Chapter 2

It turns out Kimberly's parents totally agreed that Kim should stay in with me. Of course my own parents would be feeling the same way even though the treated her as if Kim' s my own sister. She packed up all her clothes and necessities and school stuff. When she's all packed, she said her good-byes to her parents making a few promises, and I walked out the house to leave them with some privacy.

I sat in my car, thinking about what I should do about this. Does this count as one of the events I should take a look at that note? Or does it involve only me? I have completely no idea, all this was very confusing let alone my parents abandoning me for months with their "important trips" whatever they need to do.

I saw Kim walking towards the vehicle with tears in her eyes, I immediately felt bad that she has to do this. But it was for her own safety, right? When she climbed into the passenger seat and buckled in her seatbelt, I asked her if she wants to stop somewhere. She shook her head, "I don't want people to see my, uh, marks. I'd rather let them heal before I can be in public." she said. I mouthed the word "Ok." and started driving back home. My home…

I placed all of my stuff in my parent's room while she put hers in mine. I thought she might be comfortable being in my room since she visited there more often other than my parent's. Plus, I can't let her find that note. It has to be kept secret I don't care if she's my closest friend or I have no idea what's in that little slip of paper, I have to keep it secret.

I organized my clothing into my parent's vacant drawers. It didn't take long since I only brought clothes instead of everything my room has. When I completed my work, I headed for the kitchen to cook us up something to eat. Our kitchen is stocked with a vast line of produce, dairy, meat and poultry man kind can ever name. I decided to go simple and cook Kim's favorite meal, chicken stir fry with a side of mashed potatoes.

I got out my ingredients and tools and got started. It's a simple dish, well, to me though. My mom acted as if she was a professional chef though she watched to much Food Network. I was grilling the chicken when I heard crying. I ran up the steps and slammed my body against the wall close to my, sorry Kim's room. She sat on the corner crying and her left hand clutched a picture of her family picture while the other held a tissue close to her small nose.

"Oh, Kim. It's ok we'll live through this. I promise you. Don't cry please this is a hard time for the both of us. My parents left for another trip, but this time we all don't know when they'll return. You're kind of similar, but the difference is that everyone would know exactly where you are." I said. She tried her best to speak, but she's all choked up from crying. "Come downstairs with me in the kitchen, you can watch me cook." she nodded and got up and started her way out. I followed just 5 steps behind.

The rest of the time went smoothly. We talked about each other a lot. Which was weird because we never talked about ourselves when we were friends. I think that this event made us go deeper into our friendship. I told her my background. I'm an immigrated Mexican who found a better life here in the Americas. But ever since the move from Morelos, to Arizona, my parents have been acting strange. They hardly spent any time with me at all. They would travel to places without telling me, they got us rich somehow. Of course she knows how I look like. Long black hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a fair tan.

Kim on the other hand, she has everyone with her. All of her aunts and uncles and grandparents lives close to her. She can get anybody to be her friend (except Amanda obviously). She's pretty pale for someone who live in Texas. Her hair is a flaming orange color cut short up to her shoulders and grassy green eyes. She also got a few fears that I couldn't mention. But they were very common in girls like her.

I got into a black tank top and black and white plaid shorts pajamas and went to say goodnight. I walked around the corner and heard snoring. "Hmm she's probably asleep already. Probably I shouldn't wake her." I thought. Then walked back to my room, got into bed and slept through the whole silent night.

The next morning I got up at around 7 in the morning. I got up and walked to see if Kimberly is still snoring away as I speak. I went ahead down the stairs and prepared breakfast. I went old school on the meal, simply some eggs, bacon and some hash browns. "God I woke up at the right time!" I looked behind me and saw Kim walking to sit on the table. "Yeah you sure did. Eat up we got a busy day today." I said and got out a couple glass cups and carton of orange juice and joined Kim.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Well," I started, "we got to go grocery shopping, visit my aunt Maria and take care of her 5 year old daughter, and we have to clean up the house a bit." I said. "Ugh to much work." Kim said and ate a small piece of bacon. "Well, that's life and we got to deal with it. By the way we are going to walk to my aunt's house since she lives down the block. So we're going to drive to the supermarket and back here, drop off the stuff here." I said and drank my juice. "Wow, I've been here for like a day and you've already started acting like my own mother." she joked. "Get used to it." I said then we both smirked and laughed.

After breakfast, we got upstairs into our own rooms and changed clothing. I looked through my parent's closet trying to find something suitable to wear. Eventually I gave up and found a pair of red jeans and a Mexican flag shirt. I fixed my hair into a high ponytail with some of my long bangs covering part of my left eye.

I got the reasonable amount of money and waited in the car for Kim. I still couldn't believe her parents could live through all this, not trying to be mean or anything. It's complicated to mention about. I look through my pockets to see if I got everything I needed.

Money, check

House keys, check

Cell phone, check

Note, always going to get a check

Kim got in the car just as I got the slip of paper out. "Hey. Uh, what's that?" she asked. "Um, it's nothing." I responded. "But it's a something, and I want to know what it is." she said. "Well, it's a note but I have no idea what is written inside. My parents gave it to me before they left for their trip not so long ago. My mother said that I have to open it at when I am in great danger or something." "Oh. Sorry for being nosy." she said and frowned a bit. "It's ok. I was going to tell you what it is anyway. But keep it as a secret got it?" I said. She nodded and put on her seatbelt and we drove off to the supermarket.

The whole time there was decent I think I should say. Kim hid her face in a hoodie during the whole time. But we still talked and laughed like any other ordinary pair of teenaged friends. We got back home, I turned off my car and brought all the stuff inside the house. "Thanks for the help, and now onto my aunt's house." I said and headed for the door. "Whoopee…." Kim said not amused "Ha that's the spirit. Let's go."

5 min later…

"That. Was a really long walk. Can't believe you actually made me do exercise." Kim complained. I smirked at the tone of her voice. She really did sound pretty tired. " But, it'll be a waste of fuel and money to drive to somewhere that's close." I said. "Still, I don't want to waste my energy for walking instead of other stuff…" she said. I just shrugged my shoulders and rang the doorbell. After I rang, there was a few dogs barking. The front door opened and out came my aunt. She looks really young for her age, but I have no idea what it is. Reason is that my aunt gets ticked off whenever somebody brought up the question.

"Mi hija bonita! How have you been?" she asked happily. "Muy bien Tia gracias. Can we come in?" I asked. "Sure. I'm getting ready to go. I'll be leaving in a few minutes." she said. Kim walked past my aunt and flopped onto the nearest couch. "Finally! I can give my feet some rest now." she said, "Oh and hey Jaclyn's auntie. You remember me, I'm Kim." she said. "Yes I remember you. I met you when we were having a Christmas party at my niece's house." she said. Then she left the room to get her purse.

I sat on a lounge chair close to the TV set and flipped on a random program. "Cuzie Jackie!" I heard a small voice say. I looked around the room and found my young cousin running up to me. I spread my arms out for her and she leaped into them. "Hey mini me! How's the little princess?" I asked. "I'm not a pwincess! I'm a queen now!" she said and pointed to her plastic crown for proof. "Wow you look pretty with your pretty pink and silver crown. Now who's the princess of the kingdom?" I asked and placed my hands on my hips.

"Cuzie Jackie is the pwincess!" she said excitedly and ran off. She came back almost immediately and handed me a smaller version of her own crown, but with less glitter. "Oh my gosh! It's beautiful! Thank you Queen Jimena!" I said, and placed the crown on top of my head. This babysitting thing is going to be easy.