She's a Keeper

Chapter 1

- - - SHE'S A KEEPER - - -

As the car turned the corner, we hit a bump in the road which abruptly ended my sleep. I looked outside the car window to see rows and rows of large white houses obstructing my view of the forest behind them. Glancing over to my dad who was driving, I noticed his expression was weary and his eyes were focused on the long road ahead. As I yawned, he moved his eyes to me and his face softened, giving me a gentle smile.

"Not long now, pickle," he mumbled, as his eyes returned to the road. 

The houses were less frequent now and the forest was thicker. Making one last turn down a narrow road, we pulled up beside an old, beaten down house, clearly in need of some work. 

"Seriously," I asked my dad, "this is it?"

"I know it's not much now, Sweetie, but it's a work in progress." 

I looked up at the house and sighed. "This is more than just a 'work in progress'," I muttered to myself as I got my bags out of the car and made my way towards the door.

"Your room is up the stairs and to the right," my dad says as he shuts the door behind us, "go get some rest." He kisses me on the forehead before going through one of the battered doors down the hallway.

I opened the door to my room and immediately noticed that, although very plain and unfurnished, it was extremely big. I put my bags down and collapsed on the bed and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was fast asleep.

- - -

"Wake up dick-head! We have a lot to do today." my dad says throwing a pillow at me. I lift my head up to see him standing smugly in the doorway. I roll away from him and groan loudly. This, however, does not stop him. He walks around and begins to tickle me vigourously.

"ahh stop ah ah aha ha it hurts! Ok- okay I'll get up, I'll get up!" I laughed before hitting him lightly on the arm as if I was tapping out in a boxing match.

"Okay well, I'll go make you some breakfast, be down in 10," he said ruffling my hair. He then proceeded to leave the room and I sat in my bed from about 3 more minutes trying to fully wake myself up. After I managed to pull myself out of bed, I fished in my bags for some slippers before leaving my room and going downstairs.

- - -

As I left the room, my nose was met by the thick smell of bacon and eggs and I heard my tummy rumble. 

Yum. I might be biased but, my Dad makes the best bacon in the entire universe. I'm not joking.

Anyway, upon entering the kitchen, my dad hands me a plate with bacon, a fried egg and a slice of bread. Plain, white bread. No butter, just bread. I looked up at him as if to say "really dad? Plain bread?" but he just turned away and carried on cooking.

"This is all we had and beggars can't be choosers so go sit down and enjoy your bread Scarlett," he said over the sound of spitting oil. 

"But Dad-"

"Sorry Scarlett but there are starving people that would kill for that plain bread so just-"

"There are no chairs... or a table..." pointing to the 'dining room' full or boxes and paper, then looking back at my dad, almost for an answer.

He sighed loudly and put his hand on his forehead. I could sense he was stressed so I went over, put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a hug. 

"It's okay, we'll make do." I smiled and walked over to the boxes moving them around so that they acted as a table then I sat down next to it and began to eat my breakfast. My dad eased up a little and after he finished cooking he came and sat by me to eat his breakfast. After a small awkward silence, we ended up talking about the plane journey over.