Chapter One
It was the end of July when it happened. My mom and dad were celebrating their wedding anniversary. Twenty years together is a long time to be with someone. Unfortunately, it was the only time they had with each other. And to think, I could have easily been killed to, if I had decided to stay home instead of walking down the street to get my favorite ice cream. If only I had decided to wait until tomorrow to get the ice cream, then I would be six feet under like my mom and dad. I would have been shot, too.
"Hey mom." I waited until she had my attention.
"Yes sweetheart?" My mom was up to her eyeballs in plans for the next Wayne Enterprise Ball. She, as head planner, was a seasoned veteran for planning these kinds of A-list events.
"So today is your wedding anniversary, you remember that right? I mean, this whole event thing hasn't taken over your live yet?"
"Baby, you know I love you and all that, but this is a very important thing for Bruce."
"Okay, do I have to tell you that I find it inappropriate that you call Mr. Wayne by his first name?"
"Hun, I have known Bruce for years, since before I even met your father."
"Okay, so you guys are BFF's and, like, braided each other's hair and stuff, but it's still kind of weird to think that you are on such good terms with a multi-billionaire. I've only met him like twice in my entire life."
"You've met him more than once, honey, quit over exaggerating. You've met him multiple times." She threw a pencil at me.
"So, what exactly is this party for and am I invited?" The perks of my dad working for Mr. Bruce Wayne and my mom being practically family has its perks. I get to meet a lot of famous people. And it's sad to say that the stereotypical I'm-rich-bow-down-to-me is a lot more common than you think. But it was refreshing to meet rich people who were humble. For instances, people like Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen. Though Queen was more of a playboy, he will still talk to you like you're an equal. His adoptive son gets on my bad side like it's his job though. Bruce has two adoptive sons now. Dick and Tim are like the best brothers I could ask for.
It's weird how all three of them-Dick, Roy, and Tim- could be such good friend growing up. I'd rather rip my toenails out than have to make nice with Roy, even if he's is uber hot. Well, I haven't seen him in like five years, but I'm pretty sure that he's still all fine and such. There was something about him though, that just felt a little. . .fake. I felt that he was always trying to hide something. Actually I felt that they were all trying to hide something. While I was lost in thought, my mom was talking.
"-from Gotham Academy. It's kind of a big deal, since he also got accepted into a fancy college to. I don't remember which one it is though, but I know it's an Ivy League college."
"Sorry, I didn't catch the first part." My mom gave me a look and huffed.
"I said that it's Dick's graduation party. He graduated from Gotham Academy." She said while tweaking some notes in her planner.
"Oooh, so he's a smarty pants, too?" I may have met Dick a few times at these A-list parties, but that doesn't mean we are like best friends and texted each other and such. It was more of like just making friends so we wouldn't be bored out of our minds.
"Hey hey, you could have gone to the same school with him if you had wanted to. You are extremely smart to." My mom closed her planner book and gave me her full attention.
"Yeah, but I like my old school. And I kind of felt like it handed to me cause your really good friends with Bruce."
"You know, he sees you as a niece, right?" My mom smiled at me. "And you called him Bruce. Why do you get to call him Bruce and not me?" She teased.
"It's different! I'm not married!" I teased back. I gave her a smile. "So I came in here to see if I could go buy some ice cream tonight, like after you, dad, and I get done with the family celebration of your marriage, you and dad are going out for a date. So I'll be all home alone and stuff, so I was wondering if I could get some ice cream?"
"What for?"
"There is like a gazillion sad movies on tonight and I need my comfort food." I told her while I rearranged the apples in the fruit bowl.
"What exactly are you going to need this comfort food for?" My mom rolled her black ink pen on the table.
"'A Walk to Remember' and 'P.S. I love You' amongst other things." I said defensively.
"You are such a sucker." My mom laughed at me.
"Hey, you're the one that got me into this kind of stuff. And plus, there will some movie with some eye-candy, too."
"You are my daughter." My mom did her soft laugh. Then her face turned serious.
"Have you heard from Amanda yet?" My good mood dissipated. I shook my head.
"No, I just know that she hasn't a clue what she's gonna do and that she is living with a cousin." I sighed.
"I just don't believe that they would do something like that. I mean, she's their daughter! If you were in that situation, I wouldn't kick you out. I don't want my grandkid living on the street because its mother couldn't afford a place to live. And I wouldn't want you to hate me for it."
"She told me that she could never go through with an abortion, but that she also said that she wasn't sure if she could go through adoption either."
"Well, she can come here if she needs a place to stay. You tell her that if you ever get a hold of her, okay?" My mom rested her warm hand on my shoulder.
"You are like the best mom ever, you know that right?" I stood up and gave her a hug.
