Taken

Chapter 1

 Prologue

It was another cold Morning in Sweetwater Ohio. The window of 113 Clottersville Drive was covered in a fine coat of ice. The cool air drifted through the chimney into the house. Upstairs everyone was asleep. Little Ramona dreamed of the perfect boy. Her parents dreamed blissfully of sending her to collage. But, poor Melonie dreamed of Felix Teagan. Felix, and holding him in her arms.

Chapter One

POV: Melonie Smith

My alarm blared in my head: it was 5:30 am. It was the first day after winter break and the start of a new semester. Lately, my grades had been dropping. So, I was not at all looking forward to the new semester. It would be just another thing I have to worry about. I had to worry about pleasing my friends, impressing Felix and my demanding parents. I don’t have time to worry about anything else.

I got up and slowly rose off the bed. Ramona banged madly on the door. "Not everyone in the world wakes up at five-thirty!" I listened as her footsteps receded. I sighed and looked into the mirror across from the bed. My hair was a wild mess and my makeup from the other night was smeared. The Party had been wild and I hadn't gotten in till late and didn't have time to shower. Gross.

My clock read 5:45- did I have time to shower? I could always take a bag of lip gloss and blush to school and finish my makeup there. Usually I took long showers, and I spent even longer time picking out what I was going to wear. Makeup was the longest process of all and had to be done after both. I weighed pros and cons in my head. I could take my makeup bag to school and do it there, or I could skip a shower and just get dressed and do my makeup.

I groaned and collapsed. I glanced at the clock- 5:55. Nope, no time to take a shower now. Hopefully, my perfume would mask anything unwanted. I made my way to the bathroom, but the door was locked and the light inside was on. I banged on the bathroom door. "Ramona, if you don’t get out I will take away all your dolls till your eighteen!" I threatened.

"You woke me up loser! If you went to the bathroom first instead of staring at yourself in the mirror for 15 minutes you would have had the bathroom!" She taunted and I silently kicked myself. After 5 more minutes she slowly opened the door and pushed past me. I glared at her back. Rushing in, I found myself falling onto the wet tile.

"RAMONA!" I screamed and heard her laugh as I lifted myself off the floor. Beside me was my pile of clothes sitting in a wet puddle. Great. I wanted to kill my little sister right then and there.

"Having fun?" Ramona smiled in the doorway. Screeching, I lunged at her as she skipped out of reach, taunting me.

That was the end of our "Battle of the bathroom"; she galloped down the steps and I heard her slamming cupboards downstairs. My clothes were wet, so I had to find new ones. Yet another setback- I was going to be late to school and if I was, I wouldn't have enough time to do my makeup. Rushing, I grabbed something from my drawers and went to put it on.

Looking down I was mortified. Yellow top with black jeans. I didn't have time to change. 6:20- I ran to the bathroom steadying my self on the wet floor. Frantically, I looked for my makeup and hair brush. They were nowhere to be seen. As a last hope, I opened the shower curtain. There, on the floor of the tub lay my hairbrush and makeup covered in purple shampoo. "Ramona! What did you do to my stuff?" I turned on the water and tried to rinse them off. It was no use. The shampoo had turned my make up to a gooey paste. "You totally wrecked it you brat!" I screamed as I ran downstairs.

"You look like a bumble bee" Ramona laughed and pointed at my outfit. Then she saw how mad I was and her smile faded. "Uh... Melonie? You okay?"

I wanted so badly to kill her. My eyes flicked to the set of knives on the counter. "You totally ruined my makeup. You owe me a new set and I want yours. Hurry up I need to get ready Now!" I looked at the stove time. 6:30-"Never mind." I said sighing. I didn't have time to fix any of my ruined makeup in the bathroom and Ramona couldn’t give me hers in time to leave. “I will get you back for this you little snake."

Silently I hoped and wished for one of my friends to have theirs- at least a hairbrush. Quickly I slipped on my Ugg's and my pea coat, realizing how ridiculous I looked. My hair was matted together and my outfit looked like an insect. All the way to school I heard jokes like "it's not Halloween," and "buzz off!” At least at school I could finally escape my roach of a sister. 

    At school I searched the campus for Felix, Praying he wouldn't see me first. I saw him, he was talking to a large group of friends by an old tree. 

  I ran in the other direction, running into Logan Reese. He was one of the jocks. His sister was a cheerleader. She must have a hairbrush. "Hey! Do you know were your sister is?" I asked.

   "'Yeah. By the way, Felix is coming this way. May want to find that hairbrush very soon." I whirled behind me. Felix smiled, then it slowly faded. Oh no, no no no. I ran into school. I found Angel in the gym.

  "Angel! I need your hairbrush! Ramona trashed mine. Oh! Makeup, can I use some of that too?" I was talking a mile a minute. 

       Angel put her hands on my shoulders. "Slow down there girl! Okay, tell me what happened." She leaned against her locker door, arms crossed over her chest. 

        I took a deep breath and tried to slow down my speech. "I need to borrow your brush. Makeup too if you have any. Ramona put shampoo all over mine and when I tried to rince it off, in hind sight that was pretty dumb of me huh?" Angel nodded. "Anyway, so when I was done reruining my makeup, it was time to go. Angel you gotta help me! I cant get Felix to like me looking like a buzzing bumblebee!" I felt tears in my eyes and hoped I wouldn’t cry in the middle of the hall. 

        Angel input her combo and opened her locker with a flourish. With a "Tada!" She handed me a bright pink makeup bag. "You know," Angel said. "You and Logan would make a nice couple. “I glared at her and she raised her hands defensively. I dug into the makeup bag, occasionally asking her to help me apply or asking what went with the black and yellow mix I was sporting today.