I'm so happy. Any criticism at all is accepted....Enjoy.Avril Lavinge- Nobody's Home
Chapter One- Too Many Question….No Answers.
Two Months Later
Sometimes I look around me and wonder if I made the right choice, I wonder if I should ever have called the Windsor's, if I should ever have picked up that file. Maybe if I hadn't I wouldn't be here, unhappy, unfulfilled all the things that I was at the Roberts.
The giant grandfather clock in the front hall chimed twelve times, I stirred and turned on the TV once again, the lights flickering and distracting me from my negative thoughts. I stared at the screen dumbly, two months in this place and I was already dying slowly inside.
The reason I decided to come here or was forced to I no longer remembered, I only knew that I was a fool and that I should never have touched that stupid file. At least I didn't just mope around there, Mrs Roberts would have made me do something horrendous like knitting-yet she always wondered why I hated her. I imagined Mr Roberts sitting his office chiding me about my anti-social behaviour but here at the Windsor's no one and I mean no one was happy.
It was like the, "Our Life's Are Shit Although We Are Stinking Rich" Club and everybody was a member including Mrs Windsor who wouldn't even look at me. Mr Windsor was the typical rich old man with the golden handle on his walking stick. Almost no hair and the deep rich booming accent that made you laugh out loud just because of how ridiculous it was.
Its three days till school begins and the rest of the Windsor family arrive, according to the maids-they do know everything- Mrs Corelia Sullivan-Windsor was getting divorced and so her daughters (two of them) were going to live with me at the Windsor's. I am going to attend some rich kid school called Excel High School, it is supposed to be really hard to get into and my cousin's apparently go to this school.
This school doesn't have a uniform as long as you wear the tie and the blazer which is really big on me, I look like I am swimming in it. The Roberts never sent my clothes over, so I had to buy a whole new wardrobe….it is real hard work to fill up a walk in closet especially when you hate shopping. I hate it with a passion, the whole looking for clothes is just so suffocating and annoying. Buying shoes is even worse and this is why I love internet shopping, I don't have to move an inch!
"Catherine" My grandfather called. I hated that name, it was my middle name that I was given by my "father", at least Mrs Windsor says so. They both hate the name Rain with a passion and have decided to omit the name I have been called all my life.
I pretended to be asleep. He was here for his alcohol binge, he wasn't to have any scotch but he snuck in every night to have a sip of it any way much to his wife's chagrin and my annoyance. I am always awake then and had to go through a battle with my conscience about stopping him or not, but as usual I won and didn't stop him.
I pretended to sleepily roll across the chair just to scare him and it worked, he ran out after a gulp of scotch. The TV screen was still flickering and I am still bored. I turned off the TV and walked up to my room. My room at the Roberts was my escape from the world but this room was the one place I hated going to, it was the very opposite of my small room with drawings, pictures and books. It had a library that was neither a mini nor a maxi one, It had an en-suite bathroom and shower, a princess style bed with the weird curtain things that should be banned, a flat screen TV, a mini fridge, a laptop, a normal desktop computer, three I-pods, my new phone and my walk-in closet. This room is the size of half the orphanage and the orphanage held about 700 kids.
I lay on my bed and tried to fall asleep amongst these things that were so unlike me. My phone started to vibrate and the lights were flashing, no one knew my new number.
Me: Hello, who is this?
Caller: Rain, Rain, Rain.
Operator: This line is no longer in connection
Well that was a bit weird. I pondered about the weird phone call and felt my eyelids close slowly.
*_*_*_*_*
I dreamt that I was dancing the waltz with a masked stranger, but then I wasn't dancing anymore and a voice kept calling, "Catherine, Wake up". I kept telling the voice I wasn't Catherine but it wouldn't listen to me.
"Miss Catherine, wake up!"
"What do you want?" I asked befuddled.
Maria our Spanish maid shook her head in disbelieve, grabbed me by the shoulders, propelled me towards the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
"Maria" I called to no one, she had left me here.
I pulled my pyjamas off and stepped into the shower. It was absolutely freezing. I danced around the shower uncomfortably while biting back a yelp. I might like the cold but when it comes to a shower I and the amazing cold do not mix.
I pulled on the mini-dress laid on the bed, it was blue with a studded belt across the middle. I ignored the Christian Laboutin heels on the floor and pulled out a pair of black studded pumps. I pulled on a pair of leggings, , then my pumps and I walked down to breakfast. My hair had been towel dried not straightened or blow dried, so it was curling at the edges and so it framed my face.
