Laura looked over at Mark. They were on the way to his house. She still had to pinch herself to believe everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. They had got on a plane early this morning. The flight had been exciting for her, since she had never been on a plane. But the excitement had quickly worn down when she realized how tired she was. She ended up sleeping for most of the flight. Now they were in a rental car heading for Marks home. She studied Mark. He was so handsome. His eyes really did her in. They were so beautiful. He was definitely hot. Laura grinned, she had never looked at a guy like that before, and she was usually too scared to even think about a guy in that way. Mark looked over and caught her starring at him with that grin on her face. "What put that smile on your pretty face" he asked. Laura blushed and quickly looked away. "Nothing" she mumbled. Mark smiled; I do believe she was checking me out he thought to himself. "Laura, we need to talk." Mark said. "I called a friend of mine who runs an adult high school." I need your full name so he can get your birth certificate and social security number; you got to have that to start school." "Your not going to contact my parents are you?" Laura asked. She looked very worried. "No Baby, I promise, I just want to get you started in school as soon as possible" "We got an appointment tomorrow for you to take some tests to see where you're at in school" Mark said. "My full name is Laura Elizabeth Sanders. My Birth date is august 16 1985." Laura said. Mark picked up his cell phone and called his friend with the information. "yea ,we will be there tomorrow at 11:00, see ya then." Mark hung up the phone. "All set" he said. Laura nodded, she was really nervous about all this. "Were home Baby" Mark said
Laura was awed as they pulled into the long driveway. Mark had a beautiful two story brick home. Off to the left was a huge garage, and the entire home was surrounded buy woods. The place was beautiful. Mark got out and opened the door for her. "Come on, I'll show you around" He said. Laura got out and followed him up to the front door. He had an enclosed front porch with a porch swing and chair and a table. Laura followed Mark into the house. In the entry way there was a staircase leading up to the second floor and off to the right double doors leading in to the den. Mark took her into the den. "The TV is in here and the computer, I'm sure you'll be needing the computer for school." He said. The den was great .It had a large screen TV. Cool she thought. The room was done in wood paneling and the furniture was done in a rusty brown color. The sofa was a sectional with recliners on both ends. There was a huge fire place to the right side of the room. The computer was on the left side of the room on a large oak computer desk. "This is great" she said. "Come on, I'll show you your room" Mark said. She followed Mark back out to the entry way and up the stairs. "All the bedrooms are up here as well as my weight room and my pool room, the sauna is down stairs and the library." "Did you say Library?" Laura asked, grinning as she followed him down the hall. "Yea, knew you would like that Baby." He said smiling back at her. He stopped at the doorway on the left of the hall. "This is my room" He said. She peeked in, the bed was huge. The whole room was done in black and red. Black bedspread, black and red curtains hung on the windows. Double doors led out to a balcony. Black carpet covered the floor. She looked at him, her eyes wide, "Dude that's intense" she said. "Well I Am the Lord of Darkness" he said in a scary voice and rolled his eyes back in his head. Laura busted out laughing, "I always loved it when you did that" "Well I can really see I'm scaring you" he laughed. "Oh yea, please don't sacrifice me Undertaker" Laura said as she was giggling. "Well Hell" he said "I can see my reputation don't impress you a bit." "Sorry" she said still laughing "but now that I know you, you don't seem the least bit scary." Most people were intimidated by him; they didn't see him they just saw the character he played. Mark liked the fact she distinguished the two. He crossed the hall to the door on the left. "This is your room, if ya like it" he said. He opened the door for her and she went in. She couldn't believe her eyes, the room was beautiful. The room was done in spring blue and yellow. The bed was huge just like in Marks room, but the bed spread was blue with yellow trim. The curtains were yellow. The room was so bright. There were white bookshelves and a desk with a reading light on the right side of the room. There was a desk with a small TV in front of the bed. There was a stereo system on one side of the bed and a white nightstand on the other. Like Marks room there was double door leading out to a balcony. It was the most beautiful room she had ever seen. "You really gonna let me use this room?" she asked in wonder. "It's your room as long as you want it sweetie" he said. Laura just couldn't believe it. She never dreamed she would be staying in a place like this. "I love it Mark, thanks" she said. "Your welcome Laura." "Now I don't know about you but jet lag is killing me, I'm going to take a nap. You wonder around, get familiar with the place. If you're hungry the kitchen is downstairs at the back of the house." "Okay" she said.
Laura decided to go down and check out the kitchen. She went back down the stairs and followed the hallway to the back of the house. My God what a huge kitchen she thought. It was large with big bay windows. The appliances were black and white as was the tiles. There was a island stove with glass burners in the middle of the kitchen and a black table and chair set off to the left .I'll fix him some dinner she thought, it's the least I can do for him. She looked in the freezer and found a large roast of top sirloin. She put it in the microwave to defrost and went through the freezer and found several bags of vegetables. Laura was a good cook, that's most of the work she had picked up in her old neighbor hood, cooking at the local diner for meals and tips. She decided to chop the sirloin up to make a stew and cornbread to go with it. It was a chilly February day and that would make a good meal. She got the meal underway, put the stew on simmer and went in search of the library.
The library was back down the hall and on the left. The walls had built in shelves up to the roof. Man look at all the books she thought. She went over to the first wall and started looking through the books. She came up with one of her favorite Treasure Island and took it over to the large leather couch and curled up and started to read.
Mark woke up to the smell of something wonderful. He looked at the clock and seen he had been asleep for three hours. Damn he hadn't meant to sleep that long. He got up to go see what smelled so good. He wondered down to the kitchen and found Laura pulling a pan of cornbread out of the oven. "Something smells good Darlin." He said. "I thought I'd make dinner for you, I hope that's all right" Mark laughed. "You don't have to ask permission to cook around here; one thing I love is to eat" Mark grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down at the table. She brought the stew over and the hot cornbread and Mark dove into it with relish. "This is great, Kid where you learn how to cook like that?" He asked. "Here and There." she said. "Oh you going to secretive, huh" he said. She just grinned at him. "Were going to go to town to do some shopping after dinner" he said. "what for" she asked." "Well little one you need some clothes for one thing, shoes, toothbrush and probably a lot of other stuff." "Listen Mark you don't have to get all the stuff for me, I'll make due with what I got." she said. Mark crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a look. "Now listen here Missy, I haven't done one thing I didn't want to do. "You got to have some clothes and stuff for school. I don't want to hear another word of argument, understand?" "Yes she said. She wasn't about to argue with him when he had that look on his face. "Good, lets get cleaned up in here and we'll go"