The Attached

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

The time on her clock struck eleven and Pia rubbed her eyes. There was still so much studying to do and so far all she had read from her notebooks was quickly merging with the lyrics of a song that was stuck in her head. Damn her best friend Trina for making her hear it right before she had to study for her midterms.

Her mind was a sponge and soaked in literally everything she heard and it kept repeating on and on. She laid her head on her pillow and slapped her forehead with her notebook.

"Get out!" she groaned. Putting down her book, she turned toward her window and sighed. Another quiet night in Green Gate town. It seemed that everyone in this town went to bed at eleven, including her parents. The only sounds she heard was the chirping of a grasshopper that seemed to be near her window sill. She had yet to catch sight of that elusive insect. Every time she would open her window to look out, she would hear the incessant sounds, but never see the insect.

She swung her legs over and got up from her bed. Parting her pink floral curtains, she pushed open her window and looked out. Her hands clasped around the flashlight sitting on top of the small bookshelf and brought it closer. Switching it on, she scanned the grass below and saw nothing....as usual.

Behind her, she heard a thudding sound and she jumped. Switching off the flashlight, she closed the window. She went over to the bed to pick up her textbook which had fallen on the floor.

"Very funny." she mumbled and sat on her bed. She flicked through the pages of the textbook and then put her hand in the middle. "Let me study in peace, okay?"

The next few minutes were spent cramming for her human biology exam. There was so much the human body was capable of and so many things to learn about how it functioned. She had always been fascinated with the way things worked and to think that the human body was just like a machine, where all the systems worked in perfect harmony, was just amazing to her.

What wasn't amazing , however, was the exam tomorrow. Although she loved the science of the human body, what she didn't like was the questions that were asked. Would memorizing terms really help? Wouldn't it be better if they could actually see the real thing and learn from that rather than these oddly shaped inaccurate diagrams?

Perhaps when she went to medical school someday, then she would....

The thought was interrupted when her bedside lamp went off.  Pia blew out a breath and turned off the switch.

"Go away, you pesky little thing." she groaned. Picking up her flashlight from the floor, she turned it on and focused it on her textbook. Closing her eyes, she kept thinking: Just ignore it! Just ignore it!

"There, all better." She said to herself and opened her eyes. She read from the textbook and when she glanced at her clock, she saw that it was close to midnight. She picked up her pencil and underlined a sentence in the textbook. She would have to remember that; her teacher Mrs. Mitta was sure to ask her a question on the nervous system- the most complicated system in the body.

It wasn't until after midnight, that Pia realized it had gotten too quiet. The grasshopper had stopped it's chirping and even though her parents had gone to sleep early, there would be an occasional sound of one of them getting up to go get a glass of water from the kitchen or go to the bathroom. Both her parents were restless sleepers.

Shaking away these thoughts, she turned the page and then looked up at the door. Her ears picked up a soft raking sound and she held her breath. The sound started to get louder until it felt like nails were scratching the wood of her door. She got up slowly, her heart pounding in her ears and put her hand on the door handle.