The Greatest Risk
Chapter One
The rain tapped softly against her window as she stared out in to the bleak atmosphere. The sun was not up early at this time of year; it was on of the reasons she hated the beginning of a school year.
"Aislinn?"
She turned around ever so slowly, trying to hide the tears threatening to spill. She wasn't one for crying in public. "What?"
Her father didn't even notice her unsteady voice. Instead, he went around her room, picking up things she'd lazily trashed on the floor. "What're you doin', starin' out that window, it's bleak out there. Nothin' to see," he added. He shook an epty box of candy at her. "What's all this? You eatin' sugar up here? What have a told you about that? You should learn to pick up after yourself like any other normal seventeen-year-old. I ain't your aid."
She just shrugged. She didn't care. Her father said that every day and today was no different.
"Well, anyways, get downstairs and eat somethin'. Don't you miss that train again, because I ain't gonna be the one getting you to school. I'm tired of wastin' my time on you," he muttered as he retreated downstairs. "You get down here, you hear?" he hollered.
"Whatever." She glanced out the window again and wiped away the last remnants of her tears, temporarily erasing the thoughts of her mother from her mind.
Halfway down the stairs, her eyes caught the picture hanging near the front door. The woman in the picture had almond shaped eyes, beautiful eyes, but instead all she saw were lifeless, glassy looking eyes.
She gasped at the unexpected vision and quickly opened her eyes in an effort to shut the pain away. She shook her head. She wasn't going to go there. She had to keep going on with her life and never stop for a breath. Because she knew if she stopped, everything would wash over her and overwhelm her.
When she entered the kitchen, her father eyed her glaringly. "What took you so long?"
She shrugged, "Nothing."
He pondered her for a minute before speaking. "You know what? Now that I think about it, you're gonna have to get up earlier now. I'm tired of bringing you. It's embarrasin' bein' around you." He turned to her, "Tell me, wouldn't you be embarrassed to be with someone who was ugly?"
She blinked. That was particularly harsh and blunt of him. She took a deep breath. "Maybe."
"Well, I am," he replied. If he had noticed hesitation, he didn't let on. "And I ain't gonna put myself in such a position no more," he contiuned, glancing into the mirrow. "Is my tie crooked?"
He said it so easily as if he were discussing the weather. It's sunny out today and oh, by the way, I think your ugly. It hurt but she was used to it.
"It's fine dad."
"It really all right?"
"Yeah," she said absentindedly.
"Yeah, well, go get on the train. Go!" He handed over her books and practically shoved her out the door.
"She signed and begain her twenty minute walk to the station. What she wouldn't give to have her mother back. In fact, she'd even love to have her father back too. He hadn't always been this way. Up until her mother's death, he was always happy. Anyone could've seen that her father and mother were in love. And then tragedy struck, and the sudden loss of his love had shattered him. It shattered Aislinn herself, too, only, the two of them dealt with the loss in defferent ways. He had become aggressice while she had withdrawn in her shell, never revealing much about herself to those around her. She was now pretty good at keeping her thoughts and feelings bottled up; six years of hiding had done its trick.
Now, she was going back to another year at Hogwarts. She lost all her friends when she quit talking to them. She wanted things to be different but she didn't know how to change it.
So, once again, she boarded the train and prepared herself for a long year alone, again.