Chapter 2

The next day is Monday, but it’s April vacation, so there’s no school. When I wake up, I’m completely disoriented by the purple walls and comfortable bed. After a few moments, I remember the events of the previous day, and I immediately feel uncomfortable. I don’t like change.

“Hayley, get up! They’ll be here soon,” Natalie calls through the closed bedroom door. “The door next to your bed is a bathroom!”

I, of course, had discovered that the night before. I had examined the whole room before I’d fallen asleep. I’m slightly afraid of the dark, so I’d felt the need to check everything and make sure I knew what everything was.

Getting out of the bed slowly, I stretch all my muscles slightly. After letting out a yawn, I turn toward the bathroom. Once I’m in there, I notice a door that I’d seen last night, but was locked when I tried to open it. I try again to open it, but it’s still locked.

‘I wonder what’s in there…’ I wonder.

After I get ready, I walk downstairs to find pancakes, bacon, and sausage set up on the dining room table. Natalie is seating in the same seat she was in last night. There’s a place set for me next to her. I sit down and begin to eat.

“Jordan’s coming in half an hour. I’ll give you, Katy-Lynn, and Jason a tour at the same time. Have you finished unpacking?”

“Sure,” I say. I had only unpacked the necessary stuff, still hoping I’d get rescued from this place.

“Later this week we’ll go shopping for new clothes for you.”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow, Jordan and I both have work, so the three of you will be home alone for most of the day. Jordan lived in a different school district too, so it’d be nice if you could make friends with them.”

I finish my plate and say, “Sure,” unconvincingly before putting it in the sink.

“You have… twenty minutes,” she calls as I leave the room.

I walk back up to my room, shutting the door behind me. I walk over to my nightstands and look in the one containing a cell phone. I pick it up and notice there is a cord underneath, which I assume to be the charger.

The phone lights up in my hand, and I assume I accidently pressed one of the buttons on the side.

The background of the phone is a picture of water. I begin to wonder Natalie knew, but then the background changes. I realize it wasn’t her thoughtfulness; it was the background default, which scrolls through all the possible backgrounds.

“Hayley! They’ll be here any minute! Come here!” calls Natalie from the bottom of the stairs.

Without answering, I put the phone back in the drawer and shut it. Then I turn toward the stairs and walk down slowly. When I reach the bottom, I walk into the hallway that the front door is in, and the doorbell rings as if on cue. Natalie fusses with her hair for a moment before opening the door.

A tall, blond haired guy is standing there. His arms are very defined and it’s extremely obvious that he lifts weights. He wraps my sister in a tight hug and gives her a peck on the cheek.

He then enters the house, a girl following closely. I figure that she’s Katy-Lynn, his sister. Her brown hair is really long, and she appears to be pretty girly.

Behind her is a boy who looks very similar. His eyes catch my attention first. The green orbs have specks of blue throughout them. My eyes travel down to his body next. His muscles are defined, but not huge. He shuts the door behind him as he walks in. His muscles are flexed from carrying his bag.

“Alright! Katy-Lynn, Jason, Hayley… come with me!” Natalie says happily.

“Um, can you just call my Katy?” Katy-Lynn interrupts softly.

“Of course!” Natalie says before turning and heading toward the stairs. We walk up them and stop in front of my room. “Katy, your room is here, across the hall from Hayley.”

Katy nods and opens the door. The room is full of pink and purple, with slight orange aspects. She smiles at the girly-ness and Natalie says, “Jordan said these were your favorite colors. I thought orange would be too bright to cover the whole room, though, so I left little aspects and then made your bathroom orange.”

Katy smiles and puts her bags down on the bed. “Katy!” we hear Jordan call. “Come get the rest of your stuff.”

“While you’re doing that, I’ll show Jason his room,” Natalie says. Katy nods again and goes downstairs. Natalie walks one door over. This door is on the same side as mine.

“Jason, you’ll be here.”

He opens the door to a green and black room. Jason then steps inside and places his bags down on the floor.

