Chapter 1
I knew you were
You were gonna come to me
And here you are
But you better choose carefully…
As the Katy Perry sang in my ears, I made my way through the pavement of long silent roads of Leesburg, at six in the morning. I ran across the closed cafes and a few small houses on the street, before coming to a halt at a two storey white and grey house. I saw the cruiser of my dad a few yards away, parked under a half-shed tree and opposite to it was my sister's car- a black Nissan- which had a dent on the passenger's door, reminding me of the worst accident we ever had. I shook my head, drifting away all the horrible thoughts that made the hair of my neck stand.
I made my way to the door and gave it a tug, only to be welcomed by the eerie silence of the glooming house. I made my way to my room and switched on the lights, intruding the reign of gloaming room and made my way through the sprawled chart papers and other stationeries on the floor; removing the beige curtains, I pushed the doors of white window. A gush of fresh breeze caressed my skin and flew my shoulder length hair on my back.
The mornings of Leesburg were bliss to me. I propped on my elbows languidly on the cold black railing of the balcony and captured the beauty around me. People say that it's just a regular town, but for me, Leesburg was life. I saw the first sun of my life here, saw the moon on the soot sky, playing hide and seek with the clouds; felt the rush of life, and then saw the leisure of death. Everything, this town gave me everything, two parents to rely upon and a beautiful sister to share with.
The continuous beep sound took me out of my pleasure-time. I peeked inside my room, at the digital clock lying on the nightstand, beside my bed, which treacherously buzzed six-thirty, which means- I was late.
I ran past my disheveled bed and banged on the door of Amber's room, my elder sister. She was elder, but only by age. Even at school, when teacher call student's elder sibling to complaint about the younger one, I was called by her teacher's. That's how my sister was. I again banged on the door and shouted that, I'll be in if she didn't open the door and she didn't. I burst in the room and the first thing I saw was half naked picture of Ian Somerhalder. Great!
"Amber." I yelled at the sleeping figure of the brunette girl. Her mouth open, hand hanging down the bed, blanket huddled down her hips and lingering blue bra. I again shouted her name, but to no avail. I crawled on her bed and jumped, while yelling her name continuously.
"Oh! my freaking hell, Urvashi." Amber screeched, waking up abruptly and before I could laugh or say anything, I was lying on the cold wooden floor. Abrupt decisions have the power to knock you down- Mrs. Collins had taught us this yesterday and today, I got the practical.
"It's six-thirty, Miss Princess of Knight-residence." I said. I didn't need to utter more, as she was already rushing towards her bathroom. I stood up and before I even could exit the room a stinging pain ran through my butt, and then I heard the thump of feet running accompanied by a fist of laughter.
"You moron." I screeched and exited the room, ignoring her stupid comment, about how my butt is so bony that it hurt her palm.
I ran to my room and gathered all the things from the floor and made my way to bathroom. After bathing, I wrapped my lean body from the sea green towel and exited the room. I tiptoed to the windows, my wet feet leaving marks on the wooden floor, and stretched the curtain to cover it. Searching clothes in my cabinets wasn't a big task, two drawers dedicated to black, blue and green and some other colors, which were basically gifts; a sock drawer and an undergarment drawer, that's it. I took out a full sleeve green blouse and a pair of black jeans. It took me only five minutes to get ready, except the part in which I had to comb my thigh length wreath of curls.
"Mom." I cried, and ran down the stairs, every step echoing in the silent house.
"In the kitchen, sweetie." I heard her soothing voice and an automatic smile crept to my lips. I bounced on my way to the kitchen and vaulted on the slab of counter to sit beside the microwave.
She tilted her head up and smiled at me, not interrupting her maneuvering vegetable chopping. She moved to the opposite direction, switched on the induction and put the frying pan over it, dropping a spoon of olive oil and vegetables in it. I heard thumping of feet beside me, and then a husky voice, "Good morning, princess."
"Hey, dad." I said and jumped off the counter, "good morning."
"Where's my pumpkin pie?" Dad said, kissing my forehead.
"Don't call me that, I am not pumpkin." Amber came running down stairs in her floral print caramel dress, she ran to the kitchen, hugged mom from behind and twirled, beaming at her: A total momma's girl and the irony was she had nothing of mom, neither her lotus shaped electric blue eyes nor her heart-shaped lips, though, she was something else, an exuberant bouncy teen, which one could never deny to love. And me, I was the mirror image of our mother, except her thin slanted nose, which wasn't a home to thick glasses. I could see the gleam of adoration in mom's eyes; she kissed her cheek and complimented her about how good she looked in that dress.
