Forester Estate
10:34pm
Living Room
Saturday September 19th
Annabelle
"Today, Glendale Elementary students are praising Detective Julianne Forester for saving the life of 10 year old Carrie Yore. The student was found under a porch after being missing for 7 days. Oddly enough, the porch was located on the school grounds and was very distinct. Officials say that the girl was wearing all black and could not be seen even in daylight.'' Turning the TV off, I turned back to my mom who was sitting at the kitchen table eating corn puffs out of a salad bowl.
"Did you here that mom?" I asked anxiously.
"What?" She asked, coming over to join me on the couch.
"Mom? You saved that girl's life! You lifted a huge weight off her parents and friends shoulders! You must feel something!"
"Hun,'' Mom gave me an, isn't it obvious? look, "Of course I feel great! It's just that, well, I. . . I wasn't really assigned that case. It was my partner's case and . . . . well, you know how she is about her cases being her case?" I nodded.
"Well, when I was coming to pick Kelsea for dentist appointment at recess she told me about Carrie, I was devastated. I had already heard a little chatter about it. Anyway, Kelsea said she heard something coming from the porch the whole week and so we went to check it out and there she was. Turns out it was her stomach growling that scared your sister.'' Mom explained.
"Wow. That's amazing. You see, mom. This is why I love having a detective as a mom. I almost never have to watch the news because you fill me in on details that the news can't reveal! And, I always feel so great when you solve a murder or you catch a thief or whatever! It makes me—and I'm sure it makes you, too—feel sooo great!" I exclaimed, gasping form breath.
"Yeah, sweetie, it does make me feel great. But sometimes, it doesn't feel so great." Mom got up and walked over to the table to get her bowl and brought it to the sink in our small kitchen.
I walked over to her and asked, "Why?"
She looked at me, "Uhh . . . off to bed!" She hurried me down the hall and pushed me into my room, smashing the door behind her.
I still didn't have my answer.
* * *
I peered over at my alarm clock. It read 10:00pm, Saturday. Sighing, I got out of bed and grabbed some sweats from my dresser. I slipped the grey fabric onto my slim legs and pulled a Hawks (our school mascot) sweater over my pyjama top. Slipping my brown gorilla slippers on, I trudged downstairs, rubbing my eyes.
"Good morning, Annabelle." My 8 year old sister, Lilli, said to me as she gulped down a spoonful of fruit loops.
"Good morning." I waved my hand at her dismissively and walked over to the oven where my mom was cooking pancakes.
"Are those for me?"
"Yes, Belle, they are." Mom said in a stern voice, not looking at me when she replied. I backed away and took a seat across from Lilli at the kitchen table.
"How are you?" I asked Lilli in a 5 year old voice.
"Sigh.'' She said out loud, "I'm OK."
I snickered and replied, "What's wrong? You can tell Princess Belle." That's what Lilli like to call me. I reached over to touch her arm. I knew she would tell me because of her mental 'issue' (autism).
"Well, this boy at school, he keeps on bugging me. He's calling me a baby.''
"Oh. Well, I think this is a job for super mom!" I got up from my seat and grabbed the plate out of my mom's hands and took a strong whiff of the raspberry pancakes. I looked into my mom's light grey eyes and gestured toward Lilli.
"Fine." Mom said as she walked over to Lilli and took a seat next to her.
I sighed and started to poor the syrup onto my pancakes. Life with a 5 year old who acts and looks like a 3 year old is hard. She's always teased because of her height, and she's always being honest which can be a nuisance because you can never trust her. But, yet, she's a really good sister because she'll always be honest when I want her to, I'll know what it's like to have a little (and I mean little) sister for a long time and it doesn't bother me that she's sensitive to sound because I've never been a very loud person. I mean, I'm talkative, but I'm not loud like listening to music all the time.
"So my dear. What's up?" Mom asked as David, my twin brother, helped Kelsea down the stairs. Kels had CP (cerebral palsy), so she wasn't the most talented at walking downstairs. She was usually in a wheelchair, but throughout the past three years, she has been walking with a walker with the help of mom, David, my dad or I. My parents never figured out why two out of their 4 children had disabilities. No one in the past on either sides of the family had anything like CP or autism. The only thing was my great uncle had diabetes, but that wasn't as bad.
