Twilight's Last Night--Chapter 1

Chapter One

I've lived by the sea all my life. It's just kind of part of life around here. The nice thing about living by a secluded little beach is that mostly we're by ourselves, and there's no one to bother our little family--Dad, Mom, Kaylie, me, and Danny. We have a nice life here. Danny loves to run into the surf, throw water at us, and collect gross-looking seaweed; Kaylie loves to write stories to the sound of the surf rolling in; and me? Well, I love to climb the rocks overlooking the bay and to act upon the cliffs like the great actresses of old. Though I'm not quite sure if the actresses of old actually acted on cliffs. In fact, in the days, mostly during Shakespeare and before, there weren't any woman actresses, except maybe in France there were a few. I love acting. It's as much apart of me as my freckles and the glasses on my nose. As much as the daring long brown hair with the flashing streaks of gold and brilliant red. As much apart of me as my blue eyes, shining like a blue moon. I would never be able to put away acting. Because acting's what I love.

I scrambled over the rocks, the ocean far below echoing in my ears. I hefted my bag and sat down on one of the rocks. Rummaging for my Bible, I sat and read a Psalm or two. Then I put my Bible away and just watched the ocean. The sun was slowly rising over the blue-green waves. And that's when the horrid thought hit me again.

School starts today. I shivered at the thought. I was going to be a freshman this year. Oh, the horror. Well, the good thing was that the high school's drama club was better than the middle school one. And, thankfully, my best friend, Farren Grady, was advancing with me. I was sure I wouldn't be able to survive without her. And of course Kaylie was in high school--already a junior. But, as close as we were, she still liked to have time with her friends. She probably wouldn't want me hanging around her.

I grabbed my bag with my Bible in it and slung it over my shoulder. I liked to think of it as my survival pack, since it pretty much had everything in it that I would need to survive. I'm a newborn Christian, so I consider my Bible part of everything that I need to survive. It's the first thing I would grab if I were escaping a burning house. Don't ask me why I think of those kind of things. I just do.

I climbed down the face of the cliff, jumping the last foot to the beach. I could see Kaylie sitting on the porch of the house on top of the little incline away from the beach. Her laptop was in her lap and her eyes were trained to the screen of the computer. I raced up beside her and plopped down in a seat next to her.

"What're you writing about?" I questioned, leaning over her shoulder.

"Best friends." As she spat out the word, she pushed down extra-hard on the keys. I cringed.

"OK, uh, well, I'm going to get ready for school," I told her. "See you in awhile."

I rushed inside and changed into school clothes. Then I forced down a bowl of corn puffs and walked back out onto the porch again. 12-year-old Danny had joined Kaylie and was going through his collection of dried seaweed. The kid was going to be starting sixth grade, but I doubted that he was scared. He was probably excited.

"Hey, Katrina," he smiled up at me, blue eyes bright. "Guess what kind of seaweed I found the other day?"

"Hmm, uh, dead seaweed?" I suggested.

"Very funny, Kat," he glared, but there was a grin hiding behind that glare. I grinned back at him.

"Kids!" Mom yelled from the door. "Are you all ready for school?"

"Yes!" we yelled back.

"It's time to go!" she told us.

God, I prayed, help me. Just help me.