Bare with me through this chapter, guys. I had to get some details in there so it's not the most entertaining.
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Tuesday, three days after my argument with my parents, I decided not to get out of bed. Thanks to summer vacation, I wasn't required to go to school so I technically had nothing else better to do.
Dad had tried a few more times to convince me that moving was the next best thing right now. I denied every time.
Mom gave me that scolding I had been expecting, along with a good smack on the back of the head for talking back to her and Dad. Can't say I didn't deserve it.
Lastly, adding on to my mental list of annoying things, Daniel and Lilly still weren't saying anything to our parents to try and change their minds. I'd probably get in more trouble if I tried to convince them to stand up to Mom and Dad.
My mind was restless with worries and thoughts on how I was supposed to keep this house ours. Laying in bed feeling sorry about myself wasn't going to help anything, first of all. But it was normally how I could get some good thinking in when life became stressful. To be honest, I was surprised I hadn't stared a hole through my ceiling yet.
I was still deep in thought when my silence was interrupted by a knock on the door. It was soft but with what was going on, I was sure it wasn't an apology from Mom or Dad. And according to Mom, I was supposed to be the one with the apology.
"Go away," I barked. There was a long pause and silence which meant whoever it was didn't walk away. I would've heard their footsteps on the hardwood floor outside.
Another knock.
"It's Daniel," my brother's meek, little boy voice mumbled.
"And Lilly!" my sister added.
A few more seconds passed as I stared at my ceiling, debating whether or not I should open the door. I shouldn't really be mad at my siblings since I knew they were just trying to avoid trouble. But it wouldn't hurt to have at least a little backup. I mean, that's what siblings are for, right?
I finally gave in with a groan and threw the pillow I had hugged against my chest to the foot of the bed. My feet stomped across the room and over to the door which I opened to two little faces staring up at me.
"What?" I tried to ask nicely but it come out as the complete opposite. Daniel's eyes saddened slightly at my irritated tone and Lilly just frowned. God, why'd I have to go and do that?
"I'm sorry for snapping at you it's just..." I began to say before I was at a loss for words. It's just what? Me being a jerk towards my siblings for something they did...or didn't do? It wasn't them I was necessarily mad at. They weren't the ones getting a new job and forcing the whole family to move to Texas.
I wish I was eighteen already. I could already be finishing high school and going off to college to get a good job and be living on my own. But nope. I was stuck at the struggling age of seventeen.
"It's okay, Izzy!" Lilly reassured, her face lighting up with a smile. I was about to say "Lilly, you know that's not my name" but that'd be even more rude. The name was Isabella, Mom, Dad, and Daniel using 'Bella' for short, but to Lilly it was 'Izzy'.
I liked Bella better than Izzy... but no need to kill a six year old's creativity.
"Mom told us to come get you. She said to tell you to go clean out the attic," Daniel explained without looking at all soothed by my apology. After a long pause, he then added, "She said it was time to start packing."
My lips dipped into an even deeper frown as my throat grew dry. "Already?" I asked. "Dad just got the job three days ago." Truthfully, he could've gotten it way before then and just decided to tell us about it Saturday, but I preferred to keep things simple in my head.
Daniel and Lilly continued to stare up at me with wide, blue and green eyes. Daniel with blue, Lilly with green. We were all completely different when it came to looks. Mom had blonde hair, Dad brown. Daniel and I received our brown hair from Dad and Lilly's blonde was of course from Mom. Daniel's blue eyes were also from Dad and Lilly's green from Mom.
Me though, I seemed to be the most different. My hair was such a dark brown that it was just a slight shade from black. And my eyes... oh my eyes were what made me feel like such a weirdo.
They weren't a blue or green or brown. God, I wish they were. But no... none of my wishes seemed to be coming true lately.
Tell me, what are the chances of someone being born with purple eyes?
Purple. Purple! My eyes were a deep purple that were only good for fetching me strange looks from people. It was like they somehow thought I was secretly a freak and that staring at me would help bring out that freakiness. Like they thought I would preform some kind of circus act for them, my eyes being the big attraction.
Sorry guys, but I'm not big on being the center of attention. Too bad my eyes didn't want to cooperate.
Daniel nodded to my question and scratched his arm. "Yeah. My mom said the sooner the better. There's no need to wait."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes. "Mom said, Mom said, Mom said. I mean, seriously. Don't you ever get tired of hearing that? Why does Mom always get to make the decisions?" I babbled pointlessly. The two of them, mainly Daniel, just shrugged off my question and replied with a simple answer I should've been expecting.
"Mom's the boss."
A low, frustrated groan escaped my lips. Just stop trying, Bella.
"Are you two even excited about moving? Do you really want to leave our home?" I asked, completely ignoring the fact that I shouldn't even be continuing this conversation. It was hard to have talks like this with an eight and six year old.
Another set of shrugs.
"Dad said he'd buy me another bike with the money he gets from his new job," Daniel said.
"Daddy said he'd buy me a new dollhouse," Lilly added.
I stared back at them for a few seconds, wondering if they considered the fact that Dad was probably just saying that to get them on his side. But who was I kidding? They're freaking kids. All they cared about was getting new things.
"Yeah, ok," I mumbled, feeling defeated in an argument that wasn't even there.
I heard Mom call the two of them from the other side of the house, probably with a job that involved packing.
Daniel and Lilly glanced over their shoulders, although they couldn't see Mom from here. Looking back at me, Daniel shot a quick smirk and shrugged his shoulders again.
"Sorry sis, gotta go. Don't forget: attic! I don't want Mom thinking I didn't listen to her instructions." And with that, the two of them took off away from the door... and me.
Another groan erupted from the back of my throat as I headed towards the stairs of the attic, trying to avoid a certain someone by the name of Dad on my way there. He and Mom were the last two people I wanted to see right now. But since Mom was probably busy passing out more orders to Daniel and Lilly, he was my main worry.
I made it to the pull-down stairs of the attic with no problems, checking my surroundings one last time just to be sure. Once I confirmed the coast was clear, I reached for the string dangling from the ceiling and pulled down the wooden stairs to the dusty attic above.
I was immediately hit with an eerie gust of cold air and a cloud of dust. No matter how hard Mom tried to keep it clean, the attic was dusty again in what seemed like a matter of minutes.
Rubbing my arms for warmth, I placed my foot onto the first step, then the second, and so on, the cold increasing as I went up.
Once I got into the dimly lit "room", I stood looking around at the old joint, its wooden rafters and empty boxes already covered in dust. One of them had a sticky note taped to it. I picked it up and read the words written in black Sharpie.
"Here ya go, Bella. Pack everything into these boxes.
Love, Dad :)"
Dad, of course. Who else would've told me something so obvious?
I found one of my old black hoodies folded in a pile of clothes that had been placed in an old plastic bin labeled, believe it or not, "BELLA'S CLOTHES".
Pulling the hoodie over my head, it being a bit tight, I immediately felt a tad warmer and relaxed my shoulders slowly.
Taking another good look around the attic, I silently thanked Mom's OCD for placing everything in boxes and neat piles. If it were anyone else's attic, I'd probably have a lot more work to do.
Just as I went to gathering things that weren't placed in labeled bins, I heard a set of heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. A few seconds later, a deep male voice accompanied them.
"Hey, Pumpkin."
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Hi guys!
Sorry for the first two chapters being so boring! I promise in the third chapter, things will start to kick up! Stay awesome! ;)
-Ash