(hehe...lego mario...)
"She's been really quiet. I�m starting to get worried." Patricia set her cup of tea on the kitchen table, staring up sadly at James, who was sitting at the other end of the table.
"Maybe she's sick.", he said as he continued reading one of his comic books.
"Well? Aren't you going to talk to her?"
"For what?" Never looking up from his comic book.
"You know, there is a reason you two don't get along well."
"Because you spoil her all the time." He sips some of his water and continues to read his comic.
"James, that girl loved being around you. Why don't you go and talk to her?"
He got up and walked out of the kitchen without saying a word. Patricia just sighed and finished off her tea and then started on the dishes. James continued toward the living room passing by the bed room doors, but stopped in front of Zeretta's door. He slowly pushed the door open and looked around the room. Zeretta was sitting over in the far corner of the room, silently building structures from lego blocks. James peered around her room in amazement as if he's never been in there. There were drawings hanging all over the walls. Some were of a monster with a spiked turtle shell on it's back. Some were of two men standing next to each other; one with a red shirt, one with a green shirt, and both with matching overalls. Some of the drawings were of tigers and cats, and there was one painting hanging over her bed. The painting had a swirls of red, yellow and orange.
He came into the room and sat on the bed staring down at Zeretta. 'So...what are you up to?'
"A warp pipe." She said, in a happy tone.
"A what?"
Zeretta placed her lego structure on the bed. It was a square-shaped pipe and was a made of all green building blocks. James recognized what she tried to make and said, "Aren't you a little too old to play with lego blocks?"
She took the structure and destroyed it until it was once more a pile of blocks. "If you didn't like it, you could've just told me."
"No no...it's not that. It's just...well�you...re 12. Tomorrow is you're first day as a teenager. Don't you think it's just a little weird-�
"Well, dad..." she interpreted. "I'm not exactly normal, or did you not notice all of the weird things that happened to me.�
"Now calm down. You're normal. Ok?"
"Oh yeah. I'm just an average kid. So I guess it's average for a 9 nine year old to cough up balls of hair? Oh, how about that time I touched the fire on the stove and didn't even burn myself?"
"That's actually pretty normal, Kid."
"Yeah it is, if it were for a split second. I had my hand there several minutes! And I didn't feel a thing!"
"Kid" He said in the most comforting voice he could "everyone is different or weird in their own way. You...re just-"
She busted out, cutting him off again "Oh yeah? I've been having dreams and visions, and a whole bunch of weird things have been happening to me! I can't even tell you guys ...cause you already think I'm weird! And don't you dare tell me I'm not! I heard you and mommy talking! Saying I'm a freak of nature! And that the things I do aren't normal!"
"What did I tell you about listening in on us?" He tried to hide how nervous he was, remembering that conversation he had about her with his wife.
"I didn't! I heard you from in here! I couldn't help it... at night, when everything's quiet, I can hear what goes on next door. See? I'm not normal. And then there was that time I was sucked into the TV�" She grew quiet, and moved away from James.
"Wait. What? Sucked into the TV?" he pulled her close and made her sit on the bed next to him.
She then told him about her experience that you probably read about last chapter. After her tale, James placed a hand on her head and said "You were just having a dream"
"That's what I thought at first, but then last night...My hands..." She held her hands up, and you could see that she was now trembling. "I had...claws...my hair...my eyes...they were...they were...�
James stared at her coldly and said, "You know what? Why don.t you go and eat dinner. That way you can get to bed. You got a big day tomorrow, birthday girl."
She walked out the room into the kitchen with a sad and sick expression. James followed closely behind her and stopped at her door way. He looked around to the pictures hanging on the walls with a grimace on his face and stared at one on her door. It was a picture of a girl with red hair, green eyes and cat ears.
Later that night, Zeretta sat on the edge of her bed and remained motionless. She listened to her parents voices coming from down the hall.
James was telling Patricia what Zeretta had told him earlier. He father said that they have to change her way of thinking and all these weird happenings starting tomorrow, on her 13th birthday.
Even from her room, she could hear him pacing back and forth and talking to his wife, frustrated, "This has got to stop. I'm tired of hearing on this about her being weird and everything. You should have listened to me back when you first found that girl." Zeretta now had her ears to her door. "What did I say? I know I didn't keep my promise and just get rid of her, but come tomorrow..."
Zeretta got up and decided that she didn't even want to hear the rest. So went to her closet and pulled out a large black bag. She backed her drawings and writing into it, as well as all the food and drinks she could fit, not to mention a few outfits and some personal belongings. She climbed out the window of her bedroom and headed into the streets.
It was quiet and dark, with only a few house porch lights lit on her side of the street. On the other side of the street stood a line of trees which was a border into a forest. She went into the forest without looking back on the small white house in which she was raised, knowing that there's nothing in leading a normal life.
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