Chapter 1: BAGGAGE

Autumn POV

I sit silently staring at the wall in front of me. I hadn't bothered to sit on the sofa pushed against the back wall. Instead I had just sat down with my back against the wall on the floor, the coolness soothing me.

The room was small, with a sofa pushed against the back wall and a coffee table in the centre. There was a few magazines lying on it but they were all nearly five years old. The far corner was full of old, battered toys and my belongings. I had somehow managed to fit most of them into two large-ish boxes, a guitar case, a backpack and a big suitcase, leaving the rest behind in London. I had unwillingly left my beloved keyboard and cello there too, having been told they were too big to bring and would have to be shipped here separately.

I carry on staring at the wall, every so often sipping my bottle of water. I didn't want to be here. My parents had died just over two weeks ago and last week I had found out that I had to move thousands of miles away from the place I had been living in for nearly three years, to live with an aunt and uncle I had never met before. I had never heard of them till now, let alone knowing who they were or what they did.

Suddenly the door on my left hand side opens and I stand. My social worker walks in followed by a man and a woman, the man looking to be in his late forties and the woman her late thirties. They were smartly dressed, the woman being in a navy dress and the man in a grey suit. Both look physically fit, the man being muscular and the woman slim and athletic. I take in that I look extremely like the woman, nearly exactly the same actually, aside from me having slightly darker blonde hair and being a few inches shorter in height.

"Sorry for the wait, Autumn. We were just finishing up the paperwork," My social worker says, referring to me being here for nearly twenty minutes. "This is Arthur and Joan Campbell. They'll be looking after you from now on."

"It's nice to finally meet you Autumn," Joan says, shaking my hand. From her words, she knew about me before I even knew she existed.

"Likewise," I reply, my thick English accent coming through. I really need to disguise that.

"Nice to meet you," Arthur says, shaking my hand.

"Autumn, I'll let them take you to their car and I'll call round to their house in about a week to make sure you settle in," My social worker says with a smile and then adds, "I really hope this works out for you, Autumn."

"Me too and thank you Sally," I say politely.

"You're very much welcome. Now I have to go, I have another visit in half an hour," Sally says.

"Thank you for your help Miss Ward. We'll see you next week," Arthur says shaking her hand.

"You're welcome. Goodbye Autumn."

And with that she left.

Arthur was the first to talk. "Shall we get moving?"

I give a small nod and pull the backpack onto my back and pick up one of the boxes. Arthur grabs the other box while Joan pulls up handle to the suitcase and grabs the guitar case gesturing to the door.

"Let's go," She smiled.

I follow them out of the social services' office and to an expensive looking black SUV. We put everything in the boot, where it all just about fitted. I look over at Joan and Arthur and give them a quick look up and down. From what I've seen from them so far they look to be somewhat well off and from the way they carry themselves they look confident and that they have some form of power where they work. Executives maybe? Politicians?

I shake both ideas out of my head. I would have heard of them if they were politicians and, for some reason, they don't seem like the type of people to be executives. They seemed to have a different power about them. One I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Arthur closes the boot and gestures to the car. I climb into the back seat quickly after they got into the front. We sit in awkward silence for at least fifteen minutes until Joan breaks the silence.

"So Autumn, how was your flight?" She asks politely.

"It was alright. A bit long but okay, I guess," I reply.

Joan gives a slight nod before we all fall into another awkward silence. I stare out the window taking in my new surroundings. My new surroundings being Washington D.C. This time it's Arthur who tries to break the silence.

"So you're starting senior year this year. Are you excited? You've a lot of good things ahead of you. Prom, graduation..." Arthur began but my attention drifted slightly. I tuned back in as he finished talking.

"It's quite impressive that you're only fifteen too. A child genius isn't something you come across every day," Joan says turning around in her seat to look at me.

I smile slightly before replying. "I skipped a few years in school. I'm about two or three ahead of what I should be at. I already had my GCSE's when I was thirteen and I got my first set of A-Levels this year. I was home-schooled for a while when my… my parents and I moved to a country that I didn't speak the language and didn't learn enough of it to be put into a main stream school. The home-schooling put me ahead of my peers. So when I moved back to London, I already had the Key Stage Three curriculum completed," I explain cringing slightly at how I stuttered slightly when saying my parents. "I wouldn't go as far as calling me a child genius but thank you."

That made them chuckle a bit. Thankfully they don't comment on the stutter. "Smart and modest. I think we'll get along just fine," Arthur says.

Yet again we fall into another silence. It was still awkward but not as much as before.