"Good morning Miss. Kelsea Forester." I walked up to my 8 year old sister and she smiled as I took over for David as he grabbed the Cheerios from the cupboard. I walked with Kelsea to the table and let her sit in her special chair and pushed her petite body in. The doctors said she would be able to walk pretty well but not perfectly by the time she was 12, 5 years younger than me at the time. Just 7 more years. She'd done it twice before, so she can do it a third time, and, in about 10 years, she could possibly talk, right now, not so much. But, she had an opinion, so all you had to is ask and show her her options and she would point. Even though she couldn't talk, she could hear and compute, so when people talked to her, she understood, she just couldn't respond.
"So, my friend. What's it going to be today?' Holding up pancake batter and a box of cereal. Kelsea pointed towards the waffle maker, "Waffles it is." Kelsea giggled and David started to mix the batter.
"Mom?" I asked as I stuffed another piece of pancake into my mouth, "Um," I swallowed, "Can I go to the mall with Vallerie and Aaron tomorrow?"
"Who's this Aaron you speak of?" She asked suspiciously, lowering her glasses.
"Just a friend."
"Have I met him?"
"No. He's new. Been here since October. Only 7 months, mom."
"Fine. Be home by 9 and don't do things you'll regret."
"Mom, I'm 17, you know I wouldn't do things like getting pregnant at 18." I raised an eyebrow at her. She had had David when she was 18 with my dad.
"Well, still, be safe. Oh, before you go, can you take Lilli to her horseback riding lessons? And, Kelsea needs some more tests done, so can you take her doctor and . . . well, you know what to do." I smiled and walked out of the kitchen and up to my room, not wanting to expand on the subject.
* * *
Later that night, after dinner I went up to mine and Lilli's room and decided to call Vallerie to say that I was coming. I picked up my lime cordless phone and scrolled down to Vallerie's number on the speed dial. I pressed talk and held the phone up to my ear, only to be alarmed by the volume level. Lilli was playing with my phone again.
"What a . . . oh I dunno what to call her, she has autism." I muttered too loudly under my breath, fixing the volume, the ringing in my ears didn't go away.
"Hello." Vallerie's mom picked up the phone.
"Hi, Mrs. Wilkinson, is Vallerie there?"
"No she's out with some boy."
"Oh. Who? I mean, I hate to be nosey, but did she say who?"
"Some Adrian or Aaron guy." I gasped.
"Oh, well, um . . . could . . . you tell her I-I uh, called?"
"Sure hon. Have a nice day."
"Yeah, you, too, Mrs. Wilkinson." I almost fainted, but caught myself before there was any need of an ambulance. I walked slowly and steadily to my bed and started to think. Why would Vallerie go out with my boyfriend? She knows we're going out but why would she . . . ? My thought trailed off when I got an idea. Vallerie said she was going to movies with her mom tonight, but her mom answered the phone . . .
"Yes!" I jumped up and grabbed my jacket and purse and ran down the stairs in a hurry.
"Hey, mom. Can I go see a movie?" I asked.
"Sure, hon. Whatever you like. Need some . . ." I was already out the door before she could finish. I smirked as I pulled out the two 50s from my purse; I had taken them out of mom's 'hand bag' as she called it. I was planning on paying her back—when David finally paid me for buying all his gas for a year, which I find pointless because he's just going to give me the money back, so why do it?
Although it was only 6pm, it was getting strangely dark for mid May. I shrugged, not extremely worried about it.
I jumped into my purple punch buggy convertible and turned the ignition angrily.
"I can't believe she would do such a thing!" I exclaimed to myself, "She knows we're going out! This is not something she would do!" I put the car into reverse and backed up. Putting in drive I realized something.
"Oh no!" I realized, empathizing on the no, "What if Aaron—that idiot if this is true—asked Vallerie out?" Even madder, I sped down the cul-de-sac and into town.
Arriving at the theatre, I walked up to ticket both and held out one of my 50s, "I'd like one ticket to every movie." I stated confidently.
"Your age?" The lady asked dubiously.
I'd forgotten about that. I had to be 18 to see every movie. Vallerie and Greg were both 18 and I was turning eighteen in July. I would have to fake. Only 2 months, right? And, I'm tall.
"Miss?"
"Oh, right. 18." I said confidently.
"OK, that'll come to $45.76, please." I handed her the 50 and walked off with about 14 tickets in my hand. I also had a 20 of my own for snacks.
"Hi. Um, 2 extra large bags of popcorn; 2 large cokes; and 5 packs of Skittles." I told the cashier t the concession.
"That comes to $14.56." He replied.
"Here you go." I handed him the 20 and he gave me my change. I counted it to make sure. I had a 5 dollar bill, a quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel and 4 pennies. That seemed right.
