Soon it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We never made an event out of any holiday other than Christmas in the apartment, but it still stung a little when Mother said she was going out of town (again) for Thanksgiving with some friends. So, I made the obvious decision: call Timothy.
I had already gone over to his house a few times- to go for another dinner and to go trick-or-treating. I had never been, clearly, and it was fun, if more than a little bit strange. I hadn't known to bring a costume so Christopher lent me a cape and a wand and I was a wizard for the night. Timothy may have begun to suspect that something was out of the ordinary with my life, given that I was sixteen and having the time of my life trick-or-treating with him and two eight-year-olds, Adam's kids, however he didn't say anything. On another occasion I had gone with Timothy to Krista's house, because something had gone wrong with her Wi-Fi and she needed him to fix it. He "figured he would bring me along".
As time went on, it was progressively easier to see Timothy and his family. It seemed that Mother was out almost every week doing something with friends, and I was sure it was only a matter of time before she would buy another apartment closer to work and just start living there instead of making the commute to the penthouse every day.
When I called Timothy to ask him his opinion on the situation, he invited me over to his house for Thanksgiving. "Will your mom be okay with that?" he asked.
"Of course!" I said. Mother had stopped calling me when she was on these "retreats", so in my eyes there was no chance that she would know I was gone.
"Awesome," said Timothy. "We're going to decorate for Christmas the Friday after Thanksgiving, though. Do you want to just stay over? You could sleep in the guest room with Krista."
I thought about it for a second. "That sounds like fun!" I said, a hint of nervousness sneaking into my voice. Thankfully, Timothy didn't seem to notice.
"Really? Cool! How about I pick you up at noon tomorrow, and I can drive you home at, like, eight on Friday?"
"That would be perfect," I said.
"Timothy!" I could hear a voice calling in the background. "Come over here and do the dishes! You said you would ten minutes ago!"
"Sorry, Elisabeth," Timothy apologized. "I have to go, but I'll see you at noon tomorrow! Call me if you have any questions or if it's not going to work out."
"Okay, bye!"
"Bye."
I hung up the phone and quickly dialed Krista's number. "Yeah?" answered Krista. I could tell from the sound quality that she was probably holding the phone with her wrists to keep it clean from the paint on her hands.
"Hi Krista, it's Elisabeth. Guess what?"
"What?" asked Krista excitedly. I heard the phone getting set down on a table and the sound quality changed so I knew I was on speaker.
"I'm coming to Lisa's house for Thanksgiving!"
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Cool!"
"So, um, I was wondering what I needed to bring? And who's going to be there?"
"Oh, just bring what you normally bring for dinner," Krista said. The sound of something being knocked over echoed through the phone. I waited patiently for the clattering to stop before speaking again.
"But I'm staying overnight," I clarified.
"Oh! Really? Cool! So, bring, you know, new clothes, hairbrush, toothbrush, pajamas... actually that's probably it. Be sure to bring your camera though, I want to show you a great place to take pictures."
"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.
"We're here!" he called when we walked in the open door.
"Timothy!" greeted Stephanie. "Hi! Hi, Elisabeth," she told me, giving me a hug, too, as a little girl toddled up.
"Who's she?" I asked Timothy once Stephanie had walked away and we were going up the stairs to the guest room to put my bag away.
"Uh, I think she's Stephanie's friend's kid. They're sleeping over, too."
"Are Adam and his kids staying over?"
"No, they live just down the street."
"What's the deal with them, anyways?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like, where's his wife?" I immediately covered my mouth, embarrassed, and felt my face get hot. "I'm so sorry, that was rude, you don't have to ans-"
"She works in Japan from September to June," Timothy said without missing a beat. "Adam stays home with the kids and teaches while they're at school. They moved close to us so that my mom could be a sort of mother figure to them, since theirs isn't around a lot."
"That's kind of sad," I said, grateful that he'd overlooked the rudeness of my question.
"A little," he agreed, "but they all seem happy, so it's not a big deal."
Now we were back on the stairs going down. "That's good. Hi!" I greeted a little girl who was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "What's her name?" I asked Timothy.
"Ella," said Stephanie, walking up to us and picking her up. "She's my friend Jane's daughter."
"She's adorable," I said.
"Isn't she? She needs to listen to her mommy and stay in the family room, though," Stephanie told Ella, waving her finger at the little girl.
"Come on into the kitchen, you can finish the pumpkin pie," Stephanie said, gesturing to me and Timothy to follow her into the kitchen.
