CHAPTER 1-
That Friday, Anna watched as her dad took one last box out of his study and headed for his Jeep. She walked around the almost empty study and ran her hands along the desk. That and the empty bookcases were all that was left in the room and, quite frankly, it was infuriating. Anna had tried a million times to argue that her mother should be the one to leave considering who had the new lover, but all it got her were disapproving looks from both Mort and Amy. Her second argument was that she should be able to choose who she wanted to stay with, needless to say, that was over-ruled as well.
To her, it was almost amazing how fast everything had happened. Tuesday, Mort found out; Wednesday, They decided on divorce and Mort chose to leave; Thursday, Mort took Anna with him to check the cabin at Tashmore Lake; and now today, he was leaving.
She moved to the window and watched her dad emerge out onto the driveway and load the last box into the car. She started chewing on her bottom lip as she headed downstairs to meet him. She watched as he came back in the front door and was suddenly very glad her mom was out. She didn't want her around for this. Anna met her dad in the foyer and gave him a hug.
"I'm gonna miss you dad." She said quietly and he pulled back to look at her red-rimmed eyes. Anna was trying her best not to cry again but it was a battle she was fast loosing.
"Hey now, none of that," Mort started slowly, "When this is all over, you'll get to choose who you live with. I promised you that a long time ago, but for right now, you need to stay here. Your school and your friends are here and you need them now, especially since you don't have a little brother or sister to torment." He added the last part with a slight laugh and Anna giggled slightly. She'd always wanted that little sibling, but now, that just didn't seem a possibility.
"So I'll see you Sunday, right?"
"Only if you wake up before 3 in the afternoon." Mort joked, still trying his best to make her laugh, but she was as stubborn as he was and Anna wasn't about to give up easily.
"You're sure I can't come with you?" Anna tried one more time in a vain attempt to leave as well.
"Anna, we've been over this a-"
"Million times," she finished for him, "Yeah I know." She added. He hugged her again and kissed her forehead.
"I love you Anna."
"I love you too dad." He headed out the door and waved at her before he got in his car. If he drew this out any longer, he wasn't sure he'd be able to leave her there. Even though it seemed the best thing for now. Anna waved back as he brought the engine to life and pulled out of the driveway.
Anna closed the door and leaned against it. Turning around, she surveyed the living room and took in how screwed up it was as well. It had only been a few days since her dad had let out his frustration on the walls and they had only managed to clean up the broken glass and ceramics, not much else had been bothered with.
She headed into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator but quickly realized she wasn't hungry. She looked at the pictures that were taped up to it and realized how lost she felt. She had always been 'daddy's little girl' now what was she going to do? The more she thought about it, the angrier it made her. She ran a hand through her blonde hair. She knew her hair was much closer in color to her mother's hair but that was about the only resemblance between the two. In every other sense, she took after her dad, and she was all the happier for it.
Giving up on finding her answers in the kitchen she headed upstairs and, seeing as how she was alone, popped 'Meteora' and 'Hybrid Theory' by Linkin Park onto her cd player and turned it up, turning on the subwoofer for the added bass effect and started writing, yet another passion her dad had passed down to her.
It was hours before Amy finally got back to the house. It was nearly seven when Ted pulled up in front of her house and she noticed that the second the car's engine died, she could faintly hear the bass line of some song coming from inside the house.
'What the hell?' she thought as she and Ted made their way up the front steps.
"Sounds like someone's home." Ted said sarcastically as Amy opened the front door and they made their way inside. Amy could clearly make out the faint words coming from upstairs and headed up the stairs toward Anna's room.
Amy reached her room and the walls around it literally pulsated with the music behind the door, Amy knocked on the door. Then she banged on the door. She tried to open it but found that for the first time, it was locked.
'That's it.' She thought to her self. It was ok for Anna to be upset but this was ridiculous.
"ANNA OPEN THIS DOOR!" Amy yelled as she banged on the door again. She pulled her arm back to strike the door again, when it opened. Anna stood in the door with a dark look in her brown eyes.
"Can I help you?" Anna asked calmly, but loud enough to be heard over the music. All the anger that had slowly seeped away over the day was now returned full force as she saw her mom. The current song ended and Anna put the cd on pause with the remote she held in her hand.
