Friday, February 25, 2011

Chapter 9

   The house was a big white house with pillars and 2 big oak doors. Lots of big windows were on top of the doors, off to the side was a huge forest like ours. Then I saw something that surprised me. There was a big red barn right next to the forest. Horses were eating grass in the pasture , there were about 10 of them.Now, I don't know my horses very well cause I am a New Yorker,  but Mom bought Rachel this horse book , and I was very bored so I read it. There were 2 Chingateage pony's , 1 Bashkier curly,1 quarter horse , 2 mustangs ,and 1Blue Roan , and 1 speckled horse, 1 cream colored draft horse, and a stallion, which they probably shouldn't have, but oh well.
   " The Bashkier curly is mine, her name is strawberry." said Emily. That surprised me, because Emily seemed like the type that always wanted to stay clean, in fact she was the type that always wanted to stay clean, but the way she looked at her horse showed me that she really loved her.
  " She's beautiful!" said Rachel, forgetting about all the problems with the seating in the car.....she was pretty mad at Emily, but I guess she didn't hate her anymore.
   " WOW!" said Mary
   " I didn't know that you liked horses!" I said
    " There's a lot of things you don't know about me."  said Emily, She said it dreamily, like she wasn't really paying attention,  she was still looking at her horse. but then she looked away.
     " Oh look, there's my dad, do you want to say hi?" asked Emily.
    " Of course dear." said Mom. So,we walked over to the barn. When we got inside, we saw a tall cowboy, about 6 ft. tall!
    " Daddy, I'm back!" said Emily in a sing song voice.
    " Darling!" said the cowboy he turned around and my mom gasped. I found myself gaping and there was a tiny bit of drool coming out of my mouth, I closed my mouth and I saw Rachel and Mary closing there mouths too. This guy was a dad of a 16 year old, but he looked about 25, and he looked like Tom Cruise!!!
    " Hello my name is Tom, what's your name? he asked putting his hand out to my mother.
    " Hello my name is Amy , this is my daughter Rachel, and Julia, and Julia's best friend Mary. Just out of curiosity, what's your last name?" she asked. He laughed heartily.
    " I get that a lot, it's Grant, not Cruise, although that would be cool." he said," so are you guys friends with my sweet daughter?"
    " Well, we helped her because someone stole her purse, and she needed a ride home and stuff....." said Rachel.
   " So you're friends!"
   " Well-" said Mary.
   " Let's go riding." he said " go pick you horse."
   " Uh ..Sir? we never rode before ... we're from New York City." said Mom.
  " What, huh ?  Oh yes it is quite easy ." he said.  I looked at Mary and shrugged , she grimaced and shrugged back  .  We walked over to the horses, I picked the cream colored draft horse , Mary chose the quarter horse, Rachel got the bay mare, and Mom chose the speckled horse . Tom chose his Mustang , 'Smoke'. I learned that my horse was a gentle calm horse who doesn't not spook easily. Her name was Butter cup, and she gave me an easy ride even though I must have been awkward on her back. We were all having a good ride except Mom, her horse 'Freckle' kept rubbing her against trees trying to get her off. Mom kept on giggling and laughing and having a great time, we all couldn't help but laugh too. Emily got up next to me on Strawberry.
      " Hey" she said.
     " Hey "
     " Um..there is no really easy way to say this. So I'm , sorry, you really are nice to take me home, and not tell my Dad that you hate me." she said. She seemed really sad.
      " I don't hate you . You just seemed really mean at first, and I owe you an apology too,  I judged you as a bully after knowing you for 5 minutes, so I am sorry." I said. " Truce?"
    " Yeah , Sure." she said.  We rode on silence. I looked around for Mary to tell her that Emily was nice, but I couldn't find her.
    " Mom, Where's Mary?"
   " Over there, she got bored." she said pointing at an empty pasture . And what she was doing with her horse took my breath away. She was galloping around the field and then jumping! The fences were very high, like 5 or 6  tall.  Mary was miking it over everytime ! " Mary's a New Yorker, There are no horses in New York City."
     " She lived in Nevada , before she moved to New York City, didn't she tell you?" asked Mom.
    " No, it must have slipped her mind, that is okay, I want to go ask her if she will teach that to me." I said  " Are you coming also Emily?"
    " Yeah, Okay" she said ... " Even though I already know how to do that." she muttered  under her breath.
     " Show off " I laughed , and we rode over to Mary.

