~Ivy~

This has all happened before, and I'm pretty sure it won't happen again. But you never know. But this time, our story happens in Mercy Falls, at the Smith House and Ranch. The occupants of this household were fact over fiction, at least most of them. I'm Ivy Smith, the youngest, the black sheep of my family because I have an imagination and dream of something more than my life as a servant. I'm a dreamer and talked to anything and everything around the grounds. Whether it is a night flower blooming next to my bedroom window in the stables or my favourite Clydesdale horse Angus and the pinkies of Mr and Mrs White.

-"Ivy!" My father, Kevin Smith, yelled through the mansion. "Where are my gold cufflinks?"

-"In your dresser, top drawer on the right." I walked into my parent's bedroom holding one of my mother, Mary's, fanciest gowns, gold and flowing. "Your white bow tie is in the closet with your dress coat and your shoes are shinned and waiting at the door."

-"Good girl." He patted me on the head making my dirty hair bounce slightly, and he finished getting ready while I did an intricate brain in my mother's waist long black hair and tied it up to make a dazzling bun dotted with the diamond hair pins Father gave her last Christmas, almost a year ago.

-"You know mother." I began while she patted her tanned face with powder, blush and eye shadows. "I was wondering if I may go to the party as well, since I've done all my chores for today."

-"You know, you have never done anything to me in all your 15 years, never asked anything more than what you have already received," She replied, turning to face me with a look in her eyes I've never seen. "Yet there has always being something about you that's so incredibly… irritating." She pulled my shoulders towards her so our faces were barely inches apart. "You were a broken condom, Ivy, a mistake, an accident. We didn't want you, we still don't, no one does, and I will be surprised if anyone ever pays any attention to your miserable being, you black sheep. Don't you ever ask me for anything EVER again, am I clear?"

-"Yes mother." I replied slowly, and walked out of the room. My siblings were getting ready to leave for the party at the front door when I walked down the steps of one of the house's double staircases.

-"Hey look it's the stable girl!" One of them exclaimed and pointed at me like an animal in a cage. "Don't get to close or you'll catch her lameness!"

-"And her ugliness!" one of the older girls laughed.

And she was right, my hair was the color of dull straw and my eyes of the washed out, bleached jeans I wore over my bottom half. I usually got the younger boy's clothes when he out grew them, because of my small frame. This month was a black and white base ball style shirt stained with ash and tears.

-"Don't forget, Ivy," One of my brothers said, holding my shoulder and looking into my eyes. "I have 2 assignments due in a few days on the gold rush and writing project. I'm thinking; 20 pages each, PowerPoint presentations, maybe paint a rock gold for the rush. You know, really wow me."

-"Of course." I said, not making eye contact with any of them. "I'll get right on it."

-"Your dinner is on the table, feed the animals then do something about that scent that radiates off of you. It is repulsive." Mother ordered, coming down the staircase like the diva she was. "And don't even think of leaving the grounds tonight."

-"Yes, Ma'am." I said, walking past my muttering siblings and opening the door for them all. The overpowering stench of different perfumes and aftershaves invaded my nostrils, giving me a head ache and making my eyes water. "I wish you all a safe night."

And soon everyone was gone and I was alone. The house was eerily quiet without the yelling and ordering, the rooms' dark, and the sun setting over the rolling hills in the distance.

-"You can come out now, little ones." I whispered, walking into the granite and stainless steel kitchen. And from the mouse hole came the White family, the mice that lived within the walls of the mansion. A family of six whiskery noses and white fuzzy bodies walked cautiously out of the hole. The four pinkies ran towards me as I grabbed my dinner tray off the table and knelt down. "So, for dinner tonight, we have cold turkey with a couple potatoes, carrots and a slice of bread. With a large glass of milk." I poured the milk in a little saucer for the pinkies and put both that and the bread on the floor for them. "Now, drink all the milk when you're done and use it as another bed for your Pinkies, alright?"

The mice squeaked there thanks as I walked outside towards the stables where I lived with the animals. The Smith family had 3 horses; Angus, May, and Robin. But I took in a stray cat a few weeks ago to help with the rats, his name was Jesse.

-"Jesse! Dinner!" The tabby stalked with way towards me, his mistress, and rubbed against my legs with affection. "There you are Mighty Hunter." I scratched him behind the ear as he purred up at me, asking what was for dinner, maybe.

We sat on my straw stuffed bed in the loft and began to share the evening meal with my cat, one of my best and most loyal friends. We both took small bites of turkey and veggies, saving it as long as we possibly could, so that after I fed the horses and finished bathing, I would use small fire I heated the water with to both keep warm and cook some of the game Jesse caught during the day.

Today, Jesse caught a nice plump rabbit, two squirrels and a small chicken from the neighbour's yard, much to their discontent. As usual, Jesse buried them by the door so the badgers and foxes didn't steal the game. The evening ritual was that I would tell them a story while I fed and brushed down the horses. Only this night, it would be different. I had another listener.