I Think I Love You... But You Kind of Scare me (The Academy Series)

-00- I Think I Love You... But You Kind of Scare me

Life.

It's too complicated, too complex. Why can't it be more... simple?

I wondered this as the sound of the heavy train rattling along the tracks took up all the room in my brain. The vibrations went through my elbow, which was leaning on the sticky window sill, up my arm and finally spreading across the rest of my body.

So where was this high speed train taking me? Well it was taking me to a Dad I'd never met, one that I deeply resented. The Dad that had deserted Mom when she was pregnant with me and Ja' Mie, my twin sister. Mom says she still thanks her lucky stars that Grandma and Pop were so understanding and took her back under their wing. Although she now had to deal with the ever present cursing of her Dad upon the Banks.

Curse? Sounds far fetched right? Well it's true, believe me when I say that.

It all started when my Mom and Dad got married, a few years before me and Ja'Mie even entered the picture. Firstly, our Grandparents took away our Mom's inheritance, leaving Mom as broke as ever after a rich and lavish life. It hit her quite hard, as her three older brothers had also disowned my Mom. They were forced into it, and at first they disliked the decision strongly, but after a while, the decision sunk in.

Grandma and Pa detested Dad.

"He's a con-artist," Mom said as she recounted the story to me. "Mother and Father were disgusted."

She have a sad sigh, before walking over to the stove and taking the kettle off it's coaster.

Next, after Grandma and Pa disowned Mom, Dad lost his job with the best newspaper in the area for scamming one of the people he'd interviewed. After that, he couldn't get any honest work, so he'd stay at home with Mom. Slowly, the money that they'd saved up collectively began to drain away, devastating Mom further. Then, Mom fell pregnant, and Dad left her.

"He was never a children-type of person..." mumbled Mum, sipping hot chocolate and stroking my hair.

Grandma and Pa accepted Mom's sobbing apologies, and let her live with them in their stately mansion. Everything was good, according to Mom, until she had Ja'Mie and I. We both looked so much like Dad, that for a few months, we were raised by only the maid, Penelope, before Mom could bare to look at us.

"I'm sorry for not being there," choked Mum. I looked up at her, and hugged at her arm with my tiny three year old fingers.

The last straw had come when Ja'Mie disappeared mysteriously, and then returned just as suddenly. She could hardly breathe, only two, and she died in my Mom's shaking arms.

When I was four, Mom went into a coma-like state. She would only stay in her room, crying over and over.

Sleeping.

Eating.

Vomiting.

Penelope said that my Mom was just very sick, and that she'd be better in no time. She tried to reassure me that Mom loved me, that I mattered to her. Twelve years later, she resurfaces.

A letter from Dad has arrived and he's demanding to see me.

So that's how I got to this place; this horrible, boring, stupid train.

The Banks' curse.

"The train will soon be stopping at Shingle," a bored voice sounded over the train intercom, "Travellers to this destination are advised to remove their luggage from the racks now,"

I stood, opening the compartment door and swinging out of the door, and right into two guys.

"I'm so sorry!" I cried, pulling myself off the guys and trying to straighten my back and regain any elegance and poise I'd had before. I felt my neck kink painfully as I quickly tried to shake my hair out a bit.