Chapter 2: Necklace

After a delicious breakfast of waffles (with cream, fruit and chocolate sauce), Ophelia raced upstairs, and quickly got changed into her new black skirt and a purple T-Shirt. Than, she spent about fifteen minutes putting her makeup on, giving her red lips and blue eyes, and taking several pictures of herself to put on her wall. Next, Ophelia called several friends to thank them for their wishes, and they all gossiped about what they would wear at Ophelia's party that night. But, after nearly twenty minutes, Meredith yelled to her daughter, telling her to come down: they were going to see her mother.
"Why are we even going to see her?" Ophelia sighed, as she sat in the front seat of her mum's Santa Fe, driving towards Green Meadows Retirement Village.
"We are going because it is a nice thing!" Meredith sighed. "Besides, you use to love seeing your grandmother when you were little."
"Yeah, that was before I realised she was a horrible bitch." Ophelia snapped. Meredith gasped and turned towards her daughter angrily.
"Don't talk about her that way! She may be a bit cross, but you shouldn't call her a-"
"CAR!" Ophelia yelled. Meredith looked back at the road, and she quickly swerved to avoid a VW Beetle. Meredith sighed again, and then turned right: they had reached the village, and Ophelia hadn't even noticed.
"That's new." The teen muttered, and watched as a black security gate retreated behind the peach concrete walls.

"I heard that an Alzheimer's patient wandered onto the road and was hit, so they put extra security in." Meredith whispered, and the car drove through the gates, leaving the busy road behind and entering a road surrounded by trees.
In the Green Meadows Retirement Village, there was around two hundred houses, designed to be easy to walk around and for the residents to personalise. Each 'flat' could house up to three people, though only life-long friends did this. The flats come white, so they can be painted any colour the residents wanted, so the Santa Fe passed a flat of every colour. The gardens also come with flowers, but can be altered anyway they wanted: some had a rainbow of different flowers, others contained statues, or wooden birds, or there own vegetable patches.
"Here we are." Meredith said, and pulled up outside another flat. Ophelia reluctantly got out of the car, smiling at two passing old ladies, and stared at her grandmother's flat.
Unlike the other flats, Beatrice Grant had left her house untouched, and it remained purely white. A row of tulips and a rose bush had come with the flat as well, but both had since shrivelled up and died. Even a Pohutukawa Tree outside the flat looked pretty dead, which wasn't good.
"Come along, she is probably waiting for us." Meredith said, and rushed up a small ramp, and then tapped on the door. Ophelia sighed and walked slouchily over, and noticed the front door was open.
"Oh boy, the fun begins." She sighed, and walked in after her mother.
There was very little light inside the flat, which opened up directly into a narrow hallway, which was also white. Meredith led Ophelia passed pictures of Beatrice's two sisters and three brothers, past a dirty kitchen with ten year old appliances, and then into a living room, which had faded blue carpet. The living room consisted of a round wooden table, a wooden coffee bench, an old green sofa, and a broken television set. There was a bookcase, which contained numerous sun-damaged books and black and white photos.
"Mother?" Meredith called nervously. Ophelia looked down another hallway, but no one was there.
"Over here." A sickly voice croaked. Ophelia and Meredith turned around, and looked behind a silk curtain, leading to a little office area. Meredith pulled the curtain across, revealing her mother.
Beatrice Grant was nearing her eightieth birthday, and she definitely looked the age. Her hair was thin, white and wispy, and looked almost dead. Her skin was badly sun damaged and looked yellow, like her books, and it was sunken and badly wrinkled. She was wearing a faded orange tracksuit, and was staring with her cold grey eyes at an empty tea cup, as if expecting something to come out of it.
"Hello Mother, how are you?" Meredith whispered, and gave her mother a hug, which she didn't reciprocate.
"Ophelia, you look like a prostitute." Beatrice croaked. Meredith stifled a snigger, and Ophelia's eyes narrowed even more.
"It's the latest trend." She replied icily, and walked towards her grandmother, and gave her a hug that was barely even one.
"Happy Birthday, I guess." Beatrice grunted. "But trust you to only see me to get a present."
"Present? I didn't think you'd be getting me one." Ophelia said sarcastically. But the only reason she was able to survive these visits was to get a gift: Beatrice had inherited a lot of money when her husband had died, and she managed to have a good eye for fancy jewellery. Beatrice laughed croakily, before breaking into a coughing fit. Meredith poured her a glass of water from a jug, and Beatrice gulped it greedily.

"So, do you want your present, or are you truly here to see me?" Beatrice growled. Ophelia looked at her nervously, wondering what she should say.
"Well, I would appreciate one of your lovely gifts." She said at last.
"How am I not surprised?" Beatrice chuckled, and pointed towards the coffee table back in the living room. A small silver box, wrapped in purple ribbon, sat on the surface.
"Oh grandma, you shouldn't have!" Ophelia exclaimed, but eagerly rushed forwards and picked it up. The ribbon fell to the ground, and Ophelia pulled out a necklace.
"You seriously shouldn't have." Ophelia said through clenched teeth, and stared with disgust at the jewellery: it was made out of a hard, bulky metal, and looked like it weighed a ton. The design at the bottom was a crescent moon, but it was painted about twenty different colours that Ophelia wasn't sure what it actually was. Meredith was stifling her laughter, and Beatrice was grinning broadly.
"I picked it out especially for you." The elderly lady explained.
"Why… thank you." Ophelia said at last. Meredith had to sit down in a hard backed chair to try and hide her laughter, and Beatrice's aged eyes were staring at Ophelia, as if forcing her to put the necklace on. Ophelia shivered slightly, but managed to unclip the back and put the necklace around her neck.
"See, it looks beautiful!" Beatrice proclaimed, and Ophelia just grinned.
Half an hour later, Meredith and Ophelia finally left, and rushed towards the car. Meredith was finally able to laugh, and she cackled loudly.
"That thing is hideous!" She said, doubling over in her fit of laughter.
"Just shut up and open the doors." Ophelia hissed. Once the doors were unlocked, Ophelia leapt in and tried taking the necklace off, but it wouldn't budge.
"The stupid catch is stuck!" She snarled, and tugged furiously at it. Meredith managed to control her laughter, and then had a go at the necklace.
"It really is stuck, must be something wrong with it." She said, and retired trying to pull it off. Ophelia growled angrily as the engine started up.
"I am going to have to wear this at my party tonight!" She wailed, and slumped up against the window. "This birthday is the worst one yet!"