Young.
Happy.
Shy.
Quirky
Never been in love, but I'm waiting.
Been heartbroken before.
Hoping to make a difference.
M
Chapter 1
****
My hands were ice cold, shaking terribly as they fumbled with the
metal doorknob.
"Damnit," I cursed under my breath as the keys fell
into the snow at my feet. I sighed, picking them up, and finally
made it into my house. I skidded my boots on the mat, trying to
rid them of all sticky snow, then slid down the hallway on my
socks. I'm always dumb like that.
Almost crashing into the fridge, I made my wonderful enterance in
to the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was that it was silent.
Too silent in my house for a crazy little brother and
hairbrained mother prancing around. I shrugged, thinking
they'd probably have situated themselves on the downstairs
couch to watch a "family" film or whatever. All that
lovey family crap my mom was trying to get us to instill in our
family. Grabbing the orange juice out of the fridge and a tall
glass from the cabinet, I stood with one hip cocked to the side
like I always do, drinking my orange juice by the kitchen
counter. That's when I heard it. It was an unusual, fuzzy
sound, like the beginning part of a playing record. It was barely
audible, but I could still hear it. I walked over to the
answering machine; that's where it was coming from. With a
cold finger I pressed the volume button, and fell silent as I
listened to the noises. Little whispers every now and then, and a
fumbling noise like the phone was being handled by someone in a
rush. And then, my heart stopped. A single shriek erupted from
the silence, my glass of orange juice dropping to the floor with
a sickening crash. One single shriek, and the tape went
silent.
It was my mother.
**Present**
Mrs. Evesburg's droning voice was giving me a headache. A
real bad one too, cause I could feel it pounding in my ears like
a steel drum. I hate people like that, who cause your head to
hurt. Anways, I was sitting in chemistry class like the wonderful
teenager that I am, hoping the stupid clock would somehow
magically turn forward a couple of hours. Playing with the gum
inside my mouth I stared around at the classroom posters like I
always do when I'm bored. Those thoughts were creeping up on
me again today. Sometimes I just couldn't do anything about
it; they'd overtake me and bring me to panic and tears all
over again. But I tried to save my tears for home and look as
normal as possible at school. Just then, a girl named Joanne
tapped me on the elbow,
"Melanie," she whispered, "can you grab my
pencil?" She said it with one of those soft looks, the look
people have given me ever since my mom and brother disappeared. I
reached down and grabbed her pencil, hearing the scuffling noise
of papers as everyone in the class rose. I guess it was time to
get with our lab partners. I wasn't listening to Mrs.
Evesburg in the first place, so I had no idea who I'd
be working with.
I swear, I thought, if I'm partnered with Linday
Morrow I will shoot myself. She was the most annoy--
"Mrs. Richards," said the teacher. She was hovering
over me, "you're working with Jonathan, if you
didn't hear."
Wonderful, I thought, just freaking wonderful.
Everyone knew Jonathan Correy as the oddball quiet kid who would
probably become a pedophile or something. I walked over to his
desk, sitting down next to him. I guess I'd never really
talked to him before, but he didn't seem as cold as he looked
from a distance.
"Hello Melanie," he said in a surprising sweet voice.
Looking into his steel blue eyes, I was caught off guard.
"Hi Jonathan."