chapter 8

  We turned around to see who screamed. We were surprised to see Emily sprawled on the ground. We ran up to her . When we got closer we could hear her crying.
    " Emily! What happened?" I asked
    " A person...came.....took my purse-!" she managed before she burst into tears again.
    " What would they want to take?" asked Mary.
   " How about we ask her some questions after we get her of the ground." I suggested.  Mary and I grabbed her by her elbows and shoulders and  got her on her feet.
    " There's a bench over there." said Mom. We walked over to the bench and set her down.
    " What would they want to take?" repeated Mary.
    " My.....My....My....Money!" she sobbed.
    " Well you didn't have a whole lot in there did you? " Asked Rachel " 'Cause that would have been really stupid!"
   " I .... Was....going... to ...go.... Buy a car.... there was $20,000 in cash in there!" she said. She  stopped crying but she was still a little bit hard to understand.
    " WHAT?" she looked like the painting  'The Scream'  when she said that.  " You should know better than to carry around cash....especially that much cash...." said Rachel.
    " This is Texas not New York....Rachel..." I said.
  " It doesn't matter... you really shouldn't do that." she said .
  "  At least I put my wallet in my pocket...." she said.
   " So then you still have the 20 grand?"
   " No they got it." she said looking like a little two year old  who lost her toy.
  " Well, that's odd...  did you see the person?"
  " Why should I tell you?" she asked
  " Because we will take you home if you do." I said
 " Wait a minute...when did I agree to this?" asked Mom
  " Just now ... tell us Emily"I said
   "Fine...I could see wispy blond -white hair, it was a girl, and she looked really familiar."
   " Wait , that's it? We're driving you home for that?" asked Rachel" That's crazy I'm not doing it!"
  " Let it go Rachel...that's all she noticed....but honestly, that wasn't a lot of information so I have one more question. Why were you on the ground?" I asked
   " This better be the last question...when I was going  after her to try to get my purse back I tripped.....can we go now?" she asked . so we walked over to the car and got in. Right as soon as we got in , Emily and Rachel started arguing about who is going to sit where ...I was about to yell SHUT UP but mom did first and we all settled down. 

                                                                         .         .            .

   

      Emily can be very annoying on car rides. She gave Mom the directions to her house, and Mom was doing pretty well for never being to this place before or not knowing the streets of Texas, but Emily kept on getting mad whenever Mom missed a turn or turned the wrong way. Finally we were there and when I saw the house my only thought was .......WOW.....

Monday, January 24, 2011

chapter 7

The rest of the day was pretty normal. We at dinner watched a movie and then went to bed. It was different with all the little kids gone. It was very relaxing . I could tell that mom was more relaxed than usual too which made me happy. Sunday morning, Mom was trying to find a church for us to go to . She finally found one and we were on our way to the city. It was amazing , not as grand as New York City but it was nice. When we arrived I was shocked to see Emily there arguing with Casey, Emily threw up her hands twice , until we sneaked up behind Casey.
    " Casey! Hey how are you?" I said tapping her on the shoulder .
    " Hi ! It's cool that we ended up going to the same church!" said Casey. She sounded agitated. but I wasn't really paying attention to her ... I was paying more attention Emily.   She was giving me dirty looks , then she looked at her watch and walked away. With a jolt I realized that was my watch that was missing . Then I also realized that I hadn't heard the voices last night.   I bet Emily was scared to enter our house again since she figured out that  I was catching on .
     " Mary, I have to go to the bathroom do you?" I said winking at her to let her know that there was something I had to tell her in private.
    " Oh yeah I do have to go !" she said. After we were safely inside the bathroom .
    " Mary! Emily has my watch !" I exclaimed.
    "Really? Are you sure ?"
    " Yes of course !" I said.
    " Do you think she stole it ? How could she now where our house is ? The only people who know where our house is besides family is Al, and oh my gosh .....Casey!!!" said Mary  sounding really scared .
     " Do you think it is her ? I mean it could be Al . but there has to be two people involved....Right? " I asked.  " Maybe Emily is sending them out to do that for money ! Or controlling them I bet she's controlling them because Al, and Casey don't seem like the type to be stealing things . " said Mary.
       " I don't think they are being controlled , that's fairy tale stuff ." I said .
   " Mary ?  Julia ? Are you guys in there? The service is starting!" said Mom's voice coming out from behind the wooden door .
    " OK Mom we will be right out!" I said. " Let's go."
During the service , Emily kept giving me dirty looks until I started doing them back, Then she started giving me really mean faces until Mary started  laughing so hard she snorted a couple of times . After that a whole bunch of people were giving us dirty looks which made Mary laugh even harder till she started sounding like a seal . I jabbed her in the arm with my elbow in a friendly way . After the service mom was so embarrassed  that she left before the cookies and tea .
    I am so Sorry Mrs . Stuart , but you should have seen the stupid faces that Emily and Julia were giving to each other. It was so funny. Julia you are really bad at giving dirty faces ." said Mary, starting to laugh .
     " You guys totally screwed that up! Mary you need to learn how to stop laughing when you need to !" said Rachel. I could tell she was kind of joking around , but I could tell she was mad too.
  " I 'm sorry but the nerve of that Emily, oh my goodness did you see her smirk after the service? " I said. " It made me so mad!"
    " It's okay honey I didn't really like that church anyway." said Mom but I could tell that she did. " do you guys want to walk around a bit? I would like to see the mall."
    "Sure Mom I would like that." said Rachel.
    Right before we entered the mall , a black hooded figure  rushed out and darted past us .. Then a blood curdling scream pierced  the air.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Chapter 6