"Here's your popcorn, drinks and candy." He handed me my food and I realized how I was going to carry all this.
"Do you have cup holders?" I asked pointing at my drinks.
"Um . . . uh . . ." He obviously had a crush on me. Every time I came here, he couldn't find words after a perfectly goo conversation. I looked at him like I was saying So, do you?
"Oh, yeah. Here you go." I grab it from his shaking pale hands and stuck my two drinks in it and put the candy in my purse.
"Thanks." I smiled and walked towards theatre 1.
"Scuse me, scuse me, thank- you, pardon me." I went through all the aisles before realizing I didn't need to. I could have just stood on the balcony and looked for her head. Gosh. I'm so stupid sometimes.
After looking through theatres, 1-7, I finally got to theatre 8, 'My Sister's Keeper'. I had really wanted to see that and she knew that I was going to go see it with Greg.
I walked into the theatre with my half empty popcorn and scanned the aisles, too tired to go up to the balcony.
I found them all the way at the back.
I walked furiously but casually all the way over to the middle seats and grabbed Vallerie's shoulder. I pulled her out of her seat and dragged her out the theatre.
"What are you doing here?!" I asked exasperated.
"Um, here with my boyfriend. Is that a crime?" Vallerie asked calmly.
"No. Who's your boyfriend?" I asked.
"Aaron, idiot. Where have you been for the past month? We've been dating since April."
"UGH! He's my boyfriend! We've been dating since November! That's way longer and you knew about it!" Suddenly the theatre doors opened and people started flooding out—including Aaron.
"Thanks. I missed the ending!" Vallerie exclaimed sarcastically.
"Hey girls. What's going on here?" Aaron asked, coming to my side. I grabbed his waist and pulled him closer, glaring at Vallerie, my so called friend.
"You're welcome." I pulled Aaron away with me and we left, leaving Vallerie standing there, and I knew she was crying. What was I supposed to do? It was one of the rules my friends and I made when we met in first grade: Never go back to a friend after they betrayed you. Never.
When we were back in the cool New Jersey air, I let go of Aaron's waist and turned to look at him, he smiled.
"Okay, honesty time here. What were you doing with Vallerie?"
"OK, A. She asked me out. B. I said yes because she claimed we were going to see Milk as a studying thing. When she took me to see My Sister's Keeper I totally backed out but she pulled me in. Then she started to get all mushy with me like I wasn't going out with the best girl on town." He smiled down at me and kissed me passionately on my cheek.
"Okay, but don't except me to forgive you again. Besides, Vallerie's a stuck up pinhead, I don't why I let her be my friend. She's been ignorant ever since we competed on different teams in 3rd grade and she won." I explained. He smiled understand idly and kissed me on my glossed lips.
"Strawberry?" He asked of my choice of flavour.
"Yes. Do you not like it?" I asked.
"It's delicious, Belle." And he kissed me intensely on my strawberry lips. As we kissed, I caught a glimpse of Vallerie as she left the theatre. I smiled viciously at her and closed them again, turning back to Aaron.
* * *
"Hey, mom." I started as I entered the house, un-zipping my designer sweater and hung it up.
"Hi," She replied, "How was your movie?"
"Uh, great. It was quite moving." I lied.
"Oh yeah? What'd you see?" Mom asked, keeping her face in the newspaper she was reading.
"My Sister's Keeper." I replied casually.
"Oh, well that's great."
"I'm going to bed now. Kay?" I started upstairs.
"Sure, hon. Sweet dreams."
"Oh, um, mom?"
"Yes, sweetie." It wasn't really a question.
"Since Lilli is getting older, do you think we could move her and Kelsea into the room Lilli's in and I could go to the attic and David could have his own room?"
"Oh, well, I guess this is a fine time to tell you. Go get David and your sisters." I walked up stairs. What's she talking about? I asked myself.
"Hey, Dave. Get Kels up, mom wants us downstairs." I informed him, standing in his door frame. He nodded and I walked across the hall mine and Lilli's room.
"Lil." I whispered to my sister as I shook her to wake up.
"What in Sam Hill are you doing?" Lilli snapped quietly. Sam Hill was her word(s) of the day.
"Mom wants us downstairs, can you come please?" I asked.
"Fine. But don't wake me up again, I'll get very grouchy." Lilli threatened.
"OK. Com'on." I walked with her downstairs as David helped Kelsea downstairs.
"Okay, you're here." Mom said seriously as she we all—well, Kelsea had her own chair—took a seat at the kitchen table.
