Chapter One
Castle in Wales
Somewhere down the hall something moved and a bright light blinded me from seeing what it was. The hall was dark again and nothing moved. As I walked down it, the moon illuminated it, so that you could see everything. The remains of a torn dress lay on the floor cover in what looked like blood. As I picked it up something called a name. The call was muffled, as though it was coming from outside. It kept calling as I stepped over to the window. As I leaned out the window to see who was calling, I was pulled downward by a hand into darkness, and the name became clear.
"ALICE!" My best friend shook me awake. The name had been my own. "Wake up the plane's going to land." My eyes fluttered open to see my best friend Shannon Preston shaking me. She let go and buckled her own seat belt. I sat up and buckled my own seat belt.
What in the world did that mean? A torn dress with blood. A hand pulling me down through a window.
"So what do you think the school will be like?" Shannon asked as she smiled so wide that it looked like it was going to stretch from ear to ear.
"Remember we aren't going to the school at first, we're going to an old castle that my family bought for forth of July." I reminded her. "Hey, at least the castle is by the ocean in Wales."
The plane landed with a thump and ladies and gentlemen speaking welsh, started to get off the plane.
"So how is Holly? I haven't heard from her in so long. I can't believe she went to an Australian boarding school!" Shannon exclaimed. As we walked off of the plane to grab our bags.
"She's fine, she called me yesterday to tell me that my grandma will pick us up here, at 3:30. The Welsh baggage claim is so much faster than over in America."
"So, where is your grandma picking us up?" she asked as I looked around my new home; at least for the next year.
"She'll pick us up at the grand bridge. Excuse me sir" I said to a man that turned around. "Man ys yr crand pont?" I asked as Shannon looked shocked.
"Pelawd acw." He said as he pointed towards the south.
"Diolch." I said as I grabbed Shannon's hand and walked off in the direction the man had pointed.
"Since when do you speak Welsh?" Shannon asked. "And what did you ask?"
"I asked where the grand bridge is and I have spoken Welsh for a while. I've talked in Welsh since I was able to talk. Remember I was born in Kansas, but I was moved over to Wales about 6 months later, and grew up there for 4 years." I told her as we stopped in front of a great bridge. "I wonder where my grandma is." I said as I looked at my watch. Someone ran up behind us and jumped on our shoulders.
"Boo." My cousin Holly yelled as we turned around.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I screamed as we hugged and bounced around in a circle. "I thought you weren't coming till tomorrow."
"My mom changed my flight so I could get here the same day as you guys. So, how are you two?" Holly asked as we sat down on a bench to wait for our grandma.
"We're fine, how are you?" Shannon said as she laid her head on Holly's shoulder.
"I'm fine too sweetie." She answered as she laid her head on Shannon's head. "So, when's grandma picking us up?"
"She'll be here any minute." I told her as a blue Honda Element pulled up in front of us, and an older lady stepping out. I ran toward her and hugged her. "Hey grandma."
"Hey honey." She replied back as she hugged me back. "Well come on, put your stuff in the back, and let's get to that castle." She said as she let go and went back to the other side. We loaded up the back and climbed in. "So how were your trips?"
"Fine." We all answered together.
"So, how far away is the castle of Lamire?" Holly asked after a half hour.
"Well, we just passed the town of Llandyssil, so about four to five minutes. The castle is really beautiful, but be warned, there are a lot of passages, and you don't want to get lost. Though I doubt you'll get lost, someone's is every corridor almost all the time. Look." she said as she pointed up a hill. "There it is, the beautiful Castle of Lamire."
"Does it have a pool and stuff like that?" Shannon asked as she leaned forward.
"Yes it has a pool, a tennis court, and as you can see a big yard for any thing you want to do." She answered as she pulled onto a gravel road, towards the castle; probably it's private driveway.
"Sweet." She said as she sat back in her seat.
"Where are we supposed to sleep?" I asked as she pulled onto a paved road.
"You guys will sleep in the old princess's rooms. There were three, so there is enough room. Smithy will show you to your rooms." She answered as we got out of the car and an old guy and three cute guys grabbed our bags from the trunk. I looked at my cousin and friend who raised her eyebrows at me and bit her lip, which showed her perfectly white teeth. One of the guys shot a look at her and whispered something to his friend on the right. Shannon didn't see this and Holly and I giggled and the three boys looked at us. Holly and I turned around and laughed silently at her. "Girls please follow Smithy, Tray, James, and Kris." My grandma said as she directed us towards the big maple wood doors.
