Elisabeth Marie

Chapter Eleven

"Okay, cool," I said, jotting that all down on a notepad. "Who did you say was going to be there?"

"Um, Stephanie and her husband and Olivia, and me, and Timothy and his family, obviously, and Adam and his kids are, and then Stephanie's friend, uh, Jane I think is her name, and her husband and their little girl, and that should be it."

"So three more than usual," I said.

"Exactly."

"Great! Thanks so much, Krista. What are you working on?" I asked, curious about the clattering from a few seconds before.

"How did you know I was working on something?"

"Magic."

Krista snorted. "Whatever you say. I'm painting something based off a picture of the sunset you took last time you were at my place."

"Really?" I asked, pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah! I'll, uh, take a picture of it and bring it to dinner tomorrow," Krista promised.

"Yay!" She's going to bring the picture of the painting of the picture I took. I giggled a little.

"I'm going to hang up now, I just got paint on the phone..."

I laughed. "Okay, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye, Elisabeth," Krista said before hanging up. I hung up the phone and walked to my bedroom, the radio on as always.

I grabbed everything Krista said and also got a bag of chips out of the pantry to bring- I felt bad just eating all the Kresses' food and never bringing anything. It was already nine, so I turned on a show and watched it for awhile before going to sleep.

The next morning I let myself sleep in until ten, just so I wouldn't be anxious for very long. I left the apartment at eleven-thirty, but for some reason had the idea to try the elevator again. Something looked a little bit out of place inside but I couldn't pin my finger on it. Finally I noticed that one of the panels in the back corner was slightly off. That's what I get for living in the same apartment my whole life, I thought to myself, surprised that I would notice something so miniscule. When I went to push the piece of wood into place, I noticed a tiny hole next to hit. A keyhole- shaped hole. Curious, I took my necklace off and slid the silver key inside. It fit perfectly.

The doors started to slide shut and I had to dart in front of them to keep them from closing so I could get my bag. Well, that solves that problem, I thought to myself. I grabbed my bag and coat from my room and ate a last-minute snack; I had plenty of time since all I had to do was go down an elevator. At eleven- fifty, I went into the elevator again with my things and put my key into the "secret keyhole". It worked as wonderfully as it had twenty minutes previously: the doors slid smoothly shut and I pushed the number one with the star next to it.

In only a minute, I was in the lobby. I waited outside- it was a nice day- and walked casually to Timothy's truck when he pulled up. "You are the only girl I know who doesn't bring a bazillion suitcases when she's staying somewhere overnight," Timothy greeted me, giving me a high-five and sitting my bag between us. He pulled away from the curb quickly and did a U-turn right there in the road.

"Are you trying to kill us?!" I screamed, grabbing the dashboard.

"Nah, just having a little fun," Timothy laughed once we were going straight again.

"Well, have fun some other time, please."

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry that I turned the car around," Timothy teased.

"You're forgiven," I said, laughing with him.

Soon we were at Timothy's house. There wasn't room on the driveway to park, so we had to park a few houses down and walk over. "I should get priority parking at my own house," Timothy grumbled, carrying my bag as we walked up his driveway.