The Day We Hailed The Heavens

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Forbidden Fruit

Alexis hurled her small handbag across the room with undue force and a frustrated growl, listening to the resulting ‘clang’ against the wall with grim satisfaction before she threw herself onto her bed face-first and grabbed a pillow. Pressing it up against her mouth, she screamed loudly into it, the sound muffled by the soft, cushiony surface as she clenched her fists around it and shrieked her heart out, letting all her aggravation and fury pour out from between her lips.

The dinner had been the most unbearable thing she had ever had to sit through in all of her nineteen years. Two hours in a fancy Greek restaurant would have been lovely if she had been alone with her mother… or with Starscream, she added mentally… but the fact that they had been accompanied by the two most maddening people on the planet had put a damper on the occasion for Alexis.

It wasn't as if she had anything against the British. The British were great people – pioneers of the first railways, their allies in many a war, and generally a country of great esteem that had been home to many a famous inventor or scholar.

But after hearing for the four thousandth timeabout the greatness of the country when compared to America, she had been just about ready to gut herself with her fork. If Rose Connelly preferred Britain to America, then why in God’s name was she in America?

Groaning dryly, Alexis lifted her head from her pillow and put a hand to her throbbing head.

She had received her acceptance letters to her colleges today – Tranquillity Lake had been quick to offer her a place, and she saw no reason why she should not go there. It was closest to home and offered a good course in mathematics, which was what she was most interested in – however, she was also sorely tempted by her acceptance to the Portland campus of Linfield College, which was only a state away in Oregon. Their chemistry course was supposed to be excellent, and she did love the sciences.

But… even a state was a long way to go when she thought of how it would feel to leave the friends that she had made here in Tranquillity. She knew that Mikaela felt the same way, and she did worry about it.

A sharp, unwelcome knocking came at her door before it was flung open, revealing the towering form of her new stepsister.

“Come in,” Alexis muttered as the other girl came storming in like a thundercloud, her greyish eyes looking around with open contempt at Alexis’s small, badly organised bedroom. She spun around to face her, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at her. “What have I done now?” she asked, annoyed at the mistrustful look she was being given.

Rose sniffed disdainfully. “Nothing,” she said airily, and Alexis winced at the irritating lilt of her voice. “My mother’s picture’s missing from my room. I don’t suppose you’ve seen it?” There was a definite note of suspicion in her words, and Alexis sat up straight, narrowing her eyes.

“No,” she responded firmly. “I haven’t. Why, do you think I’ve taken it?”

“I might do,” Rose shot back darkly, folding her arms. Alexis caught a quick glimpse of the glimmering piercing in her navel, and shuddered internally – she had never had anything pierced in her life, and hoped that she never did. “This room is like a pig’s sty, so you could hide something in it quite easily.” She pointed at the books and clothes that were scattered all over the floor contemptuously. “Mind you, you probably wouldn’t come out of it long enough to nick something.”

Alexis’s jaw clenched and her eyes hardened. “I come out of it all the time, thank you,” she said coolly. “It’s just that when you’re here, I prefer not to. I’d rather not see you any more than I have to.”