I could clearly remember the time, when I used to tease Amber that our parents had picked her up from the dustbin. Such a kindred day, she went blubbering to mom and asked if I was right. I could still remember the flaming, bright red face of my mother, which looked like a ripe tomato. That day, I got grounded for a month, my mother was about to increase the punishment, but my real life knight- my dad- came with armor of honey-dripping love words and tamed her anger. My mother was one of the most sophisticated, delicate, loving, caring and all the good adjectives, until she wasn't angry. And if, anybody dared to anger her, like I did, then one should be ready to see the live human volcanic eruption.
My eyes were constantly shifting back and forth from kitchen to my watch. I was not late, but would be if not left the house in fifteen minutes. Amber had an intrinsic quality, which she had circulated from my mother, of making people late, reluctantly. Amber and I were in same school, she was a senior and I was a sophomore of St. Louis Grammar School, Leesburg, and it was a kind of ritual for us, to reach school late, even if that would be by a minute.
After breakfast and bidding byes to our parents, we ran towards Nissan, or, the-suicide-machine, which I had named it. It hardly passed a month, in which it didn't need a mechanic. Amber's boyfriend was the same mechanic, who fixed our car, though he worked as a part time mechanic and studied with her, in our school.
Love finds it way, no matter, what you do, or where you belongs to- Something Mrs. Collins had told us. I always wonder, from where she found such things, which decide to intent practical around me.
We hopped inside and ushered towards the known streets of the town. The sun hung high, spreading its warmness, gifting summer as a carol. Its gleaming rays glided the green leaves, making a spectrum of lingering snippet of morning astral. Trees in Leesburg, defined life: some bare, some profoundly green and some half-shed. This is how life is, for some, its magic, for some it's puddle of depression and for some it's mix of everything.
My thoughts juggled, when I heard Amber singing, Roar. My sister was a very different kind of a singer, she never sang in the same tempo or with same chord, and when I would ask her to stop because she was off-beat, "I don't steal tunes, you know." She would say.
Amber smacked breaks and it almost took my and seat-belt's strength to save my head banging on the dashboard. I shook my head and hopped out of the car, slamming the door behind me. I scanned my surrounding and first sight was, Amber running towards her 'gang': The group of six, standing in a V; a tall lean guy, standing in front of them, with dirty blond hair. He stretched his arms and engulfed Amber and twirled her around- The mechanical power, as I call it.
I dashed towards my classroom, saving my eyes from their everyday PDA. I made my way through the thronging perfumed bodies of high school's soul and entered my class. Mrs. Brook wasn't in the class yet; she would always come late, panting and sweating, and would show us some video, every other day, which she proudly calls: Visual- Audio technique of teaching.
I made my way to my seat, only to be stopped by, Mark.
"Hey, Battery." He said. I scrunched my nose at the nick-name, which he had given to me.
"Yes, Mark. How may I help you?" I said, with tranquility saved inside me.
"I haven't completed my Chemistry assignment. Can you please lend me yours?" I didn't know what my expressions were, because he at once added, "Just for today."
"No, she won't give you, loser." I could even tell whose voice is this, even in my deep slumber.
My one and maybe only friend, Kyla Smith, barged in the classroom, her blonde, short hair flowing past her ears. I could easily see the annoyance in her honey-kissed eyes. Kyla Smith could handle anything but Mark. They share a fine history with them, I wouldn't like to call it 'past', because past is something which has chances to drop by in your present and even knock at your future, but they, they had history. History comes with the package of dates and while reciting them, you always stumble, somewhere sometimes.
They once were in an oh-so-ideal-relationship, but like most of such relationship, they too had their miseries, which led them to break each other's nose and the Frisbee of profanities, and that too, could be heard to the nearest school, which approximately was at the distance of five kilometers.
"Remember the date, 5th of August, when you asked for the chemistry assignment" She pressed more on chemistry assignment, and then added, "from me too, and didn't returned it back, even after a week and when you returned, it was all torn up." She flipped her hair back, crossed her arms across her chest and huffed.
Mark, on the other hand had I-can't-believe-it expressions, pouring out from his hazel, deep-set eyes. He ran his hand through his blond spikes and closed his fists. I always used to wonder, when they were in relationship, that if they had kids, what they'd look like. His hazel green, deep-set eyes or Kyla's extreme long nose, or maybe, Mark's round face. He had a kind of face which goes altogether with round, fluffy bodies. I shuddered at the thought of never-going-to-come-child and focused on them, again.
