Adelaide

Page 1

"We know you did it! We know you killed your parents!" The person I couldn't see screamed at me.

"I didn't do it, I swear!" I yelled, crying.

"Adelaide!" Someone else said, shaking me.

"I didn't do it!" I yelled again, grabbing out in front of me.

"Adelaide! Wake up!" The person yelled again, shaking me some more.

I woke up with my older sister shaking me. "Oh my gosh... Michaela..."

"Hey, I understand it. Don't take the blame for it though, don't let it get to you, I know you didn't do it," she said, sitting up from where she was leaning over me as I let go of her top.

But what if I did do it? I thought. What if your sister's cursed?

"Why is your room so cold, Adelaide? It's freezing in here! You're shivering!" Michaela said, getting up to check the thermostat.

Without noticing it, I was shivering, the room felt like it was a freezer. "It is not 70 degrees in here!" Michaela said. "I'm going to go ask," she said walking out of my room.

You do that... I thought. You need to also stay away from your little sister that you can't hug or even touch, whether she wants a hug or not. She'll accidentally kill you if you do. And the thermostat shouldn't be at 70 and it be this cold. You're hiding something, big sis, and I plan on finding out what it is...

A while later, my room's air conditioning was fixed, it fixed itself a bit after Michaela had left. It fixing itself only a few minutes after Michaela had left only reinforced the theory that my perfect, completely normal big sister was hiding something from the world. And I suppressed my eleven year old inborn curiosity long enough that I didn't ask her about it when she came in to check on me. But I wasn't going to last much longer.

After falling back asleep without nightmares for the couple hours before school, I had to get out of bed and get ready for school, and like every eleven year old having to go to school, I didn't really want to go. One bright spot, I didn't have to wear my uniform, I got to wear what I wanted, with some limitations. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and my gloves. I usually got the question of how I could stand to wear clothes that warm when it was late spring, but I never got too warm, I was usually freezing instead.

Walking to school with Michaela, and being unable to hold her hand while walking usually made me want to cry, but not today. The recurring nightmare of being accused of my parent's death always got to me. And knowing the normal parental response to a nightmare was to hug and kiss the poor kid didn't help, because if Michaela or anyone tried, they'd die too, made me feel even worse. "You're quiet today, Adelaide," Michaela said, when we stopped at the corner across from the school.