Book: Glass House Chapter one

Chapter one

Claire's pov:

It's been years since I first ended up in Morganville a small dusty town run by vampires, I couldn't believe my luck I ended up with a hot sexy hustband (Shane Collins) and gothic funny best friend (Eve Rosser) and a vampire Landlord and friend (Michael Glass) I live in the same house as them… huh what was that.

I walk off out of the sofa in the living room and I got to the front door and see a parcel had been delivered. That was weird because no post was meant to come today. I open the front door and found no one I looked around the area but again no one. "Huh that's strange, I wonder who could have given this?" I shut the door and looked at the parcel on the doorstep and picked it up and it said it was addressed to me I dropped it like had burnt me then my best friend Eve came in the hallway from the kitchen with a annoyed Shane on her tail, she saw my shocked face and she looked down at the parcel picking it up.

"So who gave you this, I didn't think we had post today?" Eve looked at me again and looked down at the parcel, she handed it to me. "Open it" she smiled but I knew that she was demanding me to, she was always doing that. I accepted it and opened it to see a book I looked at the front cover saying Glass house. I looked up at the others hoping I wasn't imagining this all up and Shane came over to me taking the book out of my hands.

"What's this a book, what's it about?" he asked like I would know I shrugged my shoulders and took it from him again flipping to the first page to see that it was about me and the others I couldn't believe it. I heard voices but I wasn't listening to them I was in my own little world this was a book about my past and my friends it was weird. It seemed to be based through my eyes then someone tapped me on the shoulder, it was Shane I looked up at him. "Claire are you ok?" he asked me I tried my hardest to sound normal.
"Yeah I fine really," it didn't seem to work because he tipped my chin up to look him in the eyes and my knees went weak the way he was looking at me I thought if he lets go I'm going to fall.
"What was the book about?" I knew he wasn't going to let it go so I knew what I was going to have to do.
"It's about us and when I first arrived here." I answered him
It must of spooked them because I heard Eve gasp then I heard footsteps coming up the walk way and I knew it was Michael, I just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry all of my past wasn't that bright but this was not good. The door opened and Michael came in and I handed him the book he looked at me then the book I had given to him. He looked at me with shock on his face. "What should we do Mike" Shane asked I knew what I wanted but it wasn't up to me we were a team and we had to make team decisions.
"I say we read it if that's ok with you guys?" they nodded in agreement then walked into the living room I was stuck on the spot what if that book at some things I thought of when I first met them I didn't want them hating me or laughing at me but I knew it was all going to come out at some point. I knew it would seem weird to see what I though back then.

I walked back into the living room to the other with Michael in his chair as usual with Eve and Shane on the sofa I sat down in between them and snuggled in Shane he put his arm around me and Michael started to read.

"Chapter one.

On the day Claire became a member of the Glass House, somebody stole her laundry."

"That's bad luck did you have to walk around naked?" Shane said smiling I was still in shock so I just shock my head he looked disappointed at this and Michael kept reading.

"When she reached into the crappy, beat-up washing machine, she found nothing but the wet slick sides of the drum and – like a bad joke – the worst pair of underwear she owned, plus one sock. She was in a hurry, of course – there were only a couple of machines on this top floor of Howard Hall, the least valued, most run-down rooms in the least valued, most run-down dorm. Two washing machines, two dryers, and you were lucky if one of them was working on any given day and didn't eat your quarters. Forget about the dollar-bill slot. She's never seen it work, not in the last six weeks since she's arrived at school.

'No' she said out loud, and balanced herself on the edge of the washer to look down into the dark, partly rusted interior. It smelt like mould and cheap detergent. Getting a closer look didn't help.

One crappy pair of underwear, fraying at the seams. One sock."

"Poor CB that bitch Monica did it?" Eve asked using the nickname she gave me (Claire Bear) I still seemed to be in shock but I managed to make a sentence.
"Just listen to it Eve it'll tell you everything that happened." I told her, she looked at me then noticed I seemed down and she hugged me I hugged her back.
"Can I keep reading?" Michael seemed to really want to read and we all nodded.

