Wow, chapter ten was long... I thought I'd never get it done. But, I did! And yea... Five chapters left!
Chapter Eleven;;;;
Prom had been pretty amazing, they'd all spent the last hour dancing, and trying to find the poker chips with their names on it. Then said their good-byes, saying they'd see each other on Monday, and then, well, went home.
Melody was exhausted when Jane finally got to pick her up, after the rest of her friends had left, and probably would have fallen asleep still in her dress, but, well, any girl whose done that knows it's not the best idea in the world. She quickly changed out of the dress, which ended up in a heap on the floor, and would probably be there until she remembered at three o'clock the next day, and then into an old pair of sweat pants and an old too big band shirt that she used to wear all the time, back in Texas.
She slept pretty good that night, much better than she had in the hospital, and even better than she had since she gotten back from the hospital. What had surprised her when she'd gotten back, was the lack of mess than had been in her room before, and the bed.
Instead of the plain bedding than had been there, and would have been there until Melody could build up the courage to go back to the house – Her house – and get some new blankets and sheets and such, it was her bedding. The pink sheets had given it away.
Melody had been given pink bedding by her great grandmother a month before she'd passed away from a heart attack, and wouldn't trade the for the world, so she said. When they needed to be washed, she used different ones, but they only were on until the pink was clean. And the large patchwork quilt. Becca, Jenna, Tara and her had needed to make something for a project, and in the end, a patchwork quilt became the project, which became Melody's blanket.
After climbing under the familiar blankets and sheets, Melody was asleep within minutes for once, she'd nearly always had trouble with falling asleep quickly, it usually took her a while. The last time she'd fallen asleep that quickly was the night her family had been killed, after she'd gotten back from baseball practice.
She woke up pretty early than morning, around 3 or 4, a quiet, but annoying, constant beeping coming from her phone. Melody groaned quietly before rolling out of bed and almost landing on her butt. She chuckled to herself, still half asleep, she was sure, and grabbed her SideKick, checking the new message. From... Becca?
It was normally Tara and Jenna who texted Melody, rarely Becca, unless with big news. Jenna had gotten her phone literally moments before Melody and her family had left, and had been texting the poor girl the whole drive, which, was pretty nice of her. Tara had gotten her phone a week or so before, and Becca had gotten hers way before, in case anything happened, being a diabetic and all.
Hi Melody. Look, I know it's pretty early, at least in Cali, it is, but, Jenna is bouncing off the walls, (Tara bought her an energy drink again) and Tara is currently on her fourth glass of Pepsi, so, I decided I might as well be the one to ask/tell you. Melody was half way through the text, and way confused, but kept reading. So, mom and dad are coming to Sacramento to visit a family friend, and as you know, your birthday is ever approaching, but, none of us are sure if we'll be able to make it in August, so, we convinced Tara and Jenna's parents to let them come with Marg, mom dad and I to Cali. We're coming to visit!
Melody almost dropped her phone, and fumbled with it (It ended up on the bed), and blinked a few times. They were coming to visit? They were coming to visit. Wow. That would be one of the few times, yes, she'd gone back home to visit, but ,they rarely, if ever, came out to California to visit her.
Ah, but they had a good reason now, didn't they? Melody sighed, before going to sit on her bed again, moving her phone to the stand beside her bed, and lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, feeling her eyelids grow heavy with sleep again.
Thank god it was Saturday.
When Melody woke up again, she rolled out of bed. Literally.
She'd clearly forgotten where she was, or what time it was, because when she hit the hardwood floor, she was looking around like 'What the heck happened?'. Then it dawned on her, again.
She was at Jane's, which was hers too, in a way. She'd woken up way to early that morning, and then fallen asleep again. The text from Becca. Becca... And Jenna. And Tara.
Oh god. They were coming to visit, and she'd only been back to the house – Her house – a handful of times, three, at the most.
Rushing to get off the floor, she grabbed her phone, pressing a random button to check the time – She was going to need to get a clock in the room – and sighed when she saw the time.
Eight fifteen. She hadn't even woken up late. That was soo Melody like.
She stretched, and reached up to touch her head, remembering it would probably look like a rats nest, like it did most mornings, and was sure it was this morning.
She grabbed the brush off the floor, where it must have fallen during the night, and yanked it through her curls, before tying them back with a light pink ribbon, and glancing in the mirror. She had black marks under her eyes from the mascara and eye liner she hadn't been able to get off the night before, and grabbed a makeup wipe, and made a face at the amount that had been on her face through the night.
She straightened her tee shirt out, smiling when she realized what she was wearing, and chuckled at the memory.
It was December 22nd, Becca Abbey's 10th birthday, and she was taking her three best friends, Jenna Radcliffe, Tara Howell and Melody Boone, and her younger sister, Margret Abbey, who was 8 at the time, to a concert, although Melody wasn't one hundred percent who it was that was playing, she was sure it would be awesome none the less. All of the girls had bought tee shirts from different bands playing, and Melody had chosen one that was bright, and colourful, not that they all weren't, but, still
She smiled, before noting the little white box that said 'Melody Jessica Boone' in large black letters, below it in smaller black letters 'Mellie Bellie'. It had been one of her going away presents, a friend ship ring. It was simple and silver, and said 'Live. Love. Laugh.' In black, that was also engraved in the ring. She hadn't worn it a lot, ever, not wanting to lose it, but, for some reason, she felt like she really should wear it now. When the girls showed up, for them.
She slipped the ring on her left hand, ring finger (She hated wearing rings on her right hand for some reason) and then headed out of her room. She'd just woken up, and it didn't really matter what she looked like, well... Sort of, that being the point of brushing her messy head of curls.
Melody yawned as she headed to the kitchen, to get something to eat, and then talk to Jane about going back to the house, she'd try to clean some stuff up, decide what she was going to keep, and what she would give away (She wouldn't dare sell pretty much any of it.).
