What do you want from me? Stupid names for the chapters? Well, YOU'RE NOT GETTING THEM! ;'
Ten Years Later:
"MOM! I'm going over to Kitty's house!" eleven-year-old Christine Alvers yelled down the stairs of the Alvers residence.
"Is your room clean?" Andrea called back up to her daughter. She smiled as she heard the slamming of Christine's closet door. Andrea knew that Christine had just shoved everything off of the floor in her room into her closet, but she wasn't going to say anything to her until Christine got back from the Pryde's house.
"Yeah Mom! It's all clean!" Christine yelled as she slid down the banister toting her backpack and her brand new Bratz Doll. She was so proud of that doll. She'd gotten that exact doll for Kitty on their last birthday and Christine had wanted one too. She had been majorly jealous of Kitty at that birthday party even though they'd ended up getting the exact same things, all except for the Bratz Doll. It had gotten to the end of the party and Christine hadn't gotten the doll, so she ran crying outside to the swing set that she and Kitty shared. Kitty had come out after her, carrying a wrapped package for Christine. She'd asked Christine what was wrong, and since there had never been any secrets between the two, Christine told her. Well, Kitty gave Christine the package and explained that she was saving the best for last. Ever since then, they'd been over at each other's house after school to play with the cherished dolls.
"Okay, you can go on over, but tell your brother to go with you. Your dad and I are going to be out a little late tonight, and Mrs. Pryde said that she would babysit you two."
"Okay Mom, but I don't think Lance is going to like it very much. He thinks he's too old for a babysitter. But I don't," Christine added with a giggle, "He acts like a baby all the time."
"Don't make fun of your brother, Christine. You act just as bad as he does sometimes," Andrea scolded her as she swatted Christine on the butt. "Now go tell him to go with you."
Christine scowled, but did as her mother told her, and scurried back up the stairs.
"LAAAAANNNNNNNCCCCCCE! Mom said you gotta come with me over to Kitty's house. Mom and Dad are gonna be out late tonight, so Mrs. P is going to babysit us!" Christine yelled as she pounded on the thirteen year old's bedroom door.
The door swung open to reveal a scowling scrawny pimply boy just hitting adolescence.
"I don't want to go over to your stupid friend's house! I'm old enough to stay home by myself!"
"Kitty isn't stupid, and Mom obviously doesn't think you're old enough or you'd be staying here! You have to come or I'll tell Daddy! Neener Neener Neener!" Christine sneered as she walked away from Lance.
"FINE! But I'm not ever playing soccer with you again!" Lance yelled as he stomped down the stairs, out the door, and over next door before Christine even got through saying goodbye to Andrea.
He pounded on the door, and before long, Rebecca yanked the door open, a concerned expression on her face.
"What's wrong Lance? Is someone hurt?" she asked him, ushering him into her house.
"No. It's just my mom and Chrissie. They're being so stupid! My mom won't let me stay over at our house by myself. I'm thirteen already! All my friend's parents let them stay home by themselves. My parents are so much stricter than other people are. It's not fair!" he huffed, plopping on the couch and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I understand, honey. Your mom just wants you to be safe. These friends of yours, their parents are leaving the very lives of their children in the hands of kids. Kids. I know you feel like you should be treated differently now that you're a teenager, and you are to some degree, but your parents don't feel like you're old enough to keep yourself from possible harm yet. It's not that they're stricter; they just love you more than a lot of these other kids parents. If they let you do whatever you wanted to with absolutely no regard for your safety or well being, that would mean that they didn't love you at all," Rebecca explained to him.
"I guess you're right, Mrs. P. It just feels like they won't ever let me do anything. Like they're always going to treat me like a little kid," Lance frowned.
"Believe it or not, I know how it feels. Everyone's been through that at one point or another," she smilingly replied.
"Yeah, right. Whatever. I just remembered, I forgot my homework over at my house. I'll be back in a few minutes," Lance replied as he jumped up from the couch and headed towards the door. "Oh, Mrs. P.?" he said as he opened the door.
"Yes?"
"Thanks," he said, and ran out, slamming the door behind him.
Christine walked in half a second later and yelled after him, "You gotta come back!" She turned to Rebecca and waved, "Hi Mrs. P.!"
"Hello Chrissie. You're not bothering your brother again are you? You know he has a lot to deal with right now," Rebecca reprimanded her.
"I'm not really bothering him. He's just being thirteen," Christine replied meekly. "Is Kitty in her room?"
"Yes, and she's doing her homework. You should go on up and do yours," Rebecca replied.
"Yes, Mrs. P." Christine replied as she ran up the stairs and knocked on Kitty's bedroom door.
