Oracle

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's commented. I love you guys ~ <3 ('~' is that weird hum-note thing at the end of a sentence when you're hyper. But due to complaints, I won't use them in the actual story. xD No promises here though.) I've edited it several times, but unless something really glaring comes up, I think I'll leave this chapter alone for the moment. All comments from here on out will be taken into consideration in following chapters.

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Chapter One

 The noise that came from the partially open basement door seemed to vary between singing and humming: “Ah ah ah-oh, wa wa wa-ah oh, uh uh ah-oh -"

A finger tapped beatlessly on a white page, and then the book closed around it as the young woman marked her page and got off the armchair. On the couch next to her, a much younger girl with cropped dirty blonde hair glanced up and then continued to watch the flat-screen TV. The young woman walked over to the basement door which was located on the opposite side of the room, near the TV.

She looked to be in her later teens, of medium height, and had strong-looking legs. Her hair was a dark brown in color, long and rather straight, though there were a few fuzzy edges, and her eyes were a slightly lighter brown, shaped almost like round almonds. She reached the door and took several steps down until she had reached the bottom of the large white space that composed the basement. It was filled with various exercise equipment: treadmills, weights, a balance ball, and a ping-pong table in the far corner.

Currently, someone was occupying the treadmill.

Blair Keller - the young woman - observed the person for a moment and then said, her low voice tinged with an edge of dryness, “Hey, Mom?"

The person continued to run, but asked, in a voice that didn’t sound at all like it was pressured by the large amount of running she was doing, "Do you need something, honey?"

Still in that dry voice, Blair asked, "Do you realize why we bought you new headphones?"

Allison Keller, born Finney, looked over from where she was running on the treadmill. Her second eldest daughter was standing at the bottom of the stairs that connected the basement to the first floor. She was leaning against the wall, holding in one hand a hardback novel that had had the paper overcover removed.

Pausing the treadmill, Allison walked over to her daughter and gave her a hug, wrapping her wiry, acrobatic-like body around Blair. "Cause you are an amazing family." Her auburn-colored hair, currently in a ponytail, drifted from her onto Blair’s shoulder.

"Mom." Blair’s voice hadn’t changed a bit in edge.

"Yeah, honey?" Allison asked, voice light and soft, chin contentedly rested on her daughter's shoulder.

"You're sweating. Please let go," Blair announced very matter-of-factedly.

Grinning, Allison did so. "So what'd you need, Blair?"

Blair Kelley gave her mom a blank look and continued on her previous train-of-thought, "When we got you the headphones, we were hoping that we wouldn't have to hear your music anymore."

Cheerfully, Allison replied in her flute-like voice, "You're not."

"...Mom,” Blair rubbed her forehead in mild exasperation, “I hate to tell you this, but hearing you sing the songs might actually be worse."

"Aw!" The cry was mockingly hurt. Allison stepped back as if she had been struck in the chest. "That hurts, Blair." Raising her voice, she called, "Raisin Pop, Honeybun's bullying me!"