"Good morning," Melody almost jumped when Jane greeted her, happily.
"Morning," She managed, between a yawn, blinking sleep out of her eyes. She gave her uncle a friendly smile and then headed to the fridge to grab a frozen waffle or two. She'd always liked those for some reason. She put them in the toaster, and then got a plate and fork out, and poured herself a glass of orange juice. "Any plans today?" Melody asked, after swallowing a sip of her OJ. Jane shrugged, knowing, it seemed, that Melody had something she wanted to do.
"Nope, you have anything you want to do?" He asked, smirking, as if he'd actually read her mind. Melody rolled her eyes, smiling a little, yawning again, and jumping when the waffles popped out of the toaster.
"Maybe," She said, elongating the word, as she pulled the waffles out of the toaster, pretty much throwing them from one hand to another, before dropping them on her plate, and pouring some syrup on them, drowning them, rather. "Actually, at about 4 am, Becca told me that her, Margaret, Jenna, and Tara are coming to Sacramento, her mom and dad need to visit someone, and I was wondering, if maybe I could go over to my house, and maybe start clearing some stuff out." She told him, before taking a bite of syrup covered waffles.
Jane, of course, saw no objection to that. There was no reason to put it off; They were already as good as buried (and would actually be buried on Sunday). "Sure, do you want me to help? Or you want to do it yourself?" He asked, getting up to put his tea cup in the sink, having finished it as Melody had come in.
"I'd kinda rather do it alone." She told him, smiling weakly. Although she was sure she wasn't going to get that much done, she might as well start, as she really couldn't put it off much longer. Jane nodded, he understood. Some things were better done alone.
"Okay, I'll drop you off, and you can call me to come pick you up later." He told her, before a smile slipped on to his face, showing the next part was serious, yet he was joking, "Although, if you don't call before 6 o'clock, I'm coming to get you any way."
Melody had switched out her pj's for a blue sun dress with a big brown belt around the middle, and opting to wear her bathing suit, maybe take a swim while at the house, clear her head. She slipped on a pair of light, yet sturdy high tops, and pulled her hair into a high pony tail, letting a few stray curls fall around her face, before brushing them out of the way again.
She grabbed her phone, and her I-Pod, throwing them in a random bag she had grabbed, small and bright, like her.
It turned out, that even though Saturday was supposed to be his day off, he was stuck on a case, or at least to start it, as it was an hour or so drive away.
She wasn't sure what to do when she first got to the house, after standing in the middle of the lobby sort of thing for a few minutes. She sighed, pulling her hair back into a bun, to keep it off her neck, and then headed up stairs, to her room; She'd start there, and then work up the nerve to go into Elizabeth's room, and her parents.
Melody couldn't help but laugh at the familiar pattern she fell into when she started cleaning; Between her and Elizabeth, it had always been her cleaning most of the time. She would often randomly clean her room, because she hated not being able to find something, and Elizabeth would clean her own room maybe once a month.
She plugged her I-Pod into the speakers, and turned it up, making sure her phone was near her, in case Becca, Jenna or Tara decided to text her, or if Uncle Patrick had to call her, or Lisbon, if Jane got into trouble, which he was often enough. Melody was often feeling bad for Lisbon, having to put up with Jane all the time, since he was insulting people, getting punched in the face, and... Well, just plain being annoying.
Humming to herself, Melody sorted a few things into piles. To get rid of, as in sell or give away, to keep, and to throw out. After about five minutes, she got bored of cleaning her own room, it was too neat. She knew where everything was. She knew were her old badminton tee shirts were, where her old tattered copy of I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You was on her over crowded book shelf. She knew were her worn out roller skates were. Everything. Not a single thing out of place. Ever.
Melody took a deep breath, picking her phone up, and un plugging her I-Pod, she'd bring it to Elizabeth's room, so she could clean it. Like she'd done so many times before, when they were younger, and even just weeks ago, on Lizzie's birthday.
Slowly, Melody made her way down the hall, to the off white door that had a sign that Elizabeth herself had made when she was five. She'd been an artist, even at that age. Melody reached her hand out slowly, the way she had that fateful night. The night she'd found them all dead. And opened the door.
It looked so different, and she knew why. Forensics' would have needed to take anything with blood on it, including most of the sheets. What was left of Elizabeth room looked just like normal. Books spread out, paper all over the floor, covering the walls, littering the desk. Melody smiled at the just finished line drawing Elizabeth had shown her before she'd died. It was a picture of the two of them, like a photograph. Melody picked it up gently, as if it would break, and felt a few tears well up in her eyes.
After a few minutes of staring at the picture, she found a folder and started putting most of Elizabeth's artwork in it. Anything she liked, and even some she didn't, anything she could tell what it was. A few were sketches, other full body poses, others head shots. But they were amazing, that's all Melody could ever say about Lizzie's art. Amazing.
She was sorting through the books Elizabeth had stacked up, a few from the library (She'd have to take them back, and pay the late fee. The librarian hated her, and wouldn't care that Elizabeth was dead), when her phone rang, moments before the door bell. Melody groaned as she grabbed her phone, turning her I-Pod off, and headed down stairs. She opened the new text message as soon as she started down stairs.
Heyy Melody! I have a surprise! Open the door. – Jem Jenna
Melody's eyes furrowed, confused, as she headed to the door. She could see someone through the window, but couldn't tell who. Maybe it was Joan, the house keeper? Melody would probably get her to help go through things, if she didn't mind. Sighing, Melody opened the door, and gasped at who she saw.
Becca Abbey, Jenna Radcliffe, and Tara Howell stood, grinning, out front. Dressed in sundresses, which she was sure only because it was getting too warm.
"Surprise!"