Spencer and the Davies family have arrived at the Davies newly bought mansion. The property is completely surrounded by tall trees. Raife opens the privacy gate, which has Davies written in the center in big bold red lettering, remotely from the car. The house itself is white and has three-stories not including the basement, and a three car garage. That's just what you can see from outside the front of the house.
Ashley helps Spencer get out meanwhile Raife gets Kyla's luggage out.
Kyla hadn't moved until after being snapped out of the staring contest she was having with the house by Ashley practically pulling her out of the car Kyla finally speaks.
"Holy crap! I bet one of your bathrooms is bigger than my bedroom back home!"
Raife laughs as he comes up with her suitcases in tow then says.
"Let's go see our new house!"
"Don't you mean let's go see my new house?" she asks unsure why he would be eager to see his own house.
"It's practically new for me and Ash too…After I found out that Christine had been keeping us from each other. I kicked her out of our other place, and we decided we don't want to live there either. So I'll probably sell it. It's a nice house, just not for us anymore. Something good should come from this maybe I'll give the money to charity."
"That'd be great Raife!" Kyla says then, they smile at each other.
"Um…I mean dad…should I call you dad?" She corrects herself due to wondering and not wanting to hurt his feelings.
"You can if you want…you don't have to…what ever you're comfortable with." He gives her a reassuring smile."
"Hey Kyla, you think the outside is cool…wait til you see inside!" Ashley tells her excitedly.
Kyla smiles really big.
"Let's roll!" Spencer adds.
They are now inside the house. Ashley and Spencer are showing Kyla around. As they exit the foyer and head through the living room a staircase is up ahead.
"This's unbelievable…I can't believe I live here now!" Kyla tells them in awe as she looks around.
"Believe it sister, welcome to the life of a rock star's daughter!" Ashley tells her with a grin on her face.
"I don't know if I like the sound of that." Kyla says timidly.
"Its cool, Ky…I didn't think I'd adjust to L.A. either, but Ashley has made it easier for me, and we'll make it easier for you." Spencer assures her.
Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better! She smiles at him.
C'mon! Ky, our bedrooms are upstairs! Ashley tells her sister enthusiastically.
Kyla pauses for a moment then turns to Ashley.
"Oh…That's okay, we can wait 'til later to check 'em out. Let's just hang out with Spencer down here." She says nicely.
Ashley and Spencer look at each other then at Kyla and smile.
"Aw Ky that's so sweet…"
"Yeah, it means a lot that you don't want me to be left out, but I don't have to be… there's an elevator…See?" He says pointing to the left of the steps.
"No way! We have an elevator? This is totally insane!" as she sees it.
The two girls get in first and head towards the back so Spencer has room to wheel in, which he carefully does. Then he pushes the button for the second floor.
As they get off the elevator and head to the bedrooms, something catches Kyla's eyes. Midway down the hallway they are walking through she's spotted large double-doors with one rectangular window in each. She peers inside.
"This just keeps getting better….an indoor pool?! Oh my god!" She practically squeals.
"Yeah that's awesome, but I'm also a fan of the home theater!" Spencer adds happily.
"Shut up! There's a movie theater too?!" Where?! Kyla asks astonished.
"Downstairs, it's to the right of the steps that's why you didn't see it. Ashley answers somewhat amused at Kyla's reactions.
"Oh…Geez what's on the third floor an amusement park?" Kyla jokes.
"Ha…I wish! No…its gonna be Daddy's music studio." Ashley answers casually.
"Right…because it's totally normal to have a recording studio in your house." Kyla jokes again, amazed by what her sister seems to think is a common occurrence.
"When your Dad's a world famous musician it is…Don't worry you'll get use to it!" Ashley puts her arm around Kyla.
The first bedroom they come upon is Kyla's. It is empty except for a queen-size bed, night stand, a matching dresser, and a 40 inch flat screen. Kyla looks around her room and her bathroom, for a moment, marveling at the fact that her new room is at least twice the size of her room in Baltimore.
Then, the trio head next door to Ashley's room. Which she has arranged exactly like the other house, except it's bigger and she now has a TV as big as Kyla's mounted on the wall. Ashley and Kyla are sitting on the bed Spencer is facing them in his wheelchair.
"Whoa, who's that? He's hot!" Kyla says as she sees a picture of Aiden on top of her sister's dresser.
"Oh…him? That's my friend Aiden." Ashley answers.
"You guys must be pretty close if you have a picture of him right next to one of you two…Right?" Kyla asks.
"Yeah the three of us are friends. Aiden's my best friend besides Spencer. We use to do everything together, but now I spend most of my time with Spencer. It works for all of us because Aiden's become friends with Spencer's brother Glen. They're on the basketball team together." Ashley answers.
"I see…so, Spencer you have a brother? What's that like? Until now I thought I was an only child. Kyla says with a smile at Ashley.
"I have two actually. Glen's the oldest and then Clay. My brothers are cool…I'm pretty sure every set of sibling's experiences are different, some really good, some really bad, and everything in between. We fight and we laugh, but love is always there."
