Disclaimer over Beyond The Horizon: I don't own 7th Heaven, nor do I own anything pertaining to the WB Network.
Disclaimer over chapter one: I don't own Microsoft Word.
A/N: Honey, I'm home! Haha. I'm back again for yet another story. I hope that all of my dear readers that have been with me from my first story, The Gift, those of you who joined me along the way, and the readers who haven't read any of my other stories and are just joining me now, will all enjoy this new story as much as you have my others. Please review!
Beyond The Horizon
Chapter 1: Part 1: Introduction
Sarah and Matt Camden have twins, Chris and Michelle, who are 17 years old. Then, just a few years ago, they got some surprising news: Sarah was pregnant again! The surprise baby, Emily, is three. Both Sarah and Matt worked at Glen Oak hospital until Emily was born, when Sarah decided to stay home with their new child. She plans to go back to work when Emily starts school.
School: Chris and Michelle-Aurora High School-grade 12, Emily-half day preschool (9-noon)-Dusk Elementary School
Mary and Carlos Rivera don't have any children. They live in Buffalo, New York where they are both fire fighters.
Lucy and Kevin Kinkirk have 3 children: Claire, 15, Noah, 13, and Brooke, 11. Kevin is still working as a policeman in Glen Oak, while Lucy decided to fulfill her dream of being a minister. She is now ministering at the church that she and her family attended when they were younger, as her father has long since retired.
School: Claire-Aurora High School-grade 10, Noah-Mesa Gray Middle School-grade 8, Brooke-Dusk Elementary School-Grade 6
Simon and Aimee Camden have one daughter, Talie, 12. Simon works as a lawyer downtown and Aimee is an accountant.
School: Talie-Mesa Gray Middle School-grade 7
Ruthie and Peter Petrowski have no children. They live just outside of San Francisco, an hour and a half away from Glen Oak. Both are 7th grade teachers at Silver Scale Middle School, Ruthie teachers english and Peter teaches math.
Sam and Faith Camden are expecting their first child in four months, on May 22. They are waiting until the birth to find out the baby's gender. They live in Dallas, Texas, where Sam is a Psychologist, and Faith is a journalist. Since Faith works at home, she will be taking a maternity leave after the baby is born, but will not be quitting.
David Camden is living in Houston Texas as a Legal Assistant. He is not married, but is in a serious relationship with Kate Myer, who he has been dating for 3 years as of this past December.
January 9
Beyond The Horizon
Chapter 1: Part 2: Meet and Greet
Michelle Camden smiled as the bell rang to signal the end of 7th hour, the last class of the school day at Aurora High School. She quickly gathered up her things and started out the door of the classroom and down the hall toward the senior parking lot. When she was about to open the door to go out to her car, she was met by Chris, her twin brother. Together they walked to Michelle's small, silver car. She dumped her things inside and got in, waving to her brother as she drove by him as he got into his own red pickup. The drive home was a short one, and when Michelle pulled up into the driveway, she was surprised to see that Chris' truck was already parked there. Though neither of the teens admitted it, they had always made it a bit of a race to see who would get home first. Michelle sighed and pulled up next to the truck. She picked up her things and went inside. As soon as she walked through the door, Sarah ran over to Michelle with her finger on her lips.
"Be nice and quiet." She told her daughter. "I finally got Emily down for her nap. She's been so sleepy all day after playing at preschool this morning, and you know how hard it is to get her down anyway. Little miss 'I don't need a nap.'" Michelle nodded with a laugh and started up the stairs quietly. When she got to the top, she saw a hall with 4 doors next to one another. There was a door on each side of her, facing opposite the 4 doors in front of her, and one at the end of the hall. She smiled. Whenever her friends came over when she was little, everyone would get confused to which room was which. Silently she pointed to each, labeling it, starting with the farthest away of the four doors. 'Chris' room, Emily's room, my room, linen closet.' She then turned to the two doors facing opposite the bedrooms. 'Bathroom, storage', then turning to the door at the end of the hall, 'mom and dad's room'. She smiled proudly, even though knowing the rooms wasn't much of a feat anymore. She carried her things into her room and dumped them on her desk before collapsing onto the light pink and white splotched comforter on her twin size bed. She stretched her arms out to her sides and took a deep breath. It was good to be home from school. Ever since school started again after winter break on January 2nd, she had been absolutely exhausted by the large second semester workload the teachers were already piling on.
