Imperfect

Chapter 1

I suck in a breath as the chilly pond water filled my boots. The Water is freezing, and the air was chilly and still. The pond was a few minutes run from my house and I'd been coming here since before I could walk. My parents always loved the lack of other people. But that's what happens when no one else is aware of a place.

When I was only two my Dad had made me promise that I would never tell anyone about the pond. It's really a joke and Dad only recently told me he was trying to quote some sort of film. He's an annoying joker that way.

Dad's always so relaxed. So is Mum, she loves just about everything in the world, but wasn't very lucky in the family department when she was younger.

"Charlie!" My little sister, Stacy, calls from around the bank of the pond.

"What?" I yell back, not caring to go find her.

I've had to rescue her from sinking mud a few times before but usually she's so full of beans that she never gets too stuck in one place and can keep herself safe.

"I found a frog!" She yells.

I sigh; it's so like her to do something like that. We've all seen hundreds of frogs, true, but for some reason she just keeps pointing them out.

I guess it's a habit, as Mum hates them, and Stacy likes to scare her. I can't say that I've never done it myself, but I don't make a habit out of it.

My parents are probably still at home, talking about the situation.

You see Granddad just 'passed away' and they need to go over to England, his former home, to clear out his house.

They seem to think that seeing his old house will mess up mine and Stacy's heads and make us depressed, even though we've not been there for, approximately, eight years, which was when Stacy was four so I doubt she even remembers what the house looked like, or that Granddad was bipolar. That's another reason Mum's child hood was so bad.

Either way, our parents told us about their plans to leave us here, both I and Stacy argued like mad about it and finally we managed to come to an agreement: We go for the Christmas holidays and visit London and stuff, then we go to Granddad's house to clear it out.

So, we are now going to England for Christmas and both my parents have nothing they can do about it. That's partly because Stacy is such a good actor, I mean she literately burst into tears when she was told we weren't allowed to go.

Then of course she had Mum and Dad wrapped around her little finger. Next thing I know, we've planned a holiday to London.

I'm actually quite glad that Stacy only uses that for certain things-like when a grandparent dies- because I am pretty sure she could wheedle just about anything out of our parents.

Anyway, our parents asked us for some privacy and that's what led to us going to the pond.

My jeans are completely soaked and my hands are freezing, but I'm happy to be here, it's peaceful and quiet.

The water makes me shiver and I move my feet in my boots to make sure that I can still feel my toes.

"Hey, look!" Stacy yelled, running round the bank of dirt with her hands cupped around what's probably the frog.

She makes a lot of noise and kicks up water at me as she wades through the shallower place. It takes her barely a second to misjudge the drop off point and she sinks almost waist deep into the water and I can't help but laugh as she screams and jumps back out onto the bank.

"Ha, very funny." She laughs herself this time, but then looks around her like the frog might still be near. "Aw! I lost him."

"With your track record I bet it was a girl." I joked.