We followed as we were told to do, doing our best to remember where every thing. Shannon could not take her eyes off of Tray, and Holly was having some trouble with the same thing, except that it was James, she was looking at. I ended up having to bit my lips together to keep from laughing out loud.
"Girls these are your rooms." Smithy said, stopping abruptly and turning around. The boys did the same. "Please follow the boy with your luggage." He said that and walked back down the hall.
Holly, Shannon, and I turned and watched Smithy walk away and at the same time put our arms at our side and saluted him while we said "Eye eye sir." We turned around to find the boys silently laughing.
"We'll carry our luggage, if you tell us what rooms we're in." I said as Shannon and Holly looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders at them. "What?"
"Speak for your self. I've never had my luggage carried for me, and I like it." Shannon said as Holly shook her head in agreement. "Set down her luggage, and tell her, where she is sleeping. Otherwise do what you were told to do." Shannon said as she pointed to Kris who set down my luggage.
The boys set off in different directions as I grabbed my luggage from the ground. Kris took me into a room that at least five times larger than my 12x12 foot room.
"Your friend is a little bossy." He said, as I looked shocked that he had talked.
"He speaks. And yeah, Shannon can get bossy at time, but she's a great friend." I told him as I walked over to the bed and set my stuff down and unzipped my first suit case.
"Your dad sent you something. It's in that room right there." He said as he pointed towards a door right across from the bed.
"Okay." I said as I walked over and pulled the door open the door. What I saw was so breath taking that I couldn't breathe for about five second. I just stood there in the door.
In the corner of the room was a small cat bed, with a little kitten sleeping in it. The rest of the room was lined with recording equipment. You know, like video and singing equipment. I walked over to the kitten, still asleep, and looked at her bed, which had a little gold plaque that said Screech. The kitten was jet black, and was about the size of my palm, maybe a little bit bigger, but not much. I stood back up and walked around the room running my fingers along the equipment. I turned back towards the door to see Kris leaning in the door way.
"If you have any problems come see me, because I put it together." He said as I rolled my eyes. "What?"
"I think I'll be able to fix it my self, thanks though." I told him as he looked taken aback.
"Okay." He said as he turned around and started to walk out.
"Hey, Kris?" I said as I ran out of the room. He turned his head and his somewhat long blonde hair caught the light. "Thank for the offer though." I said as he bowed his head and smiled.
"Have a good day Alice." He said as he walked out the door. I bowed my head good bye, and wondered how he knew my name. I shrugged it off as I unpacked my stuff and put it away.
Holly and Shannon walked into my room as I laid on the bed thinking.
"Hey so you ready to go to the pool?" Holly asked as I looked up and saw her in her swim suit.
"Oh, I totally forgot, give a minute to change." I told them as I jumped off the bed and ran across the room to my wardrobe. I throw open the doors and grabbed my two piece bathing suit. "So how do you like the guys?"
"Tray is funny and sweet." Holly answered before Shannon could say anything.
"Same here." Shannon said as she pulled her long brown hair into a ponytail, which made the red stripe in her hair visible. "I need to go get a touch up." She said as she looked in the mirror and ran one of her tan hands over the stripe. Shannon was the envy of everyone; she can tan, and has matching brown eyes and hazel hair. Holly was the next most beautiful one of us all, she has reddish-brown hair and blue eyes and has a perfect completion. Where as, I have dark azure-cyan eyes that sometimes look like dark faded cyan, dirt blonde hair that is wavy and thick beyond belief, and to complement that a peaches and cream completion, and skin that you can't tan. "Holly you should get a pink stripe in yours and Alice you should get a purple stripe in yours."
"That came from nowhere, but I think I'll pass." I told her as we walked out of the room after finally getting my hair into two French braids.
"Me too." Holly said as we walked down the corridor we came through. "Do you know how much our parents would detest us dieing part of our hair? They would ground us for at least three week."
"Oh well, so what should we do later?" Shannon asked as we turned the corner.
"Don't know. We'll figure that out later." I said as we turned the corner and ended up in the kitchen. Kitchen staff members ran around the kitchen preparing dinner. "Mmmmmm. That smells like cherry flambé. That was one of the first desserts I learned how to make." I told them as what looked like the head chief stopped in front of us.
"Who are you may I ask?" she asked.
"I'm Shannon Preston." Shannon told her.
"I'm Holly Narelle." Holly told her.
"And I'm Alice Narelle." I told her as her mouth dropped open. "Who are you?"
