Heartbreaker

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Annalise Rowe snuggled deeper into her duvet, wrapping her quilt snugly around her medium sized frame. A ray of sunlight peeked in from behind her blue polka-dotted curtains, bathing Anna's dressing table with golden light.

The light that reflected off of Anna's dressing table mirror shone into her face, making her eye twitch in discomfort. Grabbing her blanket, she shielded her eyes from the hot light.

The chrome SONY alarm clock that stood on her light brown IKEA dressing table beeped continuously as it struck 6 o'clock in the morning. Anna let out a loud groan, out-stretching her hand to locate the annoying alarm, smacking her hand on the snooze button as soon as she managed to find it.

Ahh, peace and quiet.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

"ANNALISE!! GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!!" cried a thunderous voice from beyond the door as it's owner pounded mercilessly on the wooden surface. "YOU'VE GOT SCHOOL!"

Anna let out a loud, annoyed groan. "5 MORE MINUTES, MUM!" she hollered back, still wrapped up like a burrito under her covers.

The seemingly endless pounding came to a halt all of a sudden. Bewildered by her usually persistant mother's sudden change of heart, but grateful all the same, Anna closed her eyes, enjoying her much needed peace and quiet.

Until, of course, her mother burst through the door with a jumble of keys in hand.

"Don't you ' 5 more minutes' me, young lady. We both know those five minutes'll stretch on to 15 and then to 20, and the next thing you know, you're late for school," she nagged, her hands on her hips.

"But it's 6 in the morning. Class doesn't even start until 7:45!" Anna protested, sitting up on her bed.

"Yes, but you'll still be late to school again, and I do not want to see your principle for bad behaviour, thank you very much,"countered Mrs. Rowe. "Seeing her twice a year is already one time too many."

"But I don't even take that long to get ready!" Anna whined.

"Oh, please, Annalise," Mrs. Rowe brushed off Anna's reply. "You're a woman, and you and I both know that we, women take quite a while to get ready. Perfection comes with a price."

Anna groaned again and flopped on her bed, facing the ceiling. "Breakfast'll be ready in 15 minutes," said Mrs. Rowe before leaving Anna's bedroom.

Begrudgingly, Anna forced herself out of bed and made way to the bathroom.

*******

"And, sleeping beauty has finally awaken!" announced Sebastian Rowe as Anna trudged miserably into the kitchen.

Anna cast a sour look at her father as she plopped down on her chair. Grabbing a plate from one of the cabinets, Anna piled up some of her mother's unbelievably fluffy pancakes, dribbled a healthy amount of honey on top and dug in.

"Oh, cheer up, honey," Mrs. Rowe consoled when she noticed that her daughter was still sulking. "It's the first day of school, aren't you excited?"

"No," Anna deadpanned, giving her mother a look.

"You'll get to meet up with all your friends again, learn new things, who knows! Maybe, something really wonderful might happen to you this year!"

"Wonderful?" Annalise asked, sceptical, as she cocked an eyebrow, resisting the urge to scoff. "Like what?"

Mrs. Rowe paused her cooking and smiled at her daughter. " Well, you might be able to bag the gold medal in track this year."

Anna paused, thinking over her mother's words. It would be pretty cool to rub it into Harper Mellar's face. "Mmhmm..." replied Anna, mildly interested but retaining her nonchalance all the same.