***Ok this is chapter 3. I don't really know what I think of it but any ways, I want to thank everyone for the nice reviews I really appreciate it!

Disclaimer: Everything is pretty much mine but anything that's not belongs to whoever created it : )

As soon as he replaced the receiver on the stand, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet actually, it sounded more like a heard of running elephants. No more then ten seconds later, seven pairs of eyes were staring down upon me from the balcony above.

"Down here, in order of your age," the Senator began in a harsh voice, "that way it will be easier for Maria to remember you."

The children did just as they were told which rather shocked me. I had never, never in my whole life seen children who were so well behaved. The Senator must have noticed me staring and looking rather surprised, because he quickly interrupted my thoughts by speaking.

"Why do you look that way," he questioned, still in the same harsh voice.

"Well, the children," I began, "Their so well, their so well behaved!"

"Hm," The Senator said in an I-could-care less tone of voice.

There was a pause before he spoke again.

"Now," he began, "I'm going to go down the row and introduce you to each child so pay attention as I do not like repeating my self."

He started with the oldest child, and worked his way down the row. It surprised me as I watched him that he showed no signs of love to his children as he passed them. He merely stated their name and age and moved on to the next one.

"This is Amanda she's 16 This is Zach he's 14 This is Hilary she's also 14, they're twins This is Luke he's 11 This is Julie she's 10 This is Mimi she's 8 and this is Audrey she's 5. Now, Maria," he said turning back to me, "I will leave you with them so you can become better acquainted."

With that, he turned and left the hall. Annoyance began to fill every corner of me as I watched him leave. How could a man, no a father, be so cold to his own children? I knew I should try my best to contain my feelings, so I took a deep breath and turned to face the children.

"Well," I said releasing a small sigh, "it's really lovely to meet you! My name is Maria would you mind telling me all your names again, just to make sure I know who you are-"

"Don't you remember what my father said," began Amanda in a snobby voice, "he said we don't repeat things our names were already given to you. It's not our fault if you have memory issues." All of the children began to snicker.

I was very taken aback these children, they had been so good just moments before. Why had they changed? I began to search my mind for the words I could use in my defense.

"For your information, Amanda, I believe your father said he did not repeat things not his children. Secondly, while I am in charge of you, you will repeat what ever I tell you to-"

"Excuse me," Amanda began again, with a little snobbish laugh tucked in, "but the only person I have to listen to is my father, and last I checked, you're not him-"

"Excuse me," I cut in mockingly, "but however long I am employed by your father, you will do as I say or there will be consequences," I finished, giving each child a stern stare. It seemed that I had gotten through to Amanda, as she did not speak again.

"Now," I said feeling a bit more confidant in myself, "is there anything else anyone would like to discuss?"

No one spoke.

"Good," I said, my tone lightening some, "then if you could please tell me all your names and ages once more, as I seem to have a memory problem," I finished jokingly, giving a small wink to Amanda.

They went through each of their names and age very nicely, and just as I was about to speak again, I heard a new, older voice.

"Miss. Maria?"

I turned to see an older lady, her gray hair pulled back into some type of bun on the back of her head.

"Yes," I said smiling to her.

"Ah, hello," she began in a very friendly voice, "I'm Mrs. Phillips, the house keeper. The Senator has instructed me to take you to your room, and to send the children out to the yard," she finished turning to the children. There were a few groans, yet they all proceeded to walk to the door.

Once the last child had disappeared, she turned back to me.

"If you follow me, I will show you to your room."

We walked up one of the grand staircases. At the top, we turned right and began to walk down a long, white hall. Our shoes clicking lightly on the marble tiled floor, as we walked past rows of closed, white doors. The hall was also lined with beautiful paintings and portraits. Strangely, none of the pictures were of the children. When we reached my room, I checked to see how far we had come. My room was the forth door on the left I figured I could remember that.

"Here we are," Mrs. Phillips said, turning the golden doorknob, and opening the door to my room.

She entered with me not more then a step behind her. I began to look around, and let out a small gasp. A few moments ago, I had thought the foyer was the prettiest room ever, but I had decided now that I was mistaken. This room was most defiantly nicer. I found myself standing on a fine maroon carpet. The white walls around me led to a very high ceiling. Set in places around the room were two wooden dressers, a matching nightstand and a four poster bed, all polished brightly. Upon the bed was a lush white comforter with large, deep red flowers embedded into the fabric. The flowers, of course, matched the carpet perfectly. Silky white fabric draped over the frame and flowed to the floor. Behind the bed was a large bay window, which led my eyes out into what I assumed to be part of the surprisingly large backyard.

"Over here," Mrs. Phillips said, drawing me back to awareness, "is your private bathroom."

I followed the direction of her pointing finger and found myself looking at another closed white door.

"Over here," she said pointing again, "is your closet."

Yet another white, closed door I was starting to notice a pattern.

"And lastly, " she said, walking over to one of the wooden ornaments, and pulling open two of the doors, "this is your T.V I suspect the Senator told you no TV for the children?"

"Um, yes," I said, still studying the room.

There was a moments pause before she spoke again.

"Right, well dinner is every night at 7:00. Promptly at 7:00" she added in a firm voice, "You should try your hardest to be on time, as the Senator is very strict about things."

"Yes," I said, my eyes still wandering throughout the room, "7:00 PM."

