"Kit! Kit, get up this instant!" A female voice shouted up the stairs. The woman had curly dark brown hair. Her dark blue-colored eyes stared angrily up to the top of the stairs. I, her eldest daughter, was over-sleeping again, and if I was late to school again, I'd get a detention, and that would've been horrible. I did not want to miss the only Naruto convention held around here in about 5 years.
Up those very stairs, in a room, behind an ordinary door was me, and I had just woken up from my mother's usual morning shouts. I moaned irritably, "I'll be down in a few minutes!" Of course, I wasn't even making an effort to stand from my warm, soft bed. It was just typical for me not to.
"KIT! I know you're not getting up!" My mother yelled from the first step of the spiral staircase.
"How do you know I'm not?! I could be up getting dressed right now!" I shouted back as I became fully awake. I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of my jade eyes. As soon as I had said it, she knew the answer.
"Shayna told me you're still in bed being lazy," I heard my mom yell, now much closer.
Oh great, I thought sourly, my brat of a sister ratted me out. AGAIN!
"Alright, mom, I'm up!" I cried as loud as she could. "You can go back downstairs!" Her mom had neared the door but turned back when she heard me stomp out of my bed angrily. I was most definitely not a morning person.
I mumbled something under my breath about my stupid 10-year-old sister and brushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear. I stalked over to her closet to dig around for the new school uniform her mother bought. That closet had stolen more than a few innocent shoes in the past six years since we had moved there. After a few minutes, the wrinkled form of Lori's school uniform was found.
I sighed softly at the bland colors of the uniform. "I guess I'll just have to make due." She turned to the wall of what I called my "wall of fangirl-ness." In other words, it was a single wall dedicated to Naruto items. "What I wouldn't give to be in the Naruto world right now…"
"Kit! Come down and get some breakfast!" My mom yelled up the stairs again.
"Okay, mom, I'll be right down!" I called back. I raced down the stairs, almost falling on her face. Halfway down, I knew that that day would be just horrible. I didn't know why, but today would be different. My mom was in the kitchen preparing both mine and my sister's lunches.
"Kit," My mom said in a Lori-there's-some-news-you-don't-need-to-know-but-you're-gonna-hear-this-anyways voice, "Shayna and I are going out of town for a couple of weeks."
"Why?" I asked simply, trying (and failing) to sound interested.
Just then Shayna came skipping down the stairs merrily. "I have a big dance contest this month. It's in Virginia, and kids from all over the country are going to be there!"
Stupid over-achieving, goody-two shoes sister; how did I get stuck with her? I thought venomously. "So I'm alone here for who knows how long?"
"Yeah, pretty much!" Shayna shouted cheerily. I could see right through my sister's cute blonde hair, vibrant blue eyes and sweet face, though. Shayna was mocking the 16-year-old in her own cute, hidden way.
"Great!" Kit sneered. "Some time without a certain 10-year-old. Hooray! Sound the Hallelujah chorus! Hallelujah, Hallelujah!" Kit raised her hands tauntingly.
"Kit, don't tease your sister," She said in a warning tone. "We'll be back in a month or two, depending on if Shayna makes it into the finals or not. Which of course she'll make it!" She patted Shayna's head, making her curls bob up and down.
I rolled my eyes and said, "Whatever. I'm off to school." I started out the front door.
"What, not going to have breakfast?" MY mom asked.
"Nope." I stomped out the door. As usual, Shannon, my right-hand girl and best friend, was waiting at the end of the drive. "Hey, Shannon," I grumbled.
"What's wrong with you?" Shannon asked in her usual bubbly way. "Is your sister bugging you again?" She knew exactly what crap I went through that morning from the look I shot her way.
"Yup," I answered. "The same crap. Although, on the bright side, both she and the moms are going out of town for maybe a month or two, so that's good for me!" Just being around Shannon made me feel a whole lot better, no matter what mood I was in. My stomach growled angrily.