"Come on in Chrissie. I'm doing my homework," came the muffled reply.
Christine opened the door and dumped her backpack on the floor. She ran over and jumped on Kitty's bed asking, "Whatcha working on?"
"I'm doing my multiplication homework. I don't know why but Mrs. Lenard is always giving me extra math homework," the ponytailed eleven year old replied, studying her papers intently.
"It's cause you're so much better at math than everyone else. Speaking of which, could you help me with my math homework? I've got everything done except for that."
"Yeah, I'll help you. I have three more problems left and then I'll help you with yours."
"Great."
Christine jumped off the bed and went to get her homework while Kitty was finishing up her own. Christine dumped the contents of her backpack onto the already messy floor and dug out the crumpled homework assignment. She plopped back on the bed next to Kitty and spread the papers in front of her.
"See? I can't figure out how to do the stupid fractions!" she huffed, frustrated.
"Aw come on! We've gone over this a hundred times already! You have to split one half into two fourths, and two-fourths into four eighths before you can work that problem properly! You have got to remember that," Kitty told Christine.
"It's not my fault I'm not a super genius! I just can't remember how to do it!" Christine whined, working on the problem.
"You would remember how to do it if you actually listened to Mrs. Lenard instead of thinking about your dolls," Kitty scolded her. "Come on. I'll help you to do the rest so we can play with the Chloes. My mom bought a new set of clothes for Chloe P. and she copied the patterns so we can make another set for Chloe A. We have to hurry if we want to use Mom's sewing machine!"
They both worked on Christine's homework until they heard a door slam downstairs.
"That must be my brother. He's mad at my Mom cause she won't let him stay over at my house by himself. He even called you stupid!" Christine gossiped.
"He called me stupid? I am so not stupid!" Kitty squealed angrily. "I can't believe I even liked him!"
"Hey, I didn't say it, he did. So if you're gonna yell at anyone, yell at him," Christine replied acting affronted.
"Hurry up and finish those problems. My mom made chocolate chip cookies for snack today, and as soon as we finish I'm gonna go yell at Lance."
"All Right!"
"MOM! We're through with our homework!" Kitty yelled as she barreled down the stairs, Christine trailing right behind.
"Good for you! I've got chocolate chip cookies and milk in the kitchen. Lance is in there studying, so be quiet," Rebecca replied, glancing up from her needlework.
"Okay Mom. Can we bring it up to my room?"
"Only if you promise not to get anything on the floor. Your room is a big enough mess as it is; we don't need rotting milk and cookies to add to it."
"We promise," the girls replied in unison, and they ran into the kitchen.
"Hey Lance!" Kitty greeted the studying boy brightly. She'd always had a tiny crush on the older boy, though she'd be the first to deny it.
"Hey Brat," Lance replied distractedly. He was working on an English paper for school, and doing rather badly on it.
"What're you doing?" she asked, sitting down next to him and flipping through his Algebra ½ book.
"I'm trying to write a book report. Why?" he replied, still not paying attention to her.
"Just wondering. What book is it about?" Kitty asked, trying to figure out one of the problems in the Algebra book.
"Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. We all had to read it and write a report on it. Why are you asking me all these freaking questions?" he replied, finally looking up at her. She was working on the first page on his Algebra book and Christine was sitting on the other side of the table dunking cookies in milk.
"I was just wondering. I don't want you to think I'm stupid or anything like that. Hey, what does that mean?" she replied, pointing to a figure on the page.
"Nothing. Would you quit messing with my homework? And why would you think that I think you're stupid," he asked irritably.
Kitty glanced up from the book innocently and looked him straight in the eyes as she replied, "Cause Chrissie told me that you called me stupid. I'm not stupid Lance. I probably know just as much as you do!"
"First of all, Chrissie should keep her big mouth shut, and second of all, I don't really think you're stupid," he replied placatingly.
"Then why did you say it?" Kitty asked getting angry. She began to fidget with the pages of the Algebra book as she waited for an answer. She always fidgeted when she got nervous, and this was something the Alvers children knew well. Lance hesitated, wondering how much his answer would mean to her.
"Well, you see, when someone gets angry, sometimes he says things he doesn't really mean, and that was what happened. I was mad at my mom, and I said something mean that I didn't really mean, and that I didn't think that you would ever hear about," he paused, glaring heatedly at his sister. She swallowed the cookie in her mouth and grinned meekly at him. "But I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry. Okay Brat?"
"I guess so. Can I read your paper when you're finished?" she grinned at him.
He smiled back at her, relieved that she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, and replied, "Sure, but I have to finish it first so why don't you and Chrissie go play dolls or something?"
