Day 1

It began at the stroke of midnight. She could see it as the mist parted. It always started this way.  It must have been the night of Halloween. It couldn’t be any other. Where, no when else would one see a person dressed as a princess? Wait! What was the girl climbing into? She could hear voices behind her. They didn’t seem to bother her. It was almost as if she knew them. She turned to see who they were. There was no one. The fog had engulfed her and when she turned back to the princess, she was gone.
Something slammed. She sat up in her bed. Listening to the sounds, her mind raced. Who was it? Was someone in the house? Were they being robbed?
The cat cried out and Marian could hear Martin curse. Her brother really couldn’t do without a snack.
Marian flipped the covers over and stepped into her slippers. She reached around the end stand for her glasses. The cold metal greeted her finger tips. Pressing them to her face she began to hunt for the light switch. It wasn’t found until after banging her toe against a chair. Forcing the switch into the on position Marian sat in the wood desk chair and held her foot. Her face scrunched up as if hoping to relieve some of the pain shooting through the offended member.
Finally, when she felt she could walk on it again, Marian grabbed her robe from the door hanger and headed down the stairs. She gave Martin a cold scowl. “What are you doing up? You have a job interview to wake up for in a few hours.”
“Maybe I do and maybe I don’t.”
“You do, and you’re going to go because Mom needs you to get out of the house. We need you to start doing something and quite sitting about eating all the food. You're not doing anything with yourself. You have such potential if you’d just wake up and get off your bum.” Marian grabbed the half empty cereal box off the counter and returned it to the cupboard.
“What?! What do you think you're doing? Who do you think you are that you can tell me what to do like your mom or something? All you do all day is go to school or hang out with your friends. You don’t even know what it is like.”
“Well if school is so ‘easy’ then why don’t you try going to college.  There is a great community college about an hour from here according to the realtor dude who sold us this place. “
Martin sat on the counter leaning against the fridge, his shorts were dingy as though he hadn’t changed them in a week. From what she figured, he must have pulled them from the dirty cloths because they hadn’t even been in the house a week. He was dripping milk down his chin onto his t-shirt. At least he was wearing one even if it did appear worse than one of the ones she pulled from a rag box.
Marian sighed. There wasn’t much to be done for him. She picked up the milk carton from off the stove top. “When you're done at least rinse your bowl. If you bother to go to the interview, Mom has an ironed shirt on the bathroom door.” Placing the milk back in the fridge so it wouldn’t be spoiled in the morning, Marian headed back toward the stairs. Then she couldn’t help herself, she went back to the kitchen.
“You know you didn’t have to come. Of all of us you don’t have to be here. You could have stayed back there or you could go anywhere you please. So why are you here? Because it doesn’t look like you want to be here very much. It doesn’t seem like you care about us very much. Why don’t you go find something exciting to do with your life? Why stay cooped up in this drafty old place in a nowhere town that probably freezes over in the winter?”
He stared at her dumbly like a cow only with his mouth slightly ajar. Before Martin could say anything, even if he had a reply, Marian ran up stairs.
Back under her covers she cried herself back to sleep. When the alarm clock went off she slammed her hand against it to stop the annoying sound. Only to knock it on the floor when she brought her hand back in under the covers.  She let her eyes adjust to the difference in light. That was all there was to it, she was going to have to get some curtains up!
Getting out of bed she picked up the alarm clock and placed it back on the night stand. She checked it to make sure the time hadn’t got messed up, then turned on the CD player. Sifting through boxes of still unpacked from the move, she pulled out some cloths. Then tossed the shirt back in and pulled out two others and held them up in front of the mirror. She went with the purple checked shirt and blue belt, matching it with her long black jean skirt.
A lack of bedroom curtains caused her to dress in the bathroom. She knocked on Martin’s door as she past. Maybe she heard a groan or maybe she didn’t, she wasn’t sure.

Across the street James opened his bedroom door. It was another day but it was special in a way. It was his first day of highschool. he looked through the open doorway to the window at the opposite side. It was the room he’d wanted when he and his family had moved here years ago. However his brother had been given it since he was the oldest. James could see the sun in the sky. Maybe it was a good sign that today might not go so badly.
He dashed down stairs to try and get some breakfast before his brother finished off the pancakes. He’d been able to smell the bacon as the aroma had wafted into his room. Sitting at the kitchen table his dark blue and white striped shirt brushed against the back of the chair. He let his backpack fall to the floor next to him.
Swiping some butter from the dish with his knife, James grabbed the last two pancakes from the plate. Somehow they were still slightly warm, at least enough to melt the butter and make the maple syrup run. His mother slipped some bacon onto his plate as he prayed.
“Thanks Mom!” They shared a smile, then he dug into his breakfast, pouring a glass of orange juice as he sliced his pancakes. His mother understood what it was like to be a younger child. She’d grown up in foster care never knowing who her family was. She had roughed things out until she could get out of the system. From her point of view it had been the best day of her life when she’d walked out of there. Her best friend in college had awesome foster parents who had been kind and done what they could for her, however small. His mother hadn’t had it quite so nice. Although the two girls had somehow managed to come out on top. They’d worked their way through college and his mom had met his dad there. It was love at first site from his dad’s point of view. He liked hearing their story.
Lee grabbed a book from the table, “Come on, we’ve got to go. The bus will be here.”
James jugged the last of his orange juice and gave his mom a hug before he picked up his backpack to rush out the door with his brother.
Even though Lee was a junior he didn’t have his own car. Their parents believed the boys should work for what they owned. Lee had come close to earning the half amount that his parents were requiring he have. They planned to pay the second half themselves. He hoped to have it by the beginning of next school year. Plus have money for the other things he’d need, like gas. His parents had given him permission to work through the school year but Lee didn’t think he could handle that and keep his grades up for college. Plus he’d gotten a girlfriend over the summer. Miss Amy Thiels was one of the popular posh girls that always hung with a group of other girls.
James wondered what it would be like this year at school now that she was seeing his brother.
When the bus pulled up the two brothers climbed in. James and Lee were usually tight knit brothers who did a lot of things together. One of which was to sit on the bus together but when Lee found Amy he didn’t even seem to think twice about sitting with her.
James took the last empty bench on the bus and pushed himself clear over to the window. It had been a game they had played together. Who ever had gotten on the bus first got the window. For the first few years it had been Lee. However as his brother had formed friendship it seemed that James got the window seat more often than not.
He was about to set his backpack down on the seat next to him when a girl had slipped in next to him. At first he look pretty startled but then realizing that he must look pretty dumb, he smiled. “Hi.”
“I hope you don’t mind. There wasn’t anywhere else.” She looked worried that he was going to tell her to get lost or something.
“No it’s fine. There wasn’t anyone going to sit there anyway.”
She smiled back at him, it was friendly but it seemed a bit sad. Infact this girl didn’t seem to happy.
“Thanks,” she said.
“I’m James by the way.” He extended his hand.
“Marian Smith” She shook his hand then started digging through her bag.
“This is my first time to highschool but I haven’t even seen you around town. Are you new here?”
Marian didn’t even look at him when she replied, “Yeah moved a week ago today. I’m from...