"That was 8th of August, Kyla." Look, I told you, they didn't have past, they had history.
After the sharing of few death glares, Kyla clutched my hand and pulled me to our seat. With her height of five feet and two inches, I towered her, with my five feet and eleven inches. Amber and I didn't have much physical similarities, except our ridiculously long statures. Even her and mine skin color was different: I was extremely fair, and she was extremely pale.
We settled on our seats and I flipped on the pages of the colorful assignment sheets, not wanting to hear anything from Kyla about Mark. Whenever they had their history fights, my ears always become the source of her releasing disgust.
"Are you excited for the summer breaks?" I asked, saving myself, temporarily from her ex-talk. Just a week was left for the summer breaks, and I was sure, she'd be going somewhere posh with her family. Her dad is the richest businessman of the town, a natural pretentious. Last summer, they went to somewhere in Congo, to feel the poverty.
"Oh, yeah, I'm super excited." She said. Her short, blond flicks fell into her eyes and she squeezed them shut, flipping them away, like an agitated fly.
"I am going to Hawaii," She beamed at me and looked at me with guess-why expressions. I tried to fake thinking, because I really didn't know if her dad was taking her there to get his body tan, I scrunched my nose and cocked my eyebrow, and then she added, "To meet Carl."
My whole body went rigid: Carl- the one and only name, which was capable of making my body stiff. He was Kyla's elder brother and a pass out valedictorian, who once grabbed me into the janitor and forcefully kissed me. Kyla didn't know about this, neither anyone does, except Amber, who was coincidently passing out from janitor's room and heard me. The next day, Carl came to school with a broken nose. He, too, didn't tell anyone what had happened.
I was shook out of my trance, when Kyla yelled in my ears and said, "Hello! Back to Earth." I smiled at her. She asked me if I had any plans for the summer, to which I just shook my head, but before I could speak anything, Mrs. Brook entered in the class: A short, round lady, whose glasses were always at the tip of her nose. Her squinting eyes travelled all along the class and she sat on her chair, on the video and told us to see it, just like every other day. She was one of the laziest chemistry teachers I had ever met. She'd come late in class and every other day would show us Audio-visual aids.
Class was dragging, until the bored voice buzzed in loudspeaker, calling me and Amber in the Principal's room. I wasn't shocked or scared but confused. There were no late assessments and bad mouthing to the teachers from my side, at least, but saying same for the Amber wasn't something I could promise. A week back, I could remember clearly, Amber was standing in principal's room, because she said, "Fuck you" to Mr. Blaze. That was nothing new for anyone to hear, but he was a teacher and the first cousin of our Principal. She was in detention for the whole week.
Mrs. Brook narrowed her gray eyes at me, fixing her glasses which were sliding down her button nose. I ignored her questioning look and collected my assets. I walked towards the exit before saying excuse me to her. I made my way through the alleyways of long white pillars, wishing not to meet Amber there.
I paced towards my locker, yelling sorry and excuse me after bumping into nameless bodies. I heard some yell, "bloody geek" behind me. A few girls were there. I took out my key, fixed it in the whole and turned it to the right. Its rusted aluminum door, opened with a creek sound, inviting unnecessary glares from others. I sighed and threw my things inside it and took out my phone.
The principal's office was just a turn away from the locker room. I fixed my blouse, which was awkwardly tucked in the middle of my belt and took some calming breathes. I hadn't done anything, no punishment would be waiting for me, but I was scared for Amber, her one more complaint and she'd be grounded for the whole month. The tornado of my weird emotions was not just about the punishment of Amber, there was more to it, but I couldn't put a finger on it. My heartbeat was raising, gradually, a sick feeling lodger inside the pit of my stomach. I rubbed my palms and started to walk towards the principal room only to be bumped into someone. I furiously look up and saw more furious Amber. He face reminded me of a helpless puppy, running before a driverless train.
God, I knew this expression!
"Amber, is everything alright?" I said, praying her to say yes, but too much of my dismay that she didn't say it. She just walked past me to her locker and put out her key, which fell on the ground. Her shaking hands couldn't get a hold of her books as well. I ran to her and sat down to pick up her things. My every fear was taking its shape into something big, which I certainly didn't like. I stood up, opened her locker and put her books inside. After locking it, I looked at her, asking known questions from my eyes. I didn't know why, but I was still praying her to say, yes, my butterscotch, everything is perfectly fine, it's just that shit of a teacher took a surprise test and I failed, or anything like that. But she gave an apologetic look and started moving towards the office.
