The next morning Rose woke up and slowly looked around to make sure she is alone. She was scared to death. After McGee revealed that he killed the little girl, he vanished. He didn't tell her how or when. She also got a small feeling that Anne may not have died of a heart attack, and that scared Rose even more.
She dresses with haste and only brushed her hair halfway, she didn't want to stick around.
She ran down the stairs and she stood in the dining room where her mother and brother were. Rose stood disheveled and they both turned to look at her.
Her mother had taken down the paintings and she was relieved, Rose didn't want any of them looking at her.
"Honey, you look terrible, are you okay?" Her mother asks and Rose nods. "You both got up looking like you saw the dead," Maggie says and Johnny turns and looks at her, bags under his eyes and Rose gives him a sympathetic look. Maggie walks over and runs her fingers through Rose's hair and the girl ducks away. "Your shirt is on backwards."
"Funny you should say that." Rose says and lools down at her shirt. She didn't care, she would fix it later. Rose picks up her bag from beside the dining table as she sees McGee enter the room and sit at the other end of the table.
McGee holds his hand stiffly, almost as if he is being controlled, in a motion as if he is carving something into the table.
Rose walks to where he is and he glances up at her with his sharp blue eyes and grey skin. "Don't take too long Rose, you have lots to do." He says and he is gone again. She looks down at the table and sees extremely faded letters in the table.
"Mom, can you read this?" Rose asks and her mother walks over.
"Uh, I think that might be an A or something," Maggie says and adjusts her glasses on her nose. "No, hon, I can't. How did you even know this was here?" Maggie asks and Rose can hear laughter, but it doesn't sound like a guy's laugh.
How original, laughter, Rose thought as she sighs.
"I saw it the other day and just now remembered it was here." Rose lies to her mother and Maggie just shrugs.
"I'm ready to get the hell out of here, can we go?" Johnny says and stands with a groan and a scowl.
Rose and Maggie are both taken back by his sudden burst of anger and then he immediately frowns. "Um, I'm sorry." He says and Rose sees McGee standing in the corner behind him.
"It's called manipulation. He was thinking it and I made him say it." McGee shrugs and Rose shakes her head at him, neither of her family members noticing. McGee vanishes and Rose is glad.
The three leave the dining room and Rose notices for the first time a dark spot on the wood in the hall. She looks up and she sees they are right under the staircase.
"What is it, sweetheart?" Her mother asks her and Rose looks to the woman, a sick feeling in her stomach.
"Nothing, let's go." She says quickly.
-
Rose was deeply uncomfortable as she walked alone through the halls of Charming High School. She felt out of place with the fancy uniform on and all the chatty people. So far, Johnny has been able to make friends with the football team and Rose was left on her own.
At least Rose fixed her shirt.
Rose was so mad. Johnny couldn't even play football, but everywhere he went, he charmed them and Rose could barely get the receptionist in the office to talk to her. As if Rose were merely the shadow of her brother, people acted as if she didn't exist.
Rose walks into the beige cafeteria and silently judges the entire room.
Rose easily picked out the cliques and then finds where she needs to be. A small table in the back is completely devoid of life and she sighs sadly.
She sits at the empty table and she sets the drink and her pizza down. She pulls out McGee's journal from her bag with a relieved sigh.
Dear Journal,
I didn't go home last night. I'm sitting at the pub right now and the bartender is eyeing me suspiciously, probably thinking out cutting me off. Mom and Gwen are probably worried, but I'm not sure I want to go home. My chest is hidden there and if I want it, I have to face them and soon my mistakes. I-
"Hiya, what's this?" The book is taken from Rose's hand and she immediately stands and turns to face the tall boy who smirks at her.
"Give that back." She says steadily.
"I'm just curious, is it your diary?" He asked and goes to open it and Rose reaches for it only to have her hand slapped away. She scowls and shakes the sting out of her hand.
"Don't be stupid, give it back." She warns him and she looks behind him and makes eye contact with Johnny, who stands back and doing nothing.
Johnny knew Rose didn't need help, she could take care of herself, but he was ready to step in when she couldn't take it anymore.
"Or what?" The boy asks and laughs. "Gonna sick your demons on me?" He asks and Rose frowns. She didn't understand what he meant. Demons?
Rose just got here how could anyone hate her already? She found it unfair.
