Chapter 2
Ten year old Clare Edwards sighed in contentment as she scanned her new bedroom.
Her posters were thrown on here and there. Her bureau was neatly against the wall facing opposite her bed and door. Her full length mirror took up the small corner to the left of her closet. A white vanity sat next to the door where her many girl accessories and hair/make-up things were scattered around. A long glass table sat facing the end of her bed and her flat screen sat right on top of the cold surface. Her walls were painted a pale sky blue with colorless white butterflies decorating each corner of her bedroom wall.
She eyed her overflowing collection of nail polish and walked over to her vanity. So many colors, yet she couldn't pick what one she wanted.
Electric purple.
Bumblebee yellow.
Sea foam green.
Strawberry red.
Rainy blue.
She sighed as she figured it out in her head. She narrowed it down to sea foam green and rainy blue. After much contemplating she grabbed the little bottle of blue nail polish. She sat on her bed and worked expertly on her nails with the nail polish brush.
After drying her fingernails she made her way back to her vanity and grabbed two toe separators from the small draw of the piece of furniture. She worked her way through her toenails and once finished, she put back her bottle of nail polish and walked over to the mirror that rested in the far end corner of her room.
She smiled as she looked over her nails and outfit. She wore a loose white v-neck with flower patterns rising from the bottom and curving its way to the top and back. A pair of acid washed, ripped black skinny jeans adorned her legs. Her nails matched her eyes perfectly. Her smile quickly faltered as she examined her face. She had just gotten braces and according to her, it did her no justice.
"Clare, honey, can you come down here for a minute?" Her mother questioned from the bottom of the stairs. Clare took one last look at herself, brushed her bangs to the side revealing more of her beautiful and pale complexion, and made her way downstairs.
She kissed her mom on the cheek and smiled as her mom hugged her.
"Well, I heard we have neighbors across the street with a son your age, I thought it'd be nice if you said hi." Her mom explained with a sweet smile. Clare studied her moms face for a few seconds.
"Fine, I'll say hi." She replied with a compromising nod and half smile. Her moms smile grew wider as she clasped her hands together in excitement.
"Great!" She squealed and pushed Clare toward the door, "Go head on over, I told them that you'd be there in a few minutes!" She continued.
Clare slipped on her blue flip flops before heading outside and across the street. She sighed as she reached the front door. Just as her hand was about to make contact with the wooden door it flew open revealing a grinning woman who had hoop earrings latched onto her ears and blond hair. Clare stumbled back a step.
"Hi, I'm CeCe, and you must be Clare, your mother said you'd be over to say hi. Come on in!" CeCe stepped aside to let Clare in. Clare smiled up at CeCe as she walked into the house and sat on the couch, "Eli, come down here please!" CeCe turned to Clare, "He'll be down in a minute." She said. Clare nodded.
"What do you want, I did all the chores and my h-" Eli stopped mid sentence as he took notice of Clare sitting awkwardly on the couch with her head bowed. He turned to his mother with a confused look, "Who's that?" He asked. His mom walked over to him.
"That's Clare, her and her mom just moved here and she came to say hi." She explained. He nodded and turned to look at Clare. He walked over to her and stood in front of her.
"Hi, I'm Eli." He said. Clare lifted her head and smiled at him before standing up. He let out a sharp and inaudible breath as he studied her. She had short auburn curls that framed her face perfectly and her straight bangs rested just above her eyes. Her skin was a pale creamy color and he could smell the vanilla aroma that was beating off of her and swiftly moving toward him. Her eyes were like nothing he'd ever seen before. They were amazing and beautiful. It was as if someone took all the shades of blue and mixed them together to create the perfect color that was known as her color, because it was perfect like her, beautiful like her, and different like her.
"Hi, my name is Clare, my mom made me come over to say hi." She blushed as she hid her face behind her curls. Eli smirked in her direction as he realized his mom walked off into another room.
He lifted her chin and studied her eyes and made sure to make eye contact with her, "You have pretty eyes." He stated smoothly. She let out a small audible, but quiet girly squeak as a scarlet red blush cascaded across her pale cheeks. He found it extremely adorable, "So, Clare, you're new here, how about we go to the park down the street?" He continued.
She looked up at him and nodded, "Sure." She whispered. Eli smiled and grabbed his hoodie that rested on the couch and called out to his mom who was in the kitchen.
"Mom, we're going to the park, bye!" Without waiting for an answer Eli dragged Clare out of the front door and they started off to the park, "So, Clare. How old are you?" He asked curiously eyeing her every once in a while to catch a glimpse of her beauty.
