Let me know what you guys think about the story so far
Hope you enjoy
.xo Sam
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I sat there in my grandma’s study room just staring at the thousands of books in the bookshelves. A sofa and a matching chair, both dressed in cozy cream colored slip covers, were on the right side of the room. The wooden floor stretched all across the room with no carpet to hide it. A desk sat in front of me but unlike all the other office desks there was no computer or files on it. Grandma didn’t get back home last night so I went straight to bed and knocked out. The flight and drive here really did drain my energy.
I turned when I heard the door open. In walked my grandma, a rather beautiful woman. Behind her Felix followed closely. She walked in gracefully gliding across the room her feet not seeming to leave the floor and her long, dirty blond hair flowing around her. When she sat at her desk her big hazel eyes met mine, looking worried and more than a little serious. Felix stood next to the desk beside her, looking down at me.
“Morning Brooke, how are you feeling?” she asked with a straight face.
“I’m okay, I’m good.” I replied quickly.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. She supposed to shower me with gifts and properly welcome me or at least smile at me and give me a hug. Isn’t that what grandmothers do? Spoil their grandkids.
“I presume your stay here last night was comfortable. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to welcome you myself; I had… some things to handle.
She didn’t look sorry. Her face showed no emotion and I couldn’t sense anything coming from her or Felix. This was really weird. Maybe it was something in the atmosphere, or maybe there was something in the water here.
“Yes, it’s great here and its okay I understand.”
But I didn’t. What was there more important than welcoming your granddaughter? What is it she did anyway? I bet she’s a businesswoman. I really should have asked mom about grandma before leaving home.
“Can you tell me what happened with the boy in the coma?”
She knew?
“Oh…Uhmm… well he was being really mean...”
“To you?”
“No.”
“To your mother?”
“No.”
“Then, to who?”
“My best friend, Grace.”
“He hurt her?”
“No, he started rumors that she was… well that she was sleeping around and…”
“And so you decided to make him pay?”
“No, that’s not what happened”
What was this an interrogation?
“Then what?”
“I wanted him to tell everyone it wasn’t true and when I went to… uhmm…shake some sense into him, he…”
“He tripped backing up? He stepped on one of his shoelace and fell? What exactly happened?”
“I pushed him but…”
“So you wanted to hurt him”
“NO! I just wanted to shake some sense into him, I didn’t mean for him to get hurt, I had a really bad headache and he was being nasty and wasn’t getting that what he did was wrong. He’s 6”3, I didn’t think I could hurt him at all and why are you being so cruel? Your my grandma, you’re supposed to be kind and helpful and caring not trying to make me look bad!" I exclaimed.
“A headache? Did you have the headache before you confronted the boy?”
Great! All that and all she got was that I had a headache.
“Uhm…no I don’t think so.”
“How did this headache feel like?”
“Like any other headache, except it was really strong”
“Do you remember anything else that was unusual?”
“Not really…oh yea my hands were hot, really hot, it’s probably nothing.”
She looked up at Felix for a moment and then back at me.
“So are you running from the cops now?”
“What! No! It was an accident. The case was classified as an accident and the family didn’t want to press charges anyway.”
“Then why did you move here?”
“Well, the people back in Merrickville aren’t really forgiving. They wouldn’t let it go and I would be known as the girl who put that sweet boy in the coma for a long time and so mom thought it would be best for me to stay away for a little while”
She sat there staring at me with a stricken expression frozen on her face.
“Brooke go upstairs and get ready, we’re having a couple of important guests tonight” Felix said
There was an uncomfortable silence for a while. well, until I broke it.
“And I need to be there?”
“Yes, if you’re going to stay here it’s critical that you are properly introduced to everyone in that room. Make sure you look presentable. ” Grandma said eyeing me.
“Y-Yeah, Okay.” I said quickly and then left the room feeling confused.
I stood in the hallway outside the room trying to decide what had just happened.
“Jane, maybe she really is…” I heard Felix say from the other side of the door.
“No! Felix she’s not. Trust me on this; I know what I’m talking about.”
“But yesterday when I brought her in, she… there’s just something about her. Her birth was already a surprise to us all why can’t you…”
“Miss Rivera?” a high pitched voice interrupted me from my prying.
I turned around to see a petite woman wearing a maid’s outfit standing before me.
“Did you need something?”
I blushed, feeling embarrassed that I was caught snooping.
“No, thank you, I’m fine.”
“Well, Mrs. Ortega told me to help you get ready for tonight’s gathering.”
“How many people are going to be here tonight?” I asked
“About two hundred” she replied calmly
Two hundred people? That’s a couple of guests to Felix? Woah! And what did he mean when he said my birth was a surprise? Were dad and mom not expecting to have me? They never seemed unhappy at having me around. And what did Felix think I was? And why did he call my grandma by her first name when everyone else called her Mrs. Ortega. Were they lovers? Okay that’s not even possible. Felix is like in his 30’s and grandma is… old or something. But she didn’t look old. She looked exactly the same way she did 10 years ago.
Before I knew it, I was in my room and little miss high pitched voice was going through my clothes.
