Chapter Two

- Present day : Age 16 -

"Aislinn Elyza Gray, get your butt down here right this instant!"

I roll over, pulling my bed linens closer, "Five more minutes, Mom..." I moan.

I hear footfalls stomping up the stairs, my mother raps on the hard wooden door with her knuckles. "Get up now!"

I groan, pulling myself up into a sitting position on my bed. I rub my eyes, yawn, and stretch. I glance at my cell phone. The top screen, in large black print, it read: 6:43.

I rub my eyes again, warily staring at it like it was going bite me.

I lick my dry lips, jump out of bed, and race to my bedroom door. I bound down the stairs, taking two at a time and swing around the corner into the kitchen. "It's 6:43!? Why didn't you wake me earlier?! I missed the bus!"

My mother spun around, handing me a bagel smeared with cream cheese. "You told me your alarm was set. I didn't have to get up until 6:40; I thought you had it taken care of."

"Obviously I didn't!" I shove my bagel in my mouth, grab a napkin, and scamper back upstairs. I close and lock my door behind me. I set my bagel on my dark maple dresser and pull on my clothing; tight skinny jeans, purple elbow-length shirt, white ankle socks, and my old, beat up, black sneakers.

I brush my teeth quickly in the bathroom, then I run a hairbrush through my hair and run up to my dresser mirror, brush still in hand. I glare at my irritating hair for a moment, and then I snatch a black hair tie off the smooth surface of my dresser. I pull my hair into a bun at the side of my head, inspecting myself in the mirror. I nod at my reflection, then grab my book bag off my desk chair, stuff my cell phone in the bag, and jog out of my room.

Halfway to the stairs, I remember my bagel, and I rush back into my room. I ignored a lingering shadow of a man in the corner of my room as I grab my bagel and rush out of the door again.

I run out the front door, I hear my mother calling after me, "The Erickson's are coming over tonight for dinner at 6:30, be sure to be home! Not a minute late; do you hear me!?" I grin, knowing that it's going to drive her mad all day wondering if I had heard her or not.

I sprint to school, munching on my bagel as I run down the street, which was quite difficult. I hear my cell phone beeping from the depths of my book bag, I shove the rest of my bagel down my gullet, and dig around for my cell. I pull it out, Jace had sent a text to me: "Where r u @, Gray?"

I slow my pace and quickly text him back: "For crying out loud, Jace, this is a bad time. I'm running to school. You know, like, actually exercising..."

He texts back: "WTH, y r u exercising, Gray? o.O"

"Give it your best guess, idiot. **sigh**"

"Gimme a hint? :D"

"Mom. :/"

"Ugh. Miss the bus? :("

"Doy. >.<"

"Sounds like hard work. Glad u r the one exercising instead of me. ;)"

I shove my cell into my pocket and pick up my pace again. My feet slap the pavement of the sidewalk as I approach my high school.

I yank open the door to my homeroom class just as the bell rings.

"Close call again, Gray!" My best friend, Jace Miles Terence, is whooping and cheering at the back of the classroom, he waves his cellphone in the air and winks at me. I beam at Jace and jog over to the empty seat next to him. His short black hair stuck up all over the place, suggesting he had a terrible cast of bedhead hair; that, or he used a vacuum cleaner hose to attempt to brush his hair this morning. The classroom is loud, the other students are conversing with their own friends before the homeroom teacher could arrive.

"Mr. Walter isn't here yet?" I ask him. The whole class knew Mr. Walter has an old, 1963 Buick Riviera that crawled through the streets like a snail; he desperately needed a new car, I could easily outrun it at this point. It might have been an awesome vehicle in the 60s, but not so much now. Since the whole class knew he'd be late, they didn't bother to wait patiently. Some were sitting on their desks, other had propped their feet up on the wooden surfaces, all chattering loudly with their friends.

"Nope. You've got awesome timing, you know that, right? I'm going to figure out how to steal it and use it to my advantage one day..." He leans over to me, grinning, and whispers, "Hey, Aislinn..."

I carefully drop my book bag on the floor next to my chair, "What's up, Jace?" I say as I glance up at him.

He glowers at me with his icy blue eyes teasingly, "Oh come on, Gray. You promised you'd invite me over to your house. We planned it all out too; we'd have your mom order pizza, watch horror movies on your plasma screen TV, eat popcorn, drink soda, and end up passing out on the couch dead-tired. Don't you remember?"

"Oh, hmm... Do I remember promising such a think?" I stick out my tongue at him, "Course I remember, J; how could I forget? Besides, you practically reminded me every 24 hours since I made the promise." I chuckled.

"Great! Tonight then?"

"Sure, tonight sounds great!" I grin at him; then remember what my mother had said before I left the house The Erickson's are coming over tonight for dinner at 6:30, be sure to be home! Not a minute late! I bite my lip, "Ugh, tonight doesn't work after all. Just remembered, my mom invited the Erickson's over for dinner tonight at 6:30."

He smirks at me, "The Erickson's, huh? Way to go, Mrs. Gray, ruining our perfect movie night to host a dinner party for four... I wish you luck." He snickers.

I groan, "I know, right?"

Mr. Walter, the homeroom teacher, pulls open the classroom door, disrupting my thoughts. "Class." he says as he walks to his desk at the front of the room. The entire class were in their seats, talking stopped, mid-conversation; they were all facing forward, watching Mr. Walker. He grabs a pencil from a drawer in his desk, and surveys the room. "Well then. You all know what today is..." he picks up a stack of papers and waves them in front of the class: test papers.