Chapter 2
My mother squealed when she saw the house, actually squealed.
"Alexis, isn't it absolutely perfect?"
No, no its not.
"Yeah, sure mom," I mumbled, hauling my backpack out of the backseat of the car I had lived in for the last three days, scattering empty Doritos bags and Twix wrappers as I went.
"I can't believe we're finally here! This is actually happening!" my mother cried, leaving the car and I behind, as she dashed forward through the white gate up to the front door.
"Neither can I," I muttered aloud.
I stared gloomily at the house before me.
It looked like a doll house with its faded baby blue walls lined in cracked white paint. A classic white picket fence outlined the relatively spacious front yard.
It would have been my mother's dream house, except for the fact that it was practically falling apart at the seams. An odd pair of shutters on the second floor window looked to be hanging by only a single nail. The second step of the porch was horribly cracked, as if someone's foot had plunged right through it. Weeds covered what was probably once some sort of garden, and pieces of my mother's dream picket fence were missing in action.
I sensed a summer project in the making.
Though, in all honesty, all these things were noticed in passing. Despite all the forewarning and the searches on Google and the Weather Channel, I still simply couldn't get my mind to focus on anything except one striking characteristic: everything was wet. The wood of the house and the grass of the yard, everything I laid eyes on seemed to be hyper-saturated with rain water. It was ridiculous and stupid. How could it rain so much in just one little, middle-of-nowhere town?
Though, I gloomily reflected, I had a feeling that that wasn't going to be changing anytime soon, either.
"Alexis, come on in! You have got to see this!"
I rolled my eyes at the excitement in her voice, but obediently shuffled past the gate, through the front yard, hopped over the broken front step and made my way through the threshold into our new house.
"Alexis Nicole Cunningham, don't you dare even think of stepping onto that carpet with those filthy shoes and wet socks," my mother's disembodied voice rang out from somewhere to my left.
Its times like these that I find it not so hard to believe that mothers have some sixth sense that flares up whenever something clean is about to get dirty.
I rolled my eyes for what felt like the millionth time, while flinching as I peeled the soggy material off of my ice cold feet.
I padded numbly towards the room off to the left, lazily taking in the small living area that opened to the entry way of the house. Through the small door-less doorway, I found my mother dancing in circles about her new kitchen.
"Isn't it absolutely wonderful?" she laughed, "There's so much space!"
I cocked an eyebrow at her flailing, but was unable to keep the smile from my face at the sight of her candid happiness.
She had a point. It was much more spacious than our last, pitiful excuse for a kitchen, which could barely fit the two of us in it at once.
A happy, though slightly faded, yellow with white counter tops and with lots of windows letting in natural light, the room really was a refreshing contrast to gray Forks.
"Come here," my mom reached out and grabbed my hands. We spun around the empty kitchen laughing hysterically and basically acting like a pair of four year olds, but it was one of those moments that was so sincerely blissful that neither of us gave a rat's ass.
After being overcome by dizziness, we collapsed on the kitchen floor, leaning on each other for support and gulping in breaths of air.
"You-still-have-to-see-your-room," my mom panted breathless.
"In-a-sec," I gasped back.
We stood shakily, steadying each other. My mother then clumsily dragged me back out to the living room and up the stairs to the second floor.
The small hallway contained only three doors, but my mom bypassed the first two and marched determinately towards the one to the far left, pulling me along.
I nearly had a heart attack.
The room was freakin' huge. Well, huge in comparison to my closet of a room back in San Francisco. But, seriously, it was amazing.
I actually squealed when I caught sight of the queen sized mattress already in place and immediately launched myself at it.
Bouncing in pure euphoria, I caught sight of the huge window on the opposite side of the room, overlooking the backyard and the dark green border of the forest that lay just beyond its fence.
Okay, so this was kinda cool.
"So, you like it?" My mom asked, smiling widely from the doorway.
I shrugged, feigning indifference. "I suppose it will do."
She rolled her eyes and sent me a knowing grin. "Well, when you're done bouncing around like a toddler, come help me get the bags out of the car."
"Says the woman who was just twirling gracelessly around her new kitchen," I shot back, reluctantly hauling myself off of the heavenly large bed.
Maybe this wouldn't be so horrible after all.
I reached the front door only to find torrents of rain pouring down from the sky.
As if.