• While You Weren't Watching
    6/3/2009



    I once read somewhere, that writing about what has happened in your life helps you come to terms with it.
    So here goes nothing, I suppose. My name is Alison Meredith Grey, I'm 16 years old, and I'm on a bus. How very descriptive of me, heh...whatever. I'm getting sent to live with my grandmother in some town called...Elkton, I think. I'm not entirely sure, but it doesn't matter.
    I don't want to go, I never even met my grandmother, but I have no choice. There's no where else for me to go now, so it's just me, this journal, and whatever other personal objects survived that damned fire.
    Oh, yeah, and my parents are dead.
    I was at a friend's house, when the fire started. I was told that they must have been asleep or something, since they were found in their separate beds.
    After the fire, I stayed with my friend's family for about two weeks, but some social worker figured I would be better off with my grandmother, after a psychological evaluation. They think I should get away from the city. When they said that, I wasn't necessarily expecting to be shipped off to the middle of ******** Egypt.
    That bothers me, there's a call on the telephone at 11PM—rom a police officer, informing me that my parents have died. It just makes no damn sense! Why would they have forgotten to turn off the oven before bed? Why did none of the neighbors notice?? Why?
    It...just all seems so odd. Sure my mother was forgetful, but...I don't know. Part of me thinks that she might have done it on purpose, she had every reason to want to..She wasn't entirely there mentally.
    She was a bitter woman, ever since my father had started staying late at work, she became suspicious, and paranoid. My father had been known to be unfaithful, and their marriage had been rocky since the beginning. He worked for a newspaper back in Cincinnati, and was almost never home. When he did come home, he was rude, and ungrateful.
    One night, when my mother was out, he came home with some woman. I was young at the time, about 7 or so. The babysitter was paid, and she left...and well..Ugh. Whatever, my point is that my mother had reason to be bitter. Ever since that, I suppose I've been more bitter too.
    I feel like he betrayed us, as though that was his way of saying 'I never wanted a family, or any of this anyway'. I hated him, and now I just feel bad. I didn't even like my mother, I thought she was insane. I hated my family, and now I don't have one...
    Be careful what you wish for, I suppose.
    God, how many cows are we going to pass on this damn road? There's some huge guy sitting in front of me, and he wont stop snoring, I don't even think it's that late! How long has that fat a** been sleeping??
    ...Oh..hm..3:30 AM..right.

    Oh, we're getting off the highway. I guess we're almost there.
    I bet her house smells like mothballs.
    -Alice Grey







    Chapter 1


    The girl closed her leather bound journal, and sighed quietly to herself. She didn't want this, she never wanted this. Separated from everything she was familiar with. Alice felt like she was on an alien planet, looking out the window as they passed acres of farmland in the blink of an eye.
    None of it seemed real, barely anything survived. A few books, and pieces of clothing, but Alice had barely anything left to call her own. Not much more than that journal in her hands, which she had bought after the devastating fire.