I couldn't sleep for a long time because we or maybe just me , heard the muffled voice again . Here's the story. After everyone was asleep I heard the voice again and it sounded very close . I heard it again so I went to the window to see if everything was okay. right when my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw a figure dart across the lawn and into the street. Mary was right I thought it was just a kid running about our yard , a really tall kid . but just in that moment I heard a door quietly close , it sounded like the front door.  That's strange I thought , but I didn't think to much of it until I turned around and saw that my diamond necklace was missing, but then again , I could have misplaced it , I will look for it in the morning,I thought to myself.
     "Julia, Julia, um your diamond necklace is missing, I looked everywhere for it but I - "
    " What ? listen I saw this weird thing last night!" I said as I started to open my eyes.
  I told them what I saw Casey looked very interested which I found a little strange .
     " I'm guessing that the voices were used as a diversion so someone could sneak in and steal things, is anything else missing ?
    " now that you mention it my watch is missing but I could have misplaced it." I said doubting that I did misplace it.
   " maybe we should see if we can see anyone at school wearing your necklace and if we don't than we can file a report in the newspaper or something." said Mary.
  " I don't think we should put it in the newspaper , lot's of people would like to have a diamond necklace , did you see all those poor people on the bus?" I asked.
   " Right , sorry"
  " It's okay."
  "Hey guys , we should probably get going to that meeting pretty soon?" asked Casey.
  " Oh you're right , okay , I am going to go get dressed ."Casey? Are those you're clothes or your pj's?" I asked seriously thinking that they were her pj's because she looked a circus clown. She looked hurt so they were probably her clothes.
   " NO, these are my clothes, do they look bad? "
   " No , they're great!" I lied I didn't want to hurt her more than I already did. Mary was cracking up which didn't help much .
   " Casey , would you like to borrow some of my clothes? You might fit in better at the school." I said
   " Ok sure,thanks !"exclaimed Casey.
  Pretty soon Casey looked like a normal New Yorker so we were ready to head to the meeting. Mom let me borrow her car since we were running a little late. I was driving.  At the school conference thing , we were given a tour of the school, we were handed our school schedules and were shown where our class rooms would be. Casey , Mary, and I all had the same schedules because we were all seniors , unfortunately we ran into Emily Grant.
    " Oh , you again , do you have your schedules? "  she looked at our schedules and then said a word that I can't repeat." dang it we are going to have to spend the whole day together !" she said sounding very frustrated. That's when she looked up and I saw that she was wearing a diamond neclace   , it was exactly the same as mine!I saw that Mary saw it too.
     "Emily ? where did you get that necklace? " I asked trying to sound as calm as possible but it was really hard because anger was building up inside of me.
     " Oh, you know......... the jewelry store ." she said nervously her hand jumping to the necklace.           " Really ? Are you sure you didn't steal it ?" I asked still trying to sound calm.
   "  What? I hear my Mommy calling I better go , Bye." she said as she ran away down the hall. I decided I was going to ask her more questions later.  Pretty soon we were at home again . We said hi to mom  .   She told us that dad had gone back to New York    because all the kids were getting out of hand so he will stay there with them, now it's just me , Mary, and Rachel. She asked where Casey was and it was then that I realized she wasn't  behind us anymore.
    " I guess she went back home Mom."I said. " If you need us we are going to be upstairs so we can rest okay?" I said.  When we were upstairs we started talking again.
     " Well at least now we have Casey working on the mystery also we might get it solved a little bit sooner now."said Mary.
     "  Yeah I suppose , but she's kind of a mystery herself."


