Chapter Two

The chilly air consumes me as I rush from my car to the front door. The house towering above me is a three story English home.The wind rattles the shutters on the windows, and they flap against the house. The thunder, or perhaps the shutters banging, is peaking as I stumble onto the porch. I plunge the fat house key into the large, red door and lean against it to open it. It really could use some grease on the hinges. Why must old homes always have to be old? Would it really corrupt my parents’ studying if we could actually open the dang doors? These are the thoughts I’m thinking as I step into the massive (mess) in the foyer. “What the heck?” I say aloud. Someone hiding behind a box reaches out and grabs my hair. “OW!” I flip my head around and bite the stranger’s wrist.
“Oh, GEEZ! Aerie!” My dad pops up and says a few choice words. “Look what you’ve done now!” I gape at him. His face is red from being scratched.
“Dad? What is going on?” I look at him and cross my arms, mostly to cover my rapidly beating heart. A heart attack would have fit nicely into my schedule today.
“Ugh. Me and your mom have been trying to catch a mouse for the last three hours and you just ruined it! We had him!” My mom sticks her head out from around a corner.
“Honey? Did you get ‘im?” she asks
“No. I didn’t. Aerie scared him off.” He gives me a look, which I return, and turns back to pick up a box. “Let’s go back around under the stairs.”
“Okay,” my mom sighs as she passes by me. “Aerie, will you pick this up, please?”
“Are you kidding me? You made it, you pick it up.” She loves to pick a fight with me, because she always wins; today is no exception.
“Oh, honey! Gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that was the rule. Let me just rewind the past sixteen years, okay? Because I don’t remember that rule when I was wiping your bottom when you were a child.” She gives me a winning look and follows after my dad.
I bend over the boxes and pick them up one by one and break them down. I hold about seven under my arm and head down the long hallway. On either side of me, doors lead to six different rooms. On the right, in order, the ball room, the piano room, my dad’s office. On the left, also in order, the living room, the dining room, my mom’s office. All the way down the hallway is a long carpet and lights positioned towards the wall. My parents haven’t yet discovered why the lights point at the walls. Perhaps there is no reason for why they’re that way. But regardless of the reason, they are pointed in such a way that walking straight in the middle of the hall, you (walk) in an eerie patch of darkness. At the end of the hall are two doors. On the left, the kitchen and “servant” quarters with spirally stairs that lead up to the second and third floors. On the right, the “history room” as my parents like to call it with another set of stairs, which are normal. Once, it was used as a smaller dining area with a door between it and the kitchen so the servants could wait on the family when there was no company. I drag the boards with me into the kitchen and dump them in the large trashcan under the island. The kitchen is one of the most remodeled parts of the house. Accompanied with marble countertops and present day appliances, it is one of my favorite places in the house. The rooms of the house are all furnished; we bought it that way. The ball room has an 18th century chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. The piano room has a black grand piano. The dining room even has a refurnished dining table built all the way back in the 17th century. The house is all extremely beautiful, but the kitchen allows a small break from the journey back in time.
I turn back into the large foyer and turn left to walk into the “historic room”. My parents are quibbling in the corner by the stairs.
“’scuse me,” I say as I walk past them to get upstairs. The architect who built the house in the 16th century didn’t do such a hot job on the second floor. As I reach the top, I do an immediate 90 degree turn to the right followed by another 90 degree turn to the right. The slim hallway is big enough to fit about two people walking side by side. The hallway comes to an end at the base of another pair of stairs. On the left, another long hallways pops up. I keep walking straight and go up the stairs. The third floor consists of my room, my bathroom, my mini library, and storage. Oh, and more storage. At the top of the stairs you see two doors. One leads to my room. One leads to my mini library. My library, on the left, is a medium sized room filled with floor to ceiling shelves equipped with all my books. The couch in the middle looks cozy to anyone who gazes at it. But in reality, it’s just a wood sofa covered with a thin line of fabric. My dad is currently buying me a more suitable couch to relax on. The window on the wall as far away from the door as possible is large and covers most of the space on that wall. Underneath it, sit three feet high bookshelves with pillows lying across them. Sitting on them and gazing out the window, I am in heaven; an almost-princess.