    After about four more hours driving along a dark country road, the bus finally came to a stop. Alice was jolted awake, having fallen asleep during the last three hours of the ride.
    “Nnn..Err we here?..” She mumbled, rubbing her eyes, and looking around wearily.
    Upon further inspection of her surroundings, Alice noticed that they have stopped in the parking lot of a Quick-Mart. An old, somewhat disheveled woman is standing nearby the bus, as though waiting for something to happen.
    'I suppose so', Alice thought as she got out of her seat. She fixed her blond hair for a moment, before attempting to reach up for her luggage on one of the shelves mounted above the seats. “Fuuuuck..” The short girl groaned, reaching up with great difficulty. After standing up on one of the seats, Alice successfully got her bag down. She grabbed her purple messenger bag and journal off of the chair she was sitting in, before walking down the center aisle, and exiting the bus.
    “Ally!” The elderly woman clasped her hands together enthusiastically as Alice left the bus, rushing to embrace the started, and confused blond.
    “Umm...grandma..?” Her questioned, cocking her head back in speculation, trying to wriggle her way out of the old woman's grasp.
    The old woman stood back, hands still holding Alice uncomfortably in place. “Why, who else would I be?--You're the spitting image of your father, yes you are!” She sighed dreamily as the doors to the bus closed and the large vehicle sped off. “You're going to love it here in Elkton, I just know it!”
    Alice looked over her shoulder as the bus left them alone in the parking lot. She redirected her attention back to her grandmother. She smelled like mothballs. Alice cleared her throat. “Greeeeeeeeeeat...”
    Her grandmother motioned towards an old blue ford, which looked like it was just about ready to fall apart.
    “You can put your things in the trunk, come along now Ally, no need to Dilly-Dally.”
    'What an old-person word...' The blond girl pondered the phrase 'dilly-dally' for a moment as she followed the elderly woman. The trunk was unlocked, and Alice gently placed the small suitcase inside, hoping that the lock actually worked, and that her things would not fall out on the way home. She closed the trunk, which slammed, causing an unpleasant 'clank' noise. Alice was taken aback for a second, but shook it off and silently walked around to the passenger side of the car and joined her grandmother inside.
    “I really do hope you like it here, Ally, dear...you know, your father and mother loved you very much..” The old woman looked at Alison with a weak smile, tears starting to swell in her eyes for a moment.
    Alice looked at her with a quiet frown. She didn't feel like that woman was her family, this old woman seemed like a complete stranger, but apparently she was the only family Alice had left, so she accepted it quietly. “Yeah..” She said, looking down at the leather bound journal in her hands, and then out the window.
    It was dark, and only about several out of thirty lamps in the large, empty parking lot were lit. The car was filled with silence, and the hot, humid air made it all the more uncomfortable. After a considerable pause, Ms. Colleen Grey started the engine.
    The ride towards the place Alice would be spending the rest of her high-school years was equally silent and uncomfortable. After a while, Alice opened her mouth to talk. “does this car have air conditioning?” She was barely audible over the sound of the engine struggling.
    “No.”
    “Okay.”
    The car traveled away from the dimly lit parking lot, drifting down an equally dreary road. The street lamps werefew and far-between, and the many potholes made it seem more like a rollercoaster ride, rather than a simple drive to someone's home. Needless to say, Alice clung to her seatbelt for dear life as the rusty old vehicle traveled down the road.
    Alice was beginning to feel rather uneasy. Aside form the bumpy road, strong smell of farm animals hanging in the air, and the fact that the life Alice once led, literally went up in flames, She was beginning to come down with a bit of a fever. The moment that her grandmother turned off of that main road, and uttered the words: 'We're almost home now, Ally..', she truly started to feel her stomach turn.
    "Great.." She mumbled, looking at a street sign as they turned a corner. 'Mansfeild Road, heh...cuuuute..' Alice thought, rolling her eyes as her stomach continued to turn.
    Colleen pulled into a driveway at the corner of 'Mansfeild road', and 'Oak Leaf Drive', and parked the car.
    It was a relatively small, ranch-style house. Painted white, with blue shingles on the roof. The blue paint on the window shutters was peeling, and you could tell by the ivy crawling up the side of the house that it must have been there for quite a long time.
    Her grandmother turned her head towards Alice, getting nostalgic for a moment. "Oh Ally, you do look so much like your father...I hope you enjoy it here as much as he did.." The old woman smiled, tears swelling in her eyes.
    Alice groaned with a mix of annoyance and pain. "I'm sure, can we please just go inside now..?"
    Colleen's teary smile was quickly wiped off of her face by her granddaughter's annoyed groan. "Oh...right, dear.." The elderly lady pressed a button to unlock the trunk, and the two exitted the car. With a sigh, the woman opened the trunk all of the way, and helped Alice carry her things to the front door of the house.
    "I know it's not much, certainly not what you're used to, Alice...but it's all you have now, and I'm sure you'll like Elkton in time." She looked down at her grand daughter for a moment. Her smile, which had previously been plastered on her face had disappeared now. The idea of outliving one's children is not something most parents like to think about. Colleen was doing her best to seem cheery about things in front of Alice, but the dismal girl seemed to make that difficult.
    Alice looked up at the grey-haired woman coldly for a moment, contemplating her words for a moment before looking down at her luggage. 'This is all I have now...' As she focussed on the binding of her journal, Colleen unlocked the door and ushered the sixteen year-old inside.
    The house was just as warm as it was outside, Alice noted. There was a coatrack near the door, with multiple umberellas leaning against it, and more coats than seemed normal in a house which was inhabited by one old woman. The walls were painted an odd shade of light green, and there was somethign comforting about the cluttered area she found herself in. Various antiques and knick-knacks were placed on high-up shelves about the house, and there was more than enough stuffed animals to keep a little girl happy for the rest of her life. Her grandmother apparently had a fascination with ducks and chickens, because there certainly was a theme throughtout everything. Various paintings of a mother duck followed by a trail of ducklings, and stuffed chicken and duck toys, in addition to decorative pillows with the images of chickens sewn into them. At any rate, it certainly seemed quaint, but cozy enough to call a home, and the smell of good cooking floated into the rest of the house from the kitchen.
    "I..made you some dinner dear, I'm not sure if you're hungry, you actualyl seem a bit green around the gills. I could just show you to your room if you want to rest, and maybe have something later."
    Alice looked up at the older woman, her mind having trailed off after being ushered into the house. "Oh, Yes, I suppose I might just get some rest...it's..late." Alice said dumbly, looking up at her grandmother with big, blue eyes. Truly, Alice had begun to feel bad about being rude to her. Sure, Alice had never met her grandmother before now, but that didn't mean she wasn't family. Colleen was hurting just as much as she was, if not, maybe more. Her only son just died, and it seemed as though her only granddaughter didn't even like her.
    Colleen laughed quietly, her previous enthusiasm still remained vacant as she led Alice down a green-coloured hallway. "Here you are," The woman said, opening a door at the end of the hall. She opened the door, and motioned for Alice to go inside. "all of the bedsheets are clean, don't worry, and the dresser is empty, you should unpack in the morning..." Collen said, flicking on the light switch.
    "Thank you..." Alice turned to smile up at Colleen, who looked down at the young girl kindly.
    "Good night, Ally, dear..." The old woman smiled, and backed out of the doorway, closing it behind her.
    Thus, Alice was alone. She sighed, looking around at the blue room. Alice set her suitcase down on the ground, along with her messenger bag, and walked over towards the bed. She sat down on it, noting that it was much more soft than the mattress she had slept on back in Cincinnati. That was just another thing she would have to get used to. 'This sucks..' She thought with a sigh, standing up and crossing over to the light switch.
    After the lights went out, and the entire room was swallowed by a sea of dark blue, Alice crossed back over to the bed and sat quietly in the darkness for a bit, before lying down and eventually drifting off to sleep.