Best That I Can
"Oh, I am trying the best that I can."
AN: This fic used to have about six chapters up. Then I neglected and forgot about it, then discovered it again, then began to care about it again. So the first few chapters are being rewritten, into somewhat hopefully better and clearer chapters, then there'll be new stuff!
Chapter One: Great Start To The New
"This is going to be good for us. I promise."
The words left the lips of Eleanor Oliver. She spared a glance at her younger sister, taking her eyes off the road for a second to see her flat out ignore the promise. Instead, she was on her phone.
"Amelia… Please." Begged Eleanor.
Her tone had a hint of desperacy to it. The whole car ride had been like this. Forty-eight hours of Eleanor filling in the silences as Amelia concentrated on her phone, the radio, of the three books she had brought with her to fill the time. Amelia let out a heavy groan and looked up from her phone, finally paying attention to her sister for the first time in three hours.
"What?" She snapped.
Eleanor flinched a little at her younger sister's tone, but she pulled on an optimistic smile and began talking with the enthusiasm of a fresh and upcoming weather girl.
"Look, I know this is going to be hard for you. It'll be hard for me too! But I promise that this is going to be so much better than better. We've got a new house, you'll be at a new school, I'll get a new job…. We'll flush out the old, bring in the new!"
Amelia rolled her eyes so hard that she would've been able to see her brain if she tried. She shifted her body, moving her head to gaze out the front window of the car that Eleanor had bought the day before they packed up and left.
"Your enthusiasm is terrifying."
Eleanor's optimistic smile turned into a grin and she looked at her younger sister, lips spreading from ear to ear. Amelia let out an ugh as she saw her sister's overly optimistic expression out of the corner of her eye. At that response Eleanor broke into a laugh, yet to move her eyes back to the road.
"El- ELEANOR!"
Amelia screeched her sister's name and quickly grabbed onto her arm. Eleanor's eyes flicked back to the road to see a figure bounding across the road. It had suddenly appeared in front of them and Eleanor slammed onto the brakes, gasping for breath as the car came to halt and they narrowly avoided the thing.
"What the hell…" She breathed.
She'd only caught a glimpse at what they'd almost hit; and as she looked out the window to see if it was still there, she realized it was long gone. Amelia was still gripping tightly onto Eleanor's arm, her eyes wide with terror and her already pale skin about two shades paler.
"Hey, hey we're okay." Comforted Eleanor.
Her hand reached out to comfort Amelia but before her fingers could even brush her, Amelia was nodding her head and pulling her shaky hand away from Eleanor's arm.
"Great start to the new." She murmured.
Eleanor let out a weak laugh and took her foot off the brake. She kept her eyes on the road as she responded to her sister's comment.
"The new doesn't start till we're at the house."
"And how long will that be?"
Eleanor quickly glanced at the GPS on the dashboard before responding.
"20 minutes."
Amelia let out a sigh and turned back to her phone, the incident already a thing of the past, as Eleanor took a moment to gaze at her sister before starting back on the road.
Eleanor and Amelia; the Oliver Sisters. Most couldn't tell that they were sisters due to the fact that they barely looked the same. Each had taken after different parents, save for a few similarities. They shared their mother's nose and their father's height, but that's where the similarities ended.
Eleanor was 23. She was tall, well-built, had naturally curly brown hair, strikingly compelling grey eyes, and a gorgeous smile that made strangers on the straight smile back no matter what. She was the now legal guardian of her 16 year old sister Amelia.
Amelia was also tall, but a little shorter than her sister. Quite skinny, the younger Oliver sister had silvery blonde hair and deep hazel eyes. She had a splash of freckles over her nose and cheeks and unlike her sister, she rarely smiled.
But there was a reason behind that.
The pair had lost their parents only three months before. They had died instantly in a car crash, meaning that Amelia's only direct living relative was Eleanor. Their dad had a brother… But he was in the middle of a messy divorce that no one wanted to get involved in. So Eleanor had dropped everything in her life to take care of her little sister. Wounds still fresh, the sisters - or rather Eleanor - had made the decision to move away from any shred of their old lives and start anew.
One night, a couple glasses of red wine in, Eleanor had spread open a map of America and blindly picked out a town. That town? Beacon Hills. So the next morning Amelia had woken up to a packed house and Eleanor telling her they were moving. With all her ties destroyed and no other options, Amelia didn't protest. So they left. Driving all the way down California, from San Francisco to Beacon Hills. It took them two days and now they had only a few minutes before they literally pulled up the driveway into their new lives.
"Oo… This is the street!"