"No breakfast again, Kit?" Shannon pulled her backpack off her back and stopped to rummage through it. "You really need to eat in the mornings otherwise you crash halfway through second period. Geez, Kit, you'd think that you would learn from this." She found what she was looking for and zipped the bag shut. She chucked a peanut butter granola bar at me and I caught it nimbly.
"Thanks," I mumbled. "And I HAD to get away from the moms and Shayna." I ripped the package open and chomped on the granola. After I inhaled the small breakfast, I told Shannon, "You are my savior and I owe you my entire life, my good friend." I put a fist over my chest and bowed mockingly.
"You owe your life for, what, six months of breakfasts?" Shannon questioned.
"It was a joke."
"Oh."
Shannon stared ahead for a while. "Hey, Shannon," I began, "doesn't it feel like today's going to be different? I don't mean in a bad way necessarily, but still different."
Shannon tilted her head to the side. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But what could possibly be different around here?" She spread her arms wide for effect.
"I know. But I just can't shake this feeling that something's going to hap-" I was cut off by a blonde boy tackling me to the ground from behind. "KYAA!! WHAT THE HECK??
The boy just laughed as I struggled beneath him. "Come on, Kit! You should be used to this by now." He rolled off of my back and stood.
I turned over and glared up at the kid. "I know I should, but it's me. You know I don't get used to anything that fast."
"It's been five years," Shannon pointed out.
The boy held out his hand to help me up. I took it gratefully and pulled him back to the ground.
"Hey! What was that for?" He asked.
"You know very well what that was for, Grady!" I shouted at him. Grady was an inch taller than I was, but I could still knock him over. He was always a dork about fighting, unlike me. I had to fight a lot back then, and some of those fights weren't even mine to fight. There were a few things everyone knew about me. First off, if you hurt someone close to me, and you'd be sorry. Everyone in the entire school knew that rule, and almost none dared to break it. Almost none. One of the only girls who dared to pick a fight with me was Julia and her prep squad. She and her little posse had a thing about pushing me to the edge. Just thinking about her made me glare off into space.
Shannon waved a hand in front of my face. "Hello? You're on another planet here!" Shannon pulled me to my feet and shook me. "Come back to us, Kit!"
Grady yanked Shannon's hands off of my shoulders, knowing that I hated that.
"You were thinking with hate again," Grady stated. "And I bet I could guess who you were thinking about."
I growled, "Yeah, no kidding. Julia just makes me so MAD!" I turned and punched the brick wall that was my neighbor's fence. I regretted hitting it as soon as my hand made contact. "OW!" I held my hand up to my face to inspect the knuckles. They were turning black and blue already and the skin split in a few spots. That was nothing too serious for me. At least I hadn't broken anything.
"Holy cow…" Both of my friends muttered in sync. They were staring at the wall where I punched it.
"You, my friend," Grady began, "are getting a whole lot stronger! Do you exercise enough?"
I still didn't look up from my bleeding hand. "I don't exercise much. Why?" I grabbed Shannon's purse and looked through it until I found a bandage. I stuck it over the finger that was bleeding. "At least I won't be bleeding all over the place now."
Shannon turned to stare at me in wonder. "Look at the wall," She said simply. I gave her a confused look and moved around her to glance at the bricks.
There, right where I'd punched it was crumbled. The ground was littered with shards of reddish brick. My eyes widened from the damage I created.
"I'm in so much trouble!" I thought of what the Speers would do, knowing that I had successfully broken their brick wall. My mind halted right there. My hand broke a brick wall?? WHAT? I thought, trying to scramble for some explanation. "How the heck did I do that?!" I practically shouted.
"That's what I want to know!" Shannon stroked the spot where I hit the wall and it just crumbled more.
"Oh God, no!" I did shout that time. I saw Mr. Speer coming out of his front door to get the morning newspaper. "RUN!!" I shouted at my friends. I am SO dead when I get home! I thought frantically. CRAP! CRAP C-R-A-P, CRAAAAP!