I walked into the dining hall and saw both grandparents on their mobile phones, both for entirely different reasons.
"Ah, Catherine you finally decide to grace us with your presence." Grand-Ma said snidely.
Granddad just sighed and said, "You're late try to wake up a little bit earlier next time"
"Ok." I answered and descended on the food, eating everything in sight except from my grandparents.
My grandmother stared at me in awe as she had at breakfast everyday for the last two months. I heard her mutter something like, "How doesn't she get indigestion".
Grandfather on the other hand sneaked out for a cigarette, another banned item.
"Catherine dear" Grandma drawled…oh dear what torture does she have in store for me today, more shopping- please God no more shopping.
"Yes"
"Do you remember the appointment we have" What appointment?
"Yeah that one." I lied
"You have forgotten haven't you" She noticed.
"Just a smidge" I said feeling very proud of myself, I almost spoke posh there for a moment.
"After school appointments, Catherine I cannot have you sitting around after school doing nothing. I mean I don't want a fat granddaughter, you have to be active!" She ranted and then went on about an Aubergine Knightly who had gained loads of weight and had to sweat it all out like a pig. Ewww! The things people do to be slim, luckily for me I have extremely fast metabolism so I almost never gain weight, no matter how hard I try I will always be a size 8.
"Right." I said and then she quietened down, raised her eyebrows and said, "What are you going to do?"
The multi-billion dollar question, I bet this is even asked on who wants to be a millionaire-which I believe is rigged-. I swivelled in my chair , played with my food, removed the errant strand of hair that kept getting into my eyes and after what seemed like 100 dog years I raised my head to say, "Kickboxing".
"Wh….What?" She said as if choking on her own spit.
"Is there something wrong with it" I asked quickly, I knew she was kind of a snob but I thought she was a diehard feminist.
"No not at all, It just took me by surprise" She answered just as quick.
I nodded at her answer and went back to my food ignoring her facia expression ranging in no particular order from; disgust, awe, annoyance and anger.
"Why kickboxing?" She asked softly. Eh I haven't a clue why I chose kickboxing.
"I guess I just felt like it," after having no choice but to stop your rant throught picking an afternoon thingy. Mr Windsor walked back into the room with a fresh trail of smoke following him in.
"Ah, daarling," She said in a faintly sweet posh voice, "That wouldn't happen to be smoke I smell because if it is you are going to be in a lot of crap" Okay so she didn't say crap but she meant it.
"Of course not honey." Mr Windsor lied badly…as usual. She (Mrs Windsor) narrowed her eyes into slits and stared into Mr Windsor's eyes making him squirm in his seat.
"Okay! So I might have had one." He answered but she didn't stop staring at him, "Two..." she didn't stop staring, "The whole pack happy" He said shamefaced. The man must smoke like a chimney, seriously a whole pack of Benson & Hedges in about 10-15 minutes. And anyone can see who wears the pants in this relationship/marriage.
Mrs Windsor switched her expression from Mr Windsor and set it upon me.
"We will go out to town to look for a good kickboxing class around the area for you, get ready in about twenty minutes and for the love of God don't be late."
"Okay," I answered and hurried out of the dining area, so as not to listen to Mrs Windsor engage in an argument with an ashamed Mr Windsor.
I ran out of the dining room hurriedly, slammed the door and rushed into about two of the staff and a wall. Smooth Rain…real smooth.
I kicked the wall angrily causing me to hop on one foot in pain seeing as the wall is concrete, I should so have seen that coming and I also should have seen myself falling to the ground because I couldn't balance on one foot.
"Are you okay?"
"What the fuck do you think, that I just decided to sit on the floor and howl in pain" I replied
"Jeez, what the hell is up your freaking ass, I just wanted to help and do my one good deed a lifetime thing but no! I have to get some snarky bitch who gets her ass whooped by a WALL!"
"I so did not get my ass whooped by the wall, it has a mark" I said pointing to the invisible spot on the wall that counted all of a sudden.
"Right, the mark that is invisible to the naked eye" Hey! If I say its there its there I practically own this place well my grandparents own this place.
Due to my towel dried hair and the fall. I couldn't see anything because it was all over my face(hair that is), I wanted to give my enemy a withering look and so I lifted my arms and swept my hair off my face to get a good look at her, I figured she was a her from her voice.
"Hey-"
The words died in my mouth as I turned to face one of those people you look at and your self-confidence goes down the drain. She had that rich blend of ginger and dark brown so that it wasn't ginger or brown just a sort of unique burgundy colour, she had huge doe eyes that were the darkest chocolate colour you could find and she was very, very tall.
