Ellis sat in the bathtub wondering how long she could hold her breath for today. Her record from last week was 2 minutes and 15 seconds. She thought that this week she would try for 3 minutes. Ellis took a deep breath and slowly sank into the warm water. She closed her eyes and began counting when she heard a knock at the door.

"Mom wants to know what you want for dinner. Bailey voted pizza, I voted she go up to Joe's and get us take out. What do you want?" Zola asked.

Ellis ignored her sister because whatever she wanted was not as important as beating her record. She continued to count. Not even 30 seconds later there was another knock.

"Ellis! I know you are in there! I know you don't like to be bothered when you're in the bathtub but it's already 7! Just tell us what your decision is so you don't keep mom waiting!"

Ellis continued to ignore the muffled yelling she heard coming out of her sister's mouth.

As more time passed with no more talking she figured Zola gave up and left the room. Then, she heard Zola yell impatiently again, "If you don't answer me in the next 30 seconds I'm coming in! This time the muffled yelling was louder.

Even though she had no idea what Zola was yelling about, that was the moment Ellis decided she needed to stop her little experiment. She did not want to get caught because she knew how overprotective her older sister was of her. Zola would accuse her of trying to drown herself.

Ellis quickly pulled herself up from under the water just as the door opened.

"Hey." Ellis said casually, as Zola rolled her eyes.

"What are you up to?" Zola asked suspiciously.

"Nothing..."

"Then why weren't you answering me?"

"I was deep in thought." Ellis lied.

Zola knew her little sister was up to something, but she decided to ignore it for the time being.

"Anyway, what do you want for dinner? Take out or pizza?"

"Pizza." With that, Zola nodded her head and exited the bathroom closing the door behind her.

Ellis sighed and thought to herself, That was a close one. I need to be more careful. That's the second time I've almost gotten caught. First by Bailey last week and now Zola.

Ellis finished up her bath and headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Everyone was sitting at the table. Paper plates were set out along with a few different sodas and water. Zola and Bailey were chatting away while her mother, Meredith, seemed distracted by her cell phone. Ellis sat down and joined them. A few moments later the doorbell rang. Meredith's youngest child, Ellis, stood up to go answer, but her mother beat her to it.

"I got it Ellis." Ellis nodded and sat back down. Meredith walked over to the front door expecting someone else other than who she saw.

Hi y'all thanks for reading! I means a lot to me you finished the first chapter! Please leave a comment and let me know how I can improve the story or any mistakes so I can fix them! I have two more chapters already written so if this goes well I will be posting them soon! thank you so much!

-Lucie