Mandy Painters (unfinished)

1. Flashback

As the sound of clock tick every second and echoes around the silent classroom, the answers I studied for the whole week slowly fades away from my mind as I look at my test paper.  All I can think about now, is the horror I felt that cold, rainy night, down the road near a 24/7 open restaurant. At a very young age, I lost my parents at a car accident. I didn't know what to do and didn't know how to react to that matter. The sound of sirens, people panicking, all those horror sounds made me realize that my mom and dad were gone and I was alone. But somehow being a Painters after that incident, I slowly start to lose all those tragic memories, became grateful and blessed to be a part of their family.

"Time is up!" the teacher says as she collects the paper from every student's desk. I look at my paper realizing I hadn't answered any questions from the test. I let out a slight groan and handed it to the teacher with an apologizing look and she returns the same look to me. "Have a nice summer, class" She says as everyone bashes out the classroom door. "Mandy?" I turned my head to face the back and see Kathryn, my best friend. "What happened to you back there? It was like you were stunned." she jokes. "I panicked! No matter how much I studied for the exam, my mind went blank and instead I thought of my parents." Kathryn just smiles at me and puts her left arm around my shoulder and pushes me out of the school entrances. Kathryn and I walk home together, listening to her plans for summer vacation and all those teenage stuff she says. "Hey! maybe we should go hang out at the mall tomorrow. You know? Bestie bonding time?" She excitingly suggests. "That'd be cool," I wave goodbye to her and open the front door of my house. "Hi, sweetie!" the sound of the low voice coming from the living room greets. " Hi, dad" I reply. Dan wasn't really my dad. He was my foster parent. He took me home with him when I lost my parents that night. He's a detective and was the one responsible for solving the case. He didn't find the answer to the case, so he took me with him and treated me like his own daughter. "You want something to eat?" He questions. I nod and he grabs the phone and dials for a pizza delivery because being the single dad he is, he's not that good of a cook. It quickly became dark and the two of us are just watching reality shows from the tv and eating pizza. "DAD!" a shout from the front porch screams. "I forgot my house keys!" Dad and I exchange laughs and stand up to open the door. I wasn't the only kid in the house. Before I was accepted to the family, Dan was already a father of two sons. His wife had recently past away from a terrible disease. Now, it's just Dan, Michael (the oldest), Me, and Arthur (the youngest). "Michael if you keep forgetting your keys, you, for sure, will be sleeping outside." Dad scolds. "Where's Arthur?" Michael asks while letting out an embarassment smile. "He went to stay at a friend's house for the weekend." I reply back laughing and imagining, what if he really forgot his keys. It was getting late, we all go to our bedrooms quietly, and wishing each other a goodnight sleep before entering our rooms. The night was peaceful, too peaceful that everything seems strange to me. It was like everything disappeared and I was all alone.  As I finish getting ready for bed, I see a strange flicker of light reflecting from my mirror, I turn to look back and spot a shadow from the backyard. Being a curious one I am, I look out of my window trying to see it clearly but it wasn't there anymore. Just your imagination, just your imagination. I calm myself. I tuck myself into bed, my eyesight slowly blurs and finally I was in another world, dreaming.