CHAPTER TWO

"Oh look!" came a loud, cheerful voice from the door of the farmhouse. 'She's here!' A tall, well-rounded woman with wire-rimmed glasses, short, light hair and a bright smile came down the steps. Her face was warm and worn from summer days in the garden.

"Karsh! It's good to see you again!" The woman said, hugging Karsh, which was a sight to see because Karsh is that sort of person that you can't imagine being hugged, even by his mother. 

"Good to see you too Carol." Karsh 

"And this must be our new girl!" the woman named Carol said. "What's your name sweetie?"

"Krisja." she said, tucking a lock of auburn hair behind her ear.

"isn't that a cute name! i've never heard it before!" she looked positively thrilled, and I wondered if she was for real. 

Karsh tapped Carol on the shoulder and pulled her aside. she didn't follow, Krisja knew they were talking about her last ' family' and about what had happened there.

krisja heard a rustle in the bushes behind her, then a hushed whisper.

"hey, mel, are you there?" there was a beep, then a static  reply.

"yeah, I'm here, what's up?"

Krisja realized that the boy who was behind the shrubbery was using a walkie-talkie. She knew eavesdropping wasn't polite, but she did it anyway. the conversation continued.

" The new girl is here."

"her name?"

"Krisja."

"what is she like? "

"she is tall and has red hair."

"how old does she look?"

"sixteen." Krisja replied.

"she said sixteen... HEY!" 

Krisja turned, looked directly where the kid was, and winked. he jumped up out of the bush. 

" THAT'S NOT FAIR! EAVESDROPPING IS MY TRICK!"

        Karsh and Carol both jumped, and a few faces appeared in the windows upstairs. 

        "Max, MAX! WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE!?" crackled from the small radio in Max's hand. 

       "Spying is usually my trick." Krisja countered without thinking. it was true enough, spying was one of the major reasons she had been bumped from pace to place.

Karsh and Carol came over to where Krisja stood staring into the bushes. "Maximillian, you come out here right now!" Carol said in a stern, and yet harmless tone. Out of the bushes came the boy, just about thirteen or fourteen. He had dark hair and an olive skin tone. He wore baggy jeans and a black and white striped rugby shirt. But it was his eyes that you couldn't help but look at. They were a golden amber color flecked with chocolate brown.  

"Max, this is Krisja, Krisja, this is Maximillian, he also is living with us." Carol introduced us. "Max, say hello." 

Max shuffled for a moment and muttered a hello. Carol gave him a look that said, "You can do better than that." Max sigh heavily and said, "Hi Krisja." He tipped his head and gave Carol a look that said, "Can I go now?" Carol rolled her eyes and nodded. Max ran back to the door, just in time to run into a group of kids running out. Max got run over, and fell back onto the ground with a "Oof!" 

"Max!" cried a pretty girl that looked almost identical to Max who came running down the steps and knelt beside him. 

"Gosh Max, watch where you're going!" said another girl in a scornful voice. 

"Yeah!" said another in the same tone. 

Another girl rolled her eyes at the two girls and walked calmly down to where the younger kids sat on the ground. "You okay buddy?" Max smiled and nodded. The older girl nodded and stood to look at me. She was pretty, just like the others, with white-blond hair and pale silvery-blue eyes. Practically an albino. She wore a white top, fitted grey vest and light blue skinny jeans. 

She tilted her head and stared at Krisja, which made her squirm self-consciously. , but it was interrupted by another loud voice from the house. "How many people LIVE here?" Krisja thought to herself. 

"Hello Karsh!" cried a ruddy-faced heavy man with glasses, salt and pepper hair and comfortable, retired-looking clothes. His face was kind, but well worn. 

"Hello Tom," Karsh said with a half-smile. You could tell he was getting uncomfortable with how many people were around. He was that kind of solitary person too. I was inclined to feel the same way at the moment. 

"Hi! my name is Laurie." the albino girl said suddenly.

"Oh," Krisja was taken aback by the bluntness of the simple statement, she had been more accustomed to people watching her, practically spying on her, before  even trying to introduce themselves, and she had expected to receive similar treatment here. sometimes she never even met the other children before something ' happened '. to her surprise, she found herself at a sudden loss for words. 

"What is your name?" Laurie prompted after a moment.

"Umm, Krisja." Krisja finally answered. 

"What a weird name, glad it's not mine." 

"Yeah."

krisja turned to the two voices, and got her first good look at the other two girls.

The first (obviously the leader) had pale skin and mousey brown hair that was cut just below he ears. Krisja could tell it had been dyed black not long ago, but it had grown out so only the ends were black. her eyes were a sort of blue/green/brown, Krisja thought for a moment, trying to remember the word... Hazel. the girl had hazel eyes. she was tall, but not as tall as Krisja. Her companion had darker skin and ebony hair down to her shoulders, no need to dye it. she was medium height and had piercing green eyes. Both wore different all-black outfits with matching black finger nails, and both of them were sneering. 

Krisja instantly disliked them. 

"And you are?" Krisja asked tightly. 

"I'm Trina, and this is Sara." the taller of the pair answered. 

"yeah." replied the other one, the one named Sara. for the short time Krisja had been here, Sara had only said 'yeah'. Krisja didn't know if she knew any other words. 

Krisja couldn't help it, she was unusually good at comebacks, but she had a hard time when it came to keeping her mouth shut.

"your eyes are pretty," She said to Trina, "they almost make you look intelligent."

       Trina paused, then her face began to turn red in anger. " Why you little... " she started to say.

"Bug off you two, go rain on someone else's parade." Laurie interrupted. 

Trina gave laurie a look of pure hatred, krisja could practically feel the heat radiating from her eyeballs.

"C'mon, we don't have to be around these storm clouds, let's go." Laurie turned away from Trina, grabbed Krisja's hand, as if they were already best friends,and walked calmly back into the house. 

Reviews

[Raef C. Boylan]

Think you need to have a quick read-through of this, as some of it is told by Krisja in the first person e.g. "The older girl nodded and stood to look at me", "I was inclined to feel the same way at the moment" [unless it isn't Krisja narrating but someone else we haven't been introduced to yet?] and the rest in the third person.
I got a little lost in the sudden influx of new characters coming on and off the stage of your story, but maybe that's a deliberate effect, so that we can experience the same whirlwind that Krisja's going through?
Like Bonobo says about the first chapter, this isn't exactly original material but it's flowing ok and all writing is good practise. Just be careful not to let your characters become 2-D. Thanks for sharing your story with us.