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Throwing her bag onto a couch that looked as though it had suffered a fight with disgustingly pink flowers and had lost miserably, Maddie made her way to the stairs when the sound of a door being knocked off its hinges, and little feet trampling against the hard wood floor filled the air, stopping her dead in her tracks.
A little girl wearing a shirt that looked as though it had eaten her whole, came bounding down the stairs with a slighter older boy, who was dressed head to foot in foil, ran closely at her heels.
“Great…” Muttered Maddie as her younger siblings flew down to her, like hawks to a sleeping mouse.
“Maddie, Maddie, Maddie! Did you see the mail yet?” The little girl cried, her hands wrapping tightly around her older sister’s mid-thigh.
“Yea, Maddie! Did you see the mail? Did it come yet? Did it?” Her younger brother chimed along, however he could not wrap around her since, he was rather wrapped around himself. The foil glistening in the light coming from the lamp on the table nearby.
Standing in silence, Maddie listened the steady ticking of the clock hanging on the wall.
“Stay calm.” Maddie thought quietly. “If I wail on ‘em, that’ll leave me with three times the chores.”
But as she thought this, her brother and sister continued to ask the same question over and over again, “Did it come yet? Did it Maddie?”
Her nerves already near the breaking point, stretched even thinner as they started to shake her loose fitting chains hanging from her dark green cargo pants, and pulling at her braided grey hair, nearly yanking her head from her shoulders.
“RAAAHH!!” Roaring loudly, she raised both her arms and made the most vicious face she could muster and plucked them up by the collar, or loose wad of foil, and yelled, “NO! I HAVEN’T seen your STUPID PACKAGE SO STOP ASKING ME!” Before she could erupt into anymore angry speeches, the little girl fell out from the shirt she was wearing and raced up the stairs, (thankfully wearing shorts) the little boy following close behind as a rip in his foil suit was clearly visible on his backside.
Waiting until the door slammed shut; Maddie then climbed the steps and followed the hall to her room.
There was not much to Maddie’s room. It consisted mainly of her bed, a mattress covered with blue bed sheets lying on the floor, a punching bag that creaked as it swung lazily in the corner, and a desk with a comfy chair that had been swiped from the living room, sat below the large open window Maddie hardly ever remembered to shut.
Flopping onto her bed, Maddie lied staring up at the ceiling, while all of a sudden her stomach gave a loud, woeful moan. “Ahhh…you want me to stuff some food in ya?” Patting her stomach affectionately, Maddie reached over onto the floor where she found a tall glass of milk, a plate holding a roast beef sandwich, and a mound of chips lying at her finger tips. A note by the plate simply said, “Eat up! Be home at 9, love Dad.”
Smiling, Maddie sank her teeth into the sandwich and made a note not to tease her father about his plaid suit when he got home that night.
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It was late. Well, late for a school night since it was just now 11:30. Tia, who only moments ago turned off her desk light, packed away her school books, making her way to bed, sat rigid while staring at the ceiling, her hands clutched tight to the covers. Her mother and father had already gone to bed; all was quiet in the house, this she knew. But, she could hear it, something was making a noise, she didn’t know where, or what it was, but one thing she did know was that she wasn’t going to sleep until she got rid of it!
Looking around the room, her eyes darted left and right. There it was! A frantic buzzing noise came from behind the lilac curtains hanging on her window! “Ah-HA! Now I know what you are!” Whispering in triumph, she spoke to the noise as though it had taunted her, asking her to figure it out.
“You’re a bug! Ugg, and I don’t like bugs!” Climbing out of bed, Tia tip-toed over to the window, grabbed a wad of tissues as she passed her bedside table and slowly, turned back the curtain….
Gasping, Tia had to cover her mouth with the tissues still held tightly in her hands, a loud, heart wrenching scream was clamoring to escape her throat. Her eyes staring unblinkingly at the biggest, fattest, hairiest, spider she had ever seen in her entire life. Including the time she, Lee, and Maddie had come across a breeding ground of spiders in the girl’s bathroom at school.
“Hooo…oooo…oooo...” Her words sticking to her mouth as she spoke, Tia backed away slowly watching as the spider took a lump hanging from a thread and stuck it in its mouth. A fleeting moment of remorse washed over her as she witnessed the annoying bug she had heard buzzing moments ago being eaten by the monstrous spider. Shaking and quivering with fear, Tia knew she would never get to sleep until the spider was gone. She didn’t care if it was squashed, blown out the window, or combusted into a fiery explosion right there on her window sill. IT HAD TO GO!
Taking a moment to think, Tia tried not to notice as the spider began to scurry along the sill, making its way towards the wall. “Think Tia, THINK! You’re smart, think!” She racked her brain, but found that nothing she knew of spiders, and she happened to know plenty about them thanks to science class, could help her now. “I’m gonna die, I’m diiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee….” Wailing inside her head, Tia clutched the collar of her nightgown as she watched the spider step all eight hairy legs onto her perfectly clean white walls. “Gross gross gross gross gross gross! Not my walls! GET OFF MY WALL; IT TOOK ME DAYS TO GET IT THAT SHADE OF WHITE!” With that, Tia grabbed a hold of her nice thick math textbook and tossed it with a loud THWAP onto the wall.
An hour later, Tia lied sound asleep, her book lying on the carpet, just below a smug on the wall. (“I’ll clean it later..." She had said moments after the book fell to the floor.)