The Exchange

Chapter 1

Hello!

My name is Nicole Jones, I am 16 years old and in year 11. I go to a reasonably good girls high school, that has a hideous uniform and annoying teachers. Yay.

I am basically the embodiment of the word 'innocent'. I have no taste in fashion other than comfort, I can't put on make-up and also would have no idea what to buy, and I have never had a boyfriend.

Unlike most teenagers that would spend their weekend's out with their friends or at least doing some kind of recreational activity, I prefer to work, study or read. Don't get me wrong, I HAVE friends, just their conversations are boring and I prefer to read. I am also shy which doesn't make life any easier.

So, this was my life before I decided to become an exchange student.

As the plane landed, I took in my surroundings, the airport looked much like the one back in Sydney but still felt... Different.

I made my way out into the food court where I was supposed to meet my host family, and there they were. An older couple that seemed to be in their mid to early 60s with grey hair and bright blue twinkling eyes. I walked up and introduced myself, they told me that their names were Collin and Cheryl, they seemed like nice, bubbly people.

They lead me out to their car and began telling me about their lives. They lived in Brooklyn, they had a four bedroom house and custody of their grandsons, Jacob and Abel who were 19 and 17.

Having attended a girl's school for the last (count's on fingers) four years, I am quite intimidated by the male population and am not looking forward to that aspect of my stay.

We drove into the drive way and Collin helped me with my bags. Jacob and Abel weren't home yet and wouldn't be for a couple more hours, so I had time to settle in before meeting them.

I unpacked my suitcase, taking my time to put everything in the correct spot so that I wouldn't lose anything, then I looked around the house before helping Cheryl with the dinner. It was surprising how well I got on with Collin and Cheryl considering I had known them for all of four hours and was living in their house. I really hoped that Jacob and Abel were like them, especially since I didn't know anyone at school or anything.

We finished preparing the dinner and put it in the oven to cook, It was lasagne, my favourite. I decided to look around some more until dinner so that I could become confident of my surroundings. I opened a couple doors and peered inside, I found Collin and Cheryl's room, the laundry, bathroom and the linen cupboard, and all seemed normal until I came to a separate hallway with two doors. I slowly opened the first door and was greeted with a strong musky smell of men's cologne. Mmm. I looked further into the room and figured that it was either Jacob or Abel's due to the amount of clothes all over the floor. Then something shiny caught my eye. I tiptoed across the room and picked up a black jacket that was lying on the floor. As I picked it up, an object flew out of the pocket, It was a knife and had some deep, almost blood red residue on the otherwise flawless blade. I put it back in the jacket and ran out of the room.

Why did they have a knife? Was that blood on the blade?