"Uncle Mishka!" I greeted as I walked through the hallway, stopping at the entrance of the living room. He didn't look much different from when I last saw him. Which was...five, six years ago, maybe? His hair was graying though. I'd probably be graying too if I was married to my aunt. She is incredibly eccentric. I know of three-month old puppies with less energy than her.

"Hey there, Toadette!"

He called me that 'cause I always sleep with my hair in braids. But I don't even know if those balls on the ends of Toadettes head is hair. I mean, you just assume it is.

Anyways, Uncle Mishka didn't bother getting up from the couch. He looked too comfortable to move so he just gestered me over with his hand that was holding a bottle of beer, which ended up spilling on him with the motion. It was a hard task not to laugh at him.

"Ah, dammit..." He cursed.

"Micel, you pig! I'm not cleaning that up!" My aunt yelled, coming up behind me and leading me towards the staircase. See? How cute is she? Trying to sound french. Sometimes she says "Mee-kel", and sometimes "Me-sell."

"I haven't finished talking with her yet, woman!" He called after us.

"Foo." Aunt Bailey said, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

In my house in Chicago, we had winding staircases. They're nice to look at but a pain in the ass to use when you're in a hurry. I couldn't even slide down the banister because once I came to a turn, I'd fly right off! Let me tell you, it is NOT like television when you see the kid sliding down a spiraling banister, no, you just tumble off sideways. And that's the truth.

But these stairs were just straight up and straight down. I will totally slide down these the first chance I get.

We walked up the stairs and stopped when we came to a door in the middle of the hall. I reached out and turned the knob, opening the door.

My jaw dropped to the floor...along with my shoulder bag.

"Aunt Bailey...There is a STRIPPER POLE in my bedroom!" I shrieked.

She burst out laughing. I personally do not find this funny. The room was a dark pink with a dotty sort of design running across the ceiling and the ceiling lights were dimmed. I swear I saw a pair of furry hand cuffs on a dresser but I'm going to just pretend that they're...Well I can't really pretend they are anything else, can I? What else looks like a pair of handcuffs? A bra, maybe? Oh, and there was a stripper pole off to the far right corner. A stripper pole.

"Oh, Clarrie!" She said, wiping away a tear. "I was only kidding with you, your room is the one at the end of the hall, this is my room."

Yes! I get the room facing the street!

I shuddered involuntarily and hauled my bag off the floor.

I wasn't about to jump to conclusions, Aunt Bailey is not a whore. Or a stripper. Still, I don't currently feel the need to ask her why she owns a stripper pole and I never will. I hurried off towards the last room in the hall and quickly opened the door, eager to get it over with in case this room was anything like my aunt's.

...

Oh my gosh.

My room is beautiful!

The walls are blue! My favourite colour! Forget painting it, I was going to keep it exactly the way it was. There was already furniture, of course. A desk, a bed, bookshelves, a dresser, some lamps. Aunt Bailey seemed pleased at my reaction and slowly backed out of the room, leaving me standing in the center of it, grinning to myself.

"I'll give you half an hour to unpack. I want to take you around town when you're finished, okay?" Aunt Bailey said, while closing the door.

Half an hour should be enough time. All I brought were my clothes, a few books, my ipod, laptop, and.. and... SHIT!

I rummaged around my bag, flinging my wrinkled clothes on to my bed.

I left Donnie at home.

Donnie is my big blue teddy bear, I've had him since I was five. It's not like I can't sleep without him or anything like that, but it was comforting just having him beside me while I slept. He has these huge white claws on the ends of his paws and it made me feel like he'd be able to protect me from anything. Anything shred-able anyways.

Sighing heavily, I slid my laptop out of my now-almost-empty bag and set it down on the desk. Time to see if anyone was online.

Almost instantly I heard various bleeping and my screen flooded with messages.

Betastar: Clara! Have U arrived yet!? Msg me back ASAP!

Marker: Dummy, She just left an hour ago. She won't be there until 9.

Betastar: UR not allowed in this chatroom, how did U get the psswrd?

Bex44: Hey Claire Are you wearing your earmuffs

Betastar: Omg, Beck, U gotta change UR username # to 69!

Bex44: GOOD IDEA

Bex44 has changed her username to Bex69.

Betastar: LMAO! ;)

Marker: You guys are so immature. Claire-bear, let us know when you arrive in South Park. We miss you already.

Marker has signed out.

I sighed and debated on whether I should reply or not. Before I even realized it, I was typing away at a response.

Becky never used any kind of punctuation, which made it really hard to tell if she was joking or not unless you knew her as well as we did and Albeta went crazy with abbreviations. Mark and Davis always typed the whole word out and used punctuations, but Davis over did the emotions. Luckily, it wasn't common for him to be sitting around at a computer, chatting, unlike the rest of us cyber-kids.

Carblu: Hi guys, I'm here. It's super cold, I forgot Donnie at home, Bailey has a stripper pole in her bedroom, and yes- I am wearing the earmuffs. Miss you all.

I paused for a minute before continuing,

Carblu: Especially Donnie. :(

I didn't want to sit there, chatting with the gang right now so I quickly logged off and closed my screen. Just in time too, it seemed, because I heard footsteps outside of my room in the hall. Then, my aunt burst through the door, smiling like a nutcase.

"Clarrriiie!" She squealed, "There's a carnival in town this week, I forgot to tell you! This could be a great chance for you to meet new friends!"

But then she glanced down and saw the clothes strewn across the bed. For a minute, I thought she was going to yell at me for just leaving them there. But she just threw her head back and laughed.

"I don't have the patience for folding clothes either, dear. Your uncle has a fit whenever we go on trips!"

"I'll bet! I'll put them away now."

"Oh no, no, leave them. We'll sort them out when we come back!"

Then, I was dragged out of my room by my overly energetic auntie.