TWO WEEKS LATER
Lara Jade's Point of View:
The bright North Carolinian sun was the first to wake me that morning. It caressed my face soft as a feather and when my heavy lids finally responded and lifted, the time was well into the nine o'clock hours. I hadn't noticed this until after I'd just sat there waiting for my still subconscious mind to catch up with my currently conscious body.
When I looked at my alarm clock, I had nearly sworn (and let me be the first to tell you, as a reverends daughter, not one syllable of profanity has ever slipped through my lips).
"No, no, no, no! I'm going to be late! Why didn't you wake me up?" I protested aloud to my alarm clock, my attitude a bit sharp since I hardly received a decent night's sleep in the past fourteen days.
It wasn't like I could place all my blame on an inanimate object though. It was simply my fault… I was so consumed in attempting to muffle last night's tears that when I'd finally fallen asleep, I had forgotten to set the darn thing.
"Great. It's the first day of school and I'm not there. That should make an excellent impression of me," added I, once dressed and ready to go. Today's ensemble: plain denim jeans, my favorite red t-shirt, and a pair of worn, scuffed converse. I swept my insanely thick, dirty blonde hair into a ponytail and, without taking one glance at my reflection, ran downstairs where I hoped my father was still. My wish was granted.
He sat at the round kitchen table, reading the paper and muttering to himself about all things going wrong in the world today. His peppered gray hair was about as disheveled as mine, so I knew at once that neither of us had gotten very much sleep last night.
"Daddy?" I asked, my voice hesitant and mousy.
"Lara Jade Knighton! What on earth are you still doing here?" he announced after finally glancing up from the paper, his ice blue orbs meeting my own. I opened my mouth to answer, but he cut me off before I could make a peep. "I should have thought to check on you, but I assumed you'd left for the bus already. You are two hours late, young lady." I dropped my gaze guiltily.
Believe me, I knew… I had to clear my throat before I could speak (my throat decided at that moment to constrict), and even then, it was still hard to project my voice. "I… um, forgot to set my clock. Is it possible for you to drive me? I know its late, but I'm ready now. Could you just drop me off on your way to the church? Please?"
My blue eyes lifted to his face, ready to read any expressions he threw at me. He examined me and exhaled noisily when he realized the true reason of my late morning. I was just as affected as he with mom's passing.
"Get your bag," Reverend Knighton finally replied after a long moment of silence, "We need to leave now if you want to make your next class."
"Thank you, dad."
"Just get finished, and have some toast or something before you even consider walking out that door. Both of us skipped dinner last night, if you recall."
I nodded and hurried to the fridge to pull out a slice of Sara Lee Whole Wheat. Quickly slamming it in the toaster, I left the kitchen and ran back upstairs to get my bag. I did sneak a peak at the mirror this time, but as always, didn't think much of my outward appearance. I never wore make-up. If God intended you to cover up certain features, for example freckles, He wouldn't have given them to you in the first place.
It only took me ten seconds to finish and I was out the door, bag in one hand and a slice of dry toast in the other. Dad was waiting in his ancient and thoroughly rusted Ford, the only vehicle we had left since we had to sell mom's car to pay some of the hospital bills. The door shrieked in protest as I closed it. I buckled in and as he backed out I noticed something new happening next door.
For a few years now, the mansion next door had been under foreclosure and vacant since the original family could not pay it's mortgage, but now the empty driveway had a colossal U-Haul sitting in it. And burly movers were hustling about, moving in items probably ten times more expensive than our own two-story, egg white vinyl-siding house.
"Hey, dad." I nodded towards the residence beside us when he made that 'hmm?' sound. "Looks like we have some new neighbors."
He glanced out the window at 'The Mansion' and nodded. "Looks like it. We'll have to go introduce ourselves later in the week when whoever it is gets settled in."