It was a bright and sunny morning down Clydesdale Road, which was quite unusual. Ask anyone who lived in this part on the out skirts of Dartford and you'd know that Clydesdale didn't ever see much sun. It wasn't surrounded by ugly factories with their hideous lung burning smokes, nor was it shadowed by tall abandoned buildings. It just simply had the misfortune to never see anything but clouds.
However, today was one of those rare exceptions where nature must have been feeling kind; at least that's what Olivia thought. Olivia Thompson lived with her father, William Thompson in number 12. It had only been the both of them since her mother had passed at birth. Her mother had no family that Olivia and her father knew of, and her father's family lived too far away to visits. Over the past couple of years both Olivia and her father had shifted quite a few times until finally they settled here. The house wasn't particularly special, but to her, it was home.
Smells of bacon, eggs, butter and toast wafted through the air as she darted around the kitchen. Her dad had another late one last night, so she figured that she would make breakfast for the both of them. Olivia had planned the night before to cook something glorious to eat, but she hadn't counted on the sun. She could feel the heat clinging to her skin through the windows in the kitchen and sighed. Today was going to be a very hot day indeed.
As she was in the middle of kicking herself for not preparing something more cool and refreshing rather than warm for breakfast, something strange happened. Olivia noticed what looked to be a very old owl perched on top of the clothes line in the back yard staring at her through its big yellow eyes. This seemed very peculiar because if she remembered correctly, Owls were nocturnal animals; which meant they were awake at night time. She thought back clearly to the time she and her school had taken a field trip to the reserve. They had been escorted by the keeper inside the Owls enclosure and the whole room was dimly lit. The keeper had informed the class quite proudly that Owls only came out night, so they simulated things so that when it was day for humans, it was night here inside the enclosure for the Owls. All of her friends had joked about it on the way back to school, but she couldn't stop thinking about those poor Owls. She thought it was quite cruel to force animals to change their natural living patterns.
Yet here right before her sat a slightly faded brown Owl. It was quite peculiar. Deciding that perhaps Reserve Keepers didn't know quite as much as they thought, Olivia returned to finishing up breakfast. She had just finished plating up when her father entered the room. "Morning Olive," he yawned as he flopped into his chair at the table. "Morning dad!" she smiled. Today was a good day indeed. This was the first time he'd called her Olive in a long time. "I'm sorry about breakfast. I thought it was going to be cloudy today. Otherwise I would've made something different." Her dad looked dazedly up at her and widened his eyes when he saw her bring over their breakfast. "Oh wow, honey, I wasn't expecting you to make breakfast." "I know, but I wanted to." She shrugged.
Her father eagerly dug into his pile of food and Olivia couldn't help but feel proud of her efforts. The eggs were light, the toast was creamy with the melted butter, and the bacon was nice and crispy. As her father was pouring some apple and mango juice for the both of them, he grinned at her and announced, "I've been fired!" Olivia just about choked on her piece of toast and had to drink some of her juice to force it down. "What? Are you sure?" He nodded eagerly and his shoulders seemed to relax. "Yup, I got fired yesterday. And now, I'm finally free from that murder house! Thank God I never have to go back there again!" He laughed.
Although he father was happy about it, Olivia instantly felt anxiety creep up her stomach and into her brain. They were barely making ends meet as it was, and now with her father out of a Job, things were going to get harder still. She fought to contain the feeling that always made weird things happen. It was pulsing in her veins, just waiting to be released. Her forehead prickled and she suddenly felt hotter than usual. "That's good…" she muttered weakly.
"It's not just good, it's bloody fantastic!" he cried "It means I can finally focus on spending more time with you and actually being there for you as a father. I've always felt like there was more I could do for you, for us even, but that I didn't have the time or the energy. And it just seemed like things were getting in the way, but now, we can finally be a proper family! And we'll start with today…" he got up and stretched. "How do you feel about going to the park?" Olivia actually felt sick to her stomach, but instead of letting on, she put on her bravest face and said. "Ooh! I've wanted to go to the park for a while now!" "Then go to the park we shall!" and instantly he was off to get ready.
The rest of the day went by in a blur for Olivia. They jumped in the car and went to the park, played at the playground for a while, went to McDonalds for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon at the library; Olivia's favourite place to go. After the library, her father brought an ice-cream for the both of them before it was time they headed back home. On the way, he stopped and hired out some random DVD's and announced that they were going to have a movie night. But even with all these marvellous and fun things happening, Olivia still couldn't shake her fears. She did enjoy herself, that much was true, but she couldn't enjoy herself fully without the constant worry of their current situation. What was going to happen now?
By the time they got home and he'd cooked up tea, Olivia just wanted to be by herself. It was tiring managing your own feelings so that something didn't happen and she just wanted to loose herself into one of her favourite books. She preferred reading than to sitting down and watching movies. However, to keep up appearances, she ate tea with her father in front of the TV, waited for the film to finish and then asked to be excused. "But it's only nine-thirty!" her father looked confused. He obviously had forgotten that she was still a child and needed more sleep than he did. "I know, but I'm feeling quite tired. I'll see you in the morning dad." He pursed his lips and nodded. She left the room quickly and went straight to her room.
Once there, she let out a big sigh. It felt so good to be in her room! Safe in these four walls, her room was her sanctuary. She flopped onto her bed and cringed. What a disaster! Now that she was lying there and thinking, she realised little things that she'd noticed earlier that day but had soon forgotten. When she was sitting on the swings at the playground, a kid had gone running after his kite which was gliding across the grass effortlessly. This wouldn't have looked out of place had there been much wind. And at McDonalds, the people behind the counter had been furiously trying to stop the fizzy machine from over flowing. This would've concerned other people had they realised that the liquid pouring out was consistently switching colours like a rainbow. Also at the library, she remembered overhearing about a couple of books that were on the shelf one minute, and then had mysteriously appeared in the men's bathroom the next. Other strange things had happened at the ice-cream stand and the video store, but only now that she was in the safety of her own room could she sit there and think about them.
She couldn't bare it, and this wasn't the first time things had happened around her. Once at school, she remembered being very angry with another girl who was bullying her. She was so upset that she yelled 'I wish you would die!'. The bully laughed it off, and the next day was absent due to being sick. At first she didn't think nothing of it, but then Olivia heard stories about the bully randomly disappearing and then re-appearing somewhere in some freezing river. From then on, it had been enough to scare both the bully and her. Never again, she decided, but her oath had proven to be quite difficult to keep.