We arrive about ten minutes later to a nice looking house. Nice looking is one way to describe it. Expensive is another. It was in a secluded area. Not so secluded it was in the back end of nowhere and you had trouble finding it but secluded in a way that it was in a nice neighbourhood and wouldn't need to worry about going out late at night.

I follow Joan and Arthur's lead and get out of the car. We take the same items as we did when we left the social services offices. I follow them up the rest of the driveway to the front door where Joan takes the key off of Arthur and opens it. She turns around to face me as she grabs the suitcase again.

"We've already got your room set up and made up the bed. We'll help you bring your stuff up and then let you get settled in. If you need anything, like help un-packing or just anything in general, just call us. If not, we'll call you when dinner is ready," Joan smiles.

They lead me up the stairs and down a hallway to the last door on the right. There are four doors in total, one I presume to be a bathroom and another Joan and Arthur's room. Maybe the forth is another bedroom or an office maybe? The hallway seems too long just to have four doors, so I also presume that the rooms are fairly big.

Joan opens the door and gestures inside. I walk in closely followed by the both of them and set the box I'm carrying to the side. Joan and Arthur do the same.

The room is a decent size, being slightly bigger than my old room back in London, with a single bed pushed against the back wall, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers beside the bed, a desk in the corner, a seven shelf bookcase and then a door at the foot of the bed. Despite the furniture the room still has a lot of space to move about in. It was simple and I liked it.

"Sorry about the fact it's only a single bed," Arthur says. "The other bedroom has a double but it doesn't have a wardrobe."

"Its fine," I smile. "I've always had a single bed no matter where I lived."

Joan nodded and then quickly began to explain a few things. She walked over to the door at the foot of the bed and opened it. "Here is your bathroom. Arthur and I have our own on-suite and then there's another bathroom opposite this room so we don't have to worry about overcrowding in the morning. It has the basic stuff, toilet, shower, sink and mirror."

She then walked over to the wardrobe and opened it. "Here's the mirror and if you need more space for clothes just ask and we'll find extra space for you."

"It's okay, that won't be needed," I say as politely as possible. "The wardrobe is actually bigger than the one I had in London."

Joan gives me a slight smile and nod and then heads back over to the door, where Arthur is standing. "Well that's pretty much it. We'll let you get unpacked and settled and then I'll come and get you when it's time for dinner which should be around sixish but if you need anything don't be afraid to ask. After that we'll give you a proper tour of the house."

I give a small smile and a thank you and they turn to leave. Arthur goes without saying another word but Joan sticks her head around the door and gives me a sad smile and quietly says, "I'm sorry for your loss Autumn. I really am. I hope we can get on and, I'm certain the offer also stands with Arthur, if you need to talk about anything I'm right here. And I mean anything."

I nod and manage to get out another thank you. My throat fells tight and I just about manage to keep it together long enough for her to say see you at dinner and leave.

As soon as Joan leaves a tidal wave of emotion hits me and guilt about what my aunt and uncle probably didn't know. I hold back tears as I sit down on the bed and put my head between my knees. I take a few shaky breaths before getting up and hauling the suitcase up onto the bed.

I miss my parents. There was no denying that. But the similarities between Joan and me... I couldn't ignore them. I looked more like her than I did to my actual mother and that scared me. The same went with Arthur. My father looked completely different to me, me having blue eyes and he had brown. His hair was dark brown while I was a blonde. Yet Arthur and I have incredibly similar eye colour.

I let out a sigh and push the thoughts out of my head. I can worry about that later. I tell myself to focus on the unpacking of my suitcase and for a while it works until the thought of what actually happened to my parents floats back into my head.

Well, 'floats' is too delicate a word. Dropped like a pile of bricks. That's more accurate.

I know more than I should about what happened to my parents. Well more than the police want me to know. Well 'police'. I know fine rightly the people who talked to me were not the police. They were too well dressed for normal cops.

And that brings me back to knowing more than I should. The 'police' don't know that I found out my parents didn't die in a typical car accident. Cars that have been in car accidents don't have bullet holes in the bonnet or wind shield. That's not an accident. That's deliberate.

I take a deep breath as I hang up one of my hoodies in the wardrobe. Did Joan and Arthur know what actually happened? And if they didn't, should I tell them?

I shake my head. No. Maybe when you get to know them better just not now. Not directly after I just moved in with them. One of them just lost a sister and they don't want that kind of baggage from a person.

Especially not from a fifteen year old.

I sit back down on the bed and sigh. It was going to be interesting living here. I don't know why but it was.

I could feel it in my gut.