Accidentally On Purpose (ONC Entry)

Chapter One

       All along the backyard, the giant trees billowed in the wind. She stared out the window, her fingers drumming against the table, eyes lost in some other universe. Dev had been this way since she arrived in Michigan. Just being there felt odd. To know that this would someday be a permanent home for her sent bile climbing up her throat.

She didn't completely reject the idea when it was first presented to her. But the more she found out about it, the less it appealed to her. New people, new school, new everything. She hated change more than she hated being miserably stagnant, enough to convince her that she'd be fine right where she was. But according to her mother, Dev had no choice. It was either that or find someone else to live with. She would be lying if she said that she hand't considered it.

Her Aunt Lindy wasn't helping either. She stared at her silently, always with a knowing glint in her eye and a subtle smile that twisted up at the left corner of her mouth. It was both comforting and unsettling. "Quit brooding," she said finally, hands crossed patiently on the table.

Dev sat straight up in her seat and shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not brooding. I'm thinking."

"Well whatever it is, stop doing it. You're frowning. That'll give you wrinkles, you know."

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find it in her to laugh. Her eyebrows remained knitted together and the scowl she was wearing only grew.

"Look, I know the news of your moving here is difficult for you to grasp. But this is winter break! By all means, enjoy it!"

Dev sighed and slumped back in her chair, defeated. "I honestly don't think anything could take my mind off of the move."

Her aunt arched an eyebrow, smile twisting into a grin. Her eyes widened with the promise of excitement. "That sounds like a challenge."

"Everything sounds like a challenge to you," she rebutted. It was true: paintball, cake decorating, chinchilla portrait painting. You name it, and she'd trash-talk you so harshly that you'd let her win just to make it stop.

"Why don't you go on a walk with me?" Aunt Lidny's blue orbs gleamed.

"It's seven p.m. on a winter night in Michigan. Do you want to bring the flashlights and snow gear or should I?"

"Good point." She stared up at the ceiling for a moment. "I could help you unpack."

"That's the last thing I want to do right now. I'll just—" She took a deep breath, standing up and distancing herself gradually from the table. "I'll just go find Casey."

Casey, her twin brother, was the biggest pain-in-the-butt sibling a person could ever have. He couldn't go one day without reminding Dev that he was two minutes older than her, and that—by some unknown decree—made him the "cool one." To be honest, she didn't care, but the triumphant look he wore on his face when he said it was enough to make her blood boil.

"Casey!" She called as she walked slowly up the stairs, hand gliding over the railing. When he didn't respond, she quickened her footsteps. That always annoyed him.

"What?" He replied back. His voice was ringing with annoyance.

"I came to ask you what you were doing." She turned the corner into the second guest bedroom. Before she could even see what he was doing, she was hit with a smell so pungent she thought it might evaporate whatever working braincells she had left. Dev threw her arm up over her nose in disgust. "Ugh! What died in here?"

He was sat down on his bed, lacing up his snow boots. "What do you mean?"

She let out an annoyed growl. "What do you mean what do I mean?" Dev picked through a pile of clothes in the corner, fingers clenched tightly over her nose. "Have you washed any of your clothes?"