Family Secrets - #2 Story for AAWC

Hi everyone!:)

GO TEAM PEGASUS!XD Here's my story.:) Misty, I included the team mascot, the Pegasus.:)

 

Julia tried not to stare, but her grandmother was so not how she had pictured her. Her grandmother had pure white hair and wore a black bathrobe that went down to the floor. Her face was taut and serious, and her eyes were filled with knowledge far beyond what Julia could imagine. Her hawk-like nose pierced outwards and the way her eyes squinted as she stared at someone made everyone uncomfortable.

“So, you're my grandmother?” Julia asked.

“Obviously. Foolish questions such as that are not welcomed in my home. You don't see any other old women here.”

“Sorry,” she whispered, running her fingers down the handle of her suitcase and staring at the Pegasus pin pinned onto her denim jacket. Julia's eyes wandered across the house, taking in the minuscule details of it, down to the way the seams on the couch were frayed.

Her grandmother began to give her the run down on rules and her schedule. Really, her grandmother wasn't a mean person, but she was abrupt, giving off the feeling of crossness.

“I don't want you in this room. It's mine,” her grandmother said, pointing a long, wrinkled finger at a door with a chipped frame.

“Sure,” Julia agreed, feeling a tug of curiosity, but fanning it away after looking at the rest of the house again. Everything was so normal, except for the shock that her grandmother wasn't a cookie baking old lady with bad joints and a walker. That room was probably off-limits just so her grandmother had some privacy.

“Gotta have some privacy,” she added and her grandmother gave her a curious glare, as if saying in a sarcastic way- Sure...

“Now that you are starting at the 'prestigious' private school down the street, your life will be revolving around school. I expect A's. B's are the lowest I allow. Your parents want you to have a good education I will not be letting you slack off,” her grandmother stated and Julia grimaced.

The only reason her parents were making her go to a private school, which was conveniently near her grandmother who lived the next few cities over, was because she was failing drastically at her old school. “B” wasn't a letter she had seen since elementary school.

Once the mini tour was completed, Julia prepared her bed, pulled out her phone, and called Natalie, her best friend. Her grandmother had retired early, but surprisingly, didn't go into the off-limits room. So it wasn't her bedroom. Hm.

“Hello?”

“Hey!”

As soon as Natalie heard her voice, she burst with questions until Julia brought up the mysterious room.

“I thought it was her bedroom, but when she went to bed, she went into a completely different room!”

“That is so weird,” Natalie's voice said. “You have to check it out! I'm so curious now!”

“I don't think I should. I don't want to get her upset,” she replied.

“Gosh, Julia, you have to know!” After more convincing, Julia finally relented.

“Okay, fine. But I'll only peek inside really quickly, I won't even go in.”

“Yay!” Natalie squealed. “Text me what's inside!”

They hung up and Julia immediately felt the doubt creep in, but, having promised to tell Natalie what was inside, she sneaked out of her room and into the living room. She passed the kitchen and came to the door. She studied the split wood, splinters flaking away. It was so exciting.

Julia put her ear to the door, making sure that her grandmother wasn't in there somehow, then with a quick glance to the door across the house where her grandmother was, opened the door.

Although she had said she wouldn't go in, she slipped inside so in case her grandmother came out unexpectedly, she wouldn't be seen staring inside.

Snapping the door shut, she flipped the light switch on and an orange hued light filled the space. First of all, it was as if she had entered another living room, the room was so large. But it wasn't impressive. It was just another boring room filled with used furniture and boxes.

Julia was about to go back to her room before she got caught, when something stopped her. A dusty, leather bound book lay in the corner of the room, untouched for years. She didn't know why, but she was drawn to it. Before she knew it, she was lifting the large book onto a couch and opening it.

The Scrapbook of the Hayes Family.

She flipped the pages, seeing black and white photographs of people she had never heard of before. It was chalked full of family photos, it seemed to be a scrapbook of the family tree, stretching back to the early 1900's. Julia went to the very back of the scrapbook to more recent members until she began to recognize faces. Her father's brothers and sister. Her father's aunt, father, mother (the grandmother she was staying with), her cousins, everyone she had ever heard about. Then she flipped the page, excited to see her mother, father and herself. And an unfamiliar face in a photograph next to her own.

Sean Hayes, born December 3, 2000.

Julia's eyes widened, her brow furrowed, and her mouth went dry.

December 3, 2000. Her birthday? It couldn't be possible.

If this was true, then that meant she had...a twin brother....and he was still alive.

 

***

BWAHAHAHA! Cliff hanger that will never be answered!

*evil laugh*

...

*again*

I really liked making this story, it was so much fun!:)

Let's go Team Pegasus!!!!:)

-Emma-