"Yes," I heard Mrs. Phillips say. I could feel her eyes studying me now. I could also tell that she thought I was a bit strange.

"Well, I'll leave you to unpack," She said, walking to the exit.

"Oh," I began, turning to her, "thank you so much for showing me my room," I finished giving a small grin, as she closed the door behind her.

I walked around my new room a little. The closet was quite lovely and big. Then again, so was the bathroom. It's high ceilings and white walls were the same as the bedroom. The bathroom however, consisted of a jacuzzi, shower, toilette, double sink and a large mirror that hung on the wall opposet of the entrance door.

After exploring my room a bit, I spent the rest of the evening unpacking. I was going through some of my shirts, thinking how happy I was that I was almost done and how hungry I was at that thought, I suddenly looked down at my watch, a wave of pannic rushing through me. It was 7:08 I was eight minutes late for dinner. I quickly dropped what I was doing and sprinted downstairs.

When I entered the lower hall, (remember, there were three levels you can see when you first enter the house the hall you enter in, the second floor balconay and the stairs leading to a lower floor). I found myself in another grand foyer type room. I was now faced with another problem. Other than being late for dinner I had no idea where dinner was. There seemed to be at least 20 doors, all white and all closed. I walked around, looking at each door, trying to see if I could hear the sound of voices, but I heard none. I decided to start looking in rooms, maybe I would happen across the room everyone was in. I first looked in one of the doors on the right. Behind it was yet another breath taking room, this one a ballroom. This was the first room in the house I had seen so far that wasn't all white. This room had walls made out of wood, and there were little mirrors inserted in different places. It reminded me strangely of a place that I had seen before, though I could not remember where. I closed my eyes and envisioned music and people dressed in their best outfits, dancing.

I opened my eyes again a few moments later, and seeing no one, I turned and left, closing the door behind me. I decided to try a door on the other side of the foyer. Behind door number two was a grand living room, decorated with sculptures, vases and fancy furniture. Again, no one was in there, so I went back to the foyer.

My eyes then came to rest upon the single door at the end of the hall. I had a feeling in my gut that this was it. I was sure behind this door was the dinning room. I walked over and turned the knob, pulling the door towards me. A cool breeze hit my cheeks as an alarm began to sound.

Oh crap were the first words that came to my mind.

I shut the door quickly, realizing that I had just opened the door to the backyard, not the dinning room. Someone must have set the alarm and I had activated it by opening the door. Even though the door had been closed, the alarm continued to sound. I looked around, quickly finding the keypad. I began to punch in random numbers, but for the life of me I could not find the code. A few seconds later, I was relieved to hear footsteps running behind me. I turned to see the Senator looking not too happy.

"Move," he said angrily and he typed a few numbers into the keypad, then pressed enter.

"Now," he said sternly, turning to face me, "would you mind telling me why you opened the door?"

"Well" I began, trying to sound a bit positive, "see, I wasn't quite sure where everyone was eating dinner actually, this wasn't even the first door I opened–"

"And this would explain why you are now," there was a pause as he looked down at his watch, "17 minutes late for dinner?"

"Well actually, no," I began, as he raised his eyebrows at me, "I was already late when I was looking for you I lost track of the time."

"Miss. Maria," he began, not quite angry anymore, but a little annoyed, "in this house, we do not lose track of time. Now, I will show you to the dinning room, so you will not make us any later."

I gave him a sheepish smile and followed him to the first door on the right from the stairs. The children were all seated around the long, rectangular, wooden table. At either end of the table, was a vacant seat. The Senator sat down at one, so I assumed the other one was for me. I walked across the room, glancing at the children who had already begun to eat. Sitting down in my chair, I immediately noticed something black on top one of the tomatoes in my salad. I let out a small shriek when on closer inspection; I found it to be a spider. I'll tell you right now, I'm not a fan of spiders in fact I absolutely hate them.

The Senator looked up at me with annoyance written across his face for not the first time that night.

"What is the problem now," he asked.

"Sir," I began, "there is a spider in my salad!"

"Is there? Well you might want to get rid of it then. I don't expect they're very tasty," and with that he returned to eating.

I was rather shocked by his response, so I sat there for a moment, staring at him with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth.

When the shock went away a few seconds later, my eyes returned to rest on my plate. The spider had not moved one bit. This struck me as odd since spiders normally run like the wind whenever a human gets close. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the children staring at me, wondering what I was going to do next. Something suddenly clicked in my head. I stuck out my hand and picked up the spider. I was happy to see my theory was correct the spider was fake. I looked up at the children around me, and they quickly returned their gazes to their food.

"Lucky for me," I began to say, "that the spider was fake don't you agree, Luke?

Luke continued to stare at his plate, not even looking up at me.

"What about you, Hillary? Don't you think it's lucky," I got the same response from her as I had her little brother.

"And Zach–"

"Miss. Maria, I think I speak for us all when I say it's quite lovely that the spider was not real, " the Senator began sounding rather annoyed, "but would you mind leaving us to eat in peace?"

He looked back down at his plate, and continued to eat. I gave a moment's pause before speaking again.

"I really would like to thank you children, for the lovely gift. I will keep it safe, to always remind me of you."

I smiled to myself and began to eat.

After that, the rest of the dinner was quite, and I suppose both the Senator and children were grateful for that. I knew that even if they would never admit it to me they were feeling rather guilty about the spider or the little gift, as I like to call it.