Chapter 1
"Billy Loomis! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Kaitlyn screeched as the brown head of a boy popped up out of the tool shed in her backyard. She'd gone to retrieve a shovel for her father. They'd been planning to make a small garden along their back fence since she was but five years of age. They'd only gotten around to doing it now, when she had aged twelve more years.
"Well, I just thought I'd drop by, you know. Check out what was going on, the usual," he said, shrugging his shoulders, his hands pressed deep into his pockets.
Kaitlyn shook her head and went back to searching for the shovel. "I'm not Cidney. You can't pop up on me all the time."
Billy cocked his head to the sighed and grinned. His smile alone could melt solid gold, but Kaitlyn just glared at him. Cidney Prescott, one of her dearest friends, had moved away a year and a half ago. Billy had been her boyfriend for that short amount of time, but now that she was gone, he seemed to have taken a liking to both Kaitlyn and bugging her.
"I won't," he said. He never was much for talking.
"Don't you have someone else to go bother," she questioned, finding the shovel beneath a pile of bricks, pails, and other assorted gardening and carpentering equipment. Yanking hard, Kaitlyn fell backwards, almost impaling herself on a rake, if it weren't for Billy, who zoomed to the rescue.
"Thank you, Super Man, but go bother Stu or someone. I'm busy," she seemed to be the one doing all the talking.
Kaitlyn brushed the dust that clung to her clothing off and stepped outside into the sunlight. Billy seemed to be attached to her shadow or something, because he went on following her. "Stu's working. Randy made this big scene about something and got fired. Again. If you ask me, he's a load of it."
"Of what?"
"Crap."
Kaitlyn snorted, shaking her head. "That's nice. Don't you have some movie to go watch?"
"I've already seen them all."
"Yeah right."
"I have. Go ahead," he dared her. "Ask me about anything."
"Whose the killer in Friday 13th?"
"Mrs. Voorhees."
"Ah, ah, Mrs. Voorhees only appeared in the first one. Jason is the main killer."
Billy stopped walking and quirked an eyebrow. She had a point. "But if it weren't for Mrs. Voorhees, Jason wouldn't've been the killer. So, technically, you're wrong."
"Oh, come on. I'm not going to argue with you over some stupid movie trivia question," Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. Under her breath, she added, "Not when I know I'm right, anyways."
"I heard that."
"Go home, Billy."
-
"Dad, I've got the shovel! Dad?"
The house was quiet. It was the middle of the afternoon, sure, but it was noiseless. Kaitlyn peered around, propping the dirty shovel against the kitchen doorframe. Slowly, she made her way up the staircase to her father's room, where she could hear mumbling. "No, no…Business, James, business, not a freaking Aloha party…"
Pushing the door to her father's room open slightly, Kaitlyn saw him packing a suitcase in a hurry. "Dad?"
Her father, James Hyde, turned around after almost jumping out of his skin. "Oh, sorry, Honey. You gave me a scare, there. Well," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Something's come up. A few of the people from work are being sent out of state to work on this project. It's supposed to 'promote a better society' or something of the sort."
Kaitlyn's hopes dropped. "But…Dad, you promised we'd get to do that garden."
Mr. Hyde sighed and looked at his downtrodden daughter. "I'm sorry, Sweetie. I'll be gone a whole week. When I get back, we'll do the garden for sure, ok? But right now, I'm in a hurry."
Kaitlyn frowned. "Ok then. I'll be over at Tatum's, then?"
Tatum was also a friend of hers. Cidney had known her since they were little. Kaitlyn thought this would be a good time to go over to Tatum's house anyways. She needed to tell her about Billy's appearing act in her shed earlier.
"Yeah, I'm afraid I don't want you being alone. Her brother, Dwayne was it? Isn't he a Police Officer?"
"It's Dewey. Yes, he's deputy at the moment."
"You'll be safe over there."
"Since when did anyone care about whether I was safe or not?" Kaitlyn grumbled as she saw herself out of the room.
Stomping harshly down the staircase, Kaitlyn made her way to the phone, intent on calling Tatum and discussing these matters with her. She almost always understood problems and tried to help.
"Hey, Dewey. Is Tatum there?"
"Yeah, hold on," the voice on the other line said.
There was a pause.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Tatum. Does your mother know about the whole thing with my dad going out of town?"
"Yeah, why?" There was another pause. Kaitlyn supposed it was her thinking. "Oh, he didn't tell you until just now? We've known about it for ages. You're serious, he didn't tell you?"
Kaitlyn made and aggravated noise into the phone and slammed her hand down on the counter.
"How come you said nothing of this to me?"
"I thought you knew!"
"Oh, well…" Kaitlyn sighed and shook her head at herself. She was seventeen, but she was acting like a five year old. "Ok, I guess I'll be over there in a while, then? Oh, and before I forget, I have to tell you something. It's not important. Just odd."
"Ok then. Later, Kaitlyn."
Click.
Click.
-
"Hey, Kaitlyn. It's nice to have you over."
Dewey was at the door in his Officer uniform to greet her. Kaitlyn just thought it was dumb to be wearing that just to greet someone, because five minutes later, be was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
"You're ridiculous, Dewey, you know that," Tatum said as she found her way to the door. Kaitlyn smiled. "Hey, Kait! C'mon, bring your stuff up to my room. I'll help you with it."
Grabbing half of her belongings, Tatum led Kaitlyn up the stairs to a large room with two large beds. "You get this one," Tatum said pointedly as she set Kaitlyn's stuff down on the floor next to the doorway. The bed had pink sheets with small blue and green flowers decorating it. Obviously, she'd fixed the room since her last visit.
"So, what was that not-so-important thing you wanted to tell me about?" Tatum said, flopping on her own bed. It was already six in the evening, so it was getting dark outside.
"Billy."
"You like him? Is that it?"
"No, Tatum. I'll pull your ears off it you say that again."
Tatum snickered, covering up her ears. "Oh no! The ear monster!"
Kaitlyn shook her head. "Anyways, he popped up on me this afternoon. He started talking about something stupid. Being bored or something, I wasn't listening. Then we got into this stupid fight over who was the killer in Friday 13th."
"It's Jason."
"Yeah, that's what I said! But no, he says its Mrs. Voorhees…"
"Kaitlyn?"
"Yeah?"
"You're babbling."
"Oh," Kaitlyn said, her face flushing a shade of pink. "Sorry."
"Now what was it you were saying about Billy?"
Kaitlyn regained her composure and told her how Billy had snuck up on her and how he kept questioning her until she told him to leave.
Tatum made a noise. "Ooh, looks like someone's got the hots for you."
"That's funny, Tatum. Really. I'm dieing on the inside, here."
Kaitlyn collapsed backwards onto her bed and sighed, staring up at Tatum's ceiling. The colors matched everything in the room. She wondered how one person could stand it being changed. She thought it was odd, herself. By the time they got done with their chat, it was already ten.
"We could always talk about it in the morning?" Tatum asked, pulling out a set of green and yellow pajamas.
"Yeah." Kaitlyn replied, pulling out her own blue ones.
They dressed and fell asleep.
-
Happy New Years, all!