Changing Prudence (EDITING - ON HOLD)

Chapter 10

Once again Rue’s day was completely full. She had been woken up after only four hours of sleep and told to get a move on with her packing by her mum, who almost screamed when she realised she hadn’t packed  anything other than the tiny box. Breakfast was rushed, everyone was running round the house to get it tidy for Rue and Cole’s leaving party, Cole had one last year but Rue insisted that it should be for the both of them. There was no workspace in the kitchen due to all of the party foods lined up on trays wherever Harriet could find the space. Luckily Harriet hadn’t invited all of the people she had invited to her birthday, but it was still pushing it a little for space in the house.

The rest of the morning just got worse with the rushing around. Rue had managed to escape the larger rush into her room, where she just had to pack anything that she would need in Aurburn. Her room was much more peaceful than the rest of the house and she managed to finish packing with an hour to spear before the guests where due to be arriving. She didn’t bother changing out of the clothes she was wearing because she had packed all of her good clothes and after all it was only family wishing her the best of luck.

Her room was the clearest it had been for years, all of her clothes that had previously been strewn across the floor were now neatly packed away in her suitcase. And her messy bookshelf was almost as bare as the day she bought it. She had packed all of her science books and encyclopaedias. Not that she needed the books she knew them relatively off by heart without looking at them. Her workspace that was reserved for her microscope over the last week was now completely empty. It felt bare.

Her mum came into her room and stood still at the door in utter shock. ‘I can’t believe you aren’t going to be living here anymore. It’s so bare, I won’t have either of my kids at home when I come back from work anymore, and you’re all grown up.’ She started to cry, and laughed away her tears. ‘At least the house will be quiet. I might finally get some time to myself now that I don’t have to do your washing up and cooking. Any way I came up to tell you people will be starting to arrive in a few minutes.’

‘Okay, I will come downstairs now. Is Cole down there yet?’ She didn’t want to have this party just for her; she didn’t even want it at all. So to do that she would have to make sure Cole was downstairs with her at all times, so that people would think it was a leaving party for the both of them.

‘No, he disappeared into his room a couple of hours ago. I’m guessing to pack, but that might be just me being hopeful.’

Rue had to agree with this, Cole was such a procrastinator, he would leave his packing until an hour before leaving for university if mum hadn’t been pestering us both about it for the past week. ‘I will go and get him then.’

She walked right into Cole’s room, expecting him to be lying on his bed playing on his phone. But he was not there. He must just have gone downstairs earlier on.

The bell to the front door rang, that was her cue to go downstairs to greet the first guests. It wasn’t her first guest, it was Cole. She opened the door for him confused as to why he didn’t just use his keys, but he stayed on the doorstep.

‘Rue, so made up that you’re finally getting out of this tiny good for nothin’ town.’ She just stared at him trying to figure out what he was up to. ‘Are you not going to let your first guest in? You know its rude just to let them stand there waiting!’