The Shade of Water

Chapter 2

The alarm clock woke me up at 6:30 in the morning, like every other day. Except today wasn't any other day. I'd have to walk into school like nothing happened the day before. Like I didn't kiss one of the most popular athletes in the school, and like I didn't run out of school crying.

But for now, I needed to take a shower. I stepped out of the bed, which creaked as I sat up. My feet hit the cold floor, and I flinched before getting use to it. My towel hung on the back of our door, where three towels hung. I grabbed mine before trudging out the room.

Caleb and Noah were running around the hallway, and I had to watch where I was going to make sure that they didn't end up running into me. Once I got to the bathroom, I grabbed the knob and tried to pull the door open, but it wouldn't budge. I could hear running water on the other side of the door.

"Who's in there?" I asked, frustrated. I always got the bathroom when I woke up.

"Go away," A voice said from the other side. "I'm taking a shower."

"Well I know that, idiot," I said. I recognized the voice as Audrey's. She was in the eighth grade, so she went to a different school as me. She was a little prick, a little whiny prick. Audrey was Jane and James' biological daughter, an exact replica of Jane.

"Shut up," She called.

"It's my time to shower, so get out of there," I told her.

"Not until I finish conditioning," She said. "Now go away, or I'll tell my mom," She threatened.

"Your such a little-"

"What's going on here?" Jane's voice asked from behind me.

I turned around to face her. She was in her pajamas, since she stayed home all day. She didn't really have anything else to do aside from laundry and stuff. Aside from that, she runs a blog talking about what a saint she is fostering all these kids. What a fraud.

"Your daughter took the bathroom when I needed to take a shower," I told her.

"Well, she has a good reason too," Jane told me. "Today is the day she's giving her presentation."

"Oh yeah, the one Silas wrote for her," I said, referring to the paper Silas, my foster brother, wrote. He's a year younger than me, a kid genius. Jane made him create Audrey a whole presentation for school, something about the government. I just hope Silas purposely messed up somwhere so that Audrey can fail.

"Yes, now go do something else. Today's a big day for her and she doesn't need you messing it up. Also, I called Jasmine. You'll be having a meeting with your conselor and her some time today," She told me.

"Great," I said, turning my back to her and walking away to my bedroom. Grace and Eleanor were still asleep, since their school started later than mine did.

Finally, Audrey got out of the shower. That gave me just enough time to take one and basically throw something on and run out of the house.

I took my shower, hurrying to make sure I wasn't running late. Once I finished, I walked down to my room, opening the door. Eleanor and Grace were already gone, probably downstairs eating. I pulled out some clothes and threw them on, checking myself in the mirror just to make sure that I looked decent.

There was a feeling, something that would bug me for a while if I didn't wear something nice. My mom was a fashion designer, so she designed clothes for all the big clothing companies around the world. People looked up to her, including me. I use to try to dress myself like her, and I guess it stuck. My outfits always have to be checked from top to bottom, even if it was like today.