"I get that a lot. And as for the ice cream, sure, why the hell not? Just don't eat too much okay? I'd rather you not rot your teeth out." I pretended not to hear her and skipped out into the hallway and up the stairs. I stepped into the computer room and surfed MSNBC's website for Gotham and read that there was a string of robberies and muggings that had been thwarted by Nightwing and the Bat family. Gotham still might not be safe enough to walk down an unlit street alone, but I would sleep a whole lot better knowing that they were keeping us safe.
After a lunch with my mom and dad, I spent the rest of the afternoon helping my mom pick out what to wear for her Saturday night date with dad. Toward the end of the afternoon, my mom decided on a little black dress with a plum colored heels and cardigan. I left my mom so she could get dressed with promises that she'd look hot. I walked down the stairs with a slight skip in my step. I jumped the last three and stomped in to the living room. My dad was dress in the classic black tux with a black bow tie and white shirt.
"Wow dad. Do you have a hot date tonight?" I plopped down next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around me while he flipped through sports channels.
"How was school yesterday?" He asked as he settled for a college football game.
"It was boring. Amanda didn't show up again."
"Well, I hope she's fine where ever she's at. By the way, I heard that you where going to watch some chick flicks? And that you have some comfort food. Whatever you do, don't make a mess please." He gave me a squeeze. I jumped up and stubbed my toe on the leg of the wood coffee table. I fell to the ground and comically groaned in pain. My dad didn't even look over to make sure I was okay.
"Well, I expected more of a reaction out of you mister." I stood up and put a hand on my hip. He still didn't look at me.
"Ashley, you hurt yourself on a daily basis and multiple times ranging from stubbed toes to walking into doorways. If you expected me to be concerned after seventeen years, you're sorely mistaken." He looked at me with sarcastic smile.
"Gee, I can just feel the love in this room. But I have to Smarty's to get my comfort food, so I'll just leave this pity party early." I stepped in to my dark navy blue high tops and stuffed the laces inside so I didn't have to tie them. I checked my pocket for enough money and opened the door.
"Take a jacket!" My dad hollered.
"NOW you're concerned for me?" I asked while picking up my light grey hoodie.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He said indifferently.
"Yeah, sure, whatever. If you guys are gone by the time I get back, tell mom I love her, 'kay? See ya dad love ya. And leave the back door open so I can get back in please." I called over my shoulder and shut the door.
I walked down the porch steps and down the small path that way lined with white and yellow dandelions. I always smiled when I saw them. With both of my parents jobs, they were pretty well off, so we had a decent house in what Amanda has dubbed as the 'loaded' neighborhood. People here would pay other people to do their own yards and laundry and stuff. And there was not a single dandelion in their yard either. To me, it is a symbol that, even though we are rich, we are modest still people. When I told dad that, he laughed. And ever since then, the dandelions have remained untouched in our yard. Like total opposites from our neighbor's yards.
I skipped out the front gate and on to the sidewalk. Walking down the road toward the small convenient store was a little unnerving. I felt like I was being watched or like something bad was going to happen, but it could just be that now that I was out of the house, I didn't feel the need to put on a mask on. I felt awful the Amanda was practically homeless and her parents are being totally asses about her situation. I shrugged on my hoodie as I walked into Smarty's.
"Hey Ash, how are you doin'?" Ben, the owner of Smarty's, was sitting behind the counter reading a magazine about old model cars. His white hair was sticking up in odd angles. He had a smock over his clothes with red and white horizontal strips over a thick red cardigan sweater.
"Mom and dad are getting ready for a hot date tonight and I have a hot date with some chick flicks and my favorite ice cream." I walked down one of the four short isles to the refrigerated doors. I pulled out my favorite-chocolate caramel chunk- and headed back front.
"It's their wedding anniversary and I've already given them their presents and spent a lovely lunch with them today, so now they get some time to themselves."
"Oh? What did you get for them?"
"My dad is a serious sports fanatic, so I pulled some strings with an older friend of mine who goes to Gotham City College, who also happens to be a 2nd string quarter back, and got him season tickets."
"Well, that is one lucky bastard. What did you get for your mother?" He asked while he rang up my ice cream and I fished out my money.
"Well, you know who she is like obsessed with all things angels like you are with old cars?" He nodded while he counted my money.
"Well, I found this necklace that had some really cool angel wings on it. I was thinking about giving it to her for her birthday, but since that's seven months away and I already had it, I was like, 'what the hey?' and she loved it!" He handed me my change and my ice cream in a plastic sack.
"From now on, you're going to help me buy my wife's next birthday present." He mock ordered me. Ben used to be drill sergeant back in the day, and even though he's old he can still go all army on your ass.
I put my right hand up to my temple and mock saluted him, "Sir, yes, sir!" I waved good bye and ran back home. I ran toward the back of my house and flipped the latch on the pool gate. Well, I tried to flip the latch. The damn thing is ancient and never locked when you wanted it to, nor did it unlock when you needed it to. After opening and closing the gate with trouble I walked around our professionally cleaned pool. We may clean our own house and mow our yard, but when it came to pools, we were hopeless. We'd either put too much chlorine in or not enough and could never seem to keep the water level up to where it was suppose to be.