"I'm the head chief Andriea Johnson. I heard people say that you can bake a cherry flambé. That's a really hard thing to bake. Out of all of us I am the only one who can bake one of those." I did one of those sighs that seems like your about to laugh.
"Well it was nice to meet you and I think I'll come back later and possible help with the cooking, but we need to go." I said as I shook her hand and we left through the back door. "You know I'm really glad you found that map of the castle in your room Holly."
We walked for about another minute and found the pool. We ran at it and jumped in all the sweat and heat from the day was washed away. We came to the surface, although something wasn't right. Something was moving three feet from us and was come at us.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Holly screamed in my ear, out of all of us she was the sacredly cat of our group. The thing came up and it happened to be blurred. Two other blurred objects came up after that.
"Shees. What was that for?" James's voice said as Holly fell between us into the pool blushing.
"Leave her alone she's new to the whole blurred objects in the pool thing." I said as I climbed out of the pool and walked over to the diving board. I climbed the ladder. "Everyone move out of the way and I have to trust you because my contacts fell out." I could hear movement and blurred figures moved away from the driving board. I ran towards the end and jumped off and dived into the pool. Once I was in the pool I swam forwards and did a barrel roll in the water and came towards the surface.
I broke the surface to see four blurred objects climb out of the pool and head for the diving board. I fell onto my back and floated. After about thirty seconds I ran into something that made me jump because it was flesh.
"Cool it. It's just Kris." Kris said as he grabbed my arms.
"Sorry." I said. As soon as I finished my sentence my phone went off. Kris let go of my arms and I torn my eyes from his. That was the only part that was clear I fell back and swam toward the ledge. I fumbled around the ledge till I felt my phone and answered the call.
"Hey honey." My mom's voice rang through the speaker.
"Hey mommy, what's up?" I asked as I pulled my self out of the pool and sat down on a lawn chair.
"Not much. How did you like your father's and mine present?" she asked as I dug through my tote bag for my glasses. I put them on and saw that Holly was on James's back and Shannon was on Tray's back. They were playing chicken and apparently Holly and James were winning.
"They're so awesome. The kitten is so cute and the recording studio is awesome beyond belief. How's Oma?" I asked as I looked at the middle of the pool where Kris was. He was now floating on his back like he was tanning.
"She's fine, but she insists on buying me a new car. A love my car, I mean for Pete's sake it's a G.T. 3000." She answered as someone walked in the door where she was. I can tell because my Grandma's door is really creaky. "Hi mom." I could hear her mumbling in the background. "Honey I better go, she's going to put a for sale sign in my car window. Love you." She made a kissing noise and the call ended ring came across the speaker.
I set down the phone and walked over to the pool and lowered my self in. I swam over to Holly and James, with my glasses on. Shannon singed me to push Holly in the nerd buttons. Holly still couldn't see me so I snuck up behind her and pushed her nerd buttons. She screamed and jumped off James's shoulders and James caught her. She blushed hopped out of his arms and sank into the pool. She swam in between his legs grabbed mine and pulled me under. My glasses flew off and every thing went blurry. All I could see was blurs of color. Someone grabbed my arms and pulled me up and put my glasses back.
"Are you okay?" James asked as I spited out a mouth full of water.
"Fine, thanks." I said "Just a little surprised."
"Okay." James said as he let go of my arms and swam backwards.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to fling your glasses off." Holly said as she and Shannon swam over to where I was.
"It's okay." I said as I looked over at the three guys. "What do you think guys talk about when girls aren't around?"
"Girls, girlfriends, football, sports, that stuff." Shannon answered "Why?"
"Well because those guys keep shooting us looks." I answered as Shannon and Holly leaned to the side and peeked around me.
"Huh, they do. Interesting." Holly said as she leaned in again. "You thinking what I'm thinking." She said as a smile crept across her face.
"Oh no I am not, I repeat, not going to build a device to tell what their talking about." I said as I shook my head rapidly. "Remember what happened last time? Your" I pointed at Shannon "eyebrows were burned off."
"How did that happen?" I turned around to see Kris, Tray and James stand behind me. I stepped back into line with Holly and Shannon.
"How did what happen?" I said really quickly. "Oh what's that...coming grandma!" I yelled as Shannon, Holly, and I ran to the ledge, climbed out, grabbed our stuff, and ran down the path. We waved behind our head.
"So will you do it?" Shannon asked as we slowed to a stop in front of the back door.
"Will you keep bugging me till I build it?" I asked as Shannon shook her head yes. "Fine." I said with an exasperated sigh.