"Thank you." Amy said as she rubbed her ear to accentuate her point. Anna merely rolled her eyes, if it was really too loud then she would have headache by now, but the only thing giving her a headache was the fact that she had to turn it down.
'For the time being,' she thought savagely. For some reason she couldn't over come the intense desire to annoy the hell out of the person in front of her.
"Have you eaten dinner yet?" Amy asked her.
"No, why?" Anna answered biting back all the anger and sarcasm she wanted to pour into those words.
"Because Ted wants to take us out to dinner." Amy said lightly. Anna's jaw dropped. Was she insane! This is the woman who had broken apart Anna's entire family in less than 20 minutes and now she wanted Anna to meet and make friends with the Other Man. Yep, that had to be it, her mom had banged her head on the headboard one too many times in the past couple of months and now it was starting to effect her thinking. It was the only logical explanation.
"Are you okay?" Amy asked worriedly. Anna couldn't help it anymore, that was the last straw.
"Are you insane?!" she practically yelled at her mother, who now looked completely taken aback. "You want me to go out with you and that slimy home wrecker?" Anna asked incredulously.
"Anna!" Amy said astonished, "Don't talk about him like that!" she reprimanded her daughter. Anna gave one unbelieving laugh, which really sounded more like a huff, as she took in what her mother was saying.
"You're serious?" Anna could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"Yes, I am serious, Anna. Get ready, we're leaving in 15 minutes." Amy answered in all seriousness and began to leave down the hall.
"Well, you'll be leaving without me because there's no way I'm going out with you two." Anna answered defiantly to her mother's retreating back. Amy stopped and turned back.
"Yes, you are." Amy said warningly.
"No, I'm not," Anna said as she came out of her room as well and into the hallway, "One, I'm not hungry, and two, the day I let myself be seen in public with you two is the day I announce my engagement to Draco Malfoy and seeing as how that's impossible you know when it'll happen." Anna watched as her words achieved the desired effect in her mother, utter anger. Amy stormed back to stand toe to toe with her daughter as she felt her anger rising inside her.
"Yes, you are. We're leaving in 15 minutes, be ready or you're grounded." Suddenly, Anna got a purely delightful and evil thought:
'Two can play this game.'
"Fine." Anna said tersely and went back into her room, oddly without slamming the door. The plan formulating in her head was satisfying enough that she didn't feel the need to. Amy went back downstairs, thinking she'd won that round, and waited with Ted.
Anna came down16 minutes later in black jeans with a black 'From Hell' T-shirt with black jelly bracelets and heavily applied dark make up with a pair of combat boots that she'd borrowed from one of her friends. Hey, she never really liked this look, but if she was going to have to go through this, it would happen on her terms damn it.
Amy looked absolutely horrified as she watched Anna descend from her room. Ted and Anna had never met before and the thought of this being the first image of her he saw was enough to make her cringe both inwardly and outwardly. Anna was barely hiding her glee at the look on her mothers face until she saw Ted, then she froze.
'That's him!?' She thought, shocked. This guy was old! He looked like he was at least 45 where her mother was 35. He was so pale his skin had an almost pink tint to it and he was...for lack of a better word, ugly. It was unbelievable, it really was. Anna figured that if her mom were going to leave her dad, it would at least be for someone better looking that him! At the very least, someone young! Ted stepped forward as Anna made it off the last step and put out his hand.
"Hi Anna," he was more then slightly shocked at her appearance, especially after the way Amy described her as an honor roll student who dressed the part, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
'Oh great and he's a hick!' She thought as she was brought of her stupor over his looks. His accent grated her nerves for all of the ten seconds he had already talked. This was insane! He was an old hick and her mom was with him why? She eyed his hand for only a second before quickly side stepping him.
"Touch me and I'll have the police over here so fast, your head will still be spinning when your cellmate is changing your name to Shirley." Anna said threateningly and he slowly retracted his hand as his face fell ever so slightly. Amy was always raving about how sweet she was, but now he was wondering if she needed to have her head checked.
"What the hell are you wearing?" Amy was still utterly shocked.
"Well, mommy dearest, they're called clothes and in some cultures people wear them when in public." Anna answered with biting sarcasm. Amy went over to Anna and dropped her voice dangerously.
"I don't appreciate this attitude one bit Annaliese." Amy warned her.
