𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐄 || 𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐄

𝟎𝟐: 𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐘 𝐒𝐍𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐓'𝐒 𝐉𝐎𝐁

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑: 𝐈 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐑𝐨𝐫𝐲.

~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing I remember was that wherever I was, was not my bed. Also, it was really bright, so I deducted that it was early morning by now and during the warmer season. Wait, wasn't it just winter back at my house?

I needed to figure things out and that meant getting out of this bed.

Unfortunately, that first part of my plan didn't work out so well. Being sucked into a portal to gods knows where (yes, I'm a Percy Jackson fan. No I do not like the movies) had made my legs fall asleep . My nose hurt the most as I met the floor face-first.

To my surprise, a female voice from down below called up to me. "Rory, dear, time to get up!"

Who the heck was this woman and why did her voice sound so vaguely familiar? 

I knew I had to respond or else she'd probably get worried, so I said, "Coming!"

Okay, I thought. First things first, I gotta take a shower. I stink.

Priorities, am I right? 

I didn't know who this woman was, where or even when the heck I was, but I wasn't going to do it while smelling or on an empty stomach, for that matter. Mystery Lady better know how to cook a decent meal . If not, I'm ordering take-out.

I showered quickly and dried myself off. While drying my hair, I opened my wardrobe which, for some reason, had all the clothes from my old closet except for the fancy ones my parents got on my birthdays. if you ask me, and I never wore those anyways. The clothes that I like represented what I like, like T-shirts with cheesy quotes from my favorite books or movies or ones that had pictures from my favorite shows.

Since I was in the middle of a mystery myself, I put on a T-shirt with the Scooby gang on it and some jean shorts. I hated wearing shoes unless it was absolutely necessary, so my bare feet padded the stairs as I hurried down, pretending to yawn. 

I froze in the doorway to the kitchen when I saw who was standing there. A middle-aged woman with short curly brown hair had her back to me as she concentrated on her cooking. She was wearing a black blazer and a matching skirt. 

She turned around and her smile brightened as she noticed me. "Aurora, how did you sleep?"

"Fine. . ." I glanced outside. My face looked calm, I hoped, but inside, I was screaming like a banshee.

JOAN CUSACK IS IN FRONT OF ME! SHE KNOWS MY NAME! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

And that was only a tenth of my thoughts, but you get the idea: I was understably freaking out. What kind of alternate universe did I pop into? And why couldn't it have been Hogwarts?

Don't get me wrong, it's great that Joan Cusack, the woman who played Justice Strauss in A Series of Unfortunate Events, was apparently my guardian, or mother.

"Is something troubling you, Rory?"

I snapped my head up. "Oh, no. Nothing."

She sighed, as if she knew what I was thinking . . . but she couldn't . . . right?

"Aurora, if you want to know about your mother, you can just ask me, okay?" She didn't wait for a reply before continuing. "You remind me so much of my sister. You look just like her, too."

I nodded. At least I got some info. Joan Cusack is my aunt from my mother's side, and she is supposedly dead, causes unknown. Wait, does the actress even have a sister?