A/N: This chapter introduces my two main OC's

Chapter 2: Abigail Holt

A tall lanky girl walked through a dark kitchen. She was halfway through when she slammed her toe painfully on a chair.

"Shi—oot!" she hissed as she clutched her toe and limped gingerly towards the light switch, snatching a jacket from the back of one of the chairs in passing. Once the overhead lights were on, the girl lowered herself onto one of the chairs near the marble-topped island. As she rubbed her toe, a woman came down the stairs. She had a soft blue-grey eyes framed with light brown hair. Said eyes were currently half-shut with sleep.

"You okay, Gail?" she said with some concern.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm all right. Just stubbed my toe on a chair."

Her mother gave a slight nod and then went back up the stairs.

Abigail Holt, Gail for short, walked out of the house at half past six and headed for the nearby high-school track. It was a pleasant day; the sun was nearly up, and birds were starting to chirp enthusiastically from the nearby trees. After she reached the deserted track, she ran for a couple laps. It was still summer vacation, and so the place wasn't nearly as lively as it would be in another month.

Gail was heading home when she encountered a stocky boy, presumably headed for the place she had just left. He was blonde, blue-eyed, and shorter than Gail by about three inches. There was a distinctly nervous expression on his face.

"Hey, Gail?"

"What?"

"Erm…I was wondering…if…you know…you'd…go…out? You know, with me? You know, as a couple…and you know, do couple-y stuff, and you know—"

"No! I mean, I don't know, maybe. Could I think about it and get back to you? Would that be all right, Steve? Because right now, I, er, have to go home—bye!"

And without bothering to listen to his reply, Gail hurtled home, breathing a sigh of relief at having made such an easy escape. Steve had been badgering her for weeks now, and she still wasn't sure how to answer. He was nice enough, certainly, and kind of cute in an awkward way; the problem was that Gail didn't really want to go out with him, but she didn't know how to kindly turn him down. He had been popping up unexpectedly ever since he had helped her up after she fell one day. Gail kind of thought that he was just proud that he had saved a damsel-in-distress, and felt an obligation to date her because of that. Which was stupid, but then, boys were often stupid in high school.

Both the sun and her mom were up by then, and the latter had a cup of coffee and a wide smile waiting as Gail walked tiredly through the door (she vowed to exercise more in the future; a few laps never used to tire her out before). Gail groaned; she was positive that her mom had seen the way she had limped home.

"Tired, dear?" she asked.

"Uh...a bit."

Her mom just smiled in that infuriating, all-knowing way of hers and offered Gail a cup of coffee, who accepted it gratefully. She didn't always like the taste, but it was always nice to have something caffeinated to wake herself up in the mornings and she was too lazy to make any tea.

The rest of the morning passed by without a hitch. Gail spent it sitting on a swing in the mostly empty elementary-school playground with her earbuds on and feeling the breeze brush through her long dark brown hair. Besides having said hair blown in by an errant breeze and once accidentally pitching herself off the swing in a fit of inattentiveness, it was a fairly typical summer day.

Later in the afternoon, Gail spent some time at her friend Bianca Cooper's house, and they spent a productive four hours surfing the Internet, eating ice cream, and laughing over both Steve's incompetent efforts at wooing and Gail's equally incompetent efforts at turning him down.

"You really need to grow a spine," Bianca said. "Honestly, I don't know which his worse, him always tagging along after you or your attempts to stop it."

Gail, sheepish (even shehad to agree that it was rather funny), agreed to try harder next time.

She went home as it began to get dark, and, after dinner, her family crowded around the living room TV to watch a movie. About halfway through, her father suddenly got up and announced, "Kids, your mother and I are going on a vacation."

Gail stared at him.

"What?" cried Katie, her little sister. "Whaddaya mean? What about us? Where are we going to stay?" She did a great job of sounding betrayed and abandoned, and it wasn't even time for them to leave yet.

Gail rolled her eyes. She remembered something that Katie had said the week before. "Katie, you're going to be at your friends house for that huge sleep-over-for-about-a-month thing, aren't you? The one that Natasha Binnings said was imperative for the 'growth of the young girl's emotional and social life'?"

"Oh," said Katie. She looked surprised for a second. "I'd forgotten about that. . .Then where's Gail going to stay?"

Their father looked at Gail. "You are going to stay with Bianca. I've talked to her mom...which reminds me, didn't I tell you about the trip? I could've sworn I told you and Katie last week."
"Oh. Actually, now you mention it, yeah, maybe you did," said Gail.

"Then we'll be going tomorrow."

Gail and Katie both gaped at their parents (Gail for the second time). "TOMORROW?" they yelled simultaneously.