The boy is shoved and the book is released. Rose watchea in surprise as he falls to the ground aand a quick hand reaches out and grabs the book quickly.
Rose looks over to see another guy standing close by with the old book in his hand. He holds it out to her and the guy on the ground crawls away and everyone turns away, even Johnny.
"Thanks," She says and takes it and sits back at her table.
"Eh, you're welcome." He says an he stands there and Rose begins to feel awkward.
"Um, I'm-" She goes to introduce herself but he holds up his hands to politely stop her.
"You're Rose, we all know," He says and sits beside her. "I'm Cameron." He says and holds out his hand, Rose shakes it. He has deep hazel eyes and sandy blond hair. A somber aura surrounded him.
"So, are we really that hated around here?" Rose asks in a joking tine and he raises his eyebrows and cracks a smile.
"Yeah, with a history like the Bowsky family, you won't be too popular." Cameron says and then he looks at Johnny, who wasn't paying attention much.
Johnny was laughing with some boy, only glancing over every so often and Rose felt a twinge of jealous rage flow through her.
"My last name is Carson." Rose says. She is extremely loyal to her father's side of the family, even if they sent her away, too.
"Well, Rose Carson, welcome to Charming," He says and stands. "Oh, and please try to keep the demons at home." She can tell it is a joke, but she doesn't get it.
"What does that mean?" She asks him.
"Your land is plagued with death and evil and ghosts or whatever." He says with a dramatic tone and then smirks. "It's haunted and the rest of us don't want them following you to town." He says and Rose rolls her eyes.
"Uhuh, okay." She say and rolls her eyes and smiles.
"Hey, I'll see you later." He says with a wide smile and walks away.
Rose spent the rest of the school day hearing of demons and monsters and the had to refrain several times from laughing. She found it all funny.
It was haunted, as everyone else said, and as she found out herself. Another check in the box, she predicted it.
As her mother picked her and Johnny up that afternoin, that was the first thing she said. "I told you, it's haunted. Someone owes me money." Rose announces.
"It's not haunted. It's just old and it makes it seem scary, nothing to worry about." Maggie says as she drives away from the school. Maggie had paint around the cuticles of her nails, showing the last remnants of how her day was spent.
"Everyone told us so, mom, Rose is... kinda right," Johnny says from the backseat Rose basks in the fact that Johnny said she was right.
"I'm always right." Rose says and smiles triumphantly.
"Oh! She made a new friend. You won't like him. Tell her who it is, Rose." Johnny says with an evil smirk.
Rose was confused. She didn't see anything wrong with Cameron. "His name is Cameron?" She frowns.
"What was that family's name Mr. McGwire told you about?" Johnny asks and Maggie looks over at her daughter. "The Gallaghers?"
"Rosanna! Mr. McGwire said they were a bad family." Maggie says and Rose frowns.
"What? Like this one is any different?" Rose asks.
"Rose, why can't you listen to anyone?" Maggie asks and Rose balls her fists in the fabric of the uniform sweater as she looks out the window and scowls. Rose didn't know she was supposed to stay away from them.
"How am I supposed to know these things? This guy walked up and was being an ass, he helped, we became friends. He was literally the only one to be nice to me all day." She says and crosses her arms.
She didn't want to have this conversation anymore, she wanted her mother to let it go.
"You said you'd make good friends!" Maggie yells. "You promised, Rose. Your father wouldn't like this behavior, how can you act like this? He would be so disappointed in you." Maggie uses the only trigger she should never use when it comes to Rose.
"Don't," Rose says and faces her mother. "Dad isn't here anymore, so anything you have to say about him doesn't matter!" Rose yells and Maggie slows the car and stares at her as Rose turns into a ball of red anger next time her.
"Rose, don't get angry with me and don't yell." Maggie attempts to calm Rose, but Rose won't have it.
"You can't use him as a weapon against me. You guys weren't even together anymore. You didn't want him and you didn't want me, so I'm going to be friends with whoever I want." Rose says and opens the car door and gets out
"Rose, get back in the car." Maggie says, feeling guilty about what she said. Maggie couldn't believe she said that to Rose, she didn't mean to.
"I'm walking." Rose says and scowls. The wind was chilling and the sky was dark. It only gets darker the closet you get to the house.
"It's too far." Maggie tries to reason with Rose.
"I'm walking." Rose repeats harshly and Maggie sighs, driving away and leaving Rose standing alone on the dirt road.