She took in my appearance and by appearance I mean the twenty thousand dollars dress and realisation dawned on her.
"Miss Windsor, I am ever so sorry" She began but I stopped her with a wave of my hands.
"I liked you so much better when you were being a bitch," I said, gathered myself and stumbled into my room to get a jacket. How many minutes had Grand-Ma said again.
I plucked a black jacket from the bedstead, silently thanking Maria for thinking of everything and ran down to the garage. I hoped that all twenty-five cars excluding the motorbikes, go-karts-I wonder why they have those- and bikes had breakdowns.
"Catherine Windsor where on earth have you been, I have been waiting for the last fifteen minutes." Grand-Ma rebuked. I never had gotten the "where on earth" talk, what if it wasn't on earth but on like some weird planet like…erm…planet-that-I-have-made-up-titans. Isn't that so completely original?
I saw her grey hair poking out of the Aston Martin backdoor, it was Grand-Ma, she never drove…well not since I have been here. According to TV and some weird magazine, no self respecting rich person drives themselves they pay people to instead.
The inside of the Aston Martin was all black leather and little bits of white or cream. The windows of the cars were tinted so that people could not see us but we could see them, which I think is completely creepy. Now whenever I see a tinted glass window, I just think 'They are watching you' which just freaks me out.
Yes. I admit to the fact that I sound awful whiny because I have every adolescent teenagers dream that was to find out that they were adopted (I knew that before), find out their 'real' family was amazingly rich and live the lifestyles of the rich and famous (maybe I have everything but the famous) . But the truth is this lifestyle is boring, sad and devoid of any kind of joy.
I started to get drowsy as I always do when I am inside a car-something the Roberts always wondered about- Grand-Ma sat beside me doused in Chanel No 5, she was looking out the window with such a fierce expression that it left me in awe and scared me. It was as if I wasn't just going to find a boxing class, it was like I was going in front of a firing squad.
My eyes relaxed but I wasn't sleeping, I am just resting my eyes.
"Catherine. Catherine, wake up!" Crap! I can't believe I slept…or maybe I can believe it, I always sleep in cars.
"Huh," I said groggily and stood up running my eyes with my hand in a cat-like manner.
My hair was even more tousled and was all over my face, I had drool running down my chin unfortunately and my mini dress was hitched my thighs. I saw Mrs Windsor's face and knew all I needed to know, I did not look that good.
"Erm…can you give me two seconds to get my self in order" I pleaded.
She turned around and muttered, "Honey, I think that you might need more than two seconds" walking off leaving me and the driver in the car.
I looked in through the erm…mirror in the car, I don't necessarily know its name and wiped off the drool from my chin. I cleaned my face with my hands, parted my hair from my face and rearranged my dress.
"Excuse me, Mr …."
"Dan, My name is Dan" No shit! I am not stupid you know.
"Alright Mr Dan, Do you know where my grandmother has gone to" I asked
"She has walked into the auditorium, probably to talk to Mr Martins"
"Eh!" He looked at me as if I was brain dead.
"You walk into through the door, then into the room clearly marked auditorium. It is spelt A-U-D-I-T-O-R-I-U-M" He said slowly.
I frown but controlled my temper, "Thanks for your much needed help" I said sweetly while imagining ripping his head off.
Yes. I know how to spell auditorium, its a-u-d-t-i-r-i....ahh screw that. I walked into the maxi-gym, still dreaming of ripping Dan's head off his neck.
-0-0-0-0-
"Hello Nathaniel. It's good to see you doing something responsible for once, it almost makes me forget how trouble some you were" Grandma said.
I stood awkwardly next to her as her companion studied me, he started from the tips of my toes to my face and when he looked at my face he gasped.
"She looks so much like her" He said.
His blonde hair flopped over his eye, he was somewhat over-built but not like those steroid users, he towered above me and at first glance looked like a first class threat but when you looked closer you could see he had kind eyes.
"Like who" I blurted out.
He opened his mouth to answer but was silenced by Gran-Ma's evil glare, that glare could have melted Antarctica.
"Um…" He began, I leaned forward to listen but he stopped.
"You look a lot like your grandmother" He said
"Right" I answered.
I wasn't exactly overjoyed to hear I looked like Grandma even though I knew he was lying through his teeth. He could have said, "You look like me" and I wouldn't have been as insulted.
We both stood awkwardly for a few minutes when he asked, 'what's your favourite sport'.
