Chapter 1

I was having the best day of my life. My friend, Jessica, had invited me, Casey Slivertrip, which is Jessica’s older brother so she didn’t invite him he just joined us, and my older brother, Jacob, to one of her fabulous parties, known school wide. It was a blast! Since as long as we could remember we were bbf’s (best buddies forever), while we were playing, I noticed, we were being watched by someone, someone very important to this story. You probably don’t want to get TOO scared in the first chapter, so I will go on about how awesome we think our day is, but we only think that, think. We were playing Sharks and minnows, Marco Polo, and Swim Tag. In Marco Polo, I kept on being Marco, because I’m not fast in the water but yet a rocket on land, or at least that’s what my parents say. Casey was horrible at Sharks and minnows, he was always seaweed, he can’t swim. Jacob hated Swim Tag because he always gets dunked, he can’t dodge. Jacob and I were leaving when I spotted the same person who was watching us earlier, following us, I pointed this out to Jacob but he just said it was someone leaving the pool too, you see, when it comes to safety and kidnapping, Jacob isn’t the brightest. That guy followed us all the way to our house, and our mom asked who he was, and I simply said, “He’s been stalking us since we left the pool.” “He probably just lives around here too, Emma.” Jacob said, “Children” said my mom, “we don’t want to make this into an argument, now do we?” I sighed, sometimes moms just HAVE to speak up.  Me and Jacob walked in the door and wiped our shoes on the carpet, “Last one into the living room is it!” yelled Jacob. I got a head start since mom tripped over Jacob and he yelled, “Hey, no fair!” “Kids, can you stop making everything a race?” mom asked us. “Sorry mom!” I yelled in her direction, still running. When Jacob finally reached the living room he was dripping with sweat and panting like a thirsty dog, he could barely choke out, “Emma, *gasp, pant* never do that *gasp, pant* again.” And with that he plopped down on the couch next to me and asked me if  I could get him a big glass of water, and gladly I made my way to the kitchen, on my way there I passed the old, cracked window, so old that even during the time of my ancestors, they probably thought it was just about to shatter, and at this moment it did, I screamed out in pain as five pieces of glass sank heavily into my legs, I fell to the ground, breathless from screaming  and blood gushing from my legs like ketchup being squeezed from a ketchup bottle.  My mom came running in but not in time to see the guy from the pool duck under the bushes and run. That was the first time I’d seen my mom run like that, and how her eyes popped open super wide when she saw all my bloody cuts. Jacob came running in behind mom, and when he saw my cuts, he instantly shouted, “I’ll get the first aid kit!” Jacob and I, well, we’ve always been really nice to each-other, the way I think brothers and sisters ought to be. Mom told him to hurry but I refused instead I said, “That isn’t necessary, leave it for people who really need it.” and mom replied, “No sweetheart, YOU really need it, have you seen your legs?” “Mom I’m fine, just pull out the glass and I’ll be good as new, please, I’m begging you.” and that was MY reply. Of course mom had different ideas and besides, Jacob already had our medical supplies so I guess I’m going to have to use something… I just remembered why I didn’t want mom to use the medical box, see, when I was five years old, I fell off a ferry ride in a parade and my knees got all scratched up, so my mom came running out from the crowd, and of course, she was holding a medical box. When she got over to me she opened it up and grabbed an alcohol wipe and told me to squeeze her finger for how much the wipe hurt. I only squeezed half as much as it hurt because I didn’t want my mom to know that the fall itself hurt bad and this made it sting like hot lava on ice. That is why I never want to use alcohol wipes ever again, but, thankfully, my mom didn’t even think twice about alcohol wipes (lucky me). Instead my mom pulled out ten band-aids and a flexible cast. When mom started to wrap the cast around my legs, the door opened, it was dad, bright, cheerful, dad. Last time dad came home this early is last year when he got fired from his A+ job in the Department Of Justice. “How’s my little girl doing?” dad asked before he had seen my cuts. “Not so good, not so good at all.” I replied. “Not so good? Not so good? Wh-.” my dad was cut off because he had just entered the hallway. “Holy macaroni! What happened here?!” said my dad. “The window broke.” I replied. “It doesn’t look that simple.” said my dad. “Well it really isn’t.” I told him. “Tell me everything.” said my dad, “everything.”