"Aww." The girls respond sweetly in unison.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah...moving on." Spencer says feigning like he's uncomfortable showing his soft side even though he's really not.
"Okay…So Spencer, you said Ashley helped you get use to this madness when you first came here, where did you move from and why, if you don't mind me asking?" Kyla wonders while hoping Spencer doesn't think she's being nosey.
"I don't mind. Me and my family moved here from Ohio before the beginning of the school year. We moved for a couple reasons. My dad's a social worker and has always wanted to help people in need. There's pretty much no better, more diverse place to help people than here…"
The other reason was my disability. You can try to change things all you want, and believe me my mom and I fought for every aspect of my education from the time I started preschool until we moved. We fought for handicapped parking spaces, accessible bathrooms, elevators, you name it. We fought against teachers who were to ignorant to know how to teach me properly, or didn't care. Administrators who were either completely oblivious to what was going on or too mean to care. Almost everyone seemed to have no clue how to handle a handicapped student. However, there were some who did teach me correctly and when I was in those environments much like now at King, I thrived. I was at the top of my class in those years. I was actually happy…
Anyway when I was in fourth grade, dealing with the problems I mentioned before began to kick my ass mentally. Before long, I was coming home crying, begging to go to a different school. That went on for a year before my mom understood how bad it was for me. Then she got me into a different school. That next year was great for me, but by middle school, the same things happened as before. New school that wasn't accessible to me in most aspects, teachers were horrible to me; life itself was out of control. By the end of my time in Ohio my mom and I started going to school board meetings to make some of the things that were legally required , but weren't being done in the schools get done. I had to speak up for the other disabled kids who literally can't speak or speak well enough to convey their needs, not to mention the parents who don't speak up for them because they don't expect their kids to improve.
We got a lot done. There are handicapped parking spaces, accessible restrooms and a new elevator that weren't in the county schools before us, but there's only so much we could take. I don't know if there was one final thing that made us decide we'd had enough or just the insane amount of issues with students making fun of me, teachers, and administrators, but between school and the fact that our area was also not accessible. It didn't even have public transportation. So, I had to depend on my family to get me everywhere.
I always wanted to move somewhere I could have more independence, my parents always felt really bad that I wasn't able to have anything close to the life I wanted. So, my dad getting a job offer to come to California was the perfect fit!"
"That's quite a story Spencer." Kyla tells him, amazed by the life he's lead and the fact he's able to talk about it openly.
"Wow Spence! I didn't even know all of that." Ashley adds as she looks into his eyes, proud of him for overcoming all of the obstacles he's faced.
"Guess it never came up…obviously, I would have rambled on about it if it did. "Spencer says poking fun at himself for talking so much.
"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know…besides it was interesting." Kyla insists.
"I think it's cute when you ramble!" Ashley says reassuring Spencer with a kiss.
Monday morning at school, Spencer, Ashley and Kyla are outside of the office going over Kyla's schedule they discover that almost all of Kyla's classes are with either Ashley or Spencer and she has lunch with them too. Aiden approaches. Kyla recognizes him from the photo on Ashley's dresser and smiles shyly. He smiles back. Then, asks Ashley to come talk to him.
"What's up Aide?" She asks.
"Is that your sister? She's hot!" He says excitedly.
"She said the same thing about you last night when she saw your picture on my dresser." Ashley laughs.
"Really?" Aiden wonders happily.
"Yep, C'mon I'll introduce you. Ashley adds.
They walk over to Spencer and Kyla.
"Aiden…Kyla (gesturing to her)…Kyla… (gesturing to him)Aiden." Ashley is happy to introduce the potential couple.
"Nice to meet you, Kyla." Aiden says politely.
"Um…Hi, nice to meet you too!" Kyla answers nervously.
Aiden and Kyla don't have anymore time to get acquainted because at that moment the office door swings open with an infuriated Madison storming through screaming.
"You can't do this to me!"
The Principle is following quickly behind her.
"Miss Duarte, if you wish to discuss this further, please come back into my office so we don't cause a scene." The Principal requests calmly.
"Shut up! You can't do anything to me, I'm Madison fuckin' Duarte!" Madison shouts defiantly.
All eyes and ears of the students in the halls are now focused on the scene.
"No! What I can't do is tolerate this kind of behavior…First you demand to be put back on the cheerleading squad…Then; you further demanded that I expel two of your fellow classmates because of their sexual orientation…"
The student body begins a combination of reactions including whispers, gasps of shock, snickering at Madison being yelled at by the Principal.
"I have zero tolerance for hatred! Therefore, I can and am suspending you for the rest of the week! Now, come with me to get your things then, you're out of here!" The principle finishes insistently.
A chorus of cheers and clapping rings out because of the mighty Madison's completely self-inflicted fall from the grace that was atop the King High thrown.
That's the end of The Odyssey of Me for now. Where will The Odyssey go from here? You'll find out in Chapter 12!
What would you like to see happen? Comment and I will consider everything. If I use your ideas in the future I will give you credit!