The Greenhill Experiment

Chapter Two

Despite her restlessness that night, Alyssa was awake at eight the next morning but lying in bed in her empty room for the five minutes she allowed only bothered her because she wanted to be doing something already, so she headed to the bathroom and took a speedy shower.

After despairing when no amount of concealer would cover the angry looking pimple on her chin which had appeared overnight, she threw on the comfiest pair of jeans that hadn't been packed with a long-sleeved striped top and slipped into her trainers, but the short-lived summer was long gone now, autumn was beginning to rear its chilly head, and so she dug out an oversized jumper for comfort and warmth.

Once the remaining bags and boxes had been carried downstairs, Alyssa stood and looked at her half-empty room trying force some sort of sentimentality but after a few seconds of staring at the faded lilac walls, she closed the door, her mood unaffected.

After nervously inhaling a bowl of soggy cornflakes and a crappy instant coffee, her mum joined her in the kitchen. She was quiet that morning, even more than usual which Alyssa put down to worry, stress and a lack of caffeine. Her mum was a headteacher at a school which had some of the most difficult students in the county, so she wore an eternally strong face even on her worst days. She was effortlessly elegant, her lips were painted perfectly and even though she was well into her late forties now, she had a youthfulness to her that refused to budge.

She sat opposite Alyssa at the small table in the kitchen and lost herself in the crossword as she did every Saturday morning, her dark, straight hair tucked behind her ears and she filled in one or two answers before lifting her head and asking for a nine letter DiCaprio movie.

"Any letters?"

"A possible P?"

"Have you tried Inception?" Alyssa replied.

She stared down at the crossword, making sure it fit before filling in the blocks with her pencil. "Thanks."

Fifteen minutes later, with everything packed into the Renault Clio and after spending at least ten minutes struggling to get the boot door shut, Alyssa finally fastened her seatbelt and braced herself for a long journey. Her mum drove and Tony was in the passenger seat, clearly on navigation duty.

"It will be so weird to be back in Greenhill," her mum said only twenty minutes in, clearly bored of the music choices on the radio. "Haven't been back since the divorce officially went through." She smiled fondly at Tony for a second so short it could've been imaginary.

"15 years," Tony said, chipping in.

Alyssa turned back to the window, balled up the jumper she'd brought as a makeshift pillow and tried to recall the memories she'd had before the age of five, anything at all from the time she'd lived in Greenhill.

...

Bonfire night. Cheeks glowing from the chill of November. Colours, bright colours, sparkling and flashing in the sky as far as she could see. Pops and fizzles that made her heart leap against her chest, just as excited as she was terrified. The tips of her fingers numb, toes cold, fluffy socks slightly damp from where she was stood on the grass in the back garden.

She looked up at a purple explosion to the left of the sky and pointed to it in awe, her lips forming a pouty 'o' of surprise, had hoped someone was there to see it too but she realised she was alone, so instead lifted her stuffed bunny rabbit to make sure he could see. A blue sparkle, pretty, glittering. Two whizzing and shooting red ones. A silver one which made the sky look like it was falling to pieces but in a beautifully enchanting way.

The patio door was slightly ajar. Voices from inside the house were growing louder, angrier, voices which usually soothed her now achieving the opposite. Confused, she turned back to the door, towards the sound which overpowered the fireworks, the pops and fizzles now forgotten behind her. The glass was slightly frosted and she had to come even closer to make out the figures, but behind it her mum and dad were yelling at each other, both tense and furious, her mum waving her arms furiously. She wobbled even further towards them on instinct and the horrific noises only stopped when they both noticed and looked to her, her dad blowing out a long sigh of frustration, her mum's expression horrified that she'd heard, that she'd seen. There were tears rolling down her cheeks, her face was red and her chest was shaking, the first and last time she'd seen her mum cry.