The Striking Tale of Mandy LaCrosse

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Eleven Years Later,

My alarm goes off scaring me as usual; I quickly sat up, black hair washing in my face. Blood rushes from my head, leaving me temporary dizzy. I yawn and feel a familiar furry body on my side. I look over and smile, Jonvian lazily yawns and stairs at me, green eyes glazed.

"Hi sir, how are you today" I giggle.

He looks up and meows, gets up to stretch all of his black hair standing on end. Then jumps down from my bed making no sound.

"He is my little ninja" I giggle,  I smile contently replacing the early mourning frown. Then I remember that my alarm is going off, I look around and find the annoying device, then press the snooze button.

I sigh, finally! Relief from that horrid sound.

Jonvian obviously bored with my usual routine goes to the door, and snakes his paw under it shaking it. I push my blanket off of my body, and quickly get up too stretch, then go to the door to open it. Jonvian appeased at the moment walks out of the room, with a loud meow in a cat swagger, amusingly for the litter box down stairs in the kitchen.

I smile, and then go to my dresser to get the clothes for the day. "Hmm, I wonder should I wear tank top number one, or tank top number two" I grumble. All of my other shirts are dirty in the hamper, crap this sucks laundry tomorrow, I conplain to myself. I decided on tank top number two, a pink tank top with a peace sign and "full" next to it in black. Next I find a pair of clean blue jeans, then as I am putting them on I hear a meow. I look over and I notice Jonvian came back up with a pair of clean matching green socks in his mouth. I finish putting the jeans on, and take the socks from Jonvian making sure to say thank you. I look at the alarm clock again, and see it is 7:12 AM.

"Well Jonvian, I am lucky I showered yesterday" I sigh.

School starts at 7:35 A.M, and I have to walk.

Jonvian meows as usual, then I hear the door open downstairs. Jovian's ears perk up, and he abandons me again to see who arrived home. I, unfortunately did not have that luxury, it only took two seconds for my groggy brain to put two and two together. No one came home yesterday, and I guess my dad decided 7:12 AM was as good as time as any to arrive at the house. I retrieved my Converse and put them on. I go to the bathroom, and look in the mirror my hair is messy from sleep, and my green eyes look groggy as well. I put on my makeup, and as I walk out of the bathroom I see my father. Eyes red, pale faced and holding his head.

"Do not close that door"! he belts out.

I get out of his way, and he runs to the toilet and throws up. I simply sigh, and say I am going to school. He makes some sort of grunt, which I take as acknowledgment. I then go to the front door where Jonvian is waiting for me. He mews and I give him a scratch on the head.

"Bye-bye Jon-Jon love ya, see you when I get home" I sing.

I open the wood door, and enter onto the concrete stoop outside. As the door closes, I see a black blur fly through the opening.

“Jonvian why, on the first day”! I complain.

I look hopelessly around, but see him nowhere in sight. Then I see the green fern bush twitch.

“Aha, I have you now” I say in triumph.

I sneak behind the fern bush, careful not to make any sound. I crouch low to the ground, and look under the leaves of the fern too see a shadow about the size of Jonvian.

“Are my shoes really that interesting” a deep voice laughs.

I jump up startled, then I fall on my bottom; a dust cloud surrounds me.

“What the hell”! I screech. “Who the hell”! I look up to see a tall, muscular, brown haired teen boy, he holds out his hand.

I blush and push it away, great Mandy, you just meet this boy and you are covered in dirt on the ground, I thought giving my self a mental face palm. I get up and brush off all of the grime that I had collected on my fall.

“Um… I was not looking at your shoes; I am looking for my cat.” Mandy this boy probably thinks your some sort of shoe stealing freak, and your best defense is that you’re looking for your cat, I criticise.

I look at his face now that I am up; it is not a bad view. He has blue sparkling eyes that you could just get lost in, his face was chiseled and free of any sort of blemish.

“Sorry, I guess I offended you, so is this your cat” he holds Jonvian with both hands. What the hell, I thought alarmed? How did he get Jonvian. I look around astounded, that the boy somehow acquired my cat.

“Where did he come from” I quickly snatch Jonvian away from the strange boy.

Jonvian looks up at me, and mews, probably trying to warm up to me after he escaped, then embarrassed me in front of a cute, no hot boy.

“Well now I am the one who is offended, where is my thank you” he smirks.

“You're right I’m sorry, my name is Mandy, what is yours”? I ask. I adjust Jonvian in my arms; I put my hand on his bum, leaning him on my arm, allowing his paw to snake around my neck for support.

“My name is Dillian, and sorry that was rude of me” he puts his hand out for a handshake.

I adjust Jonvian in my arms, so I can shake it. His hands were huge compared to mine, there rough heat engulfing my hand. There was a strange silence, now I am just being awkward. In an attempt to break the silence I try to think of something to say, luckily Dillian said something first.

“You should probably take your cat inside, so it does not try to escape again.” he laughs.

I look around and want to smack myself, why did I not do this earlier.

“I was just about to say that, will I see you later”? I inquire.

“Maybe what school do you go too” he asks, winking his shiny blue eye.

“Howard Heights, I know weird name I have no idea why they would choose that.” I continued, trying to keep the flow of the conversation going.

“Hmm… well… yes I am enrolled there too” he responds.

Well, now I am not the awkward one, I muse to myself.

“Well I will see you at school then” I smile, then turn around, and open the door to the house.

As the door opens, I look back to see if Dillian was still there, and as expected the hot, awkward, boy was gone. I sigh, “Why, is my life so weird” I complain to Jonvian.

He looks up at me and meows, once we were inside he jumps down. “This is not over” I declared.

Jonvian simply looks up at me, and makes a grunt. I re-open the door and walk out, no black blur insight. I sigh in relief; cat escape artist learned his lesson. As I start the walk to school I feel like someone is watching me. I look around, and see nothing but cookie cutter houses in sight. Well now I am just paranoid I think to myself, first day of school and I already think someone is out to get me. This is going to be an interesting year.