Down the hall, Chris was sitting at his wooden desk that stretched from the right side of his door to his wall. On the left half, he had all his school books on a shelf and papers spread out everywhere on the surface. On the right side of the desk, closest to the wall, he had his computer on, with a blank Microsoft Word document on the screen. He sat at the computer, his head in his hands. This Friday, he had a story due for Creative Writing that had been assigned the first day back from break. Now that he had put it off for a full week, he realized he really needed to get started. The only problem was that he didn't have any idea what he was going to write about. "Let your creative juices flow! Your story can be about any thing you want, as long as it's appropriate and fictional!" His teacher, Miss Black had said. 'Well maybe my creative juices don't want to flow.' Chris thought to himself. He stood, frustrated, and started down the hall to Michelle's room. His sister had taken Creative Writing last year because she took summer school to get the junior year English out of the way. Now that they were seniors, she was in journalism, while Chris was still stuck in Creative Writing like most seniors. He knocked on her door, and when she called back to come in, he entered her room. Michelle was still lying on her bed, now holding a book. She laid the book down on her stomach and looked up at her twin.
"Remember that story last year that Miss Black had you write after Christmas break?" He asked. He remembered her being assigned it last year, but unlike Chris, she had been ecstatic to do it. Michelle looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes...why?" She asked, looking at him suspiciously. '
"What did you write about? I can't think of one idea, Shell. Help." Michelle sighed and sat up slowly. She swung her feet down to the ground and turned to face her brother off the side of her bed.
"I wrote about a girl who had been put up for adoption at birth and her search for her birth mother...she kept finding out more and more things about her birth family as she searched...like she had a brother and two sisters...and stuff like that. It was really cool, if I do say so myself. Just think of something sit down and think of some type of plot and then start typing. I'm not thinking of one for you."
"Come on, Shelly! Help me out a little." He begged. Michelle glared at him and laid back down again, getting her book from where she had put it on the night stand when she sat up.
"I'm not doing your homework for you, Christopher. Run along and do it yourself." She said scoldingly, raising her voice quite a bit. Chris winced. He hated it when she called him Christopher. His sister, older than him by only 2 minutes, seemed to think that she ruled over him sometimes, and it bugged him. He rolled his eyes at her then walked out of her room, slamming the door behind him.
"Shhh!" Called Sarah from downstairs, but it was too late. Michelle heard Emily stirring in the next room, and a few seconds later, heard the four-year-old open her door and go downstairs.
"Great job, Chris." Michelle called after her brother.
"Thanks, Michelle." He spat back, then slammed his own door.
"Chris! Michelle! Come here-now!" Called Sarah angrily from downstairs. Michelle sighed and sat up again. Once more, her brother had gotten both of them in trouble. She stood and walked downstairs where Sarah met her with her hands on her hips. She pointed to the sofa in the family room. Michelle went and sat down there, met by her brother moments later. Sarah came over holding Emily's hand. The 3-year-olds face was tear streaked and puffy.
"I told both of you, specifically, when you came in that you sister was asleep. I told you that it took me a long time to get her down and that she was in great need of her nap. So what do you do? Run around up there yelling and slamming doors!"
"That was Chris!" Michelle said. Sarah raised her eyebrow.
""I'm not doing your homework for you, Christopher. Run along and do it yourself."" Said Sarah, mocking what she had heard upstairs. "Yes, I'm sure that was Chris, doing an impression of you, yelling at himself." Sarah said. "I'm sick of you two waking up Emily! It's happened 4 times in the last 7 days and it has got to stop! Tonight, Michelle will be setting the table and doing the dishes." Michelle's jaw dropped and Chris snickered. "And you, Chris, will be pouring all the drinks and serving the food. That includes anyone wanting anything during the course of the meal...a refill, a piece of toast, utensils they may need, anything. Is that understood."