So we hired someone. His name was Kevin and he was hot. I'll admit that I had a crush on him and would try to come on to him and ask him out, but he always turned me down politely. I was so paranoid that there was something wrong with me. And then I found out he swung for the other team and I was relieved. Kevin and I are good friends now and there isn't anything we wouldn't do for each other.
I twisted the door knob and stepped into the kitchen. I sat my ice cream on the counter while tossing the plastic bag into the reuse box. In the past year, my dad has turned into a tree hugger. Not that I complained. I walked over to the cabinet to pull out a bowl when shouting startled me. It was a deep male voice that didn't belong to my dad. And now that I started to pay attention, I felt a thick heavy tension in the air.
"I'm going to fucking ask you again. Where the fucking hell is it you little bitch!" The same voice asked. It was coming from the living room. Did my dad leave the TV on? I heard skin on skin contact and a gasp of surprise. I step slowly across the linoleum floor. I peeked through the french kitchen door just enough to see that my parents where still here. My dad was on the ground unmoving and there was a lot of blood around his upper body and the wall near his body. A masked man held a gun at my mom's face. She had blood on her chin, probably from when he hit her.
When she refused to answer him, he screamed in anger. He pulled the trigger and she fell. I screamed and the man jumped to face me, shocked to see me standing there. I turned around and pressed a button on our security system's control panel that had 9-1-1 on it. A deafening alarm that was between a tornado siren and an emergency siren rang out. It was so loud that I didn't hear the gun shots behind me, but saw and felt them pass me by and shatter the window in front of me.
I ran so fast that I tripped on the steps down the back porch and almost fell into the pool. I ran around the pool and practically attacked the gate to get it open, and for once it opened the on the first try. I slammed it shut and jammed the latch by kicking in the weak metal. The masked murder came out the door. He also tripped and fell into the pool. I would have laughed in any other situation, but I couldn't stop my mind from repeating over and over in my head. 'He killed my parents. My mom and dad are dead because of this asshole.' I have never felt the need to hurt someone so bad. I didn't even think that my body was capable of this much hatred. I wanted to pick up his gun and shoot him myself. But he got out of the pool and jumped over the fence. I back away into a cluster of trees to hide myself, but he ran the opposite direction. A few moments later a blue Camaro zipped by. I stayed hidden a few moments longer before running out. I ran to the front of the house and burst through the door. My mom was lying on her side to crawl to my dad's side.
"Mom!" My voice came out hoarse and screechy sounding. I stumbled to her side, not paying any attention to how much blood soaked the carpet and the knees of my jeans. I rolled her over on her back. Her pale skin looked ashen and sickly. She was struggling to breathe and I saw that the bullet had gone through her neck.
I quickly pulled my hoodie off and pressed it to her neck. Her cold hand went up and gripped my bicep. It slipped down to my elbow either because of the blood on her hand or she was weak from blood loss, I didn't know. I pulled out my cell phone and pressed in 9-1-1 with shaking bloody fingers. I put the phone to my ear and blinked rapidly as my eyes burned with tears. I felt cold and hot at the same time. I felt tired exhausted, but felt like I was on caffeine and sugar high after three cups of coffee.
"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" There was a bored sounding female on the other line. I sobbed and choked. Tears leak miserably down my face.
"A man shot my mom and dad."
"What? Where is your location?" I looked over at my dad and saw a bullet wound in his forehead.
"He's dead, my daddy is dead." I closed my eyes and wailed. I pressed my face into my mom's stomach. I dropped the phone and pressed my fist to my face. I screamed in agony when saw the real possibility of my mom dying to. I turned my attention back to my mom.
"Hello? Miss? Please stay on the phone with me until local authorities get there. Can I have your name?" The lady didn't sound so bored now.
"Ashley Skinner."
"Are you hurt Ashley?" I heard sirens come, closer and closer.
"No." I looked my mom in the eye and saw that it was a lost cause. There was nothing they could do for her. She looked at with tears in her eyes. She knew. She knew what was going to happen to her.
"Everything's going to be okay mommy, I promise. You're going to be alright." The lie felt bad coming out of my mouth. She opened her mouth and blood came sputtering out. She didn't make any noise, but I read her lips. I love you. And then she died. I don't know how long I sat there, but an older man in a police uniform came in with his gun drawn. He saw me and rushed over. His lips moved but I couldn't hear or understand what he was saying. I just heard a roaring sound in my ears and I got dizzy. I fell over and closed my eyes and that's all I remember.
AN: Ugh, I had to register for school today. I am going to miss my summer and my freedom. Anywho, leave some reviews please!