"Well, I don't appreciate you screwing Ted behind my dad's back. Life's full of disappointments isn't it?" Anna never lowered her voice a notch, wanting Ted to understand just how welcome he was around this house. Amy once again was pissed, nothing new. "Now can we please get this over with?" Anna finished as she headed for the door. She knew she was being bold, especially considering the fact her 16th birthday was still a week away.
Normally Anna was very passive in her anger towards other people, but this entire situation was bringing out the worst in her. She didn't like it, but maybe Ted and her mom would get tired of it and break up because of the stress.
The car ride was pretty silent, except for the radio the crooned out country songs every second.
'Damn you satellite radio! Damn you!' She cursed inwardly. She was quickly making up answers to all of the generic questions that Lauren told her the Other Man (as her and her two best friends Lauren and Melanie had dubbed him) would want to know, Lauren having gone through no less then two step fathers and one step mother.
After her dad had decided to be the one to leave the house for good a few days earlier, Anna called up Lauren and Melanie, and not ten minutes later they were at her door with Johnny Depp movies and enough candy to make even the biggest health food nut think twice about why they'd chosen a life without it.
The front door opened and closed as Lauren and Melanie let themselves in as they always did and vice-versa between the three girls. Anna heard them coming up the stairs and opened her bedroom door as they came into view at the end of the hallway.
"Hey, Anna." Lauren said softly as they came closer.
"Hey you guys," Anna's voice was hoarse from all the crying she'd done over the past two days and she looked worse for the wear with her blonde hair in messy, unbrushed curls. Melanie and Lauren both hugged her and she realized how much they were carrying between them.
"What is all of this?" She asked surprised.
"First Aid kit for the broken heart!" Melanie exclaimed proudly holding up a plastic bag that was full of DVDs and Lauren held up two bags that rustled with the sound of food.
They all got comfortable sitting in their usual places, Anna lay on her stomach on her bed, Melanie was sprawled in a bean-bag chair and Lauren was sitting in what was supposed to be a blow-up chair that they had filled with water, creating the world's first 'Blow Up Water Chair' as they had called it.
"So how're you holding up?" Melanie asked as they all got comfortable.
"I can honestly say that I have been better." She answered running a hand through her tangled hair. Not really wanting to stay on the subject long, Anna reached over for the bag with movies in it and smiled.
"It's the treasure of Isla De Muerta!" she squealed excitedly as and the other two laughed hysterically as she turned over the bag and started sifting through all the Johnny Depp movies, and even select Hugh Jackman movies. Anna held all the Orlando Bloom movies ransom at her house anyways.
"You read my mind," Anna pulled out her best (and still horrible) Transylvanian accent as she picked up 'Benny & Joon'.
"Well of course Marishka, what else would do?" Lauren answered, trying her best to sound like Aleera from 'Van Helsing'.
"But you know it was my idea," Melanie added laughing, her accent overly exaggerated from trying not to laugh through it. Lauren pulled some dog fur off of her black tank top that had 'Aleera' written across the front of it in bold white letters.
"Ah ha ha!" Anna laughed 'evilly', "Dracula's Brides reunited!"
"I don't know about you guys, but beings Dracula's bride sucks," Melanie pointed out.
"Yeah," Anna agreed, "Van Helsing is much hotter."
"Ooo! I got an idea!" Lauren said excitedly and then re-adopted her phony Transylvanian accent, "I say we revolt! We are Dracula's Brides no more!"
"We are Van Helsing's Brides!" They practically yelled at the same time. Ever since they'd gone to see Van Helsing together the girls realized the interesting coincidence that each Bride had different colored hair and considering that Anna was blonde, Melanie had dark brown, almost black hair, and Lauren had auburn colored hair and they all joked that they were 'evil' anyways, they decided they'd found the perfect inside joke.
Suddenly a knock sounded at the door and Mort looked in on them as Lauren oh so gracefully fell out of her chair reaching for one of the DVDs in the pile.
"Ouch." Lauren said even though it really didn't hurt.
"Have a nice trip see ya' next fall," Anna added lamely as Mort laughed when Lauren stood up and pretended to dust herself off, "You girls ok, I heard yelling."
"We're fine, Lauren's just trippin' over Johnny Depp." Melanie said laughing.