"She was missing every piece of clothing that she'd worn in the last two weeks. Every piece that she actually wanted to wear. 'No' she yelled it into the washer, where it echoed back at her, and slumped back down, then kicked the washer violently in the dent made by all the other disappointed students before her. She couldn't breathe. She had some other clothes – a few – but they were last choice clothes, oh-my-God-wouldn't-be-caught-dead clothes. Pants that were too short and made her look like a hick, shirts that were too big and too stupid, and made her look lie her mom had picked them out. And she had."

The other laughed but I didn't find anything funny but I was too pissed at what this book was revealing about what happened. Michael continued reading after they'd stopped laughing.

"Claire had about three hundred dollars left to last her for, well months, after the latest round calling out for pizza and buying yet another book for Professor Clueless Euliss, who didn't seem to have figured out yet what subject he was teaching.

She supposed she could find some clothes, if she looked around that wouldn't totally blow her entire budget. After all, downtown Morganville, Texas was the thrift shop capital of the world. Assuming she could find anything she could stand to wear.

Mom said this would happen, she thought. I just have to think. Keep cool.

Claire threw herself into an orange plastic chair, dumped her backpack on the scratched linoleum, and put her head in her hands. Her face felt hot, and she was shaking, and she knew, just knew, that she was going to cry. Cry like the baby they all said she was, too young to be here, too young to be away from mummy.

It sucked to be smart, because this was where it got you."

I still find that true that this happens I moved here and all of this trouble happened as I arrived. Great. I attract trouble by the dozen.

"She gulped deep, damp breaths and sat back, willing herself not to bawl (because they'd hear) and wondered if she could call Mom and Dad for an extension on her allowance, or use the credit card that was 'just for emergencies'.

Then she saw the note. Not so much 'note' as graffiti, but it was addressed to her, on the painted cinderblock wall above the machines.

Dear Dork, it read, we found trash in the machines and threw it down the chute. If you want it, dive for it.

'Shit' she breathed, and had to blink back tears again, for an entirely different reason. Blind, stupid rage. Monica. Well, Monica and the Monickettes, anyway. Why was it the hot mean girls always ran in packs, like hyenas? And why, with all the shimmery hair and long tanned legs and more Daddy's money than Daddy's accountants, did they have focus on her?

No, she knew the answer to that.

She'd made Monica look stupid in front of her friends, and some hot upperclassmen. Not that it had been all that hard; she'd just been walking by, heard Monica saying that World War II had been 'that dumbass Chinese war thing'.

And by simple reflex she'd said 'it wasn't.' the whole lot of them, slouched all over the couches in the dorm lobby, looked at her with as much blank surprise as if the Coke machine had just spoken up. Monica, her friends, three of the cool older frat boys.

'World war II' Claire had plunged on, panicked and quite sure how to get out what she's got herself into. 'I just meant – well, it wasn't the Korean War. That was later. World War II was with the Germans and the Japanese. You know Pearl Harbour?'

And the guys had looked at Monica and laughed, and Monica had flushed – not much, but enough to ruin the cool perfection of her make-up. 'Remind me not to buy any history papers off of you' the cutest of the guys had said. 'What kind of dumbass doesn't know that?' though Claire had been sure none of them had, really 'Chinese's. Riiiiight.'"

"This is why I love you," Shane said to me we had been married about 6 years now and we hadn't had many arguments so far and I was glad.

"Claire had seen the fury in Monica's eyes, quickly covered over with smiles and laughter and flirting. Claire had ceased to exist again, for the guys.

For the girls, she was brand-new, and unwelcome as hell. She's been dealing with it all her life. Smart and small and average-looking wasn't exactly winning the life lottery; you had to fight for it, whatever it was. Somebody was always laughing at, or hitting, or ignoring you, or a combination of the first two. She's though when she was a kid that getting laughed at was the worst thing, and then – after the first couple of school-year showdowns – getting hit jumped up to number one. But for most her (brief two-year) high school experience, being ignored was worse by far. She'd got there a year earlier than everybody else, and left a year ahead of them. Nobody liked that.