Eleanor spoke and Amelia finally put her phone away. Eleanor kept an eye out for the house number and let out a little 'aha!' when she saw number 37. It was tucked nicely between two modern houses, the old house sticking out like sore thumb on the modernised street. As they drove up to the house both of their faces dropped. Eleanor pulled into the driveway and parked the car, both staring at the house with wide eyes as they proceeded to get out of the car and stare at it in disbelief.
"Well… This is nice…" Said Eleanor.
"It's yellow." Snapped Amelia.
"The yellow's nice! Very… Summery…" Replied Eleanor.
It was a desperate attempt to put a positive spin on things and both of them knew it. Eleanor bit back a sigh and pulled on a happy grin as she held her hand out to her sister.
"Come on, let's go check it out."
Amelia rolled her eyes again and ignored the outstretched hand. She brushed past Eleanor and made her way to the front door, walking up a little pathway that went through an overgrown front yard.
"Got the keys?" She called out.
Eleanor let out the sigh she had bit back and dug the house keys out of her pocket. She followed behind Amelia and worked on unlocking the front door, frowning over the amount of jiggling she had to do to get it open.
From the outside it looked like an old Victorian house. It was one of the main reasons Eleanor chose it, not completely wanting to let go of the lives the two sisters were leaving behind. The style reminded her of San Francisco… But she had to admit that the yellow was a surprise. The front yard had a massive willow tree out front and a series of overgrown bushes and plants that Eleanor was sure to make a pet project out of. The front of the played host to a large veranda, complete with a swing bench and a couple of dead pot plants.
The house stuck out like a sore thumb on the street filled with big, new, and modern looking houses… But walking into the house revealed exactly why it was there. A giant front door opened into a wide greeting hall. At the the end of the room was a staircase that led to the rest of the house, and a small open archway tucked behind the staircase. On either side of the hall were two open archways leading into more of the first floor of the house. One led to the kitchen and the other led to the living room.
Once Eleanor had gotten the front door open the both let out soft wows as they stepped in and stared. Amelia was the first to make a move to explore. Eleanor followed her into the kitchen, both continuing the marvel over the house. The kitchen seemed to be well lit with wide windows… And well… It was basically the kitchen of their dreams. With wide open windows, an island in the middle, a breakfast counter, neither were used to a kitchen of that size.
"Question… Why hadn't we moved to the suburbs sooner?"
As Amelia spoke her fingers traced over the kitchen island with a look of wonder on her face.
"I'm going to take that as you like the house?"
Amelia's look of wonder fell and she looked up at Eleanor, refusing to let a smidge of happiness appear on her face.
"We've only seen one room."
Eleanor rolled her eyes and turned to head into the living room. That was massive too. Also with wide open windows, Eleanor was already picturing the set up. At the corner of the room was another archway which led into a wide open room that had a door leading to a backyard. Which, for the record, was also overgrown.
Amelia let out a humph and moved to the staircase. It was Eleanor's turn to follow again when she heard a cry of dibs from upstairs. She took the stairs two by two and found Amelia in a bedroom that had a walk in robe, a balcony overlooking the front of the house, and an ensuite. Eleanor rolled her eyes, not bothering to hide the smile on her lips over Amelia's eagerness over something. She moved to explore the other rooms, finding a bathroom with a bathtub and another bedroom that also had a walk in robe and a balcony that overlooked the back of the house.
With the house explored, Eleanor and Amelia trudged back down to start unpacking what boxes they had in the back of Eleanor's car. A moving truck came half an hour later with the rest of their stuff and by the end of the day the house was filled with set up furniture and boxes that were yet to be unpacked.
It was around 9 o'clock when the Oliver sisters were able to sit down and just breathe. The pair were sat on the swing bench on the front veranda, both clutching hot drinks that Eleanor had managed to scrape together.
"I mean it Amelia… This is going to be good for us. I can feel it."
Amelia looked at her sister. She was staring out at nothing in particular, a hopeful look on her face as she thought about everything Beacon Hills could bring them.
"I actually think you might be right."
It was the first positive thing Eleanor had heard from her in days. Her eyes quickly flicked to her and the gorgeous smile that made Amelia cringe appeared on her lips. Eleanor threw her arms around Amelia, giving her a tight hug that Amelia only put up with for a couple seconds before letting out a 'NOPE' and squiggling her way out of her sister's arms. Eleanor let out a little laugh and watched as her sister finished her drink before rising to her feet and contentedly nodding her head.
"Okay, I'm officially exhausted. I'm going to sleep. Good night."
"Goodnight." Hummed Eleanor.
She watched as Amelia turned into the house.
"I love you." She called out, half expecting a response but not surprised when she didn't get one.
Neither had noticed the pair of red eyes peering at them from one of the overgrown bushes.