"MOM?" I called out when I walked through the door to my house "I'm home!"

No answer.

Maybe she wasn't home? I thought to myself, either that or she was in her study with loud music on and didn't hear me come in. she's a writer, mostly focusing on adult thrillers. I'd tell you that she's good but I'm probably biased.

Once I got to my room I make a beeline for my bed, shedding my bag and shoes on my way there. I collapsed onto the mess of sheets and cushions that were scattered hap hardly.

'How am I going to get to school tomorrow?' I groan when I realize that Anna was my ride. 'She might come tomorrow' I reason with myself. After all it's not like I'm the one who insulted her then laughed in her face...

I push myself into a semi-upright position and unlock my phone. I am just about to text her when I see she's beaten me to the chase.

Hey shed written I am having breakfast with Tim tomorrow so you are going to have to find your own way to school.

"How sad," I say out loud to myself, "I am going to have to ask my parents to drive me to school."

I sink down further on the bed and hold the phone up over my face. The house is too silent so I put a random song on. Clicking into my IG account I scroll through my feed. I am ready to go and watch something when I see a new posts my Jake. An involuntary smile spreads across my face as I zoom in to make the picture bigger.

Jake is standing with his older sister and he has a giant pink lipstick mark on his forehead. He is pretending to glare at her and she's trying to look evil, the same lipstick slightly smudged on her perfect lips.

I smiled again when I noticed that he had another bright mark on his ear. Almost immediately I felt a pang of sadness and not even the music blaring from my phone speaker could distract from the fact that I was alone.

I sat like that, mindlessly scrolling through Jake's posts until it got dark outside and I heard a car pull up in our drive way. The Muffled voices of my parents greeting each other rose up and crawled under my closed door.

I'd better get up before they come and here and find me mopping in the dark. I picked up my bag and scattered random books and papers on my desk before flicking the light on. Just as I was grabbing pencil to put between my teeth, there was a knock on my door. I quickly scrambled to sit down, then said in the non-squeakiest voice I could conjure, "Come in."

"Hi, honey. "It was my dad, he had his tie on from work. " Whatcha' doin'? " He was still at the door, looking round the room uneasily, his eyes darting around.

"You can come in, you know." I tell him, trying to spare us both from the awkwardness.

Dad nods gratefully and makes to step into my room but changes his mind half way and does a weird hop-jump thing to turn around and step out of the doorway. "I think dinner's ready." He finally says, before walking away as fast as he can.

And sure enough, a few moments later, my mother calls up the stairs, "Katie, darling, dinners ready!" I stifled a groan as I walked downstairs, I hated eating with my parents but I could tell that they wanted me to, so I did.

My mother decided at a young age that she just wanted one child, she'd said that she wanted to shower her love on that one child, me, and that would be enough for her.

When I got to the table, my mom and dad were already seated, food was already on plates in front of them, untouched. The moment I sat down, as if by some unseen signal, they both picked up their forks and started eating.

"So how was your day, honey?" my mother asked me, trying to sound casually disinterested, key word being trying.

"I actually didn't have such a good day..." I answer her, but then immediately regret my decision to open my mouth.

"Oh no! What happened?" my father asks, abandoning the fork piled with food already on the way to his mouth. Mom is just staring at me, her brow furrowed in concern.

"It's not a big deal." Damage control. "I just had a fight with Anna."

"That's ok, Katie" dad finally raises the fork to his mouth. "You guys always make up."

"Oh! Actually," my mom says, getting up so fast that her chair nearly topples over," I have something that might cheer you up!" she's at the counter now, furiously rummaging through a giant tote bag that bulged sideways due to all the things mom forcefully shoved in there.

"It was one of those late night, hippie, yard sales", here she pulls out a neon colored scarf that was so bright I couldn't make out the actual color. " I found this gorgeous necklace- AHA!" it appeared shed found what she was looking for, because she triumphantly raised a tiny box from her pile of junk and all but skipped to my side.

"Think of it as an early birthday present..."she carefully places the box in my hands.

"Ooooh" my dad coos, random bits of food shooting out of his mouth. "I wanna see!"

"Open it!" mom urges, the excitement radiating from her. The box itself was carved with intricate patterns that might have been older than me and the inside was lined with worn velvet. There was a very beautiful necklace sitting on a tiny red cushion. The chain was very delicate and I suspected it was at least plated with gold. Then there was the pendant.

The pendant was a vaguely lantern shaped, but the frame was hollow and to fill the empty space, a dazzling purple jewel was sitting. It looked as if the thin golden tines were embracing it.

"Wow!" I whispered, pulling the necklace out and holding it to the light. It seemed to wink at me.

"Right?!" my mom exclaims. "I loved it the moment I saw it. And I got it for a steal. The lady selling it seemed like she wanted to get rid of it." She sits back down, her eyes not leaving my face.

"Is it real gold?" my dad asks her after I placed it back in the box.

"Oh, no, of course not!" my mom laughs. "For how I cheap I got it, you would think it was made of plastic! "

"Thanks mom!" I got up to hug her across the dinner table, "you really didn't need to get me this!" she seemed surprised by my hug and melted into it. "Also, you have to drive me to school tomorrow."

A/N:- YAY! Chapter 2 is up on time! Dont forget to vote if you like the story and feel free to  comment suggestions!