Chapter One

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba

Sithi uhm ingonyama

Reaching over to my phone, I decide to let the music play a little longer...It's about time that everyone else in this house wakes up when I wake.

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba

Sithi uhm ingonyama

Siyo Nqoba

"LIZZY...Turn that off please?!"

Waking up at the perfect time of 7.00am (9 hours sleep)...reading a book to doze off.

Listening to the Lion King as an alarm clock... recording of 1 min approx.

Annoying at least one person by not turning it off...Priceless.

"Yeah mum." I shouted.

I was naturally a morning person. The ONLY one in the family for some strange reason. Is there something wrong with wanting to wake up early in the morning? If you live with my family apparently it is. "Just a genetic defect" my older sister calls it.

Ah well. You can't pick your family.

"Liz. Wake me up when you're finished in the shower" Laura softly called. Still half dazed from being woken up by my alarm clock.

"Sure ....." I whispered.

Everyone had nicknames for me. Liz. Lizzy. Lizard. I prefer being called by my full name Elizabeth. But the other names stick better.

I had a semi large family. I had my older sister Laura, "the brains" of the house. My younger brother, Michael, who was the most athletic person I have ever seen. Even though he is 16, he thinks he has the need to work out every day of the week. And then there was my younger sister, Katherine, born with the looks, athletic ability and smarts (if she applied herself).

One of the advantages to being awake first means you get dibs on the shower's hot water first. Not that I use all of it. That title gets passed down to Katherine. So after I washed my hair, kicked Laura out of the room to get changed, I made my way downstairs to do the usual routine. Boil the kettle for mum; empty the dishwasher; make breakfast; the usual thing any sort of person would do in the morning.

"Where is my dress Laura?" called Katherine.

"Did you look in the wash? It might be there"

Today we were going out to celebrate mum's birthday. Just a small restaurant towards the western suburbs... Mum wasn't really a big fan of having big fancy things. I liked her for that. The 'not having the need' to do something extravagant. Even though when it comes to us kids she makes a huge deal out of it. She always wanted to put us first.

It has been like that since mum and dad got the divorce. Even though it was a few years ago, she wanted to make sure we had everything we needed so we wouldn't have to go through any problems that she went through with dad.

Not that dad was a bad person. Dad was great. They just didn't get along very well. We still see him from time to time. 2-3 times a month...It's good that we can still have time to hang with him.

"WHERE IS MY HAIR BRUSH?!"

"Look in the bathroom Katherine!" (She is always forgetful).

So...By the time everyone was ready (8.00...Katherine hogged the bathroom...again), we were able to walk out to the car looking presentable for mum's taste.

"Now everyone behave themselves--"

"Awwww!"

"Michael! Please! Last time we went out you caused a lot of people to be upset."

"It's not my fault that I slipped and knocked over the vase."

"Just everyone please try and control themselves..."

"Yes mum" We all interjected.

And with mum's Frank Sinatra music blaring out from the radio, we reversed and drove down the street for the highway.

Unbeknownst to the family; they're scent lingered in the breeze.

"So simple" cooed Seth.

Turning the ignition, he drove casually out of the cul-de-sac and proceeded to follow the car a few meters in front.