Amber's POV

Something began to touch my face gently, so I flipped to my side to remove the touch. I felt it again, tickling my nose, making me sneeze. I buried my face in my pillow so my face wasn’t exposed. I still felt the touch on my cheek, so I removed my head to look at what was bothering me. When they opened it was just Charisa. With a feather…

“What is it, Charisa?” I ask her quietly. She scoffs at me.

“Morning to you too sis.” She says as she cocks a hip and rests her hand on it. She can be so sassy sometimes. “Mom and dad are not in the house. She left a note for you.” She informs me, while handing me a slip of paper. I slowly sat up and wiped the sleep out of my eyes before reading.

Amber-
Your father and I went out. Stay home and don’t invite anyone, without letting us know first. Make sure the girls are fed when it is time for lunch and dinner. Don’t know when we will be back. We will check in from time to time. You are grounded.
M and D

Fantastic. Now I’m grounded. I look over to my sister in front of me. Charisa is now dressed out of her pajamas and into her pink polka dot skirt, and light pink tank top. Hope is at the door, one hand on the door frame peering in, wearing the same thing. I sighed and removed my messy hair out of my face and hopped out of bed. I do my daily routine and change out of my pajamas, and into some shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt.

When I re-enter my room, I decide to see what time it was, since I know for a fact that the girls don’t change into their clothes when it is still early in the morning. I grab my phone from the night stand and checked the time. 11:43 am. There was also a text from Chasity.

From: Chase:
Hey girl! You wanna hang out this weekend? I know you are sleeping and we haven’t had a girl’s night out in a while. I’m gonna invite a couple more friends too to tag along as well. You in?

The one time… I shook my head and walk down the stair case to see the girls joined together on the living room floor, surrounded by many Barbie dolls. I proceed into the kitchen and grabbed an apple from the basket with one hand and typing on my phone with the other as I lean against the island table.

To: Chase:
Sorry, I can’t. I’m actually grounded. -.- My parents saw magazine covers of 1D at my house, and got pissed. Another time?

Seconds later my phone vibrates.

From: Chase
Harsh. You okay, though?

To: Chase
Yeah, I guess. Better than before.

From: Chase:
That’s good, I guess :P are you still going to work tomorrow though?

To: Chase:
Kinda have to, since I am going to need all the money I can get.

I walked to my fridge and pulled out the ingredients that I needed to make a yummy bagel sandwich, leaving the phone on the counter as it vibrates. Once I finished making my sandwich and eating it, I grabbed my phone again.

From: Chase:
Then we will party in the weekend :P

To: Chase:
I have to let my parents know, which is included in the grounding… Knowing my parents.

From: Chase:
Come ooooonnnnn… It’s gonna be your birthday next Saturday… Your 18th! You gotta do something…

My head begins to pound, as I start to hear voices, but see no image.

“Are we gonna have a party?” The little girl asks.

“Why bother.” She huffed in annoyance.

“Why not?” She whined. The mother looked at her with a harsh face. The little girl took a couple steps back.

“Maybe when you’re older.” She said.

“How old?” She asks.

“18.” She responds dully.

“But I’m only 5.” The little girl pouted.

“18.” She says again.

When she’s 18, she will have a party…

To: Chase:
I’ll think about it.

---

Right now, I’m flicking through the channels as I begin to think that the call my mother has spoken of in her note doesn’t seem realistic at the moment… I made the girls lunch, and I just finished making dinner, but still not a single phone call. Moments later however, I finally get the call.

“How is everything?” She asks me.

“Fine. Quiet.” I respond quietly.

“Are the girls fed?”

“Yes.”

“Dinner done?”

“Yep.” I said, popping the ‘p’.

“Good. We will be there in ten. I hope none of your ‘friends’ are home.”

“They aren’t.” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Okay. See you in a few.”

“Wait, mom?” I ask her, my heart beginning to race.

“What?” She asks. No turning back.

“Is it okay that I go hang out with Chasity next weekend? It is my 18th birthday…” I said, trailing off in the end. The line is silent for a moment before her quiet voice is heard. She said what every child hates hearing.

“We’ll talk when I get home.” She said before the line went dead. I sighed and placed my phone on the coffee table… I looked up at the ceiling and began to think for the time being… My mind decided to recall the recent visions that I had. Her face, her personality… Her. She could be me… Can she? I tilt my head to the side, looking down at the remote control that looks like it is about to squeeze through couch cushions. My head begins to swirl as I lay back. I close my eyes. w

When I re-open them, I am where I am now. The living room couch. I sit up fully and look around. The young Hudson is at my side, slouching, with the remote in her small right hand. I wave my hand in front of her face, but she doesn’t budge. I take the opportunity to take in her appearance. She has light wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin. I extend my arm to compare skin tones, and they were almost alike. Mine was darker, since I have been in the sun more lately now.