"Oh hush," Lauren said throwing a pillow at her. Mort joined in laughing with them again, it was good to know that some things don't change, that being the three girls in front of him. No matter what happened, they would probably end up in one of their own living rooms 20 years from laughing and watching movies and yelling about how hot the male stars were just to piss their husbands off.
"Alright I'll be in my study if you need anything, alright?"
"Okay!" they all chorused and he left again.
"You know what I miss?" Anna said to the others, "I miss when we all used to go down to the beach for the weekend, that's what I miss."
"I know I miss at least one part of it." Melanie said with a crafty smile on her face and Anna watched confused as Melanie traded a knowing look with Lauren.
"What's that?" Anna asked.
"When your dad used to take us swimming." She said, "Now there's something I'm not likely to forget.
"Oh the pictures," Lauren sighed dramatically, "Uh, I mean the memories." She said with fake embarrassment but Anna knew what they were getting at and launched a pillow at each of the in turn and they laughed harder.
"Will you two knock that off!" Anna almost pleaded.
"Hey!" Melanie said grabbing the pillow that just hit her, "You better be nice to me missy." She warned.
"Why is that?" Anna challenged.
"Because, when I turn 18, I will be your new step-mother!" She smiled, throwing the pillow at a stunned Anna.
"What!" Lauren started, "He's mine, I get him first!"
"Nooooo!" She howled, stuffing her head under the pillow, "You two knock it off! Neither of you 'gets him'. Got it?"
"Oh get over it Anna, your dad is gorgeous, face it now and your life will get easier." Lauren told her matter-of-factly as Melanie nodded in agreement.
"She's right you know."
"Okay! New Topic!" Anna didn't feel like going through another round of 'Fight for Anna's Dad' that night.
That seemed to be Melanie and Lauren's new favorite game. It creeped her out, after all, how would you feel if your two best friends swooned over your dad.
Anna found herself almost laughing at all the talking, laughing, and movie- wait scratch that- Johnny Depp watching that had happened that night. Also Anna didn't forget the most 'vital' advice that she had been given then:
"Don't give him a moment's rest. Now raise hell, girl." Lauren had told her. Lauren and Melanie were really close to her and her family. Hell, all three of them had grown up together. They were as shocked as she was about it all, not to mention pissed at how it happened. Melanie had wasted no time in quickly adding that they would be happy to play the sisters from hell part with her, unfortunately they weren't here at the moment to help so she would have to wing it.
WOW! I can't believe I got so many reviews! I'm glad that most of you like the story, thanks for reviewing!
Disclaimer: (See Prologue!)
Moulin-Rouge-Pirate: Here's the chapter! ::ducks behind Ichabod:: Don't hit me! LoL Hey there! It's nice to know you reviewed, Have a Pirate Cookie! ::hands Moulin a sugar cookie in the shape of a cutlass:: You ROCK! Oh and here's some free advertising
EVERYONE GO READ Moulin-Rouge-Pirate 's STORIES!!!!!
Miss Rainstorm: I love you're review name, it's Spiffy! I'm glad you liked the Prologue so much, I hope you review this chapter too! Here's a cookie ::hands Miss Rainstorm a sugar cookie shaped like a spy-glass::
Dawnie-7: Welcome aboard! ::hands Dawnie a cookie shaped like a pistol:: Wow, looking back, pirates are very violent people, LoL, I'm really happy you liked my story and I hope you come back to read the rest, the prologue should, I am pretty sure, be the most dramatic part of the story.
LiTtLeSpArRoW: GRACE!!!! You made it! YAY! ::hands Grace a ship shaped (haha that's spiffy sounding) sugar cookie:: ::looks at Jack:: okay here ya go ::hands Jack a captain-hat shaped cookie:: Here's some advertising for you too my dear Pirate Matey!
EVERYONE GO READ LiTtLeSpArRoW 's stuff!!!!
Well, those are some pretty good guesses for the plot, I can't say they're right, but I think you'll like how it turns out!...::re-reads Grace's review:: LINDSAY GOT MARRIED!?!?!? Okay, Grace-y you got some 'splainin' to do!
NY926: I can't say that I'm 100 ecstatic about your review, but thanks anyway. I really don't think you gave the story enough of a chance, oh, and what the fork is a 'grundy' ?