Nobody but teachers, anyway.

The problem was that Claire really loved school.'"

Eve laughed but I wasn't really in the mood for her mood I was scared, she was happy and Shane just hugged me, I could feel my eyes become heavy and I fell asleep in his arms. I woke up later when they were nearly finished the chapter man what had I missed?

"'Yeah' she said, managed a shaky laugh. 'Guess I tripped'.

'You need to go to the quack shack?' which was collage code for the university clinic. 'Or, God, an ambulance or whatever?' 'No. no, I'm ok.' Wishful thinking but although basically everything in her body hurt like hell, nothing felt like it had broken into pieces. Claire got her feet, winced at a sore ankle, and picked up her backpack. Notebook tumbled out. Erica grabbed a couple and jammed them back in, then ran up a few steps to gather the scattered textbooks. 'Damn, Claire, do you really need all this crap? How many classes do you have in a day?'

'Six'

"That is crazy," Michael said and I was still sleepy and nodded not really caring I had loved every moment of it back then and working in the University was a sort of dream but I still worked with Myrnin and helped build Morganville. Also being a repersentive for the humans' was a lot of work.

"'You're nuts.' Erica, good deed done, reverted to the neutrality that all the non-cool girls in the dorm had shown her so far. 'Better get to the quack shack, seriously. You look like crap.'

Claire pasted on a smile and kept it there until Erica got to the top of the stairs and started complaining about the broken lock in her dorm room.

Tonight, Monica had leant over and whispered. You'll get what's coming to you, you freak. She hadn't called anybody, or tried to find out if Claire had broken her neck. She didn't care if Claire died.

No, that was wrong. The problem was, she did care. Claire tasted blood. Her lip was split, and it was bleeding. She wiped at the mess with the back of her hand, then the hem of her t-shirt before realising that it was literally the only thing she had to wear. I need to go down to the basement and get my clothes out of the trash. The idea of going down there – going anywhere alone in this dorm – suddenly terrified her. Monica was waiting. And the other girls wouldn't do anything. Even Erica, who was probably the nicest one in the whole place, was scared to come right out on her side. Hell Erica got hassled, too, but she was probably just glad that Claire was there to get the worst of it. This wasn't just as bad as high school, where she'd been treated with contempt and casual cruelty – this was worse, a lot worse. And she didn't even have any friends here. Erica was about the best she's been able to come up with, and Erica was more concerned about her broken door then Claire's broken head.'"

Everyone looked at me and I just shrugged, Shane pulled me into a big hug and Eve hugged my side and Michael just gave me one of his sweet smiles and I knew I had friends unlike when I first got here. 'Go on Mike keep on going its ok.' I said not really meaning half of it. ' Are you sure?' he asked me looking concerned but I just nodded.

"She was alone. And if she hadn't been before, she was scared now. Really, really scared. What she'd seen in the Monica Mafia's eyes today wasn't just the usual lazy menace of cool girls versus the geeks; this was worse. She'd got casual shoves or pinches before, trips, mean laughter, but this was more like lions coming in for the kill.

They're going to kill me.

She started shakily down the flights of stairs, every step a wincing pain through her body, and remembered that she'd slapped Monica hard enough to leave a mark.

Yeah. They're going to kill me.

If Monica ended up with a bruise on that perfect face, there wasn't any question about it.

We all got up as Michael closed the book and put it on the coffee table in the middle of the room. I wanted to take that book and throw it into the trash but I knew I'd get found out I just well had to face what I'd thought back then.

We all walk upstairs to our rooms Eve and Michael to their room and me and Shane to ours we shared, I got out of my clothes and walked to the bed and got under the covers with Shane who soon followed and we wrapped each other's arms around each other and soon fell asleep.

End of chapter one