"Okay!" Kitty grabbed the last three cookies and a glass of milk, and skipped out of the room calling for Chrissie over her shoulder, "Come on Chrissie! We have to hurry if we want my mom to make the clothes!'
Christine jumped up and ran after Kitty after receiving a death glare from Lance.
He smiled as he heard Kitty yell back to him, "See you later Lance!" And then heard Christine declare, "Way to yell at him, Kitty! That had to be the quietest yell I've ever heard."
Kitty and Christine played for the next couple of hours uninterrupted but then were informed that Andrea and Dominic were going to be later than expected so the Alvers kids were going to sleep over at Kitty's house. Christine couldn't think of anything better but Lance, of course, wasn't too pleased.
Kitty bounded down the stairs and plopped down next to Lance again after she and Christine had tired of playing dolls and Christine decided to take a bath. Lance glanced wearily over at her.
"What do you want Kitty?"
"Are you through yet? Mom says I gotta get in the bed in thirty minutes and I wanna read your report before school tomorrow. Cause then I won't get to read it cause you're in junior high and I'm still in middle school,' she replied brightly.
"I'm not quite finished yet, Brat, but I'll come and get you when I'm done. And if I don't get through before tomorrow, I'll make you a copy so you can read it, okay?"
"Well, I thought maybe I could help you with it, if you want," she replied tentatively.
"You, help me? Ha HA HA! Good one, Kitty!" he laughed and then turned back to his work.
"I wasn't joking," Kitty replied, a wounded note in her voice. "I really meant it. I've read all of Dickens' works and I thought maybe I could give you some ideas."
Lance looked at her incredulously and seeing that she was serious, pushed the paper covered in doodles over to her to read. Her eyes scanned over it quickly and her young face lit up in surprise.
"It's good Lance. It could use a few more commas and there are a few grammatical errors, and I could correct those for you, if you want, but the rest is really good," she praised.
Lance stared down at her as if he had only just met her and she had said that the sun was purple, and then muttered, "Okay. Thanks Brat."
"No problem. It will only take me a few minutes, but I could type it up for you too, if my mom will let me use her computer," she added, happily scooping up the papers.
"You don't have to do that Kitty. I can just turn it in like it is," Lance replied, feeling a little uncomfortable at taking advantage of the grammatical and computing skills of an eleven-year-old kid, even if they might possibly be more advanced than his.
"No, really, Lance. I would love to do it! I love working on the computer, and if I'm doing homework, my mom will let me use it. Even if it's your homework," Kitty looked up at him with her big blue eyes begging for him to let her do it for him. "Plleeease Lance?"
"Okay," he succeeded reluctantly.
"THANKS!" she squealed happily, jumped up, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him into the library where the computer sat.
"Night guys," Rebecca called into Kitty's room where Kitty and Christine were sharing the bed and Lance was stuck in a sleeping bag on the floor due to Christine's insistence that she needed him with her.
"Night Mom!" "Night Mrs. P." "Good Night Mrs. P." came three voices in the dark.
"Everybody up at six thirty, okay? We have to get Lance to school in time!"
"Okay!"
The three kids soon drifted off to sleep, each dreaming of uniquely individual things.
Lance
"MOM! I'm home! Mom? MOM!"
He walks into the living room to find a battered and bleeding Andrea, and Dominic sitting across from her, covered in blood.
"NO! DAD! What did you do!"
Dominic slowly rises from his seat and advances towards Lance like a zombie.
"DDAD? DAD!"
Dominic grabs Lance's arm, and raises a hammer over his head, readying to strike.
1:27 am the clock read as Lance sat up in a pool of sweat. He got up and slowly snuck out of Kitty's room.
Christine
"Kitty! Guess what!"
"What?" Kitty replies somewhere in the background.
"Mom is taking us shopping this weekend! We get to go to K.B. Toys and pick out whatever clothes we want for the Chloes'!"
"Cool! Let's Go!"
A sleepy grin crept up Christine's face as she rolled over in bed.
Kitty
Running. Running. What was she running from? There was something coming after her, but she didn't know what.
Suddenly, she was falling. Falling through the earth! The earth swallowed her up, and then she was just floating down…down…oh, there goes China! Everything is upside down now! People are walking upside down! Houses are built on their roofs! There goes the earth! Now she's floating in outer space and she can't breathe, and something is still after her!
1:28 am the clock read as Kitty sat up gasping in bed. She slowly climbed out of bed and snuck out of her room. She headed down the stairs to get a glass of milk.
She crept through the living room, skirting past the coffee table she usually banged her shin on. Weird, she thought, Everything is so bright tonight.
She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge as silently a she could, and grabbed the carton of milk. She turned and began to shut the door when she noticed in the light of the fridge someone rooting around in the drawers, and she let out a little shriek.