“Now, come here,” Natalie says, walking back toward my room. Jason and I follow her into my room, and then into the bathroom. Then, she walks over to the door that was locked and unlocks it with a key she pulls out of her pocket. When she opens it, we’re back in Jason’s room.

“You town will have to share this bathroom. There are locks on both doors, so you can lock it when you’re in here.”

We both nod silently. By then Katy had put all of her bags in her room and found us again.

“Your bags are downstairs, Jase,” she says. Jason quickly gets his bags and outs them in his room before Natalie continues the tour. She leads us to a dance studio, as well as an indoor pool. Katy was very excited about both, especially the dance studio, but Jason stays quiet. We’re also led to a music room.

Finally Natalie takes us back to the hallway and says we can do whatever we want.

I go up to my room and change into a swimsuit. Before Natalie had abandoned us, she had a job and she and Mom didn’t need me home all the time. She worked before school, so she was able to bring me to morning swim practices. I was on swim teams for years, until Natalie abandoned us. Then I had to be home more often and didn’t have time for swim teams.

I slip my clothes of my head, grab a towel, and leave my room, anxious to swim. As I open my door, so does Katy. She’s dressed in leggings, shorts, and a tank top. She has things on her feet that I’d never seen before, and is carrying a bag.

“Hey,” she says.

“Hi,” I answer.

“Where are you going?”

“The pool. What about you?”

“The dance studio. I’m doing to go to the pool after, though,” Katy says softly, her slight shyness coming through.

“You swim?” I ask as we go down the stairs.

“I took lessons as a kid, but I don’t do it competitively or anything. I had to give it up for dance classes and stuff.”

“Do you dance competitively?”

“Sometimes.”

“That’s pretty cool,” I say.

“I guess…” she answers. There’s an awkward silence for a few moments as we walk together. “So I’m going to apologize in advance for Jason. He was really upset by the move.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“He’ll probably ignore you a lot. He thinks it’s your fault that we moved here…”

“My fault?” I question, extremely shocked. “Why would it be my fault that you moved here?”

“Natalie was going to come live with us, but then she found out you were coming to live with her. We didn’t have another bedroom, and she didn’t want both of you to have to be in a completely new environment while you were going through such a hard time.”

“Oh…” I say.

“You didn’t know that? And I’m sorry about your mom, by the way…”

“It’s okay,” I say. We reach the door the pool first, because the dance studio is further down. “See you soon,” I say as I open the door to the pool. Katy waves, wiggling her fingers slightly.

When I enter the room, I take off the top layer of my clothes, leaving me in my bathing suit. I dip my foot in the water, noticing it’s slightly cold.

Stepping back I take a big breath and jump into the water. As soon as the water surrounds me, it feels like home. When I resurface, I swim slowly to the edge of the pool. It’s a fairly large, as though swim competitions are held there.

I start off slowly, swimming from one side to the other, before picking up speed. My speed increases little by little until I’m going as fast as I can. I do this for a while, before taking a break. I float on the water, catching my breath. I float for a while, relaxing and thinking. My mind drifts to Katy and what she said about Natalie. From there it shifts to Jason. I’m easily able to picture him, and I wonder what Katy meant when she said that Jason would be rude to me.

“Hey!” Katy calls as she enters the room. I look up and see her approaching the pool. She’s slightly out of breath and her hair on her forehead is slightly damp from sweat. “Have you just been floating this whole time?” she teases.

I let out a small laugh. “Hardly.”

She strips down to her bathing suit, and jumps in the water without testing it. She surfaces quickly.

“It’s so nice!” she says when she comes up.

I nod in response.

“Do you swim competitively?” she asks me.

“I used to,” I say after a moment of thought.

“Why don’t you anymore?”

“I didn’t have time for it,” I say, choosing my words carefully.

“Too much schoolwork?” Katy asks innocently.

After a moment I reply, “Yeah. Too much work.”

Reviews

[Rhea752]

OH LOVE THIS SO FAR !!!

[Rhea752]

"Natalie is seating in the same seat she was in last night. There’s a place set for me next to her. I sit down and begin to eat."

seating is supposed to be sitting sorry i have a grammar oriented family but i myself and horrible at grammar.