“What’s your name?”
She paused what she was doing and looked at me. I could feel she was confused.
“Stella” she replied with a nervous smile
“Nice to meet you Stella, I’m Brooke” I said giving her my warmest smile.
“Have you been working here for a long time?” I continued trying to gain her trust.
“For five months now, still getting use to the big place, all the other workers are super nice though so that helps.” She informed me slowly starting to feel more comfortable.
“Pleased to hear that” I beamed “now how am I suppose dress for this thing again.”
“Well, there isn’t really a dress code but a dress would be preferable but you don’t seem to have any here”
“Oh, yeah, I’m really not a dress type of girl.”
“That’s okay” she said suddenly feeling excited “Come with me” she continued grabbing my hand.
“Where are we going?” I asked
“To DeVinci”
Wait, What? DeVinci? Like Leonardo DeVinci? Didn’t he die in the 1500’s?
She walked me to one the connected doors in my room.
“This is DeVinci” she said pointing at the closet.
“What?” I replied confused.
She laughed and said
“ I know it’s foolish, giving a closet a name but it’s really amazing and beautiful and full of hidden secrets, just like all of DeVinci’s paintings” she smiled “come I’ll show you”
She opened the door and revealed a really dark room. Stella took a step inside and flipped the switch on the wall. The room was beautiful and full of beautiful clothes. On one side of the wall you had dresses and skirts, some made out of silk, for all sorts of occasions and on the other side you had your casual clothing (i.e. skinny jeans, t-shirts, sweaters…). On the bottoms of the walls you had the most incredible shoes I had ever seen. All types of shoes, from the nicest all-star converses to the hottest pumps I had ever seen.
“It gets better” she said moving closer to one of the walls and pressed a small hidden button in the back.
The wall suddenly started rotating showing off a dozen more dresses, each more beautiful then the last.
“This makes it easy to organize the clothes by season” she continued
“Oh and here it is” She said grabbing a vibrant bluey, purpley dress that had a gorgeous cut to it, which accentuates the waist and bust. It was beautiful but not too much.
“It will really bring out your hazel eyes” She continued trying to convince me.
But my mind was still in awe at the amazing room and I stood there mouth open. I noticed each of the walls had the same small button. Still this room was hardly worthy of its DeVinci title. It’s amazing and great but what else would you expect from a palace? I would be shocked if it didn’t have all this.
As if reading my mind, Stella flicks a switch on the wall in the far corner of the room.
The back wall of the room unexpectedly slides open. Woah! I didn’t see that one coming.
Stepping in the second part of the closet, I have to say was thoroughly impressive. It was like a jewellery store. The interior was very luxurious. Everything was either gold or gold plated, even the chandelier hanging above me was made of gold!
I opened my mouth to say something but Stella cut me off.
“There’s more” she whispered feeling excited and afraid.
She leaned in and added
“Before you arrived, Miss Ortega asked me to make sure your room was ready and when I came in here to polish the glasses, I stumbled on to something”
“What?” I urged her.
She moved on the other side of the jewellery counter in the middle and slipped her hand under the counter.
Again, a fake wall opened but this time a staircase was on the other side.
Before I could see what was in there someone called me from my room.
Stella quickly closed the room and ran out the room feeling really scared.
Outside the closet we found Jeffery standing in front of the door looking really ticked off.
“Stella! You were supposed to help Miss Rivera get ready a long time ago.”
“I-I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean t-to...” she stammered embarrassed.
“It’s not her fault” I spoke up “I was the one wasting time, I’ll get ready now though and I’ll be down in a little bit.”
“Okay” Jeffery said leaving the room.
“Thanks “Stella said smiling. I could feel she was really starting to like me. I smiled back at her before grabbing my dress and heading into the bathroom.
I really needed to get ready fast, the faster I’m down there, the faster I can get through this evening. I would have to check out what was behind that fake wall some other time.
This reminded me I needed to call mom and see how she was doing. I looked down at the dirty laundry basket on the floor and picked up my jeans. I slid my hand in the pockets and grabbed my cell phone. I dialed the number, that I knew of by heart and held the phone to my ear. It went straight to voicemail. That was weird; my mom never shut her cell phone off. Never. I dialed Grace’s number next hoping she would pick up.
“Hello?” I heard Grace say.
“GRACE!” I practically shouted “It’s Brooke.”
“Oh, hey Brooke, how are you?” she said sounding surprised.
“I’m good, I missed you soo much! Hey, what’s up with all the background music?”
“Oh, Stacy and I are throwing a party for…” a loud crash sounded from the other side of the phone “Crap! I got to go, sorry; I’ll call you later okay?”
Before I could answer she hung up.
What? Who’s Stacy? And why would Grace be throwing a party? What was there to celebrate? My leaving? Great, this week's been really amazing I thought to myself sarcastically
I almost killed a guy but ended up putting him in a coma instead and I don’t even feel bad about it. Seriously, who doesn’t feel bad about something like that? Then I’m forced to move in with a grandma I barely know who hates me. My mom completely forgets about me and my best friend, for more than 16 years, replaces me soon after I left! What did I do to get this?