I woke up earlier than the sun rose, excited. Today, I would go to my new parent’s house. I dug out Chasing Vermeer out of the bag Sara had given me and flipped to page 153. I read for about an hour until I heard the same rattling yell that woke us up every morning;

    “Wake up, kids!”

    None of the other 14-16 year old girls were awake. As the duty of the first one awake, I shook each girl until they hit me with her pillow. Or alarm clock. Whatever was close.

    But, as the first one awake, I got bathroom privileges first. All of us 29 girls used one bathroom; each room had its own bathroom, so that was a great relief.

    I quickly got dressed and ready, stuffed everything into Sara’s bag, then ran downstairs. Some of the boys were already down there, gouging on eggs, toast, and pancakes. I grabbed a little of each, and ate it up before the first girl from 14-16 were down.

    Mrs. Casper walked into the dining room, which was more like a mini cafeteria, and came over to me. “Mr. and Mrs. Robinson will be here in an hour to pick you up. You may wait outside on the stoop.”

    I opened the front door to a bright, sunny day. The stoop was already warm, even if the sun hadn’t been out for less than an hour.

    I sat down to read the last 180 pages of Chasing Vermeer. I had just closed the book, finished, when I heard Sara’s voice.

    “You a big reader?”

    I looked up and nodded enthusiastically.

    Sara grinned. “Me too. Come on. Steve’s waiting in the car.”

    I hopped up and followed Sara to the waiting limo.

    “So, what do you want to do today?” Pops asked.

    I grinned. “I don’t care.”

    Sara leaned forward and talked quietly to the driver, so quietly that I couldn’t hear. I strained to listen, but to no avail. Sara sat back with a mysterious smile on her face.

    The limo started up and drove off. Pops, Sara, and I talked about my favorite things, like food and clothes and such. It took a while to get to our mysterious destination. I stepped out of the limo, and turned to the big building.

    I gasped. It was a bookstore!

    Pops and Sara walked inside after me. “Get a few books.” Sara offered.

    I nodded and hurried to the young adult section. I grabbed six books that I’d heard about and thought I’d like and made my way to check-out. Sara and Pops stood in line, each holding a stack of books.

    Sara paid the cashier, and the man at the counter bagged everything up in three seperate bags. I grabbed my bag, and together we headed out to the limo. As soon as I got in, I grabbed a book out of the bag randomly. It was The Lightning Thief  by Rick Riordan. My friend had suggested the book, and I’d read the first few chapters and really enjoyed it. I cracked it open, relishing the sweet new book smell and started reading. After I’d gotten fifty pages in, Sara tapped me on the knee.

    I looked up, my mind still fuzzy from being in another world.

    “Ready to eat lunch?” Sara asked, and gestered out the window to where Western Chinese sat. It was a wondrous restaurant, from my one-time experience there.

    We ate a good, long lunch, and afterwards went back to Sara and Pops’ house. The rest of the day we played board games.

    When it was time for bed, I quickly got ready, and dove in the comfy bed to read more of Percy Jackson. After many hours of reading, my eyelids started to droop, and I was reading the same sentence over and over again. So I put the book on the nightstand and within two minutes, was fast asleep.

A.N. Crud, the longest plotted chapter is next. It will be Lia's expect it in maybe a day.

Bye lovelies

-Cal