"Is this important? 'Cause we have finals next week and we need our rest and stuff." David asked, gesturing towards me.
"Yeah." I agreed and nodded.
"It's pretty important," Mom began, "OK, so your father and I have been discussing how this house is getting to small for our liking," I stood up and opened my mouth, ready to object, but mom held her hand up, "Let me finish," I sat down angrily, "So, we've been looking at houses—in the area, you won't be changing schools or anything—and we've come down to 5 dissensions." Mom pulled out 5 pictures from her back pocket and spread them out on the table. David, Lilli and I leaned in towards the pictures, Kelsea—having no choice really—just sat there.
"Now, this house," Mom pointed to a burgundy and white house that looked like a triple mansion, "Is the biggest and newest. This one," She pointed to a dark blue house, "Is the smallest." Smallest? I thought to myself. It was HUGE!
"I really like this one." Lilli commented on the burgundy house and picked it up. I plucked it out of her hand, not wanting her to smudge it.
"Yeah, we need a lot of land and space," David acknowledged, "What's the price?"
"Actually, the reason why we have a good hold on this one is because our realtor is going to buy it at half price for us and she will pay half the mortgage from the time we buy the house until it's sold."
"Then we have to buy it!" I demanded.
"That's good; we just wanted your guys' opinions." Mom gathered up the photos and stuck them in her pocket again, leaving the burgundy house out and sticking it onto the fridge. I smiled to David as we walked past it. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in tight. And, to my surprise, I let him. We walked all the way upstairs, but helping Lilli with Kelsea.
"Night." David said to me in the middle of the hall. I hugged him tightly and walked into my room. It was the first time we really hadn't 'fought'.
"Phew. Pushing Kelsea is hard work. Do you have any bell hops?" Lilli asked as she walked into our room and collapsed on her bed.
"You mean . . ."I stopped, letting her have her fun, "No, we don't. Sorry."
"So, Belle, how's Vallerie doing?" Lilli asked. She knew Val was my best friend, how do I tell her?
"Actually, we aren't friends anymore. She went out with m boyfriend and well, that pretty much ended it." I replied softly.
"Why didn't you guys make up?" Lilli asked nicely like she had no idea what teen-hood was like.
"Well," I stopped and decided not to bring up the 100 rules in front of Lilli, not wanting her to follow them, "I thought that it wasn't very nice of her to go out with my boyfriend while we were still going out, so I thought she wasn't a very good friend."
"Oh, okay. G'night." Lilli flicked off her bed side light and got in to bed, leaving me in the dark.
"Lil!" I yelled at my sister. Her light was the only light on, "Urgh!" I walked over to the room light switch and turned it on.
"Hey!" Lilli sat up and blocked the light with her arm. This is why I need my own room, I thought to myself.
"Sorry, Lil, I need some light to get changed and stuff." I explained.
"Fine." She slipped back into her bed, putting her pillow and sheets on her face. I staggered over to my dresser and grabbed a Penguins (our school mascot, it's incredibly stupid, but I have to have something to say I went to Hamilton High for 4 years) sweatshirt and grey sweat pants (not from school, just plain grey) and slipped them on. Colorado weather is never far from cold.
I tottered out of the room and into the salmon coloured bathroom. I grabbed my toothbrush and paste and started brushing. I jumped.
"Holy crow, David!" I pushed him out of the bathroom.
"What?" He chuckled. I smiled, he always got you laughing or smiling even if you were trying to punish him.
"You freaked me out!" I grabbed my stomach that had done a million twists when he walked in.
"Sorry, sis." He walked in and splashed his face, "I'm done." He marched out and I finished brushing. I spat and started to floss.
"AHHHH!" Lilli screamed. I dropped m floss and ran to her, almost bumping into on the way.
"Lilli, Lilli, what's wrong?" I asked as I took a seat next to her.
"David! Get mom!" Dad wouldn't be home until around 3am (he works a night shift as a security guard).
He ran out of the room and woke mom up.
"What now, David? You're not wetting yourself again, are you?"
"No mom! It's Lilli. She screamed."
"Oh, well, let's go!" They ran to our room as fast as possible.
"Lilli, Lilli, hon. What's wrong?" Mom soothed.
"She won't say a word. Not even to me." OK, I admit, I am the most popular 12th grader in school, but you'd never guess from the way I love my family. You'd assume that I wouldn't care about any of this stuff, but I really do. I'm a different kind of popular.
"David, go call her doctor." Mom demanded. David ran down the stairs.
