Falling Through

Chapter One

 “Kairi Mira Parker! The bus will be here in twenty minutes!” A voice floated up to the second-story bedroom where I awoke with a start from my dream. I rubbed my eyes hazily, as if trying to rub away the feelings of the dream. I could still feel the arctic wind lashing at my face. Being a worrisome girl of fifteen years, I had spent my night studying for a test. Getting out of bed to face the reality of the day was not something I was excited about.

            “Kairi!” A demanding and forceful voice yelled from the other side of the door. “Get up!” It was my little sister, Rebel. Rebel was ten, the second-youngest in the family. Her name fit her to the T. She was constantly in her “holier-than-thou” attitude and she often threw adolescent temper tantrums and screaming fits to get what she wanted. Her dark green eyes gave her the letters necessary to spell out “trouble.”

            “You pest! Go away!” I yelled back at her. I was startled at the sound of my own voice, which grasped for clarity. It closely resembled the raspy voice that haunted me from my dream. I shivered eerily and hoisted myself up out of bed.

            Once I was downstairs, my stepmother, Jan, began to lecture me about being punctual. I tuned out and in secret tried to remember my own mother’s sweet voice. My mother had died when I was only eleven years old. My father had remarried not six months later. Jan was a robust woman; her nose was hooked sharply and her mouth made her look prideful the way it was constantly set in a frown. Her skin was sickly ashen and desiccated, in which made her resemble a gnarly oak tree. The pale green of Jan’s eyes were as the tumbleweeds blowing aimlessly and impotently around a dry desert, shifting unpleasantly from here to there. I, ignoring my stepmother’s lecture, went back upstairs to get my backpack and brush my hair. I gazed at myself in the mirror, studying my own emotionless and dry brown eyes. When enough time had passed, I went back down stairs to wait for the arrival of the school bus.

            I was the middle girl out of my family of three and remained in the middle even when Jan’s family joined mine, making seven children. The oldest three were my blood sister Andrea and my two stepbrothers Ian and Jeffery. The younger children were Heather, my stepsister, Rebel, and my youngest sibling, Rob. I always found myself excluded from my family as if I was watching them from beyond a window. No one really seemed to show any sort of affection for me or to even care, for that matter. They never even noticed when I would slip outside to walk alone in the woods at night. The quiet sounds and the blackness of the night enveloped my senses, almost as if the woods were a living creature I had fallen in love with. This was one of my greatest pleasures, one she never shared with anyone.

            I floated through my school day on a cloud; ignoring the ceaseless chatter that filled the halls around me. The first time I really spoke that day was in my American History class. I just happened to be day dreaming when my teacher began a pop quiz.

            “Kairi Parker,” my teacher, Mr. Brewster said haughtily. I snapped out of my reverie.

            “Yes, sir?”

            “I asked you a question.” He replied shortly. His small, grey eyes smothered me with looks of despise. Behind me, I heard some soft snickers.

            “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Mr. Brewster disregarded me with snobbish horror and turned to face Faith Ackerman; a girl at wit’s end with the brain power of Albert Einstein, the popularity of the A-crowd, and an arrogant persona that seemed to match Mr. Brewster’s.

            “Ms. Ackerman,” He began, his voice softening with favoritism. “Tell me; what year did the United States buy the Louisiana Purchase from France?” Faith tossed her platinum blonde curls behind her shoulder and pursed her lips.