The girl huffs as she looks around the room, looking bored. Her eyes met mine, but I don’t think she sees me. She jumped off the couch, almost falling flat on her face until she regains her balance, and began to walk out of the living room. I stood up from the couch and walked around it, observing where she went.

She stopped, turned around, and looked at me again, this time making a gesture to follow her. My eyes widened, and I look behind me to see who she was talking to. There was no one. I look back at the girl and she was now at my feet, grabbing her stuffed dog and petting its head.

“Follow me. Don’t be scared Jamie. We can go explore while momma is in the kitchen.” She says slowly yet softly. Jamie? “We can do our mission. Let’s call it…” She stops and thinks for a moment, before a light bulb goes off in her head. “Operation: Break-Out Ms. Fluttery.” She makes the dog’s head nod in agreement, making her smile. She skips down the hallway, goes through her parent’s room, to the door of the closet. I don’t even think I’ve been to my own parents’ room… At least inside of it. I always had to wait outside.

“Alright, just like we planned Jamie. Let’s do this!” She says as she grabs a nearby chair, places the dog on the seat, and pushes the chair to the door. Once there, she climbs up and grabs the dog. She stands on her tippy toes and turns the door knob to open. For a small child, she is pretty smart. The door swings open and she silently cheers. She gets off the chair, and places it where it was before. I walk in behind her, shocked at the size of the closet. The mother’s clothes on the left side, the father’s clothes on the right. It was a walk-in closet.

The girl scampers down the small hallway to a box behind the winter coats. She places the dog by her side as she reaches for the box. She removes the lid, and a doll was revealed. Many more pictures were hidden underneath it, and had a small notebook tucked away in the corner of the box. The girl looks over to her stuffed dog, and hugs it tightly. I reach for the pictures, and noticed that they look like her as well, but even younger. The doll however triggered something in my brain. Then to top it all off, something was said downstairs, which made me lose my breath.

“Amber?” I hear the mother call out, as my heart drops quickly. The little girl looks up with a scared face.

“Be right there!” She shouts out. I feel like I forgot how to breathe, when I start to breathe heavily. This girl is me. She is me. The girl from the past visions, is just me. In my past. What… My mind is literally running at 500 miles an hour.

“Are you in my room?” She asks, the voice coming closer, footsteps quickly approaching the area. She must be mom… The little girl -or, little me- grabs Jamie, and runs out.

“Evade, abort! Just get out of here!” she says, quickly closing the door behind her, making a loud noise. Mom’s footsteps stopped abruptly in the hallway. I walk out, having to open the door, and quietly closing it behind me.

“Are you in here?” Mom calls out, the tone of her voice getting mad. Younger me runs to the bed, hiding underneath it. The mother appears in the doorway to the room, and looks to find little me. Once she sees her feet under the bed, her face goes red.

“Get up, Amber, I know you’re here! I can see your feet, stupid.” She says annoyingly. When I didn’t come out from the bed, mom stomped her way to me, dragging me across the floor, into the hallway. I kept bashing around in my mother’s grasp, yelling at her to let go, but she kept a firm grasp. The stuffed animals laid on the floor, becoming distant with past me and past mother. They turned the corner-

“AMBEY!!” Someone says, shaking me vigorously. I looked to the person that was shaking me and it was Charisa with a scared look on her face, making me go on high alert of my surroundings.

“What? What is happening?" I quickly ask, and she looks at me puzzled. "Are mom and dad home?” I ask her. She shakes her head. “Then, what’s wrong?”

“Why are you crying?” She asks me. I reach for my face to feel the wet tears gently streaming down my face. I used the back of my hands to remove them.

“Nothing to worry about, Charisa…” I mumbled. I stood up and was about to walk but something stopped me from moving. I looked down and saw Hope hugging my legs together in a firm grip.

“Hope… Let go of sis. I can’t play right now. I have to go do something…” I said quietly while bending down, trying to pry her off of me. Once I removed her, Charisa jumped on my back. I sighed. “Charisa…”

“We love you, Ambey.” Charisa says. She climbs off and faces me, hugging me around my neck. Hope smiles and joins her sister. I sighed but hugged them back, kissing their foreheads.

“Sis loves you both too. Very much.” I say, letting them hug me for a little while longer. After a couple seconds, they finally let go, and scamper over to their room. I hear the door close, so I know they are inside. I look outside and see no car, and none coming down the streets. I take this as my opportunity to go to my parent’s room. My phone vibrated once, and I jolt goes through me, thinking that its my parents telling me that they are almost at the house. I unlocked my phone, surprised to see someone text me. Well… A certain someone.

Notes

I'M FINALLY DONE WITH SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR!!!!!!!!! :D

The first thing I did when I got home, was do this. I ended up doing 2 chapters, hoping it would make up for last week and this week's weekly update :P I haven't gotten feedback in a while, which makes me sad :( Show the subscribe/vote button some love if you haven't, and please leave comments, at least so I know people are enjoying (or hating) this story so far!

Love you guys, happy summer!!! xxx