"What happened?" Mom asked me as she poised a little.
"Well, I went to brush my teeth, Lilli was all tucked in and I just went to do my business. I was flossing when she screamed. David and I ran in and tried to calm her down but she wouldn't say anything. That's when you came."
"OK, well, we'll just have to wait for her doctor." Mom finished.
"Yes, yes, OK, you'll be here soon. OK, bye." David came back into the room, "The doctor said he has no idea what's wrong with her, but the counsellor is coming along with Doctor Trepan." David explained. We nodded.
"I guess we'll just have to wait." Mom sighed. Lilli was sitting up, staring into the abyss. We couldn't get her attention even if we hired a circus complete with a screaming crowd.
Half an hour later David and I had played 20 games of Go Fish (we're that good) and mom had read 2 15 chapter novels (WOW! That's a lot for the amount of time my mom gets to read a day). Finally, the door bell rang. It was 10 o'clock. Crazy, I tell you, crazy.
We all sped (literally, we could've gotten tickets) down stairs, David almost fell he was so tired. Mom fixed her hair and house coat (pointless, in my opinion, no one can pull off a house coat and curlers at 10pm) and swiftly opened the door (even though she was married, she had a teensy crush on him; it was just one of those innocent crushes, though).
"Aft-, evening, Doctor." Mom greeted him.
"Yeah, hello and everything. Where's Lilli?" He walked past Mom and she looked at him glumly. I shrugged and followed him upstairs.
"Is this her room?" He asked.
"Duh, dude. She's right there." David clarified. I gave him an honestly, can you be a little nicer? Look. He shrugged.
"Yeah, it's . . . um, our room." I pointed at myself. He nodded and walked over to Lilli.
"So, what's wrong with her?" He asked.
"Belle?" Mom asked me to explain.
"Um, well," I sat down beside Lilli and started stroking her hair as she sat there. I explained what happened and he nodded at the apt places.
"OK, well there are few possibilities. A). She was excited about the house choice and had a nightmare, or B). She didn't like the dark, or C). A simple nightmare." He finished.
"B and C make since, she's always hated the dark." Mom speculated, raising an eyebrow at me. I shrugged and her a what? look.
"Well, she looked fine when she covered herself up . . . oops. Mom, I totally forgot, I was thinking about myself and . . . well, I'm sorry." I apologized to my mom, giving her my best I'm so sorry look.
"Okay, that could be it. Call me in the next few days if it starts again or gets worse or if you notice anything." Doctor Trepan stated.
"Wait, what about the counsellor?" David asked.
"She couldn't come. It was too late for her. She's going to call you in the afternoon tomorrow to make an appointment. While you're at it, more horse back riding lessons." He pointed at Lilli and left, leaving us to go back to sleep with worries.
"Well, I wouldn't mind being Kelsea right now." I uttered quietly, pulling my strawberry blond waves into a low ponytail and brushing my bangs aside.
"Why?" David wondered
"Because she doesn't have to worry about this stuff."
"Yeah, but she doesn't have a choice." David reminded me.
"Oh, right. Well, you can all leave now." I pushed mom and David out as they said good night to Lilli. I left the door half open and walked to my bed.
"Night, Lil." I whispered as I got myself into bed. I wrapped myself in the heavy sheets and turned my light out, going to bed in the dark.
* * *
I woke up on Sunday at 11:23am. Not my ideal amount of rest, but I couldn't get back to sleep.
When I got up, I noticed Lilli was up, oh, that's good. I thought to myself. I headed into the bathroom to do my business. Flicking the light on, I jumped when David was washing his hands.
"You know there's a light in here." I told him.
Yeah, I know." He shrugged flicked water in my face. I gave him a hey! look and walked into the bathroom.
"Ugh, look at my . . . everything." I told myself as I looked in the mirror. I stroked my waves and pulled them up into a messy bun half way up my head and clipping my bangs back so they were on top of my head. I splashed onto my pale face as to wake me up. Flicking sleep out of my eyes, I glossed my salmon lips with peach lip gloss and applied mascara to my thin, orange lashes. I smeared a smoky blue eye shadow onto my lids and black eye liner. They went fab with my baby blue eyes.
"There." I said to myself, satisfied. I walked out and flicked out the light, going to my room to get dressed.
I picked out a blue blouse and white Levis. Picking out a white strapless bra, I slipped off my 'PJs' and snapped my bra on, yanking my blouse and jeans on. I grabbed my graffitied converse shoes and tied them up, ready to face the challenges of the day.