"Good morning Macey," Amy says cheerfully as if last night didn't happen. Maybe it was just a dream, maybe my picture hadn't flashed across the missing persons report.
That is until Maria starts to speak," I hope you’re not coming in here to cook Macey. I don't want cocaine being dropped or slipped in to my food." I turn and scowl at her.
"Don't you have school or something to go to Maria," I hiss back at her. She doesn’t even flinch at me tone but personally I don't care. I haven't gone to school in a week but I'd put up with enough crap from people my own age let alone take it from someone who was at least three years younger than me. Maria glares and I just shrug. I might have put up with her yesterday but I'm not in the mood for it today. I will literally throw back whatever she can dish out. I love revenge some times and that is what I plan on using at some point.
"Crud I got to go mom time for my lesson," Maria says jumping up and running by me. That's when I notice her hair is pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a jump suit kind of like Amy's when she came with Chest and her husband Tim to save Elaine and Maria. Suddenly I was curious to know what exactly she was training for. As far as I know she could be on the softball team (If there is one around here) or she was training to run a marathon.
I honestly don't think that she's all in to sports though. That is unless you count fighting for your life as a sport. Amy brought over to plates of pancakes and sat down at the table across from me. She passed one over to me and handed me a fork. I don't feel like eating so really I just pick at my food. Amy digs in and finishes.
She looks at me and says," You haven't eaten in at least 24 hours so you need to eat now."
"I can't Amy. I feel as if I've betrayed your trust. I don't understand why you brought me in to your family. I'm not all that special and obviously I'm not getting along well with Maria. I'm amazed you haven't made me leave yet," I tell her.
"You haven't betrayed anyone’s trust; your luck with Maria really isn't surprising. She and Benjamin never had a mother figure before I got to them. Elaine is the only one here that is actually my own. Even then we weren't sure if she was going to make it. So we've adopted.
"I brought you in to the family because I don't want to see you turn down the wrong road just to stay alive. I enjoy having you and helping you. I would never make an innocent child leave my house," Amy explains completely serious. I smile glad to hear that I'm not stepping on any toes besides Maria's. But honesty I didn't care if I made her upset. I know of at least two people now that are happy that I'm here. I go back in to the living room and start cleaning up my sleeping space.
I hear weird noises coming from outside while I fold up the blanket. I put it down and head to the window that looks out over the vast piece of land that the family calls 'The Base'. The sun shines brightly and I know it must not be any later than 9:00 in the morning, but no earlier than 7. The noises I'm hearing are actually coming Maria. She and Chest are fighting. I mean full out punches and kicks.
They both are being offensive and defensive. Right now Maria is on the offensive as she moves fluidly through the posts on the deck. She flips through and around them as Chest runs up the steps to join her. He tries again to grab her head but she ducks and almost runs in to Chest's raised knee. But she dodges going back up to the top rail.
Chest catches her and pulls her over the rail and hugs her tight as if trying to take her hostage. She squirms and eventually slithers to the deck and quickly rolls away. I'm certain that she's going to roll off the deck and tumble down the steps but she catches herself and is able to get a running start back at Chest. She jumps and adds a round house kick to his well, chest. He splutters and tries to regain his breath. Maria takes the time to put him in a choke hold.
"Uncle! You win Maria. You win. Let go," Chest coughs," Just be more careful with your surprise attacks. Try to not be yourself and mix things up a little more then you'll get them for sure." I grin and go back to folding the blanket and straightening out the couch. I try to make it seem as if I hadn't just slept on it.
"Macey! Are you ready? I promised you I was going to take you to town this weekend to get you some clothes," Amy says kind of skipping in to the room. She looks at the couch and how I'd straightened it up for her so she didn't have too. She smiles and grabs my hand as if she's a teenager and we're best friends and have been since we were toddlers. But she's fifteen years older than I.
But yet there is a connection between us. Amy grabs her coat and bag as we head out to the side of the house where they store the van I'm guessing. Then I realize as we turn the corner that they have three cars not only one. The van sits next to a corvette and next to that is a big jeep. Amy walks toward the Vet and climbs in to the driver’s seat.
The Vet is a very stinging red with black interior. The jeep is a silvery gold color with tan interior. They are both real cool cars, but the Vet wins when Amy puts in the key and turns on the ignition. She revs the car a couple of times and I love the beautiful sound. My own mom would be in love with both Amy and the car right now. I get in to the passenger side, Amy hits the gas pedal and we are on our way to town.
Amy and I roll down the windows to let in some fresh air. I breathe in the sweet scent of the outside world. We ride in the car for maybe half an hour before we get in to town. Amy pulls up on to the side of the road and we get out of the car and walk in to the town. I look around and see a lot of vendors as we walk down the street. They all are surrounded by pretty bright colored tents with shelves on the outside the tents full of other colorful things.
"This is Kolalaya, I absolutely love this place. Macey this the flea market sort of but this one doesn't go away after a couple weeks, it’s here all year long. Another cool thing is that this town is not on the maps so you don't have to worry about traffic. Even though there are visitors from exploring people," Amy explains to me simply. I look around in absolute shock.
How could a city as big as Kolalaya not be noticed? Kolalaya is maybe about a third the size of New York City. This is still pretty big. Amy and I are walking through the less organized area. We're not actually in the city; we're more like in the more urban area. The only difference is that there aren't any houses in this area just little sandstone buildings and those colorful tents. If I didn't know better I would say that we just stepped in to the world of Aladdin.
I look around in amazement and stop in the middle of all the walking people just to take in the square that we just came in to. Now I know why we had to drop the car off outside of the selling area. There are so many tent shops and people that the car would have been stuck here for hours before it could move an inch. Amy comes up and grabs my hand again pulling me along. We walk forward towards one of the bigger shops in the Square.
A couple hours later I find myself sitting at a table beside one of the sandstone buildings. I sip at water and remember all the clothes that Amy thrust upon me. I figured that a few pairs of pants, shoes, socks, and shirts were all there was going to be. But I ended up with about seven or eight of everything, from regular jeans, to dresses, to bedclothes and so on. Amy looks really pleased with herself so I go along with it.
"Tell me Macey did you or do you like anybody at your old home?" Amy asks clearly trying to make small girly talk.
"Well," I answer," There were a few but all the guys at my previous school weren't really my type but tried any way."
"What do you think about Chest?"
"Chest? What about him?"
"Well, he's handsome, strong, polite, plus he cares about people."
“I don't know. Yeah I guess he's cute." I respond to the odd situation.
Personally I don't know exactly what I think about him. I do like him I guess but yet he seems close to Maria. We eat lunch and head back home.
“What about Maria. He seems pretty close to her?” I ask.
“Maria? No they have a brother sister relationship. Maria
tried about a year ago to get him to like her but it didn’t really work out. Chest finds himself looking at her more as a sister than a companion in life. I suggest you wait a little while than try to make your move. But I strongly suggest not around Maria.
Who knows what she would do,” Amy answers back truthfully. I sit in shock amazed with the idea that she wanted me instead of her daughter to be with Chest. I know what she means by making my move outside of Maria’s presence. Right now to get on her good side is to stay out of her way and not open any old wounds. Other than that it was a fairly quiet ride back to the base.
When we got home Maria and Chest were still training. But now they had moved to where the cars are normally parked. They flipped over the van and jeep a lot. Maria managed to run ahead of Chest and got two corners ahead of him. She took what little time that gave her to climb up on top of the van. Chest stopped running around clearly able to tell that she had tricked him. He got on the ground to look under the van which is when Maria jumped off and landed on top of him. They both collapse in to laughter. Amy taps me on my