Clove's POV:
I shook my head and blinked a few more times. What I saw relieved me of sorts. The person looking back at me was NOT Cato himself. It was a girl who looked considerably younger. Her hair was a dark shade of blonde, a little bit close to brown. Aside from her eyes, she looked nothing like Cato at all.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her hand outstretched to help me up.

"Yeah I'm fine." I replied, grabbing her hand and pulling myself up. "Thanks. I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"It's alright. Neither of us were. That's kind of why we bumped into each other. I'm Christine by the way. But you could call me Chris."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Clove."

We talked for a bit after that encounter. She has told me a considerable amount of information for someone whom you've just met. For one, I know that she is one among five children in her family. She has 2 sister and 2 brothers, one of whom is her twin. Her parents are really famous, their father being a hollywood director/producer and mother, a world renowned designer. She lives with her siblings, her older sister being their caregiver and mother-figure. Their parents have an apartment in New York which they go to every once in a while to have family gatherings but other than that, they're usually in California doing work. She's currently in 8th grade although she could definitely have passed for someone older. She was very mature for her age. The fact that she was taller than me also gave me the impression that she was already a high school student. More than an hour had passed before we realized the time.

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe it's this late already! I promised Carissa I'd be home by 5! I have to go! I'm so sorry! Maybe we could meet up again some time? I'll give you my number." she said in such a hurry I barely had time to register what she was saying. Nevertheless I gave her my phone and let her type her number down while I did the same on hers.

"Perfect. I'll see you around, Clove. Nice meeting you!"

"Bye! Take care!" I was already shouting because she was getting so far. Boy, that girl could run!

I headed home shortly after she left. I was exhausted. I guess going to the park during winter was a great idea after all. I had met a new friend. Someone who probably won't judge me as harsh as people my age would. The moment I closed my eyes to rest, I saw him again.

The last few weeks flew by in a blur. Before I knew it, it was already Christmas break. I was so happy to finally be free from all the work for two weeks. At least now I'd be able to have a little time for myself.

The first few days of the vacation was really boring. I literally had nothing to do at home. I mean, I occasionally hung out with Jackie and the others but they had to leave to go visit other relatives for the holidays. So here I was, all by my lonesome. Again.

Christmas came and went. My friends gave me awesome gifts, believe it or not. Most of them were things I could really use while others *coughboyscough* were just more of practical joke stuff.

Just as I was walking home after a stroll around the neighborhood, I heard my phone ringing in my bag. I dug through all my stuff and with much difficulty I finally found what I was looking for.

Hey Clove! I was wondering if you wanted to hang out after school? the text from Chris read. I quickly replied a 'sure. Heading to the park now. See you in a bit!'

I didn't have to wait long. Chris arrived 2 minutes after I got there. We walked around the park for about 10 minutes before she decided it was too cold to be out in the park.

"Hey you wanna go to the mall or something? It's freezing out here!"

"Sure. But I don't have a car though."

"Oh, we could ask my sister to drive us! Our house isn't far from here. I bet she'd love to come shopping. She can't wait to meet you! I told her all about you, you see." This girl is just so bubbly it's impossible to say no. A bit reluctantly, we headed to her house.

Once we got there, she unlocked the door and ushered me inside. This place was huge! Well, I guess having rich parents can do that.

"Make yourself at home! I'll be right back."

I sat down on their large, u-shaped sofa. This place really screamed "Hollywood". The ceiling was really high. The house was at least 4 stories tall. They had a huge flat screen TV mounted on the wall with speakers around the room for surround sound. There were movie posters and instruments scattered around the room. I can see a portraits a little way off on the other side of the room, probably individual pictures of the children, one for the parents and one as a whole family. From this distance, I can see that there was at least one that contained a lot of people in it. I didn't want to snoop around though because I feel it would be invasion of their privacy. There was a glass door that lead to the yard which had a pool (with a slide!) and a playground not far from it. I snuck a peak out back. Whenever I see these kinds of houses, I feel as if I never left California. There, I only saw big houses from the outside. The houses I've been to here are so much more elite looking than the ones back there. Maybe cause I was never actually close to anyone who was famous or had a famous family.

"Chris, is that you?" I heard someone shout. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere below. The basement, probably? I turned towards the direction of the voice.

"Hey Chris, can you help me with th-" the person stopped midsentence, noticing that it was not only Chris who had entered the house and that she wasn't exactly present at the moment.

I stared wide-eyed at the person in front of me. Oh no. What have I gotten myself into?

Sickle for your thoughts? :)