Camille.

Chapter One.

Seventeen Years Later

“Camille! Camille can you please come help me with your brother so I can cook breakfast?” I groaned and finished applying my mascara before heading downstairs to help my mom.

“Thanks sweetie. He’s being very… himself… this morning.” Mom said as I took my brother, Cameron, from her and set him on my hip.

Cameron is four years old and looks exactly like my mom. They both have thick heads of pin straight, bright red hair, straight noses, and skin like ivory. The only thing Cameron got from my dad is his eyes. They’re a shocking shade of ocean blue and sparkle like diamonds.

Sometimes I catch myself being jealous of my little brother. He looks like a perfect combination of my parents while I look nothing like either of them. I have curly brown hair with porcelain skin and spring green eyes. A constellation of freckles adorn my ski slope shaped nose and I’m barely five foot, four inches tall. All of this is the exact opposite of either one of my parents.

“Camie?” my little brother called from his place on my hip.

“What’s up, Cameron?” I replied, snapping out of my reverie.

“Why are you looking at me funny?” Cameron asked.

“Just thinking about how adorable you are.” I teased, knowing he hated when I called him adorable.

I listened to his rant about how he’s not adorable he’s just “a little bit cute.” He always went into this lecture when I called him adorable but I did it anyways just to spite him. Cameron continued until my mom called us in from the kitchen to eat breakfast. As soon as I entered the kitchen the smell of bacon assaulted my nose and my mouth began to water.

I sat at our little table with Cameron across from me and my dad to my left. As my mom sat Cameron’s plate of bacon and eggs with strawberry jelly on them at his place, I poured myself some tea from the kettle my dad had set on the table after he made his own mug and became rather interested in watching my mother move around the kitchen. While I stirred in a ton of sugar my mom grabbed my plate and set it in front of me then sat down at her own spot at the table and began to finally sip at her first cup of coffee.

Before long my breakfast burrito was gone and my cup of tea had been emptied. I picked up my plate and cup, set them in the sink, and headed back upstairs to my room. I had ten minutes before I needed to leave for school. While I waited, I laid on my back on my bed and just stared at the ceiling.

The walls of my room were chalkboard, and quotes from books, songs, and anything else covered all free space on three of them in white chalk. The fourth wall was covered in a huge, colorful drawing of an elephant with smaller drawings of flowers, birds, and abstract smudges all over its skin. My mom told me once it was the best art I’d ever done, although I’d done it when I was seven and my skills had become much more advanced in the years since.

There was very little furniture in the room. Only a bed, a bedside table, and a custom shelving unit for my art supplies. The bed was queen sized, with a white headboard extending to the ceiling. It was positioned in a corner across from the elephant and covered in light blue sheets that matched the main skin color of the animal on the wall. All of the pillows were different colors that also corresponded with the drawing. The white bedside table sat next to the bed and supported an iHome that acted as an alarm clock, phone charger, and music system. The only other thing in the room was the large, glass case that held a ton of art supplies inside.

When it was finally time for me to head to the hell called Hollow High School for the Artistically Gifted, I grabbed my backpack and phone then headed downstairs once more.