Cooling down

Chapter 1

Angeliques pov:

Its twelve o’clock and Miranda and George Carmichael were out on their privet tennis court whacking balls back and forth over a net.

To the side of the court was a beautiful 16 year old girl. Her long golden hair pulled back into a neat ponytail with a blue hair scrunchy. She wore a short, white tennis dress with light blue piping around the neckline and down the side of the dress with a pair of white sneakers. Her tanned skin and big brown eyes went well with this combo.

 She was looking into the distance as if thinking about something. It wasn’t uncommon for her to vague out and stare into space, especially recently.

One of her hands was fiddling with the string on her tennis dress, and the other hand was lightly stroking her yellow canary who was sitting on a small, metal stand that was welded to the bench the girl was sitting on.

"Angelique, honey, it’s your turn." Called her father.

George Carmichael was a very wealthy business man in his late 50s, he owned a large electronics company, and he had short, grey slicked-back hair and mostly wore suits. Of course when he played golf and tennis, (which he often did) he wore a white polo shirt and knee-length shorts.

 Miranda Carmichael worked as a professional ballerina and taught classes for Monroe High, the privet school which Angelique attended. Mrs. Carmichael had long, wavy blonde hair and thin green eyes. She had obviously had a lot of plastic surgery on her face; her lips were huge, she had a thin and pointed nose, her cheek bones were thick looking and high up her face, not to mention the fact that her eyebrows were basically up to her hair-line! Angelique obviously got most of her looks from her mothers side. Needless to say it was an extremely wealthy family.

"Angelique? Angelique, are you here or up in space?" Mr. Carmichael walked over to Angelique and snapped his hands together loudly in her face. The young girls eyes widened as she jumped up to see what had alerted her.

"Yes Daddy? Is it my turn?"

Mr. Carmichael shook his head slightly and looked back up at his daughter.

"Go inside and get some sleep. You obviously need it."

"But Daddy, I'm fine!"

"No buts! You obviously haven’t been going to bed early enough and school starts again in two days!” His voice growled.

"I’m sixteen! You don’t need to baby me all the time!” Angelique crossed her arms, stuck her neck up high and trotted off the tennis court, and into the house through the wide back double doors.

As soon as she was inside and had shut the doors behind her, her eyes slowly closed as she slumped against the door to the ground.

She sighed to herself, shook her head and stood up. She started off down the long hall, with maroon and green wall paper on either side. She walked on the dark red carpet past huge portraits of ancestors and riches, up a large double staircase and down a few more halls until she reached her bedroom door.

Angelique stood about three feet away from it just staring at the dark-brown patterned wood, watching the swirls of flowers twisting and coiling over the and around the door. She quickly snapped from her childish daze when she had realized her bird was still outside! She started to jog down the halls and stair case retracing her steps when she came face-to-face with her mum, whom had a little yellow bird on her head. Her arms were tightly folded and she had one eyebrow up. Well slightly higher than usual.

"Looking for something?" Mrs. Carmichael questioned.

"Oh... Thanks mummy." Angelique cupped the bird in her hands, spun around and rann back up the stairs.

When she got to the top of the large stair case, she walked to her door, put her bird in one hand and twisted the door knob open with the other. The door opened to a vast, spacious room. A huge round canopy top bed was placed in the middle, up against the far wall.  It was covered in silk cushions and frilled blue sheets. Across from the bed was an entire wall of cupboards and bookshelves except for the overly massive built in TV smack in the middle of it all.

Angelique walked over to her desk that was on the far side of the left wall. There was a great big window above it with heavy navy blue tied back curtains. She put the bird inside a huge cage next to the desk. On the desk was a few things; a glass of water, school books, a laptop and a couple of small unnecessary items.

"Sorry for leave you behind back there, Sairys. I haven't been myself lately." Angelique whispered, her parents would think she was mad if they heard her talking to an animal. The bird gave out a little peep, which made Angelique smile warmly.

She pulled out the chair from in front of her pine desk, sat on it and stuck her hand underneath the bottom of the desk and started feel around for something.

Her long purl coloured finger nails scraped along the wood for a second, TING. Her little finger had hit a piece of metal. Repositioning her fingers around the cold rectangle she tugged slightly. It took a couple of pulls but eventually the small handle came unstuck. Angelique tugged it once more and with a thud a little wooden box fall onto the ground below her desk.

She ducked under, slightly knocking the desk and picked the box up. She placed it on her desk and studied it for a moment. She was in another daze, but this time she really was thinking about something.

The things crossing her train of thought were mostly what was this box? What was inside? A photo? A letter? Maybe it was something special from her grandmother June? Why was Angelique not allowed to open the box? Why wasn’t she to tell anyone about it?

What secrets were to be reveled lying behind this lid?

What could be such a big of a secret that she was told not to tell anyone about her grandmas little box? She had always had thoughts to peek inside but she was never strong enough to act on them, afraid, worried and all a little too excited, she did want this adventure to ever end! Little did she know this moment, time and day was just the beginning...