Great!
I took a few long strides to reach her and before I could ask her something else, we were standing in front of the office. She looked at me and clutched my hand, as if asking me for the recurrence that everything would turn out fine, but how could I promise that. This was the last change Mom gave to her. She was going to be grounded for a month: no boyfriend, no phone, no laptop, no TV, no room; other part of the punishment would depend upon, how big her mistake was. I didn't clutch her hand back, but gave her an its-okay nod.
A gush of vanilla fragrance twirled in my nostrils, making me cough. The first step inside and I saw my dad sitting there in his uniform. I eyed Amber and her natural pale face had gotten paler, if that was even possible. She was opening and closing her mouth, like a fish do. Mr. Campbell, our principal, realized our presence there and motioned my dad to look at us. He turned his head behind, his hazel eyes were angry, upset or I didn't know what. He stood up, shook his hands with Mr. Campbell and motioned us to come outside. He didn't say anything till we reached the parking lot.
"Go home. I have some work in office; I'll be there in half-an-hour." I nodded and sprinted towards out Nissan.
"What happened dad?" I asked.
"I'll tell you at home." And he left.
My heart was beating a lot faster than normal and Amber: She was on verge of crying. Her hazel eyes were gleaming of the un-splattered salty water. Amber rubbed her hands and wiped sweat from her face. I was worried, worried about her unknown sin, about the anger plastered on dad's face and her punishment.
"What is it Amber? What have you done now?"
"It's just…" She didn't complete her sentence and took out keys from her pocket. She opened the door and put the key in ignition. I was still standing outside, angry rays of sun pinching my skin. I sighed and hopped inside. She took a sharp turn and my head banged on the mirror.
"Amber, will you please tell me, now?" I screeched.
"It was a prank, Urvashi. We really, at least I, didn't want it to be turn so bad."
I eyed her skeptically and asked what kind of a prank was that. Her last prank was so bad that the girl, on whom they prank, lost her long locks and mom didn't talk to her for three months. She practically made Amber to go and personally say sorry and make her smile. Myra asked Amber to do a SpongeBob act and made her do her whole week pending homework.
"Well, this guy, Yejoon, who is in my class, had a fight with Dylan and we threw him in the swimming pool." She stopped and ran her hands in her locks.
"Why are you so scared then?" I asked her dumbly. It was obvious for me, if you throw someone in the pool, the person would get out, eventually.
"He doesn't know how to swim…" she looked at me and threw an apologetic look. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I took a few long breaths and massaged my temples. I asked her, if the guy was fine or not and she told me that he was fine but unconscious. He was lying on the floor when she skipped her gang to look after him. Amber wasn't insensitive, even a drop of blood was capable of making her vomit, but her gang, she tried to become like them, which the whole school thought was cool. I never considered them as cool, for me, they were bunch of attention seekers, who wanted their dominance on the people around them. My sister got trapped in the gang because her stupid boyfriend was the leader.
Amber could be crazy, but this was out of breaking point. For the whole ride I didn't utter a single word to her. My brows tied into a knot and I looked at her.
"He could've been dead, Amber." I whisper screamed. My heart squeezed, even at the thought of someone dying, just because of my sister. What about dad? He would be devastated. The daughter of an officer would be charged as a murdered.
My thoughts faded when the car stopped. I looked up and saw my house. A heavy feeling was resting on heart, making my feet heavier. What could've happened? What would mom do? So many questions hurled inside my mind. I gave a tug to the door and sprinted inside; I could hear Amber walking behind me.
We went directly to mom's room. I wanted this to get over as soon as possible, it was giving me headache. I knocked the door of mom's room and heard her, come in.
My eyes went wide. The whole room was shattered, clothes were lying awkwardly on the bed, and suitcases were ajar. I looked at Amber, who had the same expressions like mine- confusion.
"What is this, mom?" Amber asked.
"Oh! You both home." She said, "I, too, don't know girls. Your dad told me to start packing and he was angry so I didn't push him to tell me why." She was fixing the suitcases. We both just stood dumbfounded there. I scratched my head and seized Amber's hand. We both looked at each other, not understanding, what to do.
"Both of you have to pack, too. We all are leaving." I heard my dad's voice from behind.
"But, why?" Amber asked.
"Some officers have got transfer letter and I'm one of them." He said, removing his gun belt.
"Where're we going?" I asked, finally finding my voice.
"Forks, Washington."
A/N: Tell me, if you want me to continue with this story by dropping by in the review box. Thank you so much for reading :)))))