"Heh…ahm, well, I guess that part I forgot to tell you. We booked it after we agreed to Katie's sleep-over, and I never got around to telling you. We're going to drop Katie off at Natasha's house, and then head for the airport, and then to the Bahamas."

The two sisters looked at each other. It was typical of their dad. He always was forgetting something really important, but he would remember little details like how one of them got two points off on a history quiz or something. It was quite aggravating when it came to things like not remembering to tell the girls about when exactly they were leaving for a vacation until the night before they were going to take off.

"Daaaaad. You have to start remembering! Otherwise, Katie and I are going to just have to assume you have Alzheimer's or something. Remember that report I did in fifth grade?" Gail said, voice intentionally whiny.

Her dad looked guiltily but also sort of defensive. "My memory's perfectly fine. It's just that some of these things slip through my memory net. Besides, I'm too young and handsome to get a disease with such an unattractive name!" he joked. Gail, Katie, and her mom all giggled a bit at his arrogance.

The next day, Gail waved good-bye to Katie and her parents. Since she was staying two houses down, she wouldn't go in the car to the airport with them. She had her driver's license, of course, but her dad didn't trust her to drive all the way back from the airport with the car and still remain one piece. This apparently went for the house as well, because she had been told that under no circumstances was she to stay for more than two hours inside it.

Her dad's exact words had been, "Don't stay in our house for more than two hours, because then we'll come home, and our house will be burnt down from some crazy party that you kids throw. That goes for you too, Katie. I've told Mrs. Binnings to tell me if she suspects you're up to something. Bianca's mom has been told the same thing.

"So, Gail, no drugs, no boys, and no parties unless sanctioned by Bianca or Natasha's parents; and, lastly, NO MORE THAN TWO HOURS IN THE HOUSE! Okay?"

Katie and Gail had both nodded emphatically.

Now, Gail walked over to Bianca's house, wondering what they were going to do for the rest of the week.

"Wassup?" said Gail as soon as she reached Bianca's house. Bianca giggled at Gail's speech. She found it funny whenever she said anything that was 'ghetto'. Of course Bianca didn't know the first things about sounding 'ghetto' because although she was mixed (her dad was African-American, her mom was Caucasian), she didn't like "those ghetto black people". This made no sense whatsoever to Gail, but then, Bianca was a strange girl.

"Nothing, really," said Bianca, drawing our her words for added suspense, "except that you're staying at my house for a week! All on our own!"

"Yup, and what are we-wait, what? 'All on our own'? What about your parents?" Gail asked.
"Oh, them? Pshh. They don't count." She waved her hand to emphasize the point. "Besides, we'll be at your house for most of the time and throwing par-tays, right?" At that point, Bianca's mom appeared behind her and tapped Bianca's shoulder.

"No. You ladies will be staying out of Gail's house. Mr. Holt specifically told me that the girls' aren't allowed to be in the house for more than two hours," she said sternly.

Bianca grinned mischievously at her mom. "What's the point of having her parents gone for a week if she's not allowed to throw a wild rave-"

"-with drugs and alcohol and hot guys?" finished Gail. Mrs. Cooper just laughed at the enthusiasm in their eyes.

"Sorry, girls; no drugs, alcohol, or boys allowed in this house."

"Does that mean we can get rid of Allen?" Bianca asked hopefully. Allen was her little brother. He was absolutely adorable, but he was also extremely annoying and enjoyed terrorizing his older sister.

"No, it doesn't. But I have news that will make you happy." Mrs. Cooper paused for a moment before continuing. "He and your dad are going to Grandma and Pops' house for the week. Your father's dad is sick, so he wants to be with him, and since Allen is Pops' favorite grandchild..." Bianca rolled her eyes at this. Her Pops still had the old-fashioned notion that boys were better than girls. He didn't not like Bianca, but he definitely preferred Allen.
Gail cleared her throat to call attention to herself. "I've got a duffel bag here filled with stuff... Should I bring it up to Bianca's room?" Bianca nodded, and started to pull Gail up to her bedroom.

"I'll see you girls tonight, okay? I'm leaving for work in"-Mrs. Cooper glanced at her wristwatch-"now! Bye girls! Stay out of trouble!" The two girls made noises of agreement and then went up to Bianca's room.

"Well. What should we do now?"

"Let's go and laugh at the marching band people in full uniform out in the hot sun!" Gail cackled as she and Bianca left the house with bottles of icy cold water and ice cream. It would be fun to taunt the poor band members who had to practice in the summer. They wore long-sleeves and long pants, and practiced marching in the blazing sun on the high-school fields, and it looked like torture to Gail and Bianca.

A/N: Hurrah! Another chapter down. Hope you liked it, and just to warn y'all, I'm a bit busy, so the next update might take a while. Please continue with me

-Weyrmage