Killer Child

Chapter 2 - River

Garfield meowed, making me jump out of my skin and draw a line right through Emma Watson's face. I sighed. In Art we were all supposed to draw the face of our favourite actor or actress, but there was no way I was going to get this finished with Garfield meowing every half an hour.

"Look, you've already been fed!" I growled, grabbing my rubber and furiously trying to rub out the line. "So will you please shut UP?!"

Garfield looked at me - you could practically see his eyebrows raising -  before flopping down on my bed. Ignoring him, I looked at my work. The line hadn't completely gone and now there were creases from where I'd used the rubber too hard. Leaning back in my chair, I glanced at my watch. 1:30pm. I had spent nearly 2 hours on this and I hadn't even done Emma's hair yet. I cracked my knuckles and stared out the window. It still spooked me about last night, with me hearing laughter and a shadow of a figure on the roof of the building opposite. I didn't bother tell Mum and Dad because they would over react and probably call the police to give me a body-guard.

Sometimes being the daughter of the richest people in town had it's downsides, like all the popular people thinking you're like them when all I really want to do is read a book in the library. As well as that my parents were constantly worrying that I was going to be kidnapped and held for ransom. Suddenly, I spotted Mr Lawson - my neighbour - walking up the road, whistling. This reminded me of something and I bolted downstairs, grabbing The Sun newspaper off the table on the landing. The postman had delivered it to us saying that Mr Lawson had been taken off the delivery schedule. I burst out onto the street, nearly crashing into Mr Lawson.

"Here's... your... paper..." I gasped, clutching my ribs while holding the newspaper out. Boy, I need to get fitter.

"River!" He gasped, his mouth dropping open. I stood there awkwardly, rubbing the back of my neck with the newspaper still held out in my hand. He finally seemed to realise what he was doing and snapped his mouth shut before grabbing the newspaper from me.

"Er... well... thanks..." He spluttered. Then he speed-walked away, ocassionally looking over his shoulder at me, as if he couldn't believe I was here. Confused, I turned to go back inside my house but suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a boy looking at me from behind a comic. He had brown hair which flopped over his eyes and was leaning against the wall of the bakery. He noticed me watching and ducked back behind the comic, going slightly red. What I would usually do would be to get all self-concious and run back inside, but not today. Instead I bounded over and stood infront of him with my arms crossed.

"Why are you looking at me?" I demanded, holding his gaze. I saw that he had hazel eyes and if I hadn't been so annoyed, I would've thought he looked quite handsome. He quickly averted his eyes and scratched the back of his head.

"I wasn't looking at you." He muttered, lying through his teeth.

I tried doing the look which Mum always gave me when she wanted me to tell the truth, but it didn't work. I asked another question. "What's your name?"

"None of your business." He snapped, before glancing around him. "I'm sorry but I really need to go--"

"Where are you going?"

He glared at me. "Keep out of this, River." Then he chucked the comic in the gutter and jogged away. My breath caught in my throat. How the hell did he know my name? I'm sure I've never seen him before in my entire life. Suddenly, I heard Mum singing from her bedroom window. I grinned. She seemed much more happier now days now she was having a baby. I remembered last night when my parents came in to break the news to me. I really hope Mum has a girl, then I could help Mum dress her up in cute in dresses. With all the thoughts about Otto banished from my head. I skipped back inside.

From across the road, Otto watched River skip into her house.