or so casual outfits at one time. It was enough, though, and it's not like I had to worry about other kids making fun of me for it. They hated me no matter what I did or wore.

I turn my mind back to the task in front of me. I dump these boxes out onto the table too, then put the other sorted clothes in them. After those are put away, I sort through the new pile. Once that's done, I go and get the final boxes of clothes. I frown at how little I actually had. Three trips and all the boxes of clothes are gone.