"Football"
"Oh. It was he- I mean lets get started on those forms" He said feigning delight.
I nodded forcing a smile. He led me to a dinky office that smelt of boys and when I say it smells like boys, I don't mean it in a good way.
I coughed politely instead of gasping for good air(unpolluted air), Grandma sneakily made some comment about her back and left me in the room to die of suffocation.
He sat on the brown worn out chair breathing into the air.
"Do you smell that" He asked. Yes, yes I smell it and I think I am about to faint.
"Um….No" Being polite is really hard work.
His face fell, "If you could smell it you would smell the work of five generations of the Adamson family" He said proudly.
"It must smell great" I lied. You see what I say about politeness being really hard work.
"Yes it does, it's the smell of greatness" If this is greatness it reeks. I have a theory, this guy clearly has a malfunctioning.
"Ah" I said taking a gulp of the air only to get a coughing fit, the air was amazingly dense….I could actually taste the sweat.
"Greatness is the motto of Adamson Gym in fact the exact motto is-" And he began to drone on and on about this place.
"I'm sorry but I think I'm going to be sick" I said out loud. My stomach lurched and threatened to give up on me.
"Greatness is the one thing that has been drummed into my-" Um Hello I'm practically barfing all over you.
"I'm sorry Mr Adamson but I think….." And that is when I erm….bathed Mr Adamson (I hope this was just one of my weird daydreams) in barf.
"Oh My Godz!" He said in a voice that could only be depicted as outraged. I kind of knew he would be one of those people who didn't say Oh My God properly.
I also knew that this was going to be one of those moments of my life that I blurred out of my memory, forever.
-0-0-0-0-
The next hour was a blur, I was completely out of it for hours after the barf incident, the only thing I remembered was grandma saying, "Say it don't spray it" A phrase I knew would always be associated with if word got out about it.
Dan and grandma haven't stopped laughing for a long time now, I keep trying to drown them out with mental ranting and raving (about myself to myself) I still can't believe that she told Dan! I hate Dan and he loathes me for some strange reason, he is ridiculously immature for a almost fifty year old man.
"And then….and then she said "Greatness is totally awesome Mr Adamson"…that was when I lost all my resolve" I don't remember saying that.
"Stop laughing at me" I complained but that started a whole new burst of laughter.
"Great laugh it up" And they laughed even harder, I just barfed on the guy….jeez give a girl a break.
"Do you know what the funniest thing was?" She said to Dan
"What?"
"It wasn't Mr Adamson, poor Nathaniel was fuming," She said spluttering.
It was amazing to find out that my grandmother had a sense of humour but what was more amazing was the fact that she actually laughed with Dan, I felt a bit bad thinking she was a snob( which she is) who was too much of a snob to be nice to anybody.
The car came to a stop, we were 'home' and Grandma ran out the car to tell everyone how I had barfed on the guy that wasn't Mr Adamson.
I walked into the house to meet a steely faced grandma who was a complete 180 degrees from the one that was happily making fun of my predicament. There were bags in the hallway and the Olsen twins wannabes standing next to them.
"Jasmine, Henrietta I thought you were coming back in three days probably never" Grandma said
Olsen twin wannabe No 1 said, "Grannie we just came to make sure you didn't forget your true granddaughters and replace us with that Orphanage trash" I drew in a breath containing all my anger.
No 2 said "And mum sent us over early, Franco and her had things to do"
"I thought it was Antonio," Grandma said
"It was." No 1 and 2 said in complete unison.
"Corelia is wasting her life away in Italy, I would say she should be in her husbands house if I didn't know how much of an idiot he is" Gran said tossed her hair like in those L'Oreal ads (I thought there would be a voice over saying 'Because you are worth it') and stalked out of the room leaving her Gran kids next to their bags.
"If she didn't have our future in her hands I would have slapped her by now." No 1 said to No 2
After the Orphanage trash comment I wasn't ready to face my cousins so I headed for the stairs but one of them saw me, whispered something to her twin and they both fell about in laughter. I drew in my breath for the second time since I had met my cousins, if one of them was within slapping range I would have decked her by now.
I shut the door of my room and suddenly felt like making my room mine. It looks like something that the Olsen wannabe twins would sleep in if they haven't already slept in, I felt like this room didn't say a lot about me and I wanted that to change.
I pulled my shoes off and threw them into a corner. I took off the weird curtain things off the bed, removed anything. Anything at all that reminded me of something that wasn't quite me, which was in order words the entire room, I think I might keep the i-pods and computer.
