The Girl With the Heart of Ice

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I decided to walk home from school today. I was easily in walking distance from the school, but I guess Mom decided to drive me since it was my birthday and the first day of school.

I fish around in my school bag and pull out one of the keys to my house. I fit it into the door knob and thrust open my front door. I sigh tiredly as I shut the door again and lock it again. I slide my Converse off of my sweaty feet and untangle my hair from its fishtail braid. My mind refuses to ignore the topic of Will and his eyes on mine as I trudge to my room and slide my homework out of my back pack. I plop down on my bed and check my assignment notebook. Great, I thought. My birthday is going to be spent completing homework. When I check my assignments, I decide to work on math first. You never know how hard it could be.

Just as I jot down the first problem, I hear my phone vibrate. It's on the group message between Tess, Brooke, Michal, Jake, and I. I text back letting them know I can't be distracted while doing homework. I can imagine Brooke rolling her eyes when Tess responds almost immediately; agreeing with me. I turn my phone on mute and turn in over so that I can't see the screen. My eyes skim over the first problem. Great. Mr. Commons gave me Singapore math instead of regular. Now I have to simplify my answers to the fullest and write down an explanation for each problem.

Once my math homework is completed, I move on to my other homework assignments. Lucky for me, most of them are simple.

Once I'm finished with my homework, I pick up my phone and check the time. Six o'clock.

And then I remember.

Bella! I forgot to take her out! Her pea sized bladder must be about to explode!

When I dash down the stairs and over to her cage I realize that her bladder already exploded. I groan and unlock her crate.

"Bella," I whine. She wags her tail happily. I open my back door and allow her to go to the bathroom. She sniffs and finds a spot in the grass while I glance at the scenery around me. The air smells fresh and still like summer. The sky above me remains blue with few clouds dotting it. The two trees that are rooted in my backyard sway back and forth as the breeze rustles the leaves.

Bella bounds up to me ecstatically and licks my leg after relieving herself. She tramples behind me as I take the bedding and blanket out of her crate. I pop the blanket in the washer and begin scrubbing the urine out of the bedding. After that's finished, I hang it up to dry on one of chairs outside on my deck.

"What am I going to do with you," I sigh. Being her normal Shiatsu self, she snorted and ambled toward her food bowl and water. I feed her and give her fresh water before running a hang through my now-wavy brown hair to untangle some of it.

Suddenly, the garage door slammed open and in walked my mother. Her eyes rested on me and Bella. I didn't realize it was already seven o'clock.

"Hey, sweetie," Mom greets me tiredly, "How was school?"

"Great, Mom." I refuse to mention or even consider telling my mother about Will.

"Fantastic." She managed to grin through her exhaustion.

"How was work," I asked her.

She sighed. "Tiring." Being a lawyer is hard on my mother, especially since she had to argue her case daily.

"Yeah, I can tell." Mom's eyes suddenly darted over to Bella as she came bounding up towards her. She leaned down to scratch Bella's stomach when she rolled over.

"Did Bella have another accident in her crate again?"

"Possibly. . . ." I replied nervously.

"What am I going to do with both of you?" Mom seems like she is talking to herself more than to us.