Chapter I
Life as you know it
"Your home early,"said Tara's mom as she walked in the front door of her house. "Tag day, mom!" she said with an impatient tone, walking towards the staircase leading upstairs. "I thought those were in the morning," her mom said, determined to start a conversation. "Some times, other times there in the afternoon," replied Tara, still walking towards the stairs. "I didn't know that." "Well, you learn something new everyday." Tara was two steps up the stairs when her mom said, "Why don't you talk to me anymore?" Tara stopped and looked at the ground, feeling as if the wall dividing them weren't there, "Why don't you listen to me anymore . . ." She said the last statement in a low voice, as if expecting her mom not to hear it. She then continued up the stairs. Her mom just sighed and restarted doing the laundry.
Tara slammed her room door behind her and threw her bag, full of homework she didn't plan on doing, beside her bed. She sat at her desk and smashed a fist on the hard oak of her desktop, she then regretted doing so as her hand started throbbing. Her mother made her so mad, she felt like punching her . . . WAIT! What did her mom do to make her mad? She thought about it for a moment. "Well she should have known it was a tag day, I mean, I told her like a hundred times . . . didn't I? WHO CARES!" She discarded all thoughts of her mother and started looking around the room, her drapes were open . . . again. "Dammit mom. When will you learn that I like to be in the dark," she said to herself aloud. She got up and started walking towards the window, but something shiny caught her eye on the way. She changed course and started walking towards the "shiny thing", which was in fact a picture frame. It was face down on her end table. She stood it up and stared at the picture. She could feel tears burning behind her eyes. She slammed the picture frame back down as she turned around, she her a little clink sound when the frame hit the end table. She turned her head around quickly, scared she had broken the glass. She wiped a single tear from her left eye and turned back around and closed her blinds with rage and sorrow. She jumped on her bed and shoved her head into her pillow. She screamed as loud as her lungs would let her.
"I'm home," yelled Chris as he walked into his house. He looked around. "I'M HOME!" he yelled louder. He shut the door with his foot and walked into the living room where he saw his sister reading a Cosmopolitan magazine on the couch. "What's up sis?" He asked her. "Nothing really, bro. Went to the mall today. Bought you this months Maxim magazine." She hands him his magazine without looking up from hers. He starts looking through it. "It has the 'Hot 100' in there. You know, the best 100 looking girls in North-America . . . or just the U.S. or whatever. Most of them in bikini's or lingerie and shit," she finally looks up from her magazine, "thought you could use something new to jack-off to." His face quickly jumped up from the magazine, she smiled and started laughing. "Now you see . . . that's just flat out disturbing coming from you." He walks out of the room. He could hear her laughter even from the kitchen. He opened the pantry door and noticed he still had his bag on his back. He walked up the stairs and into his room. He threw his bag beside his bed and the Maxim magazine on top of it. He then marched back down the stairs and back into the kitchen where he continued his excavation, looking for anything edible.
He managed to find a bag of Ritz and figured it would hold him off 'till dinner, if in fact there would be a dinner. His parents were usually home by now, he wondered why the weren't. "Probably just traffic or an extra long meeting," he thought to himself. He walked back into the living room and his sister was in the exact same position she had been before he left to get his little snack. He walked over to the end of the couch and pushed her legs out of his way, he then took a seat and grabbed the remote for the T.V. His parents got home at around 8:00 P.M. "Your home late," he said as his parents walked into the living room. "We decided to go out for dinner tonight," his mother replied to him. Chris' stomach groaned, "you couldn't have told us any earlier?" "We tried calling, but it was busy." His sister immediately through there cordless phone onto the chair beside the couch and started whistling. Her mother gave her a humorous, threatening look. "Well," said his sister, "I guess I'll go make myself some grilled cheese then. You want one bro?" "Do I have to make it myself," he asked. "No." "Then yes. Yes I do." His dad started laughing and took a seat where his daughter was just moments ago. "A lazy man is a normal man," he said as he stole the remoter form his son.