Runaway
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.
"Keegan, darling! Come here please." my mother calls.
I slide away from my laptop and get up from my desk chair. I was relieved to have an excuse to get away from that history report. My dyslexia was acting up big-time.
I walk out of my room, down the hall, and into the kitchen. I find my mom and dad sitting in the kitchen nook with some lady I had never met before.
"Keegan, this is Denise." my mom says.
The lady turns around and I see that she's around my parents age, thirty or thirty-five. Her dark brown hair was long and straight, falling at about the bottom of her rib-cage. Her face was angular and her cheekbones stuck out. Her eyes were a very dark blue and cold as ice.
"Hello." I say, sitting down beside my dad.
"Hello, Keegan." she says.
She sounded friendly, but I could hear a tone of disgust in her voice when she said my name, almost as if I were a sewer rat or something. My parents didn't seem to notice this. Maybe I just imagined it.
"Your father and I thought it was about time we introduced you to Denise." mom says.
"Erm, why?" I ask.
"Well, because Denise is your god-mother." dad says, resting a hand on my shoulder.
"Oh." I say, surprised. I didn't know I had a god-mom.
"Well, it was, um, nice meeting you, but I need to get back to my history homework." I say, getting up from my seat.
"Now, hold on Keegs. We need to tell you something else." dad says.
"Okay." I say, sitting back down.
"Your mother and I are going on a trip to Ashville for the weekend on business and Denise is going to stay here with you, so you two can get to know each other." he says.
"Oh." I say. I wasn't all too psyched to be baby-sat by a stranger for the whole weekend.
I was 13 for God's sake, I was old enough to stay the weekend by myself. Of course, I'm not going to say this out loud with Denise here.
"Okay. Can I go back to my room now?" I ask.
My mom sighs and then nods her head.
I get up from my chair and quickly exit the kitchen, making my way down the hall and back into my room.
I sit back down at my desk and stare my computer screen. There was something bothering me about Denise. She just seemed off. Like maybe she was acting for my parents.
I shake my head, putting the thought aside, and go back to my paper. This thing had to be done by tomorrow and I only had 200 out of the 1,500 words written. If my dyslexia kept acting up, I'd never get it finished.
"Okay Keegan, we're leaving. Denise should be here in about twenty minutes, there's enough money in the cash jar for food for the weekend and there's also leftovers in the fridge." mom says, walking past me with her suitcase.
"Okay mom." I say.
My dad walks past me as well and ruffles my light brown hair, causing it to fall into my eyes. I squint and fix it, brushing it to the side.
"See you Sunday night, Keegs. Maybe we can go to the batting cages after I get back, huh?" he asks.
"Yea, that would be fun. See you then." I say, waving.
The front door closes and a few minutes later I hear the car start. I sit on the couch and watch TV while waiting for Denise to get here.
"Kid, wake up!" someone says, shaking my shoulder rather roughly.
I open my eyes and see that I'm still on the couch. The TV was still on, but a different show was on and it was nearly dark outside. I must have fallen asleep. I look up and see that Denise was the one shaking my shoulder.
"Oh, hi Denise." I say, sitting up.
"Okay, I'm going to explain to you what's going to happen this weekend." she says, crossing her arms.
"First, you are not allowed to come out of your room unless you need access to the bathroom or if you need to eat." she says.
"But I can get to my bathroom through my bedroom." I say.
"Okay then, you're not allowed to come out of your room except for meal times." she says, rolling her eyes.
"Second, I don't want you making any noise. That means no music, no TV, and no friends over." she says.
"Third, if you come out of your room and it's not time to eat, you will be punished. I want this weekend to go by as fast as possible and not have to listen to you jabber on and on." she says.
I nod.
"Well, go on. Go to bed." she says, shooing me out of the living room.
I glumly stalk into the kitchen before heading into my room. I open the fridge and pull out a couple of cheese sticks and a bottle of water.
I knew she had been acting.
"Hey, kid! Wake up!" Denise shouts, banging on my door.
I groan and squint open my eyes. Little pieces of sunlight were glinting into my room through the window. I look at the clock on my nightstand and see that it's just past nine.
I swing myself out of bed and start getting dressed. I wondered if I could sneak out and go to Oliver's house or the beach. Probably not. Denise would most likely make me do house work all day.
Oliver is my best friend. I've only known him for a little over a year, but he's still my best friend. We do practically everything together. If one of the teachers at school assigns a group project, they all know that we get paired together.
"Goddammit, Keegan! Get your ass out here right now!" Denise yells.
I sigh and open my door, heading into the kitchen to get some breakfast.
"What took you so long?" she asks, placing her hands on her hips.
"I was getting dressed." I say, pouring a glass of orange juice.
"Like hell you were. It doesn't take that long to get dressed." she says.
"I'm telling the truth!" I protest.
She walks over to me, looks at my glass of juice, and then knocks it out of my hand. The juice splashes all over the tile floor and the glass shatters.
"Hey!" I say.
"Clean it up. It was your orange juice, after all." she says, shrugging.
I give her my best death glare and then carefully walk over to the drawer where we kept all the dish cloths. I then start picking up the shards of glass and putting them in the trash can, then I mop up the rest with the rag.
"Satisfied?" I ask.
"Not quite. I want you to clean the whole house." she says, turning away from me and heading into the living room.
"That's not fair!" I protest, walking after her.
"I don't care. I'm in charge of you for the weekend, and what I say, goes." she says, giving me a smug look. I knew she was right, and I hated it.
"Fine." I growl.
I go to the closet next to the washroom where all the cleaning supplies were kept and pull out the broom and the mop. I look down at them and sigh. I guess this is what it was going to be like until tomorrow night.
A/N:
Hey guys! If you're new to my stories, I suggest going and reading my series "The Shadows of Revolution" before you go much further into this one. If you don't, it might get a bit confusing towards the ending because there are things in that series that'll tie into this story.
If you're not new to my stories and have come directly from TSoR, welcome back and enjoy the ride! I can't wait to see what y'all think of this!
Yesterday was extremely long and tiring. And I've discovered that reading fanfics and replying to PMs on your phone is exhausting. Much, much easier on my laptop. But, I got to drive for a while every now and then, so I wasn't entirely bored the whole 14 hours back home.
It's good to be back home and starting back to my regular schedule. I've definitely missed my bed. I had never seen a more welcome sight last night after I had unpacked most of my stuff. To tell you how tired I was, I didn't even get on my computer and write last night, which is highly unusual.
I'm going to upload the second chapter as well, so you guys will have something to think about until Saturday. Oh yea, to the newbies reading this story and any of my other stories, I update of Tuesdays and Saturdays, and sometimes I throw in a surprise update every now and then.
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25