My room is painted a sky blue and has black sheer curtains covering all four windows that extend across the entire back of the house. The Victorian-style room is my safe haven from my probing parents. The black furniture and white ceiling contrast with the blue walls and compliment them in a way that is strange and yet beautiful. I throw my shoulder bag on my bed and walk towards my closet door.
The rows of clothes smile and wink at me, asking me to put them on. Instead, I open a dresser drawer and pull out my favorite pair of pajama pants. I quickly (pull) them on and shut the light off as I walk back into my room. I cut on my stereo and Ke$Ha sings a song about waking up drunk. Lying on my bed, I think about my day...

Not much happened after the incident in the courtyard. Henry talked me to class, and eventually said goodbye after second block. The scariest part of school was next; lunch. When I walked into the commons, the (hordes) of people was overwhelming. Some stared, but not many even seemed to notice me. As I walked back to the tables after getting my lunch, a familiar face caught my eye. Beatrice was sitting at a table full of girls and they were laughing and snorting; definitely not my kind of table. I walked around their table until I saw a table I could muster the strength to sit at. I pushed my dark brown hair out of my face and smiled as I approached a guy who looked my age.
Hi, I said. He looked at me and smiled.
Hey, he answered.
Just wondering, I started. You need someone to sit with at lunch?
He laughed at my joke and smiled again. Nah. I’m pretty sure my face fell, because he quit smiling and bumped my shoulder. I was just messing with ya. He laughed. You can sit with me and my crew. I gave him a funny look and smiled.
Crew? I laughed again.
Yeah, he said, my hommies. I laughed at that, too as he led me to a table that consisted of four boys and three girls. Now this table looked nice. Aside from the fact that two of the girls gave me sharp looks, I didn’t mind sitting down at the table. The round table just barely fit the nine of us in it, and I noticed those two girls pushing their elbows into their sides like they were constricted in a cage.
Once I was settled into the seat and everyone at the table was looking between the boy and me with confused looks, I cleared my throat quietly and said Hey. That didn’t clear it up.
Hey, Adam. Who’s the chick? One of the boys asked. They all nodded as if this was what they were thinking. I looked over at the boy I had been talking to; Adam?
Brian, this is… actually I didn’t catch your name earlier, he said to me. I laughed.
That’s because you didn’t ask for it, I said. To everyone else, I said, Hi, my name is Aerie.
Wow, babe. We send you to get napkins, and you come back with a lost puppy. How sweet. The girl sitting next to Adam grabbed his hand and placed it on her lap. She had a triumphant look on her face, and I smirked at it.
Uh, right. Okay well everyone; this is Aerie, as she just said. And uh, Aerie I’ll introduce you to everyone else. He pulled his hand out from underneath the table. Starting on the right of me, he read off the faces’ names. This is Brian, Elizabeth, Jared, Annabeth, Derek, Jake, and Sarah. Oh, and yeah, I’m Adam.
Cool, I said. I had smiled at everyone he introduced and they all smiled back; excluding Elizabeth and Sarah.
Now let me introduce everyone’s real names. Adam is so formal, said the boy sitting next to me; Brian? That’s Liz, J-Dawg, Anna, DMAN, J-hizzle, and I call Sarah Princess. She smiled at him but turned and looked coldly at me. Brian wasn’t quite done. I look next to me and he’s sitting with an elbow propped up on the table, his muscles flexed. And you, my dear, may call me honey. That’s what all the girls call me anyways. They say that’s what my lips taste like, but you can never take their word for it. Wanna test it out? I started to laugh, but realized he was still holding the position with his lips puckered slightly. Everyone at the table is laughing now, so I play along.
Sure, I said. I leaned toward him like I had taken his bait, but instead I pushed his elbow out from under him. Didn’t anyone ever tell you to never put your elbows on the table? The table, apart from the w-itch twins, busted out laughing even harder. Tables surrounding ours were laughing a little, too, and I felt bad for Brian as he picked himself from the table. He mumbled a swear word under his breath and blushed a little. Smiling, I leaned toward him again and whispered in his ear. We can work on your pick up lines. I sat back in my bench. He smiled at me and continued eating his lunch. Sarah raised her eyebrows at me and Brian, but relaxed into Adam when he put his arm around her. Adam looked at me and winked. I smiled, and I relaxed, too. He was the kind of guy that made the girls melt. I could already feel my heart tingling.