"I'm turning eleven this month." She replied happily. He smiled faintly at her.
"What day?" He asked as he pulled his hood on trying to shield his hair from the wind.
"August 27th." She answered. She shivered as the temperature probably dropped a few degrees. Eli noticed and pulled her close and smoothed his hands up and down her bare arms.
"You looked cold, are you warm yet?" He asked. She shuddered, but not from the cold, and they both knew that. She nodded and he let go of her.
"How old are you?" She asked looking at him. They both glanced at each other.
"I'm turning twelve in November." He replied. He looked up to see the park come into view. They both walked over to the opening in the fence that led into the park. Eli grimaced as he walked behind Clare and beside her once again. He hadn't gone back to the park since the incident that happened almost two years prior.
Clare looked at him curiously and pinned her eyebrows together, "What's wrong?" She asked with a bit of concern.
He shook his head a few times, "Nothing. Nothing at all." He replied blankly. She gave him one more glance before looking straight ahead again and walking over to the swings. Eli sat down on one and Clare followed his actions.
Clare looked down at her fingers awkwardly as Eli bowed his head and looked down at the dirt and he swayed back and forth on the swing.
"We don't have to stay here, we could go s-" Eli lifted his head and looked at her with unshed tears. That shut her up and she touched his shoulder, "What's wrong?" She asked softly.
He jerked his shoulder causing her hand to fall from it, "I don't think that's any of your business; do you?" He replied coldly. She blinked in surprise at his sudden mood and attitude change.
She stood up from the swing, turned to Eli, and put her hands on her hips, "If you're gonna act that way, fine, but just to let you know, you are acting like a total jerk, and there is no reason what so ever to be rude to someone else because there's something going on in your life that's hard to deal with, so get over yourself. I never wanna talk or play or even look at you again. You hurt my feelings!" She shouted before trudging off from the swings.
"Whatever, I don't like you either!" He screamed back as the hot tears rolled down his cheeks.
That was a total lie.
He did like her, he wanted to be her friend, but being happy meant betraying his little sister and he could never do that, no matter how hard he tried.
Clare soon stopped outside her house. She stomped up the porch steps and angrily walked inside, up the stairs, and walked into her room after slamming her door. She sat on her bed and wiggled her flip flops off. She sighed and walked over to the box lying in one of the corners of her room. It was full of books. She pulled out one of her favorites, My Sisters Keeper. She read quite a few times. It always made her cry; it brought back all those memories.
Those heart wrenching, painful, and taunting memories. She could never erase them from her mind which made it even worse; her father was forever etched into her memory.
He died of cancer when she was very young. She was about five when he was diagnosed and he died when she was six.
As she opened her book and started reading, the memory of the day her parents told her the heartbreaking news lurked in her mind.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon on a Saturday. Clare was sitting in her room coloring in her coloring book.
"Clare, can you come down here sweetie?" Her mother's voice caused her to jump off her bed and run down stairs.
Her dad was sitting on the couch with a nervous look plastered on his face and her mother looked beyond tired and she saw the hint of sadness perched in her mom's eyes.
"What's wrong?" She asked as she sat down on the opposite couch to her dad. Her mom sat down next to her father.
"Clare-Bear, you know we love you so much, especially daddy, right?" Her mom's voice broke at the end of her sentence. Clare nodded growing impatient.
"What is it you have to tell me?" She asked. They looked at each other. Her mom on the verge of tears and her dad looking paler than usual.
"Clare, I have cancer." Her dad's voice broke her from her observations. She gasped and looked at him shocked.
"The doctors are gonna make you better, right?" She asked, hope laced in her high pitched voice. Her mother looked at her wearily while her dad sighed shakily, "Right?" She asked again.
"I-It's too late." Her dad whispered. Clare felt the hot tears sting the corners of her eyes. She ran upstairs to her room and cried for hours.
Her daddy was going to die and she knew it…and they couldn't do anything to stop it.
She hadn't even realized that she'd been crying until she saw the liquid splatter on the pages of her book. She didn't like remembering, she never wanted to remember, but she couldn't stop the thoughts from floating through her mind.
She missed him…so much.
I thought I would have them meet the summer before they go to 6th grade. So this was Clare's story, and I know there was no mention of Darcy. Only because in my story Clare never had a sister. Hope you liked it!
XOXO~XxXDegrassiGirlXxX