"Yes." The twins said in unison, sounding disheartened.
"Good. Now go upstairs and do your homework. Chris get started on that English paper, and Michelle, quit reading and start working."
"How did you know I was reading?" Michelle asked, astonished.
"You do so everyday and every day I come tell you to do your homework. It was a good guess." She told her. Michelle frowned and started up the stairs after Chris. Once again, Chris and Emily had succeeded in ruining all her fun.
Mary Rivera ran around the home she and her husband, Carlos, shared, busily getting ready to leave for work. She was moving so quickly, in fact, that when she spun around the corner separating the master bath and bedrooms, she didn't even see Carlos until she slammed into him. She backed up and apologized with a laugh. He laughed along with her and patted her on the head.
"It's OK, just watch where you're going next time, ma'am." He joked, unsuccessfully trying to keep a straight face. Mary folded her arms and looked up at him with a small smile.
"Yes, sir." She said. With that, they both finished getting ready for work. Despite the fact that her face would be covered for most of the day, Mary spent 20 minutes every morning applying makeup, something which she was often teased about my Carlos. That morning, she stood at the sink in the bathroom putting on her eyeliner when she heard Carlos honking the horn outside. He had honked 4 times already, and they were noticeably late. She finished up quickly and went out to the driveway where he was waiting right after the 6th honk. Carlos shook his head disapprovingly at his wife as she climbed into the seat next to him. 'New York Women.' He thought to himself with a sigh, and pulled out of the driveway, making his way as quickly as possible to the firehouse.
Lucy Kinkirk sat at the desk in her office at the church, typing rhythmically on the keyboard of her laptop. She had been working on Sunday's sermon for the last hour, and had it about half way done. She always liked to get her sermons done on Monday-it gave her the rest of the week to spend with her family, and she didn't have to worry about writing them late Saturday night like her father so often had. The office, formerly her father's, looked much different than it had when Eric or Chandler had worked in it. Now, instead of two chairs facing the desk, their was a matching sofa and love seat. The wall opposite her desk was almost completely covered by bookshelves, which were full to the brim with hundreds of books. She liked it that way-anytime she needed spiritual encouragement, or help on a sermon, or even a sermon idea, she could find it in her books. She also allowed church members to borrow the books, making her office into a sort of a library. Her oak desk had pictures of her family all over it. In the middle was one of she and her husband and children. There was one of just she and Kevin, one of Kevin in his police outfit, all of the kids' school pictures, and family photos of her brothers and sisters with their children and spouses.
She always liked to think of her office as a welcoming place, and that's truly what it was. From the minute people walked through the door with the plaque reading 'Reverend Lucy Kinkirk', they were dazzled by her book collection, photos of family, and little trinkets throughout the room. Lucy sighed when the phone rang. She didn't like to be interrupted while working on her sermons, especially when she was on a roll with the words like she was today. She leaned over and answered the phone.
"Hello, this is Reverend Kinkirk." She answered. "Hi Brooke, what do you need?" It was her youngest child. At age 11, Brooke was in her last year at the Elementary School. "Yes, you may have a bag of popcorn. Next time just ask Claire or Noah, all right? Thanks honey. I'll be home as soon as I finish this sermon. I love you. Bye." She hung up and smiled at the picture of her daughter before returning her gaze to her laptop. She clicked save and continued writing. This Sunday's sermon was going to be about humility, a topic discussed frequently lately.
After another 45 minutes of writing, she finally finished the writing and editing of the sermon notes...her guideline to speaking on the pulpit. She read over it once more before hooking a cable between her laptop and printer and printing out two copies. She packed up her laptop in it's carrying case, tucking one copy of the sermon notes in along with it, and left the other on the desk. With that, she stood and left her office, locking it behind her, and started for home where her family was waiting.
A/N: I hope you liked chapter one of Beyond The Horizon! Please Review, and keep an eye out for chapter two, coming soon to a computer near you.