Lance spun around holding up his hands in defensive mechanically, almost dropping the ice cream and the spoon he held.
"Lance! What are you doing down here?" Kitty whispered, relieved that it was only him.
"Couldn't sleep. What are you doing down here?" he retorted, dropping his hands and plopping down at the table.
"I had a nightmare. I came to get some milk and cookies. That's what Mom always gives me when I have nightmares, and I didn't want to wake her up just to get them for me," Kitty replied, sitting next to him and reaching for the cookie jar.
Lance reached out and pulled it towards her.
"Thanks. I'm sorry I scared you," Kitty said as she reached in and pulled out an Oreo.
"You didn't scare me," Lance said as he took the Oreo from her and used it to scoop some ice cream out.
"Hey! That was mine! And I did too scare you. You put your hands up like I was a robber or something," Kitty countered, snatching the ice cream covered Oreo back from him, and sticking it in her mouth before he could eat it himself.
"Pig."
Kitty stuck out her cookie covered tongue at him and grinned, "Get your own cookie."
"Shut up," he said as he reached in the jar for another one. "So, what did you have a nightmare about? Dead butterflies and not having any Barbies?"
"No. I was running away from someone in the middle of the night and then I just started to fall through the earth, and then I came out in China and everything was upside down, and people were walking on their heads and stuff, and then I was in outer space and I couldn't breathe and someone was still chasing me," Kitty said quietly, remembering her dream. "And when I came down here, I could see all of the stuff in the living room, just like it was morning or something. It was really weird."
"That is weird. When you came in here just now, it was like I was seeing a ghost or something cause it seemed like I could see right through you, and it totally looked like you just walked right through the fridge door," Lance replied, handing her another ice cream cookie.
"Thanks. So, why couldn't you sleep?" she mumbled through a mouthful.
"You promise you won't tell anyone?" he said, leaning closer to her and whispering as if he were worried someone would hear.
"Tell anyone what?" she replied, also leaning forward and whispering.
"I was having nightmares too."
"Really? What were you having nightmares about?" Kitty asked him, leaning back in her chair and sipping her milk.
"I don't want to tell you. You'd probably have nightmares about my nightmares, and your Mom would be mad at me in the morning cause you couldn't sleep," Lance replied, taking the glass from her and drinking some of her milk.
"I wouldn't have nightmares. C'mon Lance! I told you about mine. It would make you feel better if you told me yours," she retorted crossly, grabbing her milk back.
"Are you sure you won't have bad dreams?"
"Positive; now tell me," she commanded, waving the ice cream spoon at him.
"I dreamt that my dad killed my mom," he muttered quietly.
"What?"
"I said, I dreamt that my dad killed my mom," Lance responded, louder this time.
"Why would your dad kill your mom?" Kitty asked, a puzzled expression on her face.
"I don't know, but he yells at her a lot when he gets drunk, and a couple of times she had bruises on her arms after he drinks a whole lot," Lance replied miserably.
"I'm sorry, Lance," Kitty whispered, and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
"It's okay. Just promise you won't tell Chrissie, cause she loves Dad a lot, and I don't want her to think bad about him," Lance replied, hugging Kitty back.
"Never," Kitty said firmly, "I won't ever tell her, Lance. You can count on me."
"I know. Come on, let's go back to bed before your mom finds us down here and we get in trouble," he said, gathering up the ice cream and spoon as she put the lid back on the cookie jar and put the rest of her milk in the fridge.
"Okay. Hey, you wanna sleep in the bed with me and Chrissie? There's enough room, and you'd probably sleep better than on the floor," Kitty asked as they crept out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
"I guess so. I don't get why your mom and dad don't just put carpet on the floor in there. It would be a whole lot better for anyone who sleeps over," Lance replied, opening the door to the room. "I always get a major crick in the neck when I get up in the morning."
"You know, you're right. It would a whole lot nicer to play on if there was carpet. Come on and get in the bed," Kitty whispered back, patting the bed beside her.
Lance gathered his pillow off of the floor and climbed under the covers beside her. Kitty curled up on her side next to Chrissie and shut her eyes.
"'Night Lance."
"'Night Kitty."
Next Morning:
"Wake up sleepyheads…," Rebecca began as she opened the door to Kitty's room in the morning. "Well, would you look at that?"
Kitty was curled up next to Lance who had both of his arms wrapped around her, and Chrissie, who was on the other side of Lance, was curled up behind him with her arms wrapped around him, and Lance was squished in the middle of the queen sized bed.
"I do believe that they are going to be much closer when they get older," Rebecca thought to herself.
"Okay, time to get up!"