"Um, I don't know how to-"
"It's all good, I'll do it and you can watch," said Timothy. "But seriously, you've never made a pumpkin pie?"
"No, Thanksgiving isn't a big deal at my house."
"Well, it is at mine!" said Timothy, laughing.
Soon we were done with the pie and the house was full of delicious smells. "Come outside, Timmy!" said Hannah, running up and grabbing his arm.
Timothy in turn grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him as Hannah led him outside to the trampoline. Timothy hopped on without any delay, but I let go of his hand and stood outside the trampoline. I had never been on a trampoline. We had a track, and a basketball court, and even a lap pool in the apartment, but no trampoline- No broken bones, dear, Mother always said.
"Come on!" Timothy urged, reaching out a hand to me to help me up.
I took a step back. "No thank you," I said.
Timothy reached further.
"Really. Haven't you ever been on a trampoline before?"
"Um, maybe not..."
Timothy groaned. "Did you even have a childhood?"
"Of course!"
"Then get onto the trampoline! Please? For me?"
I shook my head, taking another step away from the death trap.
Timothy got off of the trampoline and walked with me to the back corner of the yard, where there were some lawn chairs sitting in the grass. "Fine, then," he said. "Tell me three things that you did as a kid that were actually fun."
"I... drew, cooked, and took pictures."
Timothy laughed, but stopped when he saw my confused expression. "Wait, you're serious?"
"Yes," I said, self-conscious.
"Wow. Um, okay, what are three things you did as a kid outside your apartment that were fun?"
I froze. "I... need to go talk to Krista," I lied, getting up and hurrying inside. I turned to look at Timothy when I was in the doorway. He just looked at me, clearly confused. Why did I do that? I considered going back but decided that it was too late and continued into the house.
I went upstairs to the guest room and Krista was actually in there. "Hey, Elisab- what's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm fine," I said. Lie #2. "I just wanted to come up here and... talk to Jane! Stephanie's friend! She seems very nice," I said slowly.
Krista looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Um, okay. So why are you in here?"
"I... wanted to know if she was sleeping in here," I said, mentally slapping myself.
"Elisabeth, there are two beds in here: one for me, one for you. And besides, Jane and her husband just moved a few minutes away from here for the next few months," Krista told me.
"Oh. Thanks anyways," I said, backing up quickly and almost running into Jane.
"Hi, Elisabeth, right?" she greeted me, Ella running away as Jane loosened her grip. Was it just me, or was she looking at me a little more seriously than she needed to? Studying me, almost.
I grabbed Ella, making her laugh as I put her hand back in Jane's. "Hello," I said to Jane. Was there anywhere in this house where I could be alone?
"Hello means hi," Ella informed me in her cute two-year-old voice.
"That's right, sweetie," Jane told Ella. "Sorry, Elisabeth, but I'm going to go help with setting the table," she told me, turning away. I thought of just walking away, but the guilt got to me.
"I'll help too," I said.
"Actually, do you know what would be the biggest help?" Jane asked me. "If you could take Ella and play with her for awhile, that would be amazing. I need a break," she laughed.
"Of course," I agreed. It was much easier to play with a two-year-old than talk with an adult. "Come on, Ella, let's go downstairs," I said, taking her hand when Jane handed her off to me.
"Let's go!" Ella repeated, laughing.
I played imaginary games I had never heard of before yet which seemed eerily familiar with Ella. First she was the princess and I was the prince, then I was the dragon and she was the fairy, then we did "Ring around the Rosie", which seemed a little bit gruesome to me, and then something called "Patty Cake". It was fun in a bizarre kind of way.
"Thanks so much," Jane said appreciatively when she was finished setting the table and helping with the food.
"Anytime! Ella's great," I said.
I had almost forgotten about the person who I was there with until we all sat down at the table, and Timothy sat down next to me. "So, uh, Elisabeth," he said, then seemed not to know what else to say.
I shifted in my seat, uncomfortable. This was going to be a long meal.
~*~*~*~
A/N- So, I would suggest remembering Jane and her husband (Ross) and daughter (Ella). They're definitely going to be some big characters later on, if not for a (long) time. Okay? Awesome!! They'll probably be important starting in chapters 20-25ish. So... get excited for next chapter!! Sorry that I skipped over some time in this chapter, I might go back to it later and expand on what happened then. I love all feedback, good or bad! PLEASE point out any specific errors, too. I know I've said this before, but I HATE EDITING. I love to edit other people's things (depending on what it is), but NOT my own. No thank you. Vote and/or comment!! I love you all!!