Chapter One – At the Battlefield.
Jade’s POV
Seven Years Ago
“Get your booty out of my face!” my best friend, Amara, yelled.
I jumped chuckling and moved aside for her to drag my suitcase down. She stopped, snapped her head at me with a scowl.
I got the message and ran upstairs to continue packing. There had to be a way I could help if I wasn’t strong enough to lift those suitcases.
While dragging out everything in my drawer into a bag, my fingers scratched on a broken glass. It was the glass frame of our last family picture.
“Take the picture, Jade” my twin said, leaning on my door. I made a small pout then tossed it into my bag. It was the last picture together with our dad before cancer took him away.
He wasn’t the best dad to brag about but he did his best. Not everyone was cut out to be dads.
“Jade, Jade, Jade!” my friend screamed again.
“Yes, Amara!”. She always had a temper.
“Baby girl, if we are going to be moving early enough to get our ass on a train by two, we better work faster and smarter” she eyed Jake, resting on a chair, “And same goes for you too!”.
My mom returned from meeting all our neighbors to tell them we’re moving, she held a basket of fruits and some cakes. Our typical nice neighbors.
“Wow, Amara. All the suitcases down. And the garbage?”.
“Taken out too. Except for those two in there. They can take themselves out!” she answered, wiping her hands across her shorts.
My mom and I rolled our eyes in sync. Amara was just eleven but she had an acidic tongue.
“So we got our house at the estate already right?” I sneaked in my hand towards the basket, but looking at my mom squarely in the eye.
“Yes, dear” she caught my hand and slapped it off, making me giggle, “But I don’t know, there’s a rumor that the place is in war. I don’t know about that, but we’d find out soon”.
I was born here, at Swoosh Estate, it was the classiest estate in those times, now it was worn out and needed painting every two years due to leaking roofs. A neighbor's house had collapsed last month, thankfully none of them were home.
It made everyone realize the dangers of leaking roofs and we’re all moving out. The owner of the buildings had some work to do.
“Should I move you? Or you move?” I heard Amara yelling at Jake, he was at the front seat. He grumpily moved to the back.
“Don't bully my brother, Miss!”.
“He lets me bully him, so I take the chance!” she winked. I tried to wink back but my both eyes always closed.
“Let's go, kiddos!” Mom bellowed as the ride to the Moonshine estate started.
We had spent three hours on the road already, mom was speculating us missing the train. She was going to sell our car to foot bills, we needed to catch that train.
“Oh, Darling, I am driving, can you call back later?” I knew who was calling, it had to be my new stepdad.