  

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Chapter 5

" Julia , are you OK?" I opened my eyes a tiny bit. I saw mary looking at me with worried eyes. I opened my eyes all the and saw everyone staring at me. I sat up.
   " Julia maybe you should lie down you look really pale." said Mary.
   " I 'm fine Mary. What happened ?" I asked.
   " Well we got in a crash . Al saw the car coming and tried to swerve out of the way &  you were flung , I guess you could say, out of your seat & you banged your head on this bar right here." she explained pointing at a big yellow steel bar.
     " Ouch, is Al okay?" I asked.
     " Al's okay, he's got a couple of scratches but that's it . He's talking to the driver that hit us." she said . Just then the driver came out of the car . I tried to get a  good look at him but my eyes were still swimming from hitting my head. The man looked like a Chauffeur . He helped a teenager looking girl out of the car, she seemed pretty shaken up because she was crying. Al comforted her a little bit then came inside the bus.
     " Ok everyone, I 'm going to have to ask you to leave the bus in a orderly fashion and quietly wait outside for further instructions. Julia can you follow me , just wanna make sure you're OK." said the bus driver. " I'm fine Al,  feel a bit woozy but other than that I feel great!"  I said.  " Well I'm glad to hear it but the doctors just want to give you a check up." he said. When we got to the doctors ,  they were checking on the girl that was crying, now she was yelling.
     " I could have been  killed ! That was so scary! You stupid drivers!" the girl screamed at the man who was probably driving the car ( that the girl was riding in) and at Al.
    "  I am so sorry Emily! " said Al .
    "  You !" she said turning on Al, " Your stupid driving almost got me killed , you should be fired from your job! And you to Jefferey!" she said turning to the Chauffeur looking guy. " I personally will make sure you are fired . I will talk to my dad, he always listens to me.! HOW DARE YOU DRIVE ME INTO A BUS!!!!" She yelled abnormally loud in Jefferey's face. Then she saw me.
    " Who are you?"
   " My name is Julia Parker. "
  " Oh.... My name is Emily Grant . I haven't seen you before, you must be one of the new kids. And these are my friends Gigi  and  Kendra. " said Emily waving her hand behind her at 2 pretty girls one was African American with neck length black hair. The other one was American with brown hair and slight curls. She had a nose piercing on her right nostril and her ears were pierced.
   " You will still have to learn the rules of course . Rule # 1 : don't 'apply' for the job of being the  cool girl. That job is taken. Rule # 2 : don't try to be mean to me, but why would you, I'm perfect , But still my Dad practically owns the city of Houston because he is so rich . So that means he has a lot of power which  means he can sue you. Understand ?  If you follow these rules you'll have a better time at Washington high School." Said Mary. She was about to say more, when Al started talking.
      " Everyone ,  I have  an announcement, can I have everyone's attention please ? Excellent.  I called the high School . They now know that all of you will not be able to come today. Tomorrow which is Saturday you guys will file in to the school cafeteria at 10:00 am and the teachers will give the new students a tour around the school and then you will meet back with the returner students to learn about the classes you will be taking this year. Understand? " he asked, everyone nodded. people started to call their parents to come pick them up but Mary and I decided  that we would probably be able to just walk home. We talked about Emily and that we should just try to stay away from her. Soon we were home. Mom made sandwiches for the little kids that don't go to school yet. We told them what happened and that we had to be there on Saturday.  The kids thought that us surviving the crash was cool but Mom was worried but glad we were OK. She gave us some sandwiches and we sat down to eat.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

CHAPTER 4

" Girls, girls ! Wake up ! I've been shouting for longer than I should be!"
  "I'm awake Mom we'll be right down!" I said. I was still thinking about last nights events. I heard a loud snore from Mary's bed and, and I remembered that she wasn't awake yet. "Mary, wake up , we have school today !" I said in her ear.
   We decided to not tell anyone about the voices last night so we wouldn't scare anyone . But it was still weighing heavily on my mind . Soon we were downstairs. We had to eat breakfast quickly and then make lunch and get everything by the door because the bus was going to be arriving in 5 minutes. Mom was going to drive everyone else to school . It was very sad that we had to take the bus,  because in my school in New York, everyone who's 'cool' gets a ride to school but all the 'scary' kids take the school bus. I didn't have a lot of time so I just took an apple to school. It was very different than what Mary was making. Mary was making a turkey salad sandwich and a chicken salad.
"Wow , how do you have enough time for all that ?" I asked .
" Well , to start with I didn't spill my cereal on my little sister, and I didn't splash my tea on the window , that's always a good thing to not do , and I'm am very organized." she said jokingly even though I really did that , Rachel was still mad at me about that, she had to go and retake her shower.
" Awww come on, I'm not a morning person!" I said back also jokingly. I heard a honking sound outside and we had to rush out to catch the bus. As soon as we stepped on to the bus , everything went quiet everyone was pointing at our clothes and whispering to their friends. I could understand that, I mean we were wearing fancy new skinny jeans and expensive tops that we got from Nordstroms , We also had purses and Sunglasses on , I guess we made an impression on them because they started to sit up taller  and straighten up there jeans that were ripped in several different places and hide there dirty sneakers .
     "These kids are from New York City and we are going to welcome them in a nice way aren't we ?" said the Bus driver , I read his name tag it said Al, typical bus driver name.
There was a grumble from all the kids. We walked to the back seat and went to sit down. As soon as we sat down this girl walked on the bus, she was about 6 feet tall  and really buff like she could beat up a kid in 30 seconds and leave the kid crying for his Mommy. She wore a leather jacket, with little golden chains attached everywhere , Black cargo pants that were ripped and all droopy around the knees. She also wore black combat boots and a fingerless glove, her face was also very frightening, she had a scar running from the left corner of her mouth to the right corner of her chin ,  The whole picture was very scary. And , to make matters worse, she was coming right for us.
     "Get out of my seat punks!" she yelled in our faces, she had terrible breath.
     " We were here first , sit somewhere else!" said Mary. I was to scared to say anything, I was still trying to recover from her breath.
    " That's her seat , it's been her seat for four years, it's not gonna change." said a girl sitting in front of us."I'm Amy , and that's Jessica." The girl leaned towards my ear. " She's the school bully , even the toughest boys stay out of her way. As if to prove Mary's point Jessica cracked her knuckles menacingly. Mary and I scrambled . I think that is the only way to describe how fast we moved. We sat by the bus driver .
     " I's a wee bit long of a drive about 45 minutes away, I suggest a nap, there is a big day ahead of you. " said Al . We were going to take his advice but we heard a loud screech and then a terrible crunching sound , then everything went black.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Chapter 3

Our last days of driving were pretty much like that. Cruddy hotels, grumbling kids, porridge for breakfast, and then there we are ,leaving on a bright new shiny day! Woo Hoo. That's why we were so happy when we got to Texas .  My first thought when I saw the house was cool. I know, really smart, right? It was nothing compared to Kevin my 8 year old brother.
     " Wow , look at the structure of this place! The walls must be 9 inches thick , wow look at the stones on exterior! I bet it could withstand a 3.5 earthquake! Yeah, he reads a lot of books . The house was really beautiful, It looked about 3 stories high with an stone exterior, a huge deck, and balconies on every floor , outlining our property were woods with large pine trees that looked about  50 feet tall . It was beautiful.
" Who wants to go get something to eat inside?" asked my Mom. Everyone that sounded like a good idea. While mom and Dad were making tortillas, I took a look around, inside the house it was like a log cabin or something . the floors and walls were made out of 0ak Wood. The furniture was pretty, and there were really big windows . Mary and I chose a room that was really big . It was also the room that was attached to the workroom and the bathroom and the balcony so they were basically ours.  When food was ready we went downstairs to go eat, Mom addressed us and told us that we would be going to go to school at a place called Washington high school . She gave us a chart of what classes we would be taking and who would be our teachers. We studied those while she talked to the other kids about there school. After dinner we went to get ready for bed. While Julia and I were brushing our teeth we heard screaming and muffled cries for help!
     " What was that?" I asked whispering .
     " It didn't sound to very far away!" said Mary who was whispering also.
     I rushed over to the window . The whole street  was dark , except for the little pink house at the end of the neighborhood road.
     " I swear that little pink house was for sale when we arrived here." I said. " Come and look!"
    "  Oh My Gosh it was , I bet some kids would think they were being funny if they picked the lock and started goofing around in there? Mary guessed.  
    " Yeah , you are probably right , let's get some sleep and worry about it in the morning ." I suggested.
     " Yeah Good idea , Good night. "
     " Good night .
    We climbed in to bed . Mary fell asleep right away . But of course I couldn't help thinking about the little pink house . The voice seemed closer than it would have it was really far away like where the little pink house is . I could only come up with one conclusion, there was a mystery , and I was going to solve it. With that , I went to sleep.