Chapter 16- What Friends Are For:

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Chapter 16- What Friends Are For:

I stared at her. She quietly chewed on the cereal that I’d made her after she’d asked to come inside and we all sat there and watched, not saying a single word. She chewed quickly and swirled her cereal around with her spoon, staring down at it as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. She didn’t even mention any of the blood that was still splattered all over the kitchen. If anything, she didn’t even seem to notice, and if she did, she didn’t mind. The initial shock still hadn’t worn off in the least bit. I was still finding it very hard to believe that this girl was actually saying that I had a sister. All my life I’d thought that I was an only child, and I’d been fine with it. Now, some random girl shows up at my old house, out of the blue, and gives me a very cheerful smile before delivering the news.

When I found my dad, we were going to have a very long, very detailed discussion.

At last she looked up. She offered a smile as her eyes gazed over us one by one, until she was staring directly at me. Somehow, her smile got even wider and she seemed to get even happier.

I didn’t know whether to feel freaked out or admired.

“So…” I tried starting the conversation. I had absolutely no idea how I was going to continue that sentence.

“Why are you here?” Katie demanded. “Why did you come back?”

Her tone even startled me and I felt the need to flinch away, even though her harsh questions weren’t directed at me for once.

But they didn’t faze the girl even the slightest bit.

“Well, I guess it was a little unexpected with my dropping by like this. Sorry about that,” she grimaced as she thought about it. As she spoke, I took the chance to look at her a little more closely. I guess she somewhat looked like me—in a way. She had the same blond hair I did (when my hair actually used to be blond). Her complexion was just about the same as mine. She seemed kind enough, though I could tell that there was an air of difference between us, and it wasn’t something small, either. Her eyes were the same color as mine, but her eyes held more happiness and youth than mine did at the moment and she seemed to be a lot more comfortable being here.

“What makes you think you can just show up here like this?” Katie snapped sharply. Even though I had no clue as to who this girl was, I still felt kind of sorry for her. This was the exact same way I was treated when I’d returned and I knew just what it felt like for her, though she somehow managed to take Katie’s verbal abuse lightly. “You’ve got some nerve, rogue.”

At this, my head snapped to Katie. An unexplainable ball of anger began to build in my stomach. I didn’t know what Katie was talking about, and I didn’t know if this girl actually was a rogue or not, but I still didn’t like the sound of someone being accused of being one, no matter if they just popped up on my doorstep out of nowhere. It wasn’t fair.

“Katie.” My tone was unwavering. Hard. I stared at her with a warning look in my eyes. She glared back at me, as if questioning me, but I ignored it.

“Tell us everything that happened that made you come here. Start from the very beginning,” I said to the girl. She took a deep breath and nodded.

“It’s kind of hard to. You see, I had been travelling around from pack to pack, looking for the right place to stay, you know, permanently. I was tired of moving around from place-to-place and I was ready to attach myself to one again. I was trying out this new pack, I’d just found one that I was beginning to really like when I got a letter. I was wary about it at first because no one had ever sent me one before and so I didn’t know what it could be about. One of the pack members gave it to me and when I’d asked where they’d gotten it from, they just said that it was from the mail man. I was shocked at first because I didn’t know how the mail man could possibly know where I was living.” She paused and seemed to go off into her own world. We waited for her to continue, but her brows creased as if she was thinking really hard about something.

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