I opened my little box of things from the Orphanage that I hadn't opened since I had gotten here, in it were my cans of spray paint (I went through a graffiti art phase), normal paint, paper, brushes and all the arty stuff I had made the Roberts buy for me.
I changed out of the mini dress and pulled my scruffy work clothes which consisted of denim dungarees, a black shirt and really dirty purple trainers out of the bag. I threw them on, covered the entire room with white sheets just to look professional and started to research things to spray paint on.
I didn't need to pick a base paint because the room was already all white, I picked up a can of spray paint and immersed myself in my art completely forgetting about everything else.
……………
…………
………
…..
After a couple of hours I started to get a crick in my neck from placing it at one angle for so long. Not one human being had knocked on my door, I was starting to think they didn't care if I decided to kill my self with the curtains or the really dangerous high heels in my closet.
"Catherine, get down here this instant or you will miss dinner, it is enough that you miss lunch but I really don't want an anorexic teenager on my hands." Grandma yelled. Would she ever make up her mind?
"I'm coming," I yelled back and ran out my room and down the stairs knowing that if I was late I was going to be nagged at all of dinner.
I ran into the dining hall for the second time today and muttered angrily about how I was never, ever there on time.
After my entrance there was a long pause, a really long pause and then my cousins and grandma eyed my outfit with disdain.
"I was working on my room," I said defensively, I then wondered why I was defending my self to them.
"Oh, of course honey but couldn't you find more tasteful clothes to work in." Grandma said as if she was in pain. It was just clothes I was going to say but I stopped myself in time and began on to eat my dinner. All that painting and drawing had left me more famished that I normally was.
My cousins picked at their salad while I headed for the chicken curry that Maria made specially for me(I must thank her), my granddad wasn't at the table.
"Where is granddad?" I asked in-between chewing the chicken.
"Honey try not to talk while you are eating its bad manners, your grandfather has some business meetings to go to," She said
I guess he went to meet his drinking buddies once again, he will probably be back out of it by tomorrow evening.
I nodded at grandma who I noticed was leaving her seat with immediate speed, with the twins close to her heels. I was all alone in the dining room fighting with the last piece of chicken.
"Hey," I know that voice and for some reason it annoys me. I turned around to see the girl from this morning.
"Hello, what do you want" I asked briskly
"I'm really sorry for my behaviour and I am not saying this because you are a Windsor as you would think. I didn't mean that I wouldn't say it because you are a Windsor I'm just saying that….you know," She said uncomfortably
"No I don't know." I said enjoying her discomfort
"You are such a sadist." She muttered
"I heard that," I said
"But you are a sadist.."
"True but I'm good sadist." I said batting my eyelashes.
"There is no such thing as a good sadist and stop doing that it is freaking the shit out of me."
"What?" I questioned, batting my eyelashes some more.
"That!"
"Ok, this conversation is circling, I need to do painting."
"Hi, I'm…Brandie Hennessey." She said with an outstretched hand.
"I'm Rain Rob…I mean Windsor," Rain replied clasping on to the outstretched hand and shaking it firmly. "So have you noticed that both your name and surname have something to do with alcohol?"
"Yes my great grandparents were in the alcohol business and my dad is a jokester who greatest achievement is picking names that his children will later hate him for, what's your excuse?"
"What do you mean, Rain is a great name"
"Not for a Windsor it isn't, if somebody had told me that Hannah Windsor would allow her granddaughter to be called Rain I would have laughed in their face."
"So that's why she keeps telling everyone that my name is Catherine." I knew it. No way did she have memory that bad that she forgot my name and replaced it with something else entirely.
"Are you done?" She asked pointing to the empty plate in front of me. "I need to tell kitchen staff that you're done."
"Yeah." I answered, I was about to leave the dining area and go back to my painting when an idea struck me.
"Brandie, you don't by any chance know anything about my mother. Do you?"
"No!" She answered quickly, too quickly.
"You're lying." I accused and as I made that accusation I knew that it was true.
"No I'm not," She said really quick as well.
"Ok, whatever." I said. I was done with talking to Brandie because all off a sudden she was pissing me off.
I returned to my room and put my neck back at the angle it was at the beginning. Yes! I officially had reached the highlight of my day.....And yes, that was sarcasm.
I really enjoyed reading this Chapter of your story, and can't wait to read the rest. I swear if I hadn't gotten off yesterday I would have finished it like this(snap of fingers). And I am so lucky I found it again! Sorry that I can't say anything critical about your writing[I suck at writing, so how can I?]
YWS said I wasn't logged in and so my review got lost.