CHAPTER TWO

I just wanted a quiet place alone. Near the woods, away from the people, where I could feel and get a lot of nature. It’s like my safest haven. I actually had my secret hideout there that even Empress didn’t know, and I never wanted her to. It’s just a small tree house that I have built for how many months. It’s basically a pile of leaves and woods that I saw everywhere in the woods. The tree that I have chosen to build a tree house with had a small trunk yet healthy in leaves, you wouldn’t see the tree house itself, like a camouflage. And I put a little swing under it, just a rope; which was knotted in one of the thick branches, and with a piece of wood as my seat. And from the tree house with a swing, it was facing the lagoon.

When I got to the lagoon, I fed up those beautiful koi fish with fish feeds like I was their owner. After feeding them, I had some swings for a while then I climbed up my tree house. Every time I go inside my tree house, I was feeling like it’s just my first time seeing it. I mean, I still get amazed with my own work and this really made me love the place even more. It’s just a small tree house, with bookshelves on all sides, a lamp, a cooler and a comforter with throw pillows. Note that my opening passage was located at the floor part, at the corner of it. I also made the whole floor carpeted; preferable, a red carpet. Who would not love this place right? It was too awesome. It still amazes me, every time.

My cooler was filled with bottles of Vodka. Since I wasn’t still allowed to drink, I just kept all those vodka’s in my hideout. But I swear, I never had cigars. Never. Before I took my rest in the most comfortable way, I lit up the lamp, got a chilled bottle of vodka, grabbed for a book, and lied halfway with my upper back on the other shelf and put a throw pillow between my back and the shelf for support, and the rest on the floor.

“This is so perf.”

After 3 hours of reading, almost sleepy. I could feel the cold breeze of the forest as it went in and out my wall full of small holes. My phone rang. I rushed to my bag, looked for the phone and damn, it was almost 6PM.

            “I’m sure as s**t dead with my mom. Ugh.” I said to myself before answering the phone.

I cleared my throat. “Uhm, Hi mom!”

“France, where are you? It’s almost 6 young lady.”

“Sorry mom, I fell asleep…” woops. Wrong move!

“Fell asleep where? Thought you were at school? Where are you Frances Blaire?” her voice wasn’t worried at all now. I’m totally screwed.

“Uhm… at… at the… oh. At the field in our school. I was reading under a huge oak tree then fell asleep. Yeah. At the oak tree.” Wew.

“Ok then, just go home and we’ll have dinner. In 30 minutes. Take care.” Then she hung up.

I rushed and arrived home in 22 minutes. Close enough. And whoa, Empress was there at the dining table together with mom.

            “Why are you here?”

            “You should’ve greeted me Hi instead?” She laughed.

            “Hi. Seriously. WHY.” Then she stood up from her seat, walked towards me and put her arms around my neck.

            “Oh… you smell like…”

            “WOW MOM! Is that a roasted turkey for dinner?!” I said pointing the turkey in the table with fake excitement just to cut Empress off. Double screwed, if ever.

            “Yes. You two pretty girls take a sit and eat, before Mr. Turkey got bored and walks away for not being wolfed down.”

We all took our own seats and pig out for Mr. Turkey until silence came in. Awkward.

            “uhm. So what are you into now, Empress? Not seen you for weeks? I guess?” Mom’s good at breaking the silence.

            “I’m doing good Auntie, nothing new.” She called my mom auntie though we were not even in the same bloodline.

            “Tell your parents to come over here sometimes so we can have dinner together.” Mom smiled.

            “I will. Thanks Auntie.”

They kept on chatting while I was eating silently because the turkey was just WOW. Literally, speechless.

            “Oh Auntie, can France go out with me tonight? Uhm, some sort of a girl’s night out? Please Auntie? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?” She gave mom a puppy eyes.

            “And where are you going then?”

            “Just at the house? Movie watching with the other girls… yeah.” She said then turned her head on me with a crooked smile.

            “Can I come, mom?” I said, I felt forced.

            ”Oh sweetie, of course you can! I know you’re safe at Mr. and Mrs. Parker’s residence.” She said, pinching my cheeks.

            “Aweee so sweet. Thanks Auntie, I’ll sure take care of your baby France.” That was kind of scary, I somewhat got nervous.

            “You have to. So France, pack up after you’re done with Mr. Turkey.”

            “Thanks Mom.”

I could see happiness, with touches of evilness, on Empress’ face. I finished my dinner, and went straight up my room to pack for this “over night”. Empress was there, sitting at the edge of my bed. Criticizing how bad my clothes were.

            “Sorry Ms. perfect-slash-hottie, I don’t wear those sexy clothes that you are wearing, ok. We’ve been best friends for like, years. How can you still not know that, huh?”

            “But tonight is the exception.” She said, grinning at me. Oh no.

            “But..”

            “No But’s! I’ll let you borrow my clothes.”

            “Just don’t make me wear skirts and those which will expose my b***s.”

            “Jogging pants and long-sleeves turtle neck then?” She said sarcastically.

            “Preferably.” I deadpanned.

            “Whatever Frances Blaire, you will never ever get a hot guy with those.”

            “Well. I don’t want to get a guy just because of my b***s or a*s either.”

            “It’s not like that okay. This just suits for guys but… grow some balls dude.”

I laughed there. But whatever, I was really not interested with sexy clothes or anything. Maybe a hoodie, skinny jeans and a pair of sneakers and viola, that iss Frances Blaire. And I wasn’t in the mood yet to date. Not yet.

            As I finished packing up clothes and toiletries, we moved down stairs to tell mom we were leaving. Empress turned her BMW’s engine on and honked at me telling I should hop in now. And so I did and we left. 

Reviews

[Emma Olsen]

A lot of your grammar is wacky. Some of it is character-building, but a lot is simply distracting. I'm not sure if you meant to have the errors or not, but I'd suggest really editing for it. I wish the format were better on here so I could show you corrections a lot more easily, but you have a couple of general things to look out for. You should: look up how to use semicolons correctly, I've seen at least one wrongly used; watch out for your tense and consistency with it; using the right past tense, i.e. 'I laid down,' not 'I lied;' the order of your words and missing words; and properly used conventions, like capitalization, punctuation, and quotes.
I think there needs to be some indication of age and location. I'm assuming she's under 18, but I'm not entirely sure (unless I missed something?). The alcohol is an interesting quirk, but how did she get it and why does she have so much? Does she have a drinking problem or something? And why is justifying not smoking? Does she have some prejudice against smoking? This might be a good time to say something about it and build her background a bit. (It seems like her father isn't in the picture? I think that should be expanded on or at least hinted at.) This character is also sounding less and less shy to me, more like she just doesn't want to go out and do things, which is totally cool, but I think if she has some disconnect between how she acts and how she thinks of herself that needs to be explored.
Your pacing is a bit fast, too, you can slow down just a little bit. I think you could have her ruminating on that guy she's been talking to a little bit. They may not be talking right now, but he seems to be an important character, so I think you should at least have her dwell on him a bit, especially since he's acting so mysterious. I think your dialogue has some potential, but it's reading a bit stiff right now.
There's more showing here, but I'd still